What do you get when you merge an impressive musical theater pedigree with a zest of camp and a splash of raunch? Corey Manteiga Desjardins and their hit show “Slut Bop,” that’s what… and this summer, the show is on the road!
Thotyssey: Corey, hello! How has the summer been treating you so far?
Corey Manteiga: Ms. Summer has been so good to me, but she is flying by! I have (mostly) recovered from Pride, and am excited to be traveling over the next couple of months for my out-of-town “Slut Bop” gigs in Fire Island and Ptown.
Important Broadway Question: what’s more exciting, the likely prospect of Jamie Lloyd’s Evita with Rachel Ziegler coming to town, or the confirmed Chess revival starring Lea Michele?
Okay wow, getting right to the important topics. I love Evita more as a show, but I’m a musical theatre girl at heart… so I am excited about both. Personally I’m stoked to see Nicholas Christopher in Chess. I grew up doing theater with him, so it’s been really exciting watching his Broadway takeover. I have never heard of Lea Michele – is she new to the scene?
You have an extensive musical theater resume — what have been some of your favorite productions you’ve been involved in? And some favorite shows in general?
So many to choose from! Some of my favorite roles (and shows) would be Tobias in Sweeney Todd and Mary Sunshine in Chicago — that was basically my first gig in drag, which made me appreciate the amount of work that goes into it. One of my favorite experiences I was lucky to be a part of was a new off-Broadway musical called Independents. We started in the Fringe Festival, and kept getting extended downtown at SoHo Playhouse, and became a NY Times Critic’s Pick.
I spent years auditioning and doing off-Broadway shows, and the auditioning became so taxing I stopped getting joy from it. I got close to some Broadway shows, and I will be sending an invoice to The Book of Mormon as I spent two years in final callbacks. I was also on hold for a role in the final season of Glee, but it wasn’t meant to be. And if I did book Glee I’d probably be dead by now, so there’s that.
Do you have any Shareable Inside Tea regarding on or off stage diva behavior, production mishaps, audience activities, etc. during your tenure as a stage performer?
Ooh! Honestly, I have been lucky to surround myself with amazing collaborators who I enjoy working with. For “Slut Bop,” I always like working with a guest drag queen for the Fairy Slutmother role, who [is generally someone] I have connected with through friends or crossed paths with in nightlife.
As for production mishaps, my show is so chaotic that something is bound to go wrong, but I’ve learned to giggle and roll with the punches. Last summer I was invited to do “Slut Bop” at a cabaret venue in Rehoboth Beach, and I guess their usual tech person was on vacation… so their backup was a 70-ish old man who seemed to have never touched a computer before in his lifetime. So first off, there I am doing tech with an old straight guy as I belt a Disney song in front of fisting porn. Then during the show, I basically just had to shout each cue at him over the microphone! But luckily my show is the most unserious thing to ever exist, so it basically became a bit.
Can you tell us a bit about your background: where are you from originally, were music and performance always parts of your life, and what brought you to NYC?
I was born and raised in Massachusetts, and was very lucky to have access to local theatre programs and supportive parents who put me in voice lessons, acting classes, and dance classes. By high school, it became pretty clear that was my path… and I was in a few regional productions where I had to take some time off from school. I always knew I wanted to live in NYC, so when college auditions came around and I got into NYU Tisch, it felt like the right choice — and I’ve been here ever since.
What’s been your history with nightlife, drag, glory holes (lol) etc. in the city?
My first real drag experience was a regional production of Chicago as Mary Sunshine; that definitely started my love and appreciation of drag. But after doing the show for over a month and getting in drag eight times a week, I realized that being a full time drag queen was not for me, which is why I have so much respect for all of the amazing queens in NYC who bust their asses doing drag full time. I’ve still always been connected with it, and am constantly going to drag shows. I truly think it is peak joy screaming and cackling at a drag queen with a room full of queers.
As for the glory holes – I need to see who I’m sucking! It’s funny, because for all of the times I’ve been to and performed at Red Eye, I’ve never actually stepped downstairs in the Cockpit, lol. One of these days I will change that, but when I go out I mostly want to drink and kiki with friends. Now the apps, on the other hand…
Your “Slut Bop” shows at Red Eye are quite popular! Before we describe them, can you tell us about your audiences? They seem very devoted to you personally; I believe you said onstage once that you’re associated with gay sports team, or did I imagine that?
Thanks for cumming! I like to think “Slut Bop” has gathered some very fun, horny, gay audiences. I’m lucky to have people cum again and again, since I’m always mixing up my material. Everyone (above 21!) is always welcome, but I’ve always vibed with people who are down-to-clown and don’t shy away from sex. My show is pretty rowdy and unpretentious, so I truly love a vocal audience I can play off of. I think that helps add to the beauty of the chaos of “Slut Bop.”
Unless you consider quick-changing a sport, I don’t really fuck with sports. My husband is a part of the NYGFL though (gay flag football team), and has been a captain for a few years now… so I’ve met a ton of the guys in that community who are amazing. They always bring the party, and I love having them cum!
The “Slut Bop” shows you produce and star in combine your raunchy original song parodies with drag and burlesque-adjacent performances, some well-timed pornographic imagery projections, and guest performances by local drag queens who are hilariously reading scripted lines off of index cards! There’s also a giant “slut juice’ prop that gets frequently utilized, and different music era themes each session. The result is a light hearted, sex positive, musical campy good hang! How did this all come into being, and how has “Slut Bop” evolved over time?
It’s truly crazy how much it has evolved, especially over the last two years, but it technically all started in 2019. I entered Ryan Landry’s “Showgirls” on a whim, which is Provincetown’s longest running variety / drag show. I had been there before but never competed, and I had an idea to sing a deranged version of “Part of Your World” which I wrote (“I wanna be, where the dom tops are…”). I literally spent maybe $25 on a red Ariel wig and a sad mermaid tail, which barely covered my ass over a jockstrap. All the queens were judging my terrible drag (understandably, lol), which is very much on purpose since it’s from the POV of a messy bottom…and I won! Apparently Samuel L. Jackson was in the audience that night, so knowing he has seen my hairy ass helps me sleep at night.
After the pandemic subsided a bit, I was excited to write some more slutty parodies and get back on stage. So I wrote “Filling Me Softly with His Dong” and “The Wizard and I (Just Fucked).” I always landed in the top handful of acts, so it gave me fuel to keep writing. Finally in 2023, my friend and I collaborated on some background videos for each song, along with adding the lyrics to make sure the jokes were understood. I think it’s helpful because when parodying iconic songs, people are going to hear the original lyrics in their head… plus it made my art more accessible. I realized it was going in a very raunchy direction, but there are literally no rules in “Showgirls” so I just went all in. I think there’s a beautiful space to explore in the middle of the venn diagram of comedy, music, and sex. We made a video for my version of “Part of Your World,” and I had a vision for probably my dirtiest number yet: “Never Enough,” but about a gay man who can’t get enough cock. When I first did that song at “Showgirls,” I literally couldn’t hear my track because people were screaming / laughing so hard, so that’s when it really felt like I was on to something.
Eventually I decided to gather all of the songs I had written, and write some new ones, for an hour-long format. I knew I wanted it to be multimedia with everything set to videos — essentially splicing the song’s music video with cultural references and some well-timed porn (for comedy’s sake, always). I was lucky enough to connect with Red Eye, who saw the vision. That’s when I thought of having the “Slut Juice” at the top of the show to start my journey through time by sluttifying decades of pop music – and I knew I would want to have a guest star who is actually good at drag, unlike me (lol). I knew it was ambitious (I am truly constantly editing my vocal tracks and background videos), but I felt like it was so insane that I had to do it.
Red Eye has become the perfect raunchy queer space for Slut Bop. It’s at the point now where I can just have fun with it and enjoy the ride. I’ve also been fortunate to bring “Slut Bop” to some other queer cities (as well as doing it in NYC periodically), and have worked with some incredible queens who are now good friends. It has definitely evolved by embracing the horny, fun chaos. One thing I love so much about this show is that I’m always changing up the set list, adding new songs, letting the audience pick a song, performing with a different Fairy Slutmother, and bringing it to new venues… so no two shows are ever the same.
“Slut Bop” is making what I believe is its Fire Island debut this Thursday at the Ice Palace, featuring local phenom Izzy Uncut!
The rumors are true! I truly can’t believe my Ice Palace show is this week; I think I booked this back in March!? Time is crazy like that. I knew for this show it would be a (mostly) a new audience, so I’m bringing all of my best material. I also wanted to work with a queen who I knew would be hilarious and bring the party, so I immediately thought of Izzy. She was actually my very first Fairy Slutmother! Izzy is a good sister, so for the Ice Palace I wanted someone who I could easily riff with onstage. She is truly one of the funniest people on the fucking planet, and is a perfect embodiment of the “Slut Bop” vibe, so I have a feeling this show is going to be especially unhinged. I made sure to flyer at the Meat Rack, since that is my target audience.
Then on August 10th and 12th, Scarlett Strauss will be your Fairy Slutmother for a “Slut Bop” showcase in the land that inspired it: Provincetown, specifically Red Room!
To say I’m stoked to finally be headlining my own show in Ptown this Summer is an understatement. I’ve been performing there since 2019 in everyone else’s shows — everywhere from The Crown & Anchor, to the Post Office Cabaret, to Ptown Inn – even some light 2am belting at the Dick Dock while getting railed. I learned last year that things tend to book up for the summer very far in advance, so I pitched my show to Red Room back in November and they immediately said yes. I think it’s the perfect venue for the show — kind of underground and unpretentious, but with all the tech bells and whistles a girl could want. I started asking around my friends in the performer community who are there full time, and no joke — every single person said Scarlett Strauss would be a great Fairy Slutmother. I’ve crossed paths with her at “Showgirls” and have always admired her work, so I’m excited to work with her one-on-one.
What else is coming up for you?
I’m slowly plotting submissive domination over all gay destination spots. While I’ve mostly been focused on my upcoming shows in Fire Island and Ptown, I’d love to eventually do Palm Springs, Puerto Vallarta, and Fort Lauderdale to name a few. And I always love circling back to previous venues after I incorporate more new material — so Club Cafe in Boston and Rehoboth Beach will definitely happen again. The beauty of the show is it is constantly reinventing itself, and I try to swap out the song for each decade regularly. My show is radically queer, so basically I’ll go anywhere where there are horny gay people who like to laugh. Honestly, my biggest prerequisites are that the venue needs to have a projector (or any sort of screen), and is okay with some porn. Other than that, it’s a guest drag queen, two hand mics, and some fresh poppers.
Excellent! Let’s end with: are you an Elphaba or a Glinda?
Personally I am more of a Nessarose because I love to sit!
Thanks, Corey!
Check Thotyssey’s calendar for Corey Manteiga’s upcoming appearances, and follow them on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and their website.
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