3 Chicago-area artists competing to become ‘The World’s Next Drag Superbeast’

Three Chicago-area drag performers compete in a battle of fear, grime and glam for the chance to become the “World’s New Drag Superbeast” on the upcoming reality show.

“The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula,” premiering Oct. 1 on Shudder and AMC+, enters its sixth season with three contestants from Illinois competing among 12 monsters for the championship and a $100,000 grand prize.

These include: Aurora GozmicA mainstay of Chicago’s drag scene for the past decade; Aunt Heroa dramatic camp queen who is also a community leader in the Rockford area and Scyllais an otherworldly performance artist in Chicago inspired by fantasy and mythology.

The competition is hosted and judged by the Los Angeles-based drag duo Boulet Brothers, who stand out with their flamboyant nightlife productions. The show features drag performers from around the world who are judged on the three tenets of “Dragula”: fear, filth and glamour. Someone is “destroyed” every week until the grand finale.

The next episode of the series, called “Season 666,” will put the drag monsters through horror-themed performance and costume challenges, as well as a series of “Fear Factor”-like “extermination challenges” to see who is the last survivor. Past destructions have involved everything from parachuting to electric shock.

Aurora Gozmic

“This is going to be one of the craziest seasons of ‘Dragula,'” Gozmic told the Sun-Times. “We’re bringing the look and the drama of one of the best seasons ever.”

Aurora Gozmic is a Season 6 contestant of “the Boulet Brothers’ Dragula.”

Gozmic’s drag persona came to life at the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” screening on Halloween 2010. Gozmic was 16 at the time and living in Gwinn, a small town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Gozmic was watching online videos of popular Chicago drag queens like Shea Couleé, Kim Chi and Pearl, who starred on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” and fell in love with the city’s drag scene from afar.

“I always knew this was where I was supposed to be one day,” Gozmic said. “After I turned 21, I booked here from Michigan and soon moved to Chicago.”

Gozmic was scheduled to perform at shows at the famous Berlin Nightclub. closed late last yearand eventually 3320 N. Halsted St. He established a home for himself at Scarlet, where he worked as a transvestite for four years. covid pandemiche said.

Drag queen performer Aurora Gozmic is among the contestants on this season of “The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula.”

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

“I learned a lot at Scarlet,” Gozmic said. “I was hosting my own show and promoting everything, so I really found my own voice.”

Gozmic, who does many of her looks in collaboration with drag girl Vanda LaRose, said she draws a lot of inspiration from the past. His favorite years are the 1980s and 90s, but his references also go back to the 40s and 50s.

“I’m very careful about my appearance,” Gozmic said. “And I’m definitely this season’s ghoul.”

Aunt Hero

Heroine, who started watching “Dragula” in its first two seasons, said she has always been interested in the series because of its diversity and embrace of alternative drag styles.

While “RuPaul’s Racing” has been criticized for its slow adoption transgender Along with drag queens and alternative drag styles, “Dragula” has also made an effort to include drag kings, trans and non-binary competitors, and bearded drag queens like Heroine.

“I haven’t seen people or styles like me on other shows, but ‘Dragula’ gave me a place to reflect myself on television,” Heroine told the Sun-Times.

Aunt Heroine poses with her parents’ dog, Zoe.

Heroine, who grew up in Winnebago, a small town outside Rockford, said she started doing drag while attending college at Illinois State University. Heroine’s now-in-drag mother, Sharon ShareAlike, was hosting a charity show and invited Heroine on stage after the event.

“Sharon showed me what I call ‘the heart of drag,'” Heroine said. “It’s all about love and community.”

These values remained with Heroine during her move to Chicago; here she performed frequently in Berlin and hosted Auntie’s Treasures, a drag show for audiences of all ages that created opportunities for performers too young to perform in the nightlife.

Heroine later returned to Rockford and resides here now. Rockford Area Pride committee that sets the city’s agenda First officially sanctioned Pride Parade.

“It’s so important to have pride in a small area like this because a lot of people think they have to drive two hours to Chicago just to be themselves,” Heroine said. “This visibility shows Rockford that it’s okay to be yourself here, and I’m proud to represent this area on the show.”

Scylla

Scylla enters “Dragula,” which has already been linked to Heroine, who becomes Scylla’s drag mother after she participates in Heroine’s drag show for underage performers, and Gozmic, who books Scylla for her first concert in Chicago.

“I go way back with these two, so for us to be on this movie together is a big full-circle moment that feels really surreal,” Scylla said.

Chicago drag artist Scylla, one of the “Dragula” contestants, poses in Lincoln Square.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

They said Scylla moved to Chicago from Dubuque, Iowa, at age 18 and made a name for herself as a performer through the Internet and several all-ages drag shows before she was 21.

Scylla has since been rumored to have competed in several weeks of drag competitions in Chicago, including Alexandria Diamond’s Survivor at Fantasy Nightclub and Crash Landing in Berlin. Last year, Scylla won Ghoul School, an alternative drag monster competition on Splash.

“I’ve put so much work into this craft and prepared for this moment for so long,” Scylla said about the competition in “Dragula.”

“This was like my pre-training for ‘Dragula,'” Scylla said. “These competitions really develop you to be able to take criticism well, build a name for yourself, and understand how your drag talent reflects in a competition environment.”

Scylla said winning “Dragula” would be “tremendous.”

“I have put so much work into this craft and have been preparing for this moment for so long,” Scylla said. “Now I can finally share this with the world.”