Regina Steelheart is a young, fabulous, up and coming drag performer in the St. Louis area. She is known best for her dancing queen style and glam-packed outfits.
You can follow Regina on Instagram
Transcription of Micro-Podcast
Interviewer: I had the opportunity to interview Regina Steelheart, who goes by Connor McDonald outside of drag. And this is what he had to say about the challenges that he has faced while doing drag.
Interviewer: So, what are the biggest challenges to doing drag and being a drag artist that you face so far?
Regina Steelheart: Cost!
Interviewer: Really?
Regina Steelheart: Because if you want to be a good drag queen, everything on your face alone, will cost $100. And then the clothes, if you want to look really good, that’s another $150-200. The wigs are also, if you want a good wig, like one with 50% real hair, that’s like $150-200. And sometimes my job doesn’t really offer too much money and I’m also saving some money for the side for other stuff. So, if I’m wanting to spend, I have to make sure that I have the exact amount of money and that I’m dead set on what I want to wear and for our performance that’s coming up.
Interviewer: So it’s a lot of thinking and processing before it even happens.
Regina Steelheart: Oh yeah, you have to think about the song that you want to do. You have to think about what dance moves you’re gonna do with it. If you wanna do any reveals, how high your heels are gonna be. I’ve worn 6-inch heels on that stage and that was a bitch.
Transcription of full interview
Interview with Regina Steelheart
To cite this interview please use the
following:
Temko, Ezra. 2020. Student interview with Regina Steelheart, Sociology of Drag, SIUE, May 4, 2019.
Interviewer: So, thank you for coming to me and letting me interview you. When do you first hear about drag?
Regina Steelheart: Uh, I first started hearing about drag my junior year of high school. I was just really bored in the library because I had a lot of time. I was flipping through videos on my YouTube and I saw RuPaul’s Drag Race and I was like, “What is this?” And so, I started watching it and I was like, this is an amazing show and I want to know more about it. So, I watched every single season that was on YouTube until like, and then I was watching every season on cable and I was like, I don’t know, obsessed.
Interviewer: Yeah. What season did you first see?
Regina Steelheart: The first season that I saw, I kinda went backwards a little bit. I saw Season 3 and so, 2, 1 and then I saw the rest in order.
Interviewer: What was your initial reaction? You said you loved RuPaul’s Drag Race, so did you look any further into anything after that?
Regina Steelheart: I didn’t really look much into like, the logistics of the show. I just knew that guys were dressing up as women and they were having these funny competitions like, I was like, “Man I kind of want to see more about this lifestyle.” And then whenever I got older, I started going to more drag shows in person. So I was like, I didn’t know there was like this entire world of like entertainers that do this kind of stuff and I was hooked.
Interviewer: Yeah, I understand that. When did you start performing as a drag artist?
Regina Steelheart: I started performing, I’ve actually not been performing too long. It’s been since like, December.
Interviewer: Really? So, it’s like, fresh for you?
Regina Steelheart: Oh yeah, it’s very fresh.
Interviewer: Why’d you start performing?
Regina Steelheart: I started because, my friend, he’s been doing it for so long. He’s actually my drag mom now.
Interviewer: Oh, that’s awesome!
Regina Steelheart: And I was like, looking at all of the performances and he was inviting me to all of his shows, and I was like, okay I’ll definitely come. And the more I kept on watching I was like, man I kind of want to do this. Plus, the tips, you make bank.
Interviewer: Really? I did notice that a little bit at Attitudes. So, does your drag mom perform at Attitudes quite a bit?
Regina Steelheart: She performs every Young and Reckless.
Interviewer: Oh! That’s the one I saw!
Regina Steelheart: Yes! It’s the one where young and up and coming artists like for drag perform their stuff once a month. And so, he’s been doing it for a little over a year now.
Interviewer: That’s pretty cool! So how did your family, friends, any other loved ones react or receive you becoming a drag artist?
Regina Steelheart: They were kinda surprised but not too surprised. They were like, hmm that seems like something you would do. And so, my family has always been super supportive about my lifestyle so like whenever I told them, “I’m gonna start doing drag!” They were like, okay sweetie, have fun.
Interviewer: That’s awesome! So where does your drag name come from?
Regina Steelheart: So, I also take pole dancing lessons. And, so, I have this instructor and her name is Regina. Whenever I took Latin in high school, Regina is actually pronounced “Rey-gee-na” in Latin for “queen” and I was like, okay I’ll just be queen. And then I kept on going through last names like, Regina Frost, Regina Fay, and I was like, none of these are sticking. My drag mom, Luna Steelheart, she was like, “Just take my last name.” And I was like, “Regina Steelheart”, queen of stealing hearts, that sounds pretty nice.
Interviewer: That’s awesome! So, there’s a lot of terms and styles of drag. Are you pretty familiar with all of them? There’s a couple of examples here: drag queen, drag king, glamour king, male impersonator, comedy queen, bearded queen, queer artist, bioqueen, and camp queen.
Regina Steelheart: There’s a lot!
Interviewer: Yeah! And there’s more than that. So, are there any particular labels that you would characterize the drag that you’ve done since December?
Regina Steelheart: Uhm, I like to consider myself a dancing queen because whenever I put on performance, I like to make sure that I’m hitting every single move, that I’m making the audience, not just see me lip syncing and walking down the stage, I wanna like put on a performance like, put a dance with it.
Interviewer: So that’s kind of the drag that you do is dancing queen? Because that is the next question. So, what kind of drag do you do? The dancing?
Regina Steelheart: The dancing, the lip syncing, and do the reveals.
Interviewer: Oh, okay! What is your style of drag, like what do you go for?
Regina Steelheart: My style, I try to be a little glam. I like to wear the short dresses, like to wear the jewelry. I just want to make sure that people notice me.
Interviewer: The one at Attitudes was very shiny and was very nice! So, does the type of drag that you do affect your life as a drag artist?
Regina Steelheart: Uhh, it doesn’t really affect me too much. It does take a couple times out of my day, to like, because I gotta learn the steps in heels. Heels are the bitch! And then doing makeup is definitely one of the hardest parts because you have to get everything precise to make yourself look like a biological woman. Or make it look like, campy.
Interviewer: So, who or what has influenced you to do drag?
Regina Steelheart: Well definitely RuPaul’s Drag Race, my drag mom, and then there’s been some other drag queens that have taught me a few things and shown me what to do. Like Bella Russian, Lola Control, Chloe Curiosity they’re all the Young and Reckless kinda girls. They’ve all taught me, like, what to do with my hair, what to do with my eyebrows, how I should be dancing. And I’m like, they’ve helped me so much and they’ve influenced me so much within the drag world.
Interviewer: That’s awesome. Do you consider your drag political?
Regina Steelheart: No.
Interviewer: We’ve had a couple readings about drag and politics so that’s one of our questions.
Regina Steelheart: Yeah, I just like drag as being like a statement of having fun and being who you are and no matter what you do for your life, you’re just gonna enjoy it.
Interviewer: So, can you talk about what your life is like as a drag artist? So, are you part of a drag family, house?
Regina Steelheart: I am part of a drag family house. We are part of the Steelheart family. Luna Steelheart, me Regina Steelheart, and my adopted drag sister Lucinda Sheets.
Interviewer: What was that?
Regina Steelheart: Lucinda Sheets. She’s making a pun like “Loose in the Sheets.”
Interviewer: Yeah, I got that after you said it the second time I was like, oh okay.
Regina Steelheart: And then my drag mom, she also has a mother but she’s not a part of the family because she’s already a part of her own family. Veronica Mitchell.
Interviewer: So, you said you started in December, so how often have you performed since then?
Regina Steelheart: I’ve performed every month since December.
Interviewer: Awesome. And then do you do it at Attitudes?
Regina Steelheart: I do. That’s the only place I’ve been doing it. I’ve been a little more busy with my other job. So, whenever I start getting better at it, I’m going to start performing at other show places.
Interviewer: That’s cool. So, we kinda already answered that one, it was where do you perform, and you said Attitudes, where else do you think after Attitudes you would want to start performing?
Regina Steelheart: Possibly Hamburger Mary’s, it’s a place downtown, that’s a great place. Rehab would be pretty cool. Uhh, and there’s a few other places that my drag friends have told me about but I kinda forgot about them.
Interviewer: Okay, so what goes into getting ready for your performance?
Regina Steelheart: It’s definitely time consuming because like, you have to be at the show at 9:30 and it starts at 10:30. So you have to start getting your makeup ready by like 1 or 3. So you’re doing your makeup for close to 7 hours. And then you’re, if you’re wanting to be a curvy queen, you’ve got the padding, and you’ve got the cinchers and the corsets.
Interviewer: That’s definitely like, Nina Bo’nina Brown energy right there.
Regina Steelheart: Yes! And then you have your bras and your breast plates and your breast that you just stick on with some glue. Then you got the outfits, you got the wigs, that’s like 10 minutes out of your time, too. You got the heels, you got the drive there, which is like 10 minutes out of my way. And then you, whenever you get there, you put on the final touches. You walk around and get the dance moves ready that you want to do. It’s a lot of time.
Interviewer: Yeah so basically it starts early afternoon and then all the way through the show.
Regina Steelheart: Exactly!
Interviewer: That’s a long day. So, what are the biggest challenges to doing drag and being a drag artist that you face so far?
Regina Steelheart: Cost!
Interviewer: Really?
Regina Steelheart: Because if you want to be a good drag queen, everything on your face alone, will cost $100. And then the clothes, if you want to look really good, that’s another $150-200. The wigs are also, if you want a good wig, like one with 50% real hair, that’s like $150-200. And sometimes my job doesn’t really offer too much money and I’m also saving some money for the side for other stuff. So, if I’m wanting to spend, I have to make sure that I have the exact amount of money and that I’m dead set on what I want to wear and for our performance that’s coming up.
Interviewer: So it’s a lot of thinking and processing before it even happens.
Regina Steelheart: Oh yeah, you have to think about the song that you want to do. You have to think about what dance moves you’re gonna do with it. If you wanna do any reveals, how high your heels are gonna be. I’ve worn 6-inch heels on that stage and that was a bitch.
Interviewer: I can’t even imagine. Is there anything unique to the drag scene where you live compared to other places in the country or world? Do you know?
Regina Steelheart: Uh, I think my general area for being at Attitudes is that it allows like, the young people to experience it more, because RuPaul’s Drag Race has influenced so many young people to start doing drag so like, many people have been starting drag early. And so, they wanted a place where they could perform and show off their stuff and I feel like this place allows young, gay men or lesbians to be drag queens and drag kings and show off who they are.
Interviewer: It’s kind of a good start.
Regina Steelheart: Yeah, it’s a good start definitely.
Interviewer: So how do you identify in terms of sex, gender, identity and gender expression out of drag?
Regina Steelheart: Out of drag I am my same male self.
Interviewer: What pronouns do you use in and out of drag? So out of drag it’d be..
Regina Steelheart: Out of drag I am he/him/his. And in drag, you can still call me he, it doesn’t matter, but most of the time you can call me she.
Interviewer: Has drag influenced your sex and gender identities?
Regina Steelheart: It has not. I’m still into girls, I’m still into dudes. Whenever I do drag, I’m a different person sometimes. Like, I have to put on a show so I have to put up a character. But out of drag, I am the same person.
Interviewer: Has drag influenced how you think about gender?
Regina Steelheart: I do believe that it is a good transitioning time for some queens that are like, not sure about who they really are. Like, some queens like Gia Gunn and Peppermint, they’ve been transitioning from man to woman and that’s like, a good start for them. Because they’re like, I feel more natural in my drag state than I feel as a boy.
Interviewer: Have your sex or gender identities influenced your drag?
Regina Steelheart: I don’t think so.
Interviewer: How has drag impacted or changed you since you’ve started?
Regina Steelheart: Uhh, I definitely have so much more respect for them than just being performers because the pain that you gotta go through was like, you’re gonna be ridiculed sometimes because some people aren’t gonna understand. You got the pain from the cinching, the tucking, and the wearing the heels. And I just think that a lot of time and effort goes into this and it’s just like, there’s so much more respect for them now.
Interviewer: Yeah, I understand that. And then, has drag impacted your confidence as a person when you are out of drag?
Regina Steelheart: Not really. I’ve always been a pretty confident person. I’ve always been, yeah, I’m just pretty confident.
Interviewer: So, it just kinda like builds that up a little bit more?
Regina Steelheart: Yeah, just a little bit.
Interviewer: If you could go back in time as Regina, what advice would you give to your younger self?
Regina Steelheart: Get a better wig for your first performance. God, that was awful.
Interviewer: What happened?
Regina Steelheart: I got this like long 26-inch hair and it was just like flopping in front my face because it wasn’t natural hair, I didn’t hairspray it. So I tried lip synching to Can’t Be Tamed by Miley Cyrus and all you see is nothing.
Interviewer: Just the hair everywhere!
Regina Steelheart: Just the hair everywhere. I couldn’t get rid of it!
Interviewer: So social identities involve like, your gender, your race, class, age, all of that stuff. So, have your social identities impacted your experience of drag or has drag impacted any of that?
Regina Steelheart: Not that I can recall.
Interviewer: So now we’re kinda getting into your ideas about drag so there’s a few more questions on that. The first one is how do you define drag?
Regina Steelheart: I define drag as an art form. I see it as a way for people to express who they are, what they want to be, and to put on a show for as many people as they can and to show off their talents. Like, you’re gonna be the dancing, you’re gonna be the singing, or you’re gonna be the odd ball out and put on the weirdest performance but getting everybody riled up. And you’re gonna love it.
Interviewer: So, what do you think the purpose of drag is?
Regina Steelheart: I feel like the purpose of drag is a lot of people, especially within gay culture, to express themselves and find out who they are like, internally.
Interviewer: Do you think drag is sexual?
Regina Steelheart: It can be. There’s some drag queens that do burlesque, other queens bring dildos on stage, it’s interesting. Or they have like, sexual dances but sometimes it’s mostly about having a good time and if things get sexy, I guess that’s the audiences like, favor.
Interviewer: What kind of style is burlesque? I’ve seen a movie.
Regina Steelheart: Oh, Burlesque with Christina Aguilera? Burlesque is a sexual art form of dancing. It is a form of you taking off your clothes and dancing provocatively, you don’t have to lip synch or anything, that’s what the movie did. But yeah, it’s just like being very sexual and you don’t strip down everything, but you do show a little bit of ass, you got the little pasties on. It’s pretty cool.
Interviewer: Have you seen any performances like that?
Regina Steelheart: Oh yeah!
Interviewer: So how do, I mean we’ve already talked RuPaul’s drag race and that’s kinda how you started with drag and you kinda explained it a little bit but if you want to go into more detail like, how do you feel about RuPaul’s Drag Race?
Regina Steelheart: I love RuPaul’s Drag Race. Whenever I was first watching it, I was like, “I don’t understand what this is”, but then as I got more into the show I was like, this is so cool because it’s showing that you don’t have to be everything to be a great queen. Like, you can be comedy, you can be artsy, you can be dancing. It shows a whole bunch of queens that you don’t have to be defined by one thing or a lot of things. And then the comedy is a lot, it’s really funny. This season, the comedy has been a little bit off because Silky Nutmeg Ganache, she’s wild. She needs to go home.
Interviewer: I’m not familiar with that. It does seem like the show offers a lot for drag artists.
Regina Steelheart: Oh yeah.
Interviewer: Is there anything else you would want to add about like certain aspects of it or anything?
Regina Steelheart: The show, the queens do wear a lot of pricey objects and try and make themselves look really good. But what we have to understand is that these queens have been performing for so long, and they have connections to so many people and that drag can be pricey, but you don’t have to be spending $3000 on one single dress. You can still look great and still be on a budget.
Interviewer: If you could change one thing about drag, the drag scene, the drag community, what would it be?
Regina Steelheart: Nothing at all.
Interviewer: Really? Why’s that?
Regina Steelheart: It’s fine just the way it is. You gotta just like, look into the world and be like, all of these people are putting their souls out onto the dance floor and onto the red carpet and you just have to respect what they do and it’s an amazing time if you ever go to a show.
Interviewer: Attitudes is actually the only one I’ve actually gone to, so it was really fun.
Regina Steelheart: You’ve gotta go to more.
Interviewer: I know, I want to. Hamburger Mary’s is the next stop.
Regina Steelheart: If you go on Thursday’s, they have weekly RuPaul showings and after the shows they’ll have the drag shows themselves.
Interviewer: That’s pretty cool. What do you think the misconceptions people have about drag?
Regina Steelheart: That it’s mostly about either men just wanting to wear women’s clothing or it’s just that men don’t know who they are and they want to transition into a woman someday. That’s not what it is. Some men are just comfortable wearing, expressing more than just masculinity and not all men that do drag want to become women someday. They just want to put on a show for as many people as they can and look good doing it.
Interviewer: What do you think would help change people’s minds about those misconceptions?
Regina Steelheart: If people stop being bigots.
Interviewer: If you chose one thing that you wanted people to know or learn about drag, what would it be?
Regina Steelheart: Like I said, be respectful and learn that these queens can be on a budget, they can be high or low and that no matter what they do, still clap for them, still be respectful for them, still give them a dollar because they work hard.
Interviewer: Did you want to add anything else, any questions or anything?
Regina Steelheart: I think I’m good.
Interviewer: Well thank you so much for coming here and interviewing with me. It’s been fun learning about your insights on drag and everything.
Regina Steelheart: No problem, I’m glad I could experience this with you. And I’m glad I know there’s a class about this at our school that I’m probably gonna take some time!