Inside Pandora Boxx
Though she may have sashayed away before being crowned the winner on RuPaul’s Drag Race on LOGO, over the course of this season, Rochester, N.Y.-based queen Pandora Boxx earned a place among the most widely loved contestants for her slightly off-kilter style, killer sense of comedy and dead-on Carol Channing impression.
It is those attributes that will stay with the lovely Pandora, also known as Michael Steck as she builds a career beyond reality television fame. Pandora, who Entertainment Weekly named earlier this month as their favorite Season 2 queen, already is scheduled to be among the "professors" on RuPaul’s Drag U, premiering in June on Logo, and will also launch a run of The Lipstick Massacre, a "murder-mystery comedy" she penned herself, in her hometown later this summer.
And odds are this diva will be in your town shortly, perhaps even on your TV one of these days: A Facebook campaign has launched to get Pandora her own show and her schedule is packed with appearances from coast to coast. When EDGE caught up with Pandora, she was on the road with some of her fellow Drag Racers down south in Texas. She is due at Berlin Nightclub in Chicago this Thursday.
The post-Drag Race experience
EDGE: Pandora Boxx! How are you? I read on your Twitter that you’re in Texas with Jessica Wild, Mystique Summers and Tatianna. It’s like a little reunion.
Pandora Boxx: We just did a show in Fort Worth, and now we’re off to Dallas because somebody is throwing a little party for us there. We actually get to hang out, which is rare.
EDGE: What has it been like for you, performing post-Drag Race. What has been the biggest difference for you?
PB: It’s been really crazy, but good crazy. It’s a total change for what it was like before, when I was getting to a point where I was going to stop doing drag because it wasn’t going to another level. Drag Race changed that: "Keep those panties on, bitch. You get to stay longer." The response has been amazing, last night’s show was sold out, and they had to turn people away. People are loving the show, loving all the queens and they get excited to meet us.
EDGE: Is that excitement from fans ever unnerving to you?
PB: Sometimes it’s too many people all at once, and that’s a little scary, but if they’ve been too over-excited, it’s kind of cute. A boy last night wanted his picture taken and I felt that his heart was racing. I asked him about it and he said he was really nervous. I thought it was adorable.
Story continues on following page.
Watch Pandora Boxx’s audition tape for Season One:
Watch Pandora Boxx’s Cyndi Lauper video from RuPaul’s Drag Race:
