LOS ANGELES – A drag performer from the Winona County hamlet of Utica kicked off the season on Ru Paul’s cable television show “Drag Race.” Ethan Mundt, whose stage name is Utica Queen, lip-synched Lindsay Lohan’s “Rumors” in competition against Gotmik – and lost. Utica Queen, however, may be called back in a later episode. The queen debuted with a giant strawberry tacked to the right side of an outrageously huge blond wig. Why a strawberry? Because growing up in Utica he was allergic to strawberries. “It’s kind of a testament of me getting through it,” Utica Queen said. The queen sometimes tells about being attacked by chickens as a kid on the family’s Utica farm. “My grandmother would have to save me.” Utica, age 25, tall and lanky, got interested in makeup in college and picked up on techniques on YouTube. Now he books out of Minneapolis. The Ru Paul performance featured elaborate costumes from Utuca Queen’s collection as a fashion designer. Host Ru Paul asked Utica Queen if she were nervous =. “I can feel it in my nuggets,” she said.
Those Utica roots
Utica, population 290, is known locally for the Bartsch grain elevator; Brewski’s Bar and Grill, Jimmy G’s Bar, and the Golden Harvest restaurant, which offers good food with good service at a good price and where farmers put on fresh bib overalls for fried chicken on Sundays. Utica is 18 miles west of Winona on U.S. 14 and the Canadian Pacific branch to South Dakota. Trains rarely stop, although there is a siding at the Bartch elevator. There are two churches – Presbyterian and Lutheran. The Scottish Church and cemetery is just out of town. Utica Queen is Seventh Day Adventist.
Ru Paul
The cable television channel VH-1, owned by ViacomCBS, is carrying Ru Paul’s 13th “Drag Race” season. His first network appearance was on “The Gong Show” in 1988. He’s a songwriter with 18 albums. The tracking site Celebrity Net Worth, pegs his fortune at $60 million.
Strawberries. A bane to overcome.
Mundt. Hometown boys makes it big?