Three Chicago-area drag artists are competing in a battle of horror, filth and glamour for the chance to be “the World’s Next Drag Supermonster” on an upcoming reality show.
“The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula,” premiering Oct. 1 on Shudder and AMC+, enters its sixth season with three contestants from Illinois among the 12 monsters competing for the title and grand prize of $100,000.
They include Aurora Gozmic, a mainstay in Chicago’s drag scene for the past decade; Auntie Heroine, a dramatic camp queen who’s also a community leader in the Rockford area, and Scylla, an otherworldly performance artist in Chicago inspired by fantasy and mythology.
The competition is hosted and judged by the Boulet Brothers, a Los Angeles drag duo who rose to prominence through their extravagant nightlife productions. The show features drag artists from around the world who are judged on the three tenets of “Dragula”: horror, filth and glamour. Each week, someone is “exterminated” until the grand finale.
Dubbed “Season 666,” the show’s next chapter will put the drag monsters through horror-themed performance and costuming challenges, as well as a series of “Fear Factor”-esque “extermination challenges” to see who is the last one standing. Past exterminations have included everything from skydiving to electric shocks.
Aurora Gozmic
“This is going to be one of the craziest seasons of ‘Dragula,’ ” Gozmic told the Sun-Times. “We bring the looks and we bring the drama for one of the best seasons ever.”
Gozmic’s drag persona came to life for a “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 would watch online videos of popular Chicago drag queens like Shea Couleé, Kim Chi and Pearl — who all went on to star in “RuPaul’s Drag Race” — and fell in love with the city’s drag scene from afar.
“I always knew this is where I would have to be one day,” Gozmic said. “After I turned 21, I got booked here from Michigan and moved to Chicago not long after.”
Gozmic would perform in shows at the famed Berlin Nightclub, which closed late last year, and eventually made a home for herself at Scarlet, 3320 N. Halsted St., where she was a resident drag queen for four years until the COVID pandemic, she said.
“I learned so much at Scarlet,” Gozmic said. “I was hosting my own show and promoting everything, so I really found my own voice.”
Gozmic, who makes many of her looks in collaboration with her drag daughter Vanda LaRose, draws a lot of inspiration from the past, she said. Her favorite decades are the ‘80s and ‘90s, but her references also go back to the ‘40s and ‘50s.
“I put a lot of care into my looks,” Gozmic said. “And I’m definitely the glamour ghoul of this season.”
Auntie Heroine
Heroine, who started watching “Dragula” during its first two seasons, said she was always drawn to the show for its embrace of diversity and alternative drag styles.
While “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has been criticized for its slow embrace of transgender drag queens and alternative drag styles, “Dragula” has made an effort to include drag kings, trans and nonbinary competitors, and bearded drag queens, such as Heroine.
“I didn’t see people or styles like me on other shows, but ‘Dragula’ gave me a place to see myself reflected on TV,” Heroine told the Sun-Times.
Heroine, who grew up in Winnebago, a small town outside of Rockford, started doing drag while going to college at Illinois State University, she said. Heroine’s now-drag mother, Sharon ShareAlike, was hosting a charity show and welcomed Heroine to the scene after the event.
“Sharon showed me what I like to call ‘the heart of drag,’ ” Heroine said. “It’s all about love and community.”
Those values stuck with Heroine as she moved to Chicago, where she was a frequent performer at Berlin and hosted Auntie’s Treasures, an all-ages drag show creating opportunities for artists too young to perform in nightlife.
Heroine later moved back to Rockford, where she now sits on the Rockford Area Pride committee, which just put on the city’s first officially sanctioned Pride Parade.
“Pride in a small area like this is so important because a lot of people feel like they have to travel two hours to Chicago just so they can be themselves,” Heroine said. “This visibility shows Rockford that it’s OK to be yourself here, and I’m proud to represent this area on the show.”
Scylla
Scylla goes into “Dragula” already connected to Heroine, who became Scylla’s drag mother after they participated in Heroine’s drag show for underage artists, and Gozmic, who booked Scylla for her first gig in Chicago.
“I go way back with those two, so for us to be in this together is a big full-circle moment that feels really surreal,” Scylla said.
Scylla moved to Chicago at 18 years old from Dubuque, Iowa, and made a name for themself as an artist through the internet and a few all-ages drag shows, before turning 21, they said.
Since then, Scylla has competed in multi-week drag competitions across Chicago, including Alexandria Diamond’s Survivor at Fantasy Nightclub and Crash Landing at Berlin, they said. Last year, Scylla won Ghoul School, a pageant for alternative drag monsters at Splash.
“That was like my pre-K to ‘Dragula,’ ” Scylla said. “These competitions build you up to be able to take criticism really well, build a name for yourself and understand how your drag translates in a competition setting.”
To win “Dragula” would be “monumental,” Scylla said.
“I’ve put so much work into this craft and preparing for this moment for so long,” Scylla said. “Now I finally get to share this with the world.”