Arts & EntertainmentFeaturesFront Page A&EStage

Miz Cracker Brings Her First Solo Tour to Houston

The 'RuPaul's Drag Race' star performs at The Heights Theater on March 2.

Miz Cracker (photo by Andrew Kim)

Whenever she tours the country, Miz Cracker likes to get up early and explore the city she’s in. So, fellas, don’t be surprised if you end up in her March 2 show at The Heights Theater.

“All my jokes are about me and my boyfriends,” she says via a transatlantic phone call in January. “My boyfriend is anyone I’ve passed on the street.”

In 2018, Miz Cracker was a breakout star during the 10th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and she’s been working tirelessly in various media ever since. Her solo music video, “She’s a Woman! (On Top of the World)” gave name to her first American solo tour. “This is my very first full hour of comedy, so it is a landmark for me,” the artist notes. 

Miz Cracker was formerly considered to be “a lost Jewish kid” from Seattle. “I moved from the West Coast to New York City because I wanted to work in publishing. At the time, I had no interest in the performing arts, but that changed when I met Bob the Drag Queen,” she says, referring to the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 8. 

It was during a New York blizzard at night that Miz Cracker, “just a twink with a death wish,” was stumbling home drunk when she saw Bob trying to haul a battered bookcase down the street. Miz Cracker offered her assistance and ended up inside Bob’s apartment, surprised by his treasure-trove of drag paraphernalia. “Bras hanging from a dusty chandelier,” she noted in Slate magazine.

“I had never done drag before,” Miz Cracker admits. But within a couple of months, Bob the Drag Queen helped her become the Big Apple’s undisputed queen of “cheerful pessimism,” an attitude that faces Death with “What took ya so long?”

At press time, Miz Cracker’s She’s a Woman! tour is scheduled to kick off with a sold-out show at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles. Then she crisscrosses the country in some 16 states before landing in Houston, just in time to celebrate Texas Independence Day, which honors the 50 settlers in Mexican Texas who officially declared independence from Mexico and created the Republic of Texas in 1836.

Miz Cracker’s audience can expect “the old jokes” that she references in her music video. “They like the old style of humor—raunchy,” she says. “I tried to do political humor,” but fans igged it in favor of jokes and stories about Miz Cracker’s bizarre childhood, her vices, her worst mistakes, and how she somehow manages to survive it all.

Miz Cracker proudly follows in the footsteps of Jewish comedians from the Borsch Belt—hilarious performers such as Jackie Mason, Norm Crosby, and Henny Youngman, along with others who were featured in the 2013 documentary film When Jews Were Funny.

“Sarah Silverman was a big influence on me, for sure,” she adds.

On RuPaul’s Drag Race, Miz Cracker was introduced as “thin and salty,” a phrase that originated from a NYC DJ known as TK. 

“He used to introduce me as ‘thin and salty.’ I said, ‘I’m taking it!’”

What: Miz Cracker: She’s a Woman! Tour
When: March 2 at 8 p.m.
Where: The Heights Theater, 339 W. 19th Street
Tickets: theheightstheater.com

This article appears in the February 2022 edition of OutSmart magazine.

Comments

Don Maines

Donalevan Maines is a regular contributor to OutSmart Magazine.
Back to top button