On a Wednesday afternoon inside Omega Mart at Area 15, something unexpected is happening. Amid the surreal shelves of fictional consumer products and the pulsing, otherworldly art installations that make Meow Wolf's Las Vegas flagship one of the most distinctive venues in the country, a self-described intergalactic pop diva is working the room. Her name is Domino. She needs you to take pictures. She is trying to crack the American top 40, and she has arrived via cosmic phenomenon to make sure you know about it.
Behind Domino is Joe Harter, known to Las Vegas nightlife regulars as Sunshine — a drag performer with a decade of experience, a background in opera and regional theater, and a philosophy that starts with his name. "It's not just a cutesy name," Harter says. "It's kind of a mission statement. It's a reminder to myself to make sure that I am maintaining a positive vibe and spreading light with my talent and not falling into the traps that a lot of artists fall into."
From the Palm Beach Opera to the Strip
Harter's path to Las Vegas drag is not a straight line — figuratively or otherwise. Born into a military family and raised as a self-described "army brat," he moved frequently before settling in a small Indiana town, then decamping at 18 for Florida to pursue a performance career. His first professional gig was singing in the chorus of the Palm Beach Opera Company under the direction of Kamal Khan. He sang with the company for three years before branching out into bands and regional theater across South Florida.
Drag found him — or rather, a German rock musical did. "I ended up getting cast as Hedwig in a production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch," Harter recalls. "The producers reached out to the local gay bars in Florida and got me booked there to promote the show. I ended up making more money promoting that show than I did performing in it. And that was the beginning of my drag journey."
When he eventually moved to Las Vegas, Harter committed to drag in earnest, building his following at Charlie's Las Vegas before that beloved venue closed its doors. Today, Las Vegas audiences can catch Sunshine every Friday and Saturday night at Gipsy Nightclub, and every Saturday and Sunday at the Rio's Faaabulous Drag Brunch — traditional, high-energy shows that remain close to his heart.
As for the name Sunshine, the origin is equal parts pop culture and autobiography. Shortly after Harter arrived in Nevada — tan, blonde, and fresh from Florida — a friend told him he reminded them of the character Sunshine from the film Remember the Titans. "If you remember that movie, you remember the guy who's kind of ambiguously gay," Harter says with a grin. "I'm a little less ambiguous about it."
Enter Domino: An Intergalactic Pop Diva Lands at Area 15
The opportunity to join Phenomenomaly came through a friend named Keith Manning, who runs the scene shop at Meow Wolf and knew Harter's work. A self-tape audition later, Harter found himself at Omega Mart at 8 a.m. — before the venue opened to the public — for two and a half weeks of intensive rehearsals built around improv exercises, character development, and ensemble storytelling.
Phenomenomaly is a seasonal live performance event embedded inside Meow Wolf's immersive worlds. Rather than being a separate show requiring a separate ticket, it weaves roaming characters, interactive storytelling, puppetry, and theatrical vignettes throughout the existing exhibit. The premise involves a mysterious cosmic event called the Flickerwerm Migration, in which strange creatures and phenomena begin affecting Meow Wolf's worlds. Guests don't watch a show — they walk into one, encounter characters mid-narrative, and become part of the story themselves. The event runs Wednesday through Sunday starting at 2 p.m. inside Omega Mart at Area 15, and no additional ticket purchase is required beyond standard admission.
The show is running simultaneously at all four Meow Wolf locations around the country, each with its own cast and its own version of the shared characters. Harter plays Domino, a character that exists at all four venues but is interpreted differently by each performer. His Domino is, in his words, "an intergalactic pop diva fashioned after a bit of a Kylie Minogue type — massively famous everywhere except America, and she is here to be photographed at this event while trying to crack into the American top 40."
"When I say hello to a person, I'm not saying hello to them as Joe or as Sunshine. I'm saying hello to them as Domino, and I'm like, hello, we're on an adventure."
The character design is entirely Harter's own. While he inherited a name and a general framework, the version of Domino that audiences encounter at Omega Mart has been built from the ground up through the collaborative rehearsal process. "I'm not the first person to play this role," he notes, "but I am the first person to play this role in this way."
Immersive Theater and the Art of the Unexpected
For a performer accustomed to scripted productions and the distinct improvisational rhythms of drag nightlife, Phenomenomaly has presented a genuinely new challenge. "There are two things that are very different about this," Harter explains. "One is the improv aspect within the context of a fictional character with other fictional characters where we're creating a story. It's a very different way of doing theater. And the other thing that I'm really finding that I enjoy is the family-friendly nature of it. There are genuinely families — children of all ages, from 8 years old to 80 years old. They are coming in, they are playing with us, they are enjoying it."
The family-friendly dimension is not incidental to Harter — it's something he finds meaningful. LGBTQ+ visibility in mainstream spaces, he argues, matters precisely because those spaces reach people who might not otherwise encounter queer performers or perspectives. "Visibility is often a tool that is used through the media from bad actors," he says. "They will manipulate the images that people see — through AI, through clever editing — and present a minority in a negative light as if that's how the entire community is. By getting out there and getting our own voices seen and heard, that's the only real tool we have to combat that."
The experience, Harter is careful to note, builds to something he refuses to spoil. There is a finale. It is, by all accounts, worth sticking around for.
A Voice in the Room
Unlike many of his drag contemporaries, Sunshine is a live-singing performer. He doesn't lip-sync. The choice is rooted in a love of artists who built fictional personas around their voices — David Bowie, Lady Gaga — and in the particular power of direct address. "There is an immediacy with having a microphone and being able to directly speak to your audience that has power that I enjoy wielding in what I like to think is a positive way," he says.
His theatrical résumé underscores why he was equipped to take on something as unconventional as Phenomenomaly. Beyond Hedwig, Harter has played the MC in Cabaret — a role he describes with evident gravity — and toured as Rose in productions with the Golden Gays drag parody of the Golden Girls. "The MC in Cabaret is a role that can be interpreted a lot of different ways," he says. "He's been played as a victim. He has been played as a reflection of the attitudes of the German people while fascism rose around them. That is something that I hope a lot of people will think about as they see the political climate change around them. You do have a vote. You do have a say. You are a part of it."
What keeps him going after a decade? Novelty. Collaboration. The next song, the next show, the next person walking through the door of a venue — or, these days, an Omega Mart — who hasn't seen what he can do yet. "It's the pursuit of novelty and newness that I think is at the heart of art," he says. "Finding new ways to connect with audiences is the thing that keeps it fresh."
What's Next for Sunshine
Phenomenomaly runs at Omega Mart through August 9th. In September, Harter will mark a milestone: ten years in drag, with a celebration he's already looking forward to. Regular shows at Gipsy Nightclub and the Rio continue through the summer and beyond. He can also be found performing at The Phoenix and other venues around the Las Vegas valley.
As for what he hopes audiences carry home from their encounter with Domino at Omega Mart, the answer is characteristically warm and characteristically clear: "The one thing I hope they remember is just how welcome they felt because of her. I hope they feel like they went on an adventure with Domino — that it had a beginning, middle, and end, and that it culminated in something very, very fun. That sense of joy and that sense of adventure is what I really hope people take away."
Phenomenomaly runs Wednesday through Sunday beginning at 2 p.m. inside Omega Mart at Area 15, 3215 S. Rancho Drive, Las Vegas. No additional ticket purchase is required. Catch Sunshine at Gipsy Nightclub every Friday and Saturday night, and at the Rio's Faaabulous Drag Brunch every Saturday and Sunday.