A year ago she was cheering from the crowd at Gipsy. Now Drunktext is the Drag Royale Season 2 champion, and she has no plans to slow down.
When the judges called Drunktext's name as the winner of Drag Royale Season 2, her knees gave out. "I wanted to crawl into the ground," she says. "It was so many emotions."
Out of drag, she's Manu Nelson, a service member stationed at Nellis Air Force Base. She has been doing drag for nine years, across three very different scenes: Pensacola, South Korea and, for the past two years, Las Vegas. When she signed up for Gipsy's competition, most of the local queens were strangers to her, and most of the audience didn't know her name.
That changed fast. We sat down with the new champion to talk about her road from an emergency Walmart makeup run to the Royale crown.
A Birthday Party and a Walmart Run
Born in Vallejo, California, and raised in nearby Fairfield, she wanted out of the house as soon as she could. "I wanted to live my own life and be independent," she says. She enlisted at 18 and left for basic training two days after graduation. The military sent her to Pensacola, Florida, where she would spend the next six years.
She had been watching RuPaul's Drag Race since around Season 7 and had dabbled with makeup through high school. Then her partner at the time threw a birthday party, and a friend announced he was doing drag for it. "I don't know why, but I wanted to join," she says.
The friend's makeup wasn't going to match her skin, so they ran to Walmart for supplies. He pulled up a photo of Pearl from Season 7 for inspiration. She chose Shea Couleé, before Shea was ever cast on the show. "I went big for my first time. I looked insane." There was no wig, just a silly photo.
Back on base, she couldn't bring herself to waste the haul. "I spent all this money on this makeup. I'm not gonna throw it away." So after every shift, she painted a full face, took photos and washed it off. She kept that up for close to four years, until going out in drag landed her a first booking in Pensacola. By 2022 she was performing regularly.
The military then took her drag overseas, to a year in South Korea. The scene there was small, but she worked it hard.
Why Vegas, Why Now
When her Korea assignment ended, the military asked for a ranked list of where she wanted to go next. Las Vegas made her top three: close enough to family in California, far enough to live on her own terms. "It was either this or back to Fairfield," she says, "and I'm glad I'm here."
Despite nine years in drag, she had never competed. Pensacola had no drag competitions during her six years there, and Korea's scene rarely staged one. Then she spent last year in the audience at Gipsy, watching Drag Royale Season 1 every week. "I was like, oh, I would love to do this."
She signed up with two goals. Half of her wanted the crown. The other half wanted to prove she could check every box a competition demands. "Ultimately, I would love to win," she says, "but I wanted to see what happens and dip my toes into it."
Sizing Up the Field
Being new to town meant she didn't know most of her castmates by reputation. One name, though, put the whole cast on alert: Courtney La Rue. "I'm like, who's this person? I've never seen her anywhere before," she recalls. Everyone else filled her in. Courtney had the looks, could perform, and had a following. "We were in for a treat."
Drunktext's everyday drag is polished and passable. Did she stick to that on the Royale stage, starting with her introduction look? "Absolutely not."
The biggest stretch was sewing. She had owned a machine for years but had made little more than a crop top and a jacket. "Part of wanting to compete was to push myself and see what I can do creatively," she says, "aside from just throwing on some makeup and a wig."
Two challenges worried her from the moment the prompts came out: Snatch Game and the girl group. A self-described independent who hates asking for help, she dreaded the group number. "I was worried there'd be too many cooks in the kitchen, we're not gonna listen, we're gonna fight," she says. "But it ended up turning out really well."
The Snatch Game Tea
The plan was Prince. Then the week stacked up. The girl group challenge was barely behind her, and on Snatch Game day she was also tapped to go on the local news to promote the season. That meant news, then character, then runway, all in one day.
She had hoped to go big with transformative makeup and give a realistic visual. There was no time. "I was stressed out. Everyone backstage was stressed out," she says. "We all just didn't want to do Snatch Game."
At the last minute, she pivoted to Kamala Harris. She had a suit, she had hair that worked, and she knew the meme bits. "I thought I could hopefully get by with that." She couldn't. Snatch Game sent her home.
But the story didn't end there. "Ultimately, it did send me home," she says. "But then I came back."
Lots of Kylie, No Tyla
Her most-performed numbers are Tyla's "Water" and "Supernova." Neither made the competition's song list, though Kylie Minogue showed up several times, including "Vegas High" and "Slow." "I was a little hurt that I didn't see Supernova," she admits.
The crowd surprised her more than the songs did. Every time she drew praise, the room cheered. "I'm not the most well-known in the city, so to get that reaction was really nice." She's clear-eyed about hometown advantage, though. Queens who work the most in Vegas, like Gipsy regulars Akasha and Xanadu, drew the loudest support. "In my mind they'll get the most praise, and they did," she says. "But it was like fifty-fifty."
Her favorite guest judge was Lawanda, who sat on the panel for the opening week, when promos meant nobody went home. "I feel like I learned a lot when she was on the mic giving critiques," Drunktext says. The two talked after the show. "She was amazing. She was so sweet."
Sisterhood Times Ten
Rivalry or sisterhood? She doesn't hesitate. "Sisterhood times ten." Getting to know the other queens, comparing looks, planning and helping each other out was the best part of competing.
Early on, the full cast was split between two dressing rooms, with Drunktext and a few others sharing space with Piranha's main cast. As the field narrowed, everyone moved into one room. "That was really good, because then I could get to know the queens I didn't get to talk to as much."
It's a theme that carried over from Season 1, where cast members also called the bond the real prize. Some of these queens have known each other for years; others were meeting for the first time. The sisterhood grew all season, even as they rolled up their sleeves to send each other home.
Not every moment was easy. One week, a guest spoke negatively about one of the cast members from the stage. "It was a little jarring hearing it in person," Drunktext says. The queen in question was a tough cookie and took it in stride, and the cast later talked it through together. "We grew from it and learned from it."
"I Knew You Were Gonna Win"
Her boyfriend was in the audience the night she won, so he heard the news live. The person she most wanted to tell was her mom.
The two have a good relationship, but drag wasn't part of it until about three years ago, when her mother first started learning about it. Halfway through the competition, with Drunktext staying up all night sewing and missing calls, she finally gave her the full picture. "I was like, hey, I'm halfway through this competition. This is what I've been doing." She shared photos and videos, and her mom was proud.
When the crown came, her mother wasn't surprised. "The second I told her I won, she was like, 'I knew. I knew you were gonna win.'"
Don't expect a victory lap. "I'm not much of a gloater," she says. "I'm not gonna walk into the club and be like, 'Hi guys, guess what, I won.'" What she values most is the shift from patron to colleague: getting to know the queens backstage and working alongside them. She credits Gipsy and Piranha for booking her whenever she's available. "It just feels really good to be seen."
Military by Day, Drag by Night
Drunktext is still in uniform, working at Nellis. Military by day, drag by night? "Exactly," she says. "Sometimes by day too."
When she enlisted, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" had only recently been lifted, and simply saying you were gay, or looking a certain way, was still touchy. Early in her drag career she kept it far from work. "I'm only there for work. I don't need them to know what I do at night."
Over the years, she has let a few people in, one here, two there. Not the whole story, but enough that her colleagues understand when she needs to take a last-minute gig, run late, or stay out until 2 a.m. "They gave me some leeway."
The uniform also shapes her bigger dreams. Asked about RuPaul's Drag Race, she explains that, as she understands it, service members can't commit to TV productions that film for longer than about a month. "I would love to do Drag Race," she says, "but I'm not pressured to get on a TV show anytime soon. I still want to enjoy my time with drag."
Her service ends in 2028, and the plan is to stay in Las Vegas afterward. We've already penciled her in for a future Veterans Day issue.
Working Like a Dog
So what does the reigning champ want to do with her title? "I wanna work hard. I wanna do everything and anything," she says. "I wanna work like a dog." First up is Piranha's block party.
Her impact is already rippling outward. The season's makeover challenge paired the queens with newcomers, giving Drunktext a drag counterpart named Butt Dial, and some of those newcomers never stopped. Darryl and Scotty have kept doing drag since and have a show coming up at Dusk. "They are taking drag seriously," she says.
Her advice for anyone eyeing Season 3 fits in three lines: "Clean your lace. Know your words. And don't be scared of a sewing machine."
In a nutshell, Drag Royale Season 2 gave her family. It brought her close to queens she had looked up to without ever meeting, and they still talk every day. It made her take her drag more seriously and opened her eyes to where it could go.
"Anything that comes my way, I'm gonna do it," she says. "You need me in an hour, I will be there in an hour. I love that I'm part of it, and I'm happy to take anybody with me along the way."