The Crown Jewel of Lexington: An Interview With Uma Jewels

If you have seen a drag show in Lexington, you almost certainly know about Uma Jewels. She has cemented herself as a staple of Lexington’s drag community. I sat down with her to chat about her incredible resume as a drag performer and to share her dreams for the future of local drag. 

So let’s start at the beginning. What brought you here to Lexington?

Well, when I graduated college in August of 2008, I was living in Phoenix, Arizona. I wasn’t able to find anything in the film industry, so I moved back home with my parents in the middle-of-nowhere Missouri. I had a film degree, but in September of 2008 the economy collapsed and I wasn’t able to find any work.

Then, I did eventually find a job in a factory working 12-hour night shifts doing really physical, hard labor. Plus, I was commuting to St. Louis about an hour each way. Looking at the economy at the time, I felt like I needed to get a degree that was more practical. 

I decided I needed to go back to school for that, but I didn’t want any more student loan debt because I had plenty of that. I had a cousin that had moved to Lexington, gotten a job at UK, and went back to school. So, I just kind of followed suit. I moved down to Lexington, eventually got a job at UK, and eventually started going back to school.

 

Once you’re in Lexington, what led you to start doing drag and performing?

Well, like all baby drag queens, I started drag on Halloween. I did drag for three Halloweens. The first time, we had a group of friends and we all wanted to be Batman villains. My favorite Batman villain was Poison Ivy; always has been, since I was a little kid. 

So I decided okay, we’ll do drag. Then, the second year, I did Phoenix (Jean Grey), and the third year I did Kill Bill. And then a couple months later, I decided that I would try and get on the stage and perform something, which was something I had never done before. I’m a very shy, quiet, reserved person. So for me to get on stage willingly was quite a step. 

For my very first show, in December of 2012, I went to The Bar Complex for an open stage night, and I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t know I had to contact them ahead of time. I just showed up. I had three looks, but I didn’t know you needed four. Cadillac Seville, the show director at the time, was pissed.

 

So you show up to open stage night at the bar, not knowing you needed four outfits, not knowing you needed to sign up, or anything. What made you decide to keep going?

Well, so night one, I do it. I like it. I say I’m gonna keep doing it. It was completely unlike anything I’ve ever done before. At that time, in my life, I was really lacking in confidence and self confidence. Being in drag and being on stage being admired was a big confidence boost, so I wanted to do more of it. 

At the time in Lexington, around 2013, there were three different places that did open stage shows: The Bar Complex, Pulse Nightlife, and Crossings. So I went to Pulse Nightlife and, instead of doing open stage, they had just started a competition. It was called “Last Queen Standing,” their version of Last Comic Standing. And that’s where I met a lot of the queens that I would work with for years. 

After years of doing drag, what led you to running for and eventually becoming an Empress of the Imperial Court of Kentucky?

When I was in my beginning stages, I wanted more opportunities to do drag. Basically, I wasn’t good enough to get booked. So I was told by my drag mentor that the only other thing you have to do to gain exposure and gain experience is doing these Imperial Court shows. 

So I reached out to the Empress at the time, who was Christina Puse, and she let me come in and do a couple of shows. After being involved with the Court for several years and several reigns, I decided to run myself. I made that decision because I had reached a point in my life where I felt like I was financially stable enough to do it.

For drag, charity was a way to gain exposure and experience, but charity in my personal life had always been very important growing up. I was raised Catholic, so community service was just part of life. I was also in the Boy Scouts for 15 years or so. So being a part of the Imperial Court and working to help the community was just a natural continuation of that.

 

Speaking of using drag as a tool for community outreach, let’s talk about you performing, in drag, during a Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council Meeting. How did that come about and what was the response from the council and those in the room? 

It’s always nerve wracking to perform in front of groups that are not there for a show. It’s invigorating, exciting, intimidating, and it was, you know, it was an honor. I had met the mayor before, but I don’t think I’d ever performed for her. 

My friend, Liz Sheehan, who was on the council, contacted me and asked me if it was something I’d be willing to do. It was quite a risk. I mean, I had no idea if I was going to be arrested or whatever. A performance like that had never happened before. It was definitely the first time. 

There were people there that did not appreciate it and left in the middle of the song. There were people who did not appreciate it and sent messages to all of the city council members after the fact to voice their displeasure that it had been allowed to take place. 

But it was it was a great I felt like it was a great sisterhood moment because I started the song and then I asked my sisters to join in the song with me and we all kind of performed/

 

There were a bunch of other queens in drag at the council meeting as well?

Yes, yes. It was a kind of a publicity stunt that we had organized as a group called Lex Have Pride. We wanted to go before the city council to basically counter laws that had been written and brought forward in Frankfort. It was basically our way of demonstrating.

 

You were also featured in a New York Times article, highlighting Lexington’s downtown. What was that experience like? 

We were doing a charity show at Crossings, and there was a photographer from the New York Times there. Nobody really thought anything of it. It was, I don’t know, several months later, where I woke up and I had messages on Instagram that said “hey, you’re in the New York Times!” 

I had people at work bringing me physical copies of it. I was very lucky to be able to keep those and it was definitely a thrill. That’s something that I never imagined for myself. Though, I wish they had snapped me in a different outfit instead of the purple jumpsuit that I bought at Goodwill for $3.

 

 

That NYT photo is of you performing at Crossings, a place where you’ve done a ton of shows over the past few years, including your own show “Uma’s Jewels.” What has that been like for you?

It was definitely a bucket list item to have my own show. Crossings was very gracious to allow me to do it, do it monthly, and do it monthly now for three years. Crossings bestowed upon me the title of “The Crown Jewel of Ye Old Rugged Cross.” 

I jokingly say that I’m a narcissist, because I just love stuff like that: goofy, campy, ridiculous, ego-stroking. It’s fun. During my early days, there are pictures out there where I was a wild child. I was the weirdo in Lexington for quite some time. 

I can’t say I was the first or the original, but I will say that I was the weirdo that was embraced in Lexington. There were many weirdos before me. I just had the distinction of being liked. And when I say liked, it’s not because I was just instantly beloved. It was a lot of hard work.

You know, I did open stages three times a week, and I did that for a year and a half straight. I was working my full-time job, going to school part-time, and doing drag three nights a week. And these shows weren’t on the weekends. They don’t do open stage on the weekends. 

So it’s staying out until two o’clock in the morning, getting four hours of sleep (if I’m lucky), getting up and going to work all day, and then potentially doing it again the next day. It was pretty brutal. I look back on those days and thank God that I was in my 20s, I would not be able to do it now.

 

Now, you are breaking out and exploring other creative avenues like acting in The Prom and A Very Sordid Wedding. Was this ever something you imagined yourself doing?

Absolutely not, no. Like I said, I’m a very shy person. I’m very reserved. Someone convinced me that acting is really similar to drag, you know. They are, in ways, similar, with the fact that you are on a stage. But, other than that, they couldn’t be further from each other. 

For me, drag is like a mask. I am a different person. I understand that is the point of acting, but it feels much more present, at least when I’m doing it, probably because I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m not an actor.

I’m very much aware of everything that is happening around me. Whereas when I’m doing drag, I can dissociate, I can go somewhere else. It’s just channels through me and I throw it out there.

I feel like drag is taking the song and channeling it through you putting that emotion out there. That’s why I consider drag to be art. Art seeks to evoke an emotional response. And if I can do that through music and performance, then hopefully I can create a little bit of drag art. 

I feel like acting is getting attention, the kind of attention that I don’t like to get where it’s very focused on you. In drag, the attention is different like, I don’t know, you have something to hide behind?

 

I can see the difficulty from that transition of drag to acting, but you did do it twice. What led you to keep going for another show?

Performing in The Prom was a really magical experience, it was probably one of the most positive and wonderful experiences I’ve had in my life, which I don’t say lightly. It was transformational. It really was, I really pushed myself way beyond my comfort zone. 

Like I said, I’m not a singer, I’m not a dancer, I’m not an actor. So I had to learn how to do all of those things. And I will say, the most uncomfortable and most terrified I have ever been is having to sing in front of people. Like, I’m not a singer, and it made me very self conscious. 

Here’s another thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that I get stage fright every time I go on stage. Going on stage is a scary thing, but what I do to get myself to go on stage is I take three deep breaths, and then I go. 

However you don’t really have that kind of opportunity when you’re doing a play. But what I would tell myself is you’re on stage and you don’t have a choice, you gotta do it, you can’t leave.

 

You pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is kind of been a consistent thing throughout your entire drag career. I bet for the first night of Uma’s Jewels, that you were terrified to host your own show.

Yeah, if you don’t put on a great show, if you don’t do well, then you’re the name that they see. There’s always that pressure and it’s often pressure that I put on myself to make it successful.

Making sure that all the performers have a good time, making sure that everybody makes money including the venue. I want all the performers to make money. I want the door people, the bartenders and the DJ—I want everybody to make money and have a good time. 

What are some dreams or goals that you have for your drag?

Towards the end of my reign as Empress, COVID hit and we shut down. So, I started to do these online shows because I knew that there were organizations depending on the Court for money, and I couldn’t just do nothing. I saw other entertainers doing online shows and getting taken down because Facebook and Instagram wouldn’t allow them to play music and you know, they’d cut their feed. 

So, I had to be creative on how I could raise money, do drag, and be visible, so I came up with doing some live-painting, live-drawing, cooking and baking things. I had special guests come in, it was great. So, one of my big goals would be to eventually have my own baking show. I would love to be the Martha Stewart of Drag. 

 

To wrap up, Is there anything you’d like to see for the future of the Lexington drag community? 

What I would love to see for drag in Lexington is what I continue to see. When I first started in Lexington, there was really only one way to be successful at drag and that was to be a glamorous, beautiful, show-girly drag queen. That was beautiful and that was something to aspire to, but when I came on the scene, I saw my talents and they were not in makeup. 

Everybody was really put together and glamorous, and I would have to be the opposite of that if I wanted to stand out because I would not be able to compete with those people. Eventually, over time, Uma Jewels has found her glamor a little bit. You know, she’s glamor-puss now. She’s who she was always meant to be, it just took me a long time to learn how to get there. 

What I see now is a rare gift of artists that are welcome in Lexington that have their own niche that you know, are able to do their own thing and be successful and have fun. Drag artists sometimes take themselves a little too seriously, and I always say that drag is not an illusion, drag is delusion. So, just go out there and have fun with it. If you’re not having fun, find something else because drag is very expensive.

You can keep up with all Uma Jewels on Instagram @uma_jewels!