Outside the Boxx with Pandora

Ask anyone about RuPaul’s Drag Race, Season Two and the name Pandora Boxx comes to mind. Boxx has become an LGBT household name and while she didn’t win, she represented and proved herself a strong up and coming performer with an array of talents.

Drag Race Season Two proved to be a fierce competition that left many feeling that Pandora Boxx should have won. Entertainment Weekly named her as their “America’s Next Drag Superstar.”

She appeared twice on the show and despite not winning, was so popular she went on to become a drag professor on a spin-off show called RuPaul’s Drag U, where she was voted “Most Valuable Player” by fans themselves.

Since the show she has sky-rocketed to fame and has not stopped performing. She has also broken into other related industries and has starred in her own GLAAD award-winning Absolut Cocktail Cabaret commercials. Boxx has opened for Leann Rimes and Chely Wright and performed alongside Roseanne Barr at Uncabaret as well as an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

If that wasn’t enough, she has gone on to add recording artist and Huffington Post contributor to her long list of accomplishments as well as writing, producing and performing in The Lipstick Massacre, a comedic murder mystery. She also is the creator and star of the public access/Internet show The Gay (means happy) Show.

As busy as Pandora Boxx is these days she was able to take time out of her schedule to sit down with San Diego LGBT Weekly and tell us more about herself and what she has been up too.

San Diego LGBT Weekly: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us. How did you get started performing, and was comedy always a part of who Pandora Boxx is?

Pandora Boxx: I got abducted by a band of Barbra Streisand impersonators when I was a child, so I don’t think I had a choice. At least they fed me well.

What was it like being part of RuPaul’s Drag Race?

It was a whole mixture of things. It was amazing, grueling, exciting, exhausting and surreal. It’s changed my professional life completely and I am so thankful!

Performers’ names are very important, and I happen to love yours. Who and how did you come up with it?

Pandora is in Greek mythology; she was the first woman ever created. She opened the forbidden box and let all the evil into the world, leaving one man’s hope inside. I thought you’d never know what to expect with a name like that. Also, Pandora and Madonna have the same amount of letters and they both end in A. I’m a huge Madonna fan.

If you could sum up who you are on stage in six words, what would those words be?

A funny, dirty, sexy, kooky princess. (I counted the “A” as a word)!

What was it like to write, produce and star in a hit play?

I created my own play, The Lipstick Massacre. It was a dream come true. I actually wrote and produced my first play when I was in the fifth grade! My mom directed it and we performed it for my whole elementary school. I’ve always been a writer. We sold out all four performances, and this was before Drag Race even was announced!

Then we brought it back for a successful two week run at Geva Theater in Rochester (which if Rochester had one it would be like off-Broadway). It was so beyond incredible! I’m so very proud of it and everyone who worked on that show.

Have you performed in San Diego before?

Yes! I love, love, love San Diego! The audiences so get drag, and so enjoy it. If I didn’t feel like I needed to live in L.A. right now, I would totally move to San Diego.

What has been your all time funniest stage moment?

Well, there are different levels of funny. There’s like the kind of funny where the audience is laughing and you are entertaining them and then there’s the funny like the, ‘Oh shit, did that just happen?’

As for the first, I think it came from my sold out off-Broadway show Lick This Boxx! where the audience was just cracking up and I totally felt their energy. It was powerful. In that moment I knew I was doing what I was meant to do.

As for the ‘Oh shit’ moments, they happen all the time. Like when Dennis Rodman came to the show I host at The Abbey. He got on the mic and kept talking and talking. I just sat down and was waiting. It was very cool though. He also made it rain on me, so of course, I adore him!

I have heard a lot of things can go wrong on stage, have you ever had a not so memorable moment?

Ha! Yup, all the time. One time all of my high school friends came to a show and I was so excited, they were so supportive. They had never been to a drag show nor really even knew what it was. So I took this white body suit and sewed a cheap feather boa around the wrists, neck and legs of it. I came out and when it hit that big note in the song I raised my arms up and pop! The bodysuit unsnapped! Have you ever tried to snap a bodysuit? There’s no delicate way. I just crept back off stage. My friends still talk about it to this day.

What advice would you give to those just starting out?

Save your coins. Drag costs a lot of money.

Can you tell us more about your single “Nice Car! (Shame About Your Penis)?”

Ha! Well I met an entertainer named Shango who played me a demo she had. I thought she was really talented so we decided to work together. She came up with the concept of the song and I tweaked it to add some Pandora flair and Dublin Beats gave us the sick track for it. It was a lot of fun to do and it’s for all those douche bag guys who think showing off their cars means anything to anyone but themselves. The video, directed by Jimmy Simak, was all about a vigilante girl group who are fighting the just cause of killing douche bags with sports cars and little … personalities (wink, wink). You can see the video at: http://youtu.be/4XkTtyDcSAA.

What would you like LGBT San Diego to know about you?

That I love San Diego!

We know you will be performing at San Diego LGBT Pride, but where can we find you, if we want to see you perform again?

You can find me all over the place like any good whore but for all your digital Pandora needs go to pandoraboxx.com

Catch Pandora Boxx on the main stage at San Diego LGBT Pride Saturday, July 13 at 3 p.m.