Ginger Minj dishes on her Drag Race All Stars win and upcoming Hokus Pokus Live! in KC

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars

Fresh off her RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 10 win, Ginger Minj isn’t slowing down anytime soon. The drag superstar is hitting the road with Hokus Pokus Live!—a glittering, side-splitting theatrical parody of the cult-classic Hocus Pocus — landing at the Midland Theatre on Sept. 21.

Written and directed by Minj herself, the show stars Ginger alongside fellow fan favorites Jujubee and Sapphira Cristál as the legendary Sanderson Sisters. Expect a full-tilt theatrical experience packed with campy comedy, powerhouse singing, and a whole lot of witchy mischief as the sisters return from the dead to navigate the chaos of the modern world.

Minj, who’s become one of the most in-demand drag stars on the planet, is especially excited to bring the show to KC—for several delicious reasons. “Just wait ‘til we get there,” she teases. “We are going to eat our way from one end of town to the next.”

With a mix of spectacle, sass, and spellbinding vocals, Hokus Pokus Live! is more treat than trick—and a can’t-miss stop on KC’s fall entertainment calendar.

We caught up with the Glamour Toad herself while she was putting on her face for that evening’s spooky-spoofy performance.

Photo Courtesy of Hokus Pokus Live!

The Pitch: Okay, diva! Are you still wearing your crown to bed? I mean, congrats on your All-Stars win! 

Ginger Minj: Thank you so much. Am I still wearing it to bed? No, she has her own place in the house. She actually runs the house now. She’s holding down the fort while we’re out on tour. I took her to P-Town with me, and she did not like the heat or the salt water. So, she’s currently in Orlando, at home on her little shelf, all by her lonesome.

Out of all the iconic things you’ve said and done on the show, what’s the most meme’d? Or your biggest accidental claim to fame?

Well, the thing that nobody can let go of is “EGGS! EGGS! EGGS!”—which is so funny because it’s from my first season, 10 years ago. There’s been a decade and three other seasons in between, and everybody still is obsessed with “Eggs, eggs, eggs! All I want is eggs!”

Why is that?

I think it’s back when Drag Race was still really scrappy—the Logo TV days. So, everything was just a little dirtier, a little rougher, and it kind of married perfectly with that whole John Waters sensibility. So, I think the people who found it during that time really connected with it.

And I think, all these years later, even if you don’t get the reference, it’s still so absurd to see myself and Trixie Mattel covered in 400 raw eggs just singing and screaming and dancing around in a playpen.

So, I was gonna guess you were gonna say, “They got me, gal!” when you were eliminated on All-Stars 2. 

They got me, gal! Well, there are so many that have really stood the test of time. Like, ‘flood my basement’ is another one that people use now as just regular slang. It’s so funny because I don’t even remember saying half of these things. They just came out, and then I learned about them as they played back to the rest of the world.  And now they’ve become a part of canon and culture. It’s really fun to be a part of that. But also, sometimes I’m like, ‘God, what the hell do I say when I don’t even think about it?!’

It’s funny… I interviewed Bianca, like, the day after her “lip-sync” against you aired. What do you remember most about that Ru-veal?

Oh, I remember the curtain going up and me going, ‘Okay, well, I guess I’m gonna win!’ That’s simply because Bianca is—self-admittedly—not a lip-sync artist. She’s like, ‘That’s not what I do. It’s not what I ever wanted to do, and I’m glad I never had to do it.’

So, I was like, ‘At least I know these words. I know the song. And I know she doesn’t like to lip sync—so I guess it’s gonna be a win by default.’ And then, of course, Mayhem came out. I went, “Oh, fuck! Now I guess it’s gonna be a battle.”

I will never, ever hear “Where da’ hell my phone?” by Lizzo the same way again. 

To be totally honest with you, my favorite drag race moment, across all of my seasons over 10 years, was doing that number with Mayhem. It was just so fun. It was at the height of the pandemic. So, it was really the first time I got to perform a drag number in front of people for the better part of a year. So, it was really cathartic and fun and funny and stupid, and everything that I love about drag.

You’re crisscrossing the country on Hokus Pokus Live! I feel like this is a role you were born to play… uh, repeatedly.

This is our third tour, and of course, I got to do it in Hocus Pocus II, across from Bette Midler. She was kind of the catalyst for us ever turning this into a stage show. Because our last night on set, she looked at me and was like, ‘I’ve seen a lot of drag queens do me. And I like the way you do me, so I want you to take it and turn it into something.’

I said, ‘Like, what?’ And she said, ‘A show or something! I don’t have all the fucking answers. Figure it out for yourself!’

That’s probably the most Bette Midler moment I could ever have in my life. And now that she’s my new drag mother, whether she knows that or not, I have decided to honor her by taking her words and turning them into this big tour, and it’s grown so much in three years.

I love that for you. And for Bette, who is clearly your drag mother. Okay, name a celeb who’s come up to you and gushed over you—and you damn near lost your ever-lovin’ mind. I know that’s happened, yes?

It has happened! Honestly, just a few days ago, I met Jody Benson. I went to see Nina West’s show at the Out Front Theatre in Atlanta the night before we did our Hokus Pokus Tour. Jody Benson was there, and she came up to me just crying and gushing and talking about my career and how much she loves this thing or that thing that I’ve done.

And I’m like, ‘You’re the Little Mermaid! You are the Little Mermaid, and I can touch you. You know who I am and you’re a fan of mine??’ So, it was really jarring, but sweet to live my Ursula moment next to the actual Little Mermaid.

Also, the fact that she knew your history. I mean, that’s a stan!

Oh my, yes! She knew deep cuts of all of my seasons and everything that I’ve done and stuff that I’ve done outside of Drag Race. On top of it all, she said, ‘You don’t understand, we have a group chat and it’s called the ‘Glamour Tadpoles.’ And we love you so much. We loved you from all of your seasons.’

But she couldn’t have been lovelier and more uplifting. Like, Little Mermaid was the first movie I ever saw in the movie theater. I grew up wanting to be Ursula. I have red hair, like Ariel. It was, it’s just my Disney movie, and to have somebody who was such an integral part of that acknowledge me and the things that I’ve done, I was like, ‘Wow, if I could return a little bit of the joy she’s given to me throughout the years.’ It was nice because not every person you meet that you like is kind.

You’re an Orlando girl. Or Orlando-adjacent. Do you still call that place home?

It is my home. I bought my house right before the pandemic—luckily, before all the prices went up. It’s lovely. I enjoy going home, and it’s 15 minutes between all of the theme parks, including Gatorland, so I think I’m all set. It’s like my little oasis. I’m usually on the road. I’m usually working, but when I am home, I am home.

Now that you’ve won All-Stars, what other things do you plan on conquering?

I would love to be the first drag artist to be an EGOT winner. But I think my next steps after getting through Hokus Pokus Live!? I mean, I don’t want it to come to an end, but once it does, I’ve got some movies lined up. I’ve got a little TV lined up, and then the big goal is Broadway. That’s always been the goal, and hopefully that seems like it’s right on the horizon.

I’m putting you on the spot! You can only lip-sync to one song for the rest of your life. What is it? A ballad? Or dance tune?

I mean, I always have fun doing “Phone”. Everybody always wants that number, and I’m happy to give it to them, because I have so much fun doing it. But I don’t know—I really enjoyed doing “Defying Gravity” on Drag Race. That was probably the most in a number I have ever lip-synced for my life. So, I would be happy to do something like that for the rest of my life.

Finally, what should KC expect when Hokus Pokus Live! lands in the metro? You’ve been to KC tons of times, huh?

Yeah, I love Kansas City. The food is so good. I’ve been telling the girls, like, ‘Just wait!’ And my favorite drag king name that I’ve ever heard is KC Masterpiece, which I think is brilliant!

But I think that everybody in Kansas City should expect the unexpected, because there’s something for everybody in this show. It’s packed with Drag Race, it’s packed with Dracula, it’s packed with Hocus Pocus, and it’s got a whole bunch of little surprises in the middle. Like, there is literally something for everybody in the show: live singing, original music, songs you love, songs you know, songs you want to dance to. Oh, and more stupid dad jokes that you could shake a stick at.

Oooh, and our resident KC queen Lana Luxx came in runner-up at Miss Continental a few weeks ago. Do you know her? She’s a delight. 

I know who she is, absolutely. I’m a Continental girl. Yeah, I was first or second runner-up five years in a row as Miss Continental Plus. I still follow that pageant religiously. And it’s one of those things that’s much like Drag Race for me; it was unfinished business. And now that I’ve got the Drag Race crown, I know that that Continental crown is in my future, too. But, yeah, she is spectacular. I love her.

Hokus Pokus Live! comes to the Midland Theatre on Sept. 21 at 8 p.m.