Performers defy small-town stereotypes, blend artistry, resilience and community one show at a time
By David Escobar
Everything about the Belvedere Restaurant feels like a time capsule of Saranac Lake’s storied history. With antique wood-paneled walls inside, a towering neon sign out front and classic Italian offerings on the menu, little has changed since it opened in 1933.
But every few months, the dining room transforms into a stage for something unexpected in a small Adirondack town—a drag brunch featuring local and traveling performers.
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Aside from a handful of Pride Month celebrations in June, dedicated spaces for drag performances are rare in the North Country. So artists like George Connelly, a drag queen who performs under the name Victoria Bohmore, have been creating their own—in bars, restaurants and theaters across the region.
“Doing [drag] out in a small rural community, or a small town like this, I think is more important,” said Connelly. “It gives you the chance to have a safe space, have an opening at a bar where there aren’t typically gay bars.”
Connelly has headlined the recurring drag brunch since moving to the Adirondacks during the COVID-19 pandemic. With support from the Belvedere’s owners, the Maryland native has brought drag into a brighter spotlight in his new hometown.
Defining drag in a small town
Connelly began his career in drag more than 20 years ago while working as a bartender in a Baltimore gay bar. During one of the establishment’s employees-only drag shows, a resident drag queen helped him prepare an outfit and encouraged him to perform for the first time.
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“She saw something with me on stage and was like, ‘You should really do this more often,’” he said.
Soon after, Connelly began performing as his newly created drag persona, Victoria Bohmore, which he said allowed him to escape the staleness of his 9-to-5 desk job on Capitol Hill.
“It really is a creative outlet,” Connelly said. “Drag has a chance to kind of let loose, and, you know, get rid of that stuffiness and I can do that on a microphone in public being in drag.”
He first brought his extravagant wigs and beaded dresses to Saranac Lake during the Belvedere’s inaugural drag brunch for Winter Carnival in 2022.
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“This place was sort of traditionally thought of as not inclusive, and kind of old school,” said Chrissie Wais, who manages the Belvedere with her partner John Levy. “We’ve lost some customers over it, but I think we’ve gained more because we did something different and new in the community.”
Wais and Connelly met through a shared job in Washington, D.C. The pair have since worked together operating a fundraising and event company based in Saranac Lake. When she bought the Belvedere in 2022, Wais said she and Connelly wanted to try experimenting with ways to promote the restaurant, which was the inception of the Belvedere’s first-ever drag brunch.
After the event sold out, Connelly and fellow performers continued producing drag shows around the region, despite occasional community pushback.
“The keyboard warriors have gotten a lot louder,” he said. “I can count on one hand the amount of times we’ve had a protester show up at a show. It’s very rare.”
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Encountering misconceptions
Connelly said online hate comments have seldom escalated into in-person protests in the North Country. However, drag performers have become polarizing figures nationwide, partly due to misconceptions about what it means to do drag.
Related reading: Pride and prejudice in a small Adirondack town
“Some people think because I am a drag performer that I want to be a woman because I dress up like a woman,” said Watertown-based drag queen Michael Cameron.
Cameron has been performing as Amber Skyy for 25 years. In his experience, some drag performers use the art form to explore and embrace their gender identity, but he said doing drag does not mean a person is transgender. Drag is also not inherently connected to sex.
The term “drag” dates to the 19th century, originating in British theater as a way to describe women’s clothing worn by men. In its most basic form, drag queens are cisgender men who perform dressed as women. The performers have long existed in American media—from Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon’s characters in the 1959 film “Some Like It Hot” to Robin Williams’ titular role in “Mrs. Doubtfire.”
Similar to the actors in those films, Cameron likened his drag persona to a character.
“It’s like putting on a musical or a play,” said Cameron. “I can be Amber Skyy for eight to 10 hours, and then she’s back in the closet until the next time.”
Drag as defiance
During his career, Cameron has won numerous drag pageant titles in New York and used his shows to raise money for charities. He said the culture around drag performers has shifted positively compared to when he started in 2000.
“Most of the performers like myself were very skittish of who we told and very secretive about certain things,” he said. “When it came time to go to the store to shop for costumes, outfits and stuff like that, it wasn’t as comfortable for me.”
Sean Brace, who performs as Mhisty Knights, shares a similar sentiment.
“I don’t feel as weird as I used to years ago walking down the street [or] heading to a bar in drag as I used to,” Brace said. “ I feel like it’s gotten more acceptable.”
Alongside Cameron, Brace has been a staple of the North Country drag scene for about two decades. A native of Peru, New York, Brace said most drag performers work day jobs to support themselves. The basics of drag—wigs, costumes, jewelry, heels and makeup—are a significant investment.
“I know some queens that just do thrift store [clothes], which is great,” Brace said. “And there are some queens out there who will gladly, because they have the [resources], spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on dresses and wigs.”
A diverse drag scene
Brace said the North Country drag community is also diverse in style. Some performers prefer cracking jokes on a microphone, while others focus on costume-making or lip-syncing.
Kit Thomas said their drag persona defies definition.
“He’s mysterious. He’s electric,” said Thomas. “But once I get into Hunter Down, I feel like such a star.”
Thomas, who grew up in Akwesasne, started performing as Hunter Down in 2010 while living in North Carolina. Their persona is considered a “drag king,” when a performer wears men’s clothing and performs stylized forms of masculinity. Since moving back to the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation in 2021, Thomas has been one of only a few drag kings in the region.
“It’s usually four to six other queens and then one king,” said Thomas. “There’s various reasons why it could be like that. Maybe there’s not enough talent. Sometimes prejudice comes into play.
Thomas said drag kings are less represented in pop culture than drag queens, whose art form has been popularized by the television series “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Performing in drag has helped Thomas express their Two-Spirit identity, a term used to describe Indigenous individuals who embody both masculine and feminine spirits or roles within their communities.
“Being a king is an art, and it has so much respect,” said Thomas. “I want to pay homage to the kings before me, the people who put in the work for me to be able to do what I do.”
Shifting opinions in rural communities
Across the North Country, drag shows are typically smaller and less frequent than in urban areas, but Thomas said the performances carry more weight in building community and acceptance for the region’s LGBTQ+ population.
“We’re making space for not only queens and kings, but for the queer community. And it’s much needed up here,” said Thomas. “It’s more needed, I think, in the smaller, closed-minded towns. So that’s why I keep doing drag in places like Potsdam, Malone, Plattsburgh and now Cornwall, Ontario.”
For Brace, every pageant, brunch and nightclub show is a chance to create joy for fellow LGBTQ people in the North Country. Even on the hardest days—when he does not feel like applying makeup or gluing down a wig—he said he cannot imagine hanging up his drag heels anytime soon.
“I may switch from heels to flats or barefoot. If I get to the walker stage, then I might have to figure out something else,” he said. “But as long as there’s people asking, ‘Hey, do you want to do this? Do you want to do that?’ I will gladly do it.”
David Escobar is a Report For America Corps Member. He reports on diversity issues in the Adirondacks through a partnership between North Country Public Radio and Adirondack Explorer.
Photo at top: Drag queen Ganivah Cache performs at a drag brunch at the Belvedere Restaurant in Saranac Lake on June 28, 2025. Photo by David Escobar.