This 414-day, Supernova, Ayesha Voodoo, Blythe and Posie came together for SICKENING, a drag show hosted by Roxy Toxin at X-Ray Arcade. This is one of many comeback shows for these queens after This Is It! bar closed on March 9, 2025.

This Is It!, or Tits, was a special nightlife spot for Milwaukee’s queer community for over 50 years, making it Milwaukee’s oldest operating gay bar. In 2021, drag queen and Wisconsin native Trixie Mattel become a co-owner with George Shneider. After an eight-month closure and the COVID pandemic, the nightclub was placed in a difficult position it could not overcome.

Since its closing, drag performances and events have been hosted at other venues around the city to support the queens that worked at This Is It!, who unexpectedly lost their place of work.

“The closing of This Is It! did shake the queer community but, as soon as it closed, I knew we had to take that power back into our hands,” says Roxy Toxin in the show’s opening remarks, “this is a new era of drag in Wisconsin and Milwaukee, and I am here to usher that in with a sickening cast of performers.”

The event brought together familiar faces to a new area of Wisconsin to reclaim a beloved artform. For her first appearance, Ayesha comes out in a cropped two-tone denim jacket, plaid corset and a black skirt with fur legwarmers and performed “Black Sheep” by Metric. For
her second appearance, she changes into a ripped black and white sweater with blonde box braids and performed to “I Threw Glass At My Friend’s Eye And Now I’m On Probation” by Destroy Boys.

Before the show, I had an opportunity to sit down with Ayesha Voodoo to hear more about her artistry, balancing school and drag life, and her connection with This Is It!

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This is my first time at X-Ray Arcade. Is this your first time performing here?

It is. It’s my first time performing here and it is my first time being here. I’ve always passed by going to like, card shops over here. But besides that, I’ve never actually been here. It’s pretty big.

Card shops? What kind of cards are you getting?

So, I’m a nerd and I usually go to card shops for Magic the Gathering cards. Roxy [Toxin] was the person who got me into it.

Oh, really?

Yeah, she was. She’s put all my money down the drain on cards and shit.

I know they can be expensive. Do you play the Magic the Gathering game?

I do play Magic the Gathering. I haven’t played in a good long like, half a year, though, mostly cause school and drag have just, you know, swept me up a little bit.

Concerning the show tonight, tell me about your performances, how do you put together a performance? What does your artistic process look like?

So, it’s Roxy Toxin’s show here at X-Ray Arcade. There isn’t a theme but, as a collective, we try to fit our numbers towards the theme of the establishment. So, a little punkier, a little grungier. That’s definitely something I took into account. With the songs I chose for tonight, they’re not particularly songs that I would normally do. I like to step out of my comfort zone every once in a while. I chose my songs and once I made the decision, I’m like, okay, these are the two I’m set doing, I’m not going to change them, it has to be done. Then I listen to it
over and over and over again in my head trying to figure out, oh, okay, what am I going to do during like this part of the song? If there’s a break in the song where it’s no lyrics and just music, I try to figure out either something I can do with my body or like some gag, so it doesn’t seem like just dead space. That’s mostly what I think about, otherwise, I also put a lot of brain energy into my outfits. I am a fashion major at MIAD (Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design), so fashion is pretty important to me. All of my outfits that I wear, I make myself. I try to curate all my outfits to my numbers, so it’s all cohesive and whatnot. Theme comes first, and then the music, then the routine, and then the outfit. That’s the process.

You said you make all of your outfits yourself?

I do. All of it.

Every one? That’s crazy.

As a larger person, I found out pretty quickly that trying to go out and find feminine wear or stuff that I could maybe upcycle into drag wear is not the easiest. I thought, well, I have all these resources at my school at my disposal, especially since I am a fashion major and I am learning how to make clothes. I shifted all the pieces I make in my classes to drag wear. I’ve mainly been focusing on pieces for myself, although for a project coming up, I’m branching out to other people. I usually just make all my own stuff. It’s easier that way. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily cheaper, but it makes sure I have something that’s unique to me and fits my body the way I like. 

It makes it even more special.

Exactly, exactly.

Since you are creating all these outfits yourself, how long does it take to make one? They always look so detailed and very suiting for the theme.

It all depends on what I’m making. If I’m just making a basic leotard, I have patterns that I’ve made over the past year or two that I reuse. It’s kind of just a cut and sew process. I could make a leotard out of whatever fabric in 30 minutes. Which is pretty good for me. Sometimes I’m like, oh, shit, this show’s theme is ‘pretty and pink’, and I don’t have any pink to wear, so I make it quickly. But, for my more detailed outfits, it takes me a bit more time to make. For instance, part of my outfit tonight is a leotard that I made from upcycling a bunch of sweaters. A lot of chopping it up, pinning it together, making yardage, then cutting and sewing, which is pretty cool. That can take me anywhere between an hour to a few days, just depending on what the garment is.

Moving along, I’ve seen you perform at different venues like Cactus Club and This Is It! How long have you been participating in drag? How did you break into the Milwaukee drag scene?

The short way of saying is I’ve been performing and serious about drag for a year. But I originally did, what is considered, bedroom drag. Which is just doing your makeup and doing whatever I considered drag makeup was at the time. Just locked in my room, didn’t go out or show anybody. I was really inspired by Jaida Essence Hall, who was a queen from Milwaukee who went on Drag Race and proceeded to win. About a year ago, I met Roxy Toxin at school, and we hit it off and became best friends. She told me “Well, I think you should get back into drag” and I was like, “well, why not?” Now I’m sure she regrets that, you know. But it’s been pretty good since then. That’s how I got into it, really.

Do you find it hard to balance being a student at MIAD while performing so many shows?

It is a little hard to balance, especially with my current semester with all my classes being 8 A.M. classes. I have to be up by 6, 7 o’clock and get ready and head to school. It’s not the best after a long night of drag, but I make it work. I’ll have a long night of drag, nap for a few hours, go to school, come home and nap for a few more hours. That’s mainly how I manage it. It’s not the easiest, but it’s what works for me.

With balancing your school life with your drag life, what is the most rewarding part of drag for you?

I think the most rewarding part of drag for me is the money, no I’m kidding. That’s a perk. Having a space where I can showcase such a beautiful art form, you know? I can show off my own work to crowds of people. Also, it’s something that I really enjoy because I can spread joy to others through drag which is very important to me. Drag is something that’s supposed to be a safe thing for people. Going to a drag show is something that people consider a safe space. So, that’s what’s really important to me when it comes down to it.