On a day that’s infamous for day-drinking and debauchery, who could have thought that world-renowned drag icons would be performing just a mile and a half away on campus? On Saturday, March 8, Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova presented a live version of their hit “The Bald and Beautiful” podcast to a packed house at the Bowker Auditorium. The performance came as part of Spring Blast 2025, a day-long event hosted by the University of Massachusetts Student Affairs. As such, tickets were free for UMass students and faculty.
Kicking off the show was “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season eight winner Bob the Drag Queen, who electrified the theater with a stand-up comedy routine filled with her signature off the cuff humor, storytelling and crowd work. Opening her set, Bob quipped about the unsanctioned “Blarney Blowout” celebration occurring that day.
“When you do these college gigs, sometimes there’s like a lot of rules,” Bob said to the audience, who were largely dressed in green. “They’re very protective of the students, you know… and they were like, ‘Listen, you can’t talk about drugs …’ And then I did a little bit of research, and apparently half of you are hiding BORGs in the audience anyway, so I think I need to be protected from the students!” As Bob finished the joke, the entire theater erupted, with ecstatic cheers, screams and thunderous applause.
Throughout the set, Bob touched on a number of topics, ranging from her dislike of children, her recent appearance on the Peacock original reality competition series “The Traitors” and the Salem Witch Trials. She wore a black, satin dress with a slit down the middle of her legs, which were wrapped in fishnet leggings. Adorning the dress were small, mirrored circles sprinkled throughout the outfit, with bedazzled, silver nails, dangly earrings and a matching microphone with the letters “BOB” written down the side.
As Bob spoke, she worked the crowd, interviewing audience members and making comedic observations about them, whether it was their sexualities, college majors or hometowns. Each of the three audience members Bob spoke to hailed from different small towns in Massachusetts, which quickly became a recurring gag, with Bob pretending to know each of the locations. One audience member told Bob they were from Chelmsford, to which she joked, “I tell you what, Chelmsford is my favorite place in the world. It’s got that stoplight, yeah, it’s great.”
As she finished her set, Bob lit up the crowd with a final remark about UMass. “You know what, I love UMass so much, I am going to enroll today,” Bob said, prompting an administrator in the audience to joke that the university would provide her a full-ride scholarship.
Bob then welcomed Trixie and Katya to the stage, who made their entrance to Lady Gaga’s song “Bloody Mary.” From the start, the two queens jokingly stated how they could not believe how lucky the crowd was to see them for free.
“What kind of make-believe, make-a-gay-wish-come-true school is this?” Trixie asked. “I don’t want to be gauche, but we’re probably three of the most expensive drag queens to book ever–and in one day?” The audience cheered, prompting Katya to reply, “I want to see the books of this public institution!”
Katya, a native of Boston whose brother went to UMass, told the audience about what she’s heard about the university. “From what I’ve learned, it’s a drinking college with an elective in learning… Sweetie, if UMass was a dry campus, the admission rate would be about eight percent. It would plummet.”
Trixie wore a glittery, pink dress with angular shoulder pads, complete with matching pink, knee-high boots with heels and her signature blond wig. Katya also wore long blonde hair, but with a black bodysuit adorned with sparkly, diamond-like gemstones throughout. As the light hit her outfit, it was as if a mirrored disco ball was shining in the theater.
Of course, in their typical dry, sarcastic humor, the pair discussed how their wardrobe, while glamorous, caused some difficulties for their performance. Notably, their corsets made it difficult to speak or sit, and that a simple sneeze could cause them to burst open, getting a big laugh from the crowd. In addition, Trixie joked that Bob the Drag Queen introduced the pair before Trixie’s bottom eyelashes were glued on, prompting an unfinished make-up look.
Despite that, Trixie and Katya were ready to discuss whatever was on their minds. “Okay, we did something uncommon which is actually saving new stories for this show,” Trixie said. “Bob comes out here and does dazzling stand-up, we’re gonna sit in ugly chairs and do PowerPoints with rambling, mid-level, perhaps comedic stories that might go somewhere.”
As promised, the pair’s stories were all over the place, but in the best possible way. For example, Trixie discussed a recent trip to Brisbane, Australia, where she saw a couple of glue-huffing children at McDonald’s. Katya discussed the results of this year’s Academy Awards, notably her hatred of the movie “Emilia Pérez,” and the two expressed their frustrations at that day’s Wordle.
In one of the funniest bits, Trixie and Katya presented an informative, yet incredibly hilarious PowerPoint about life in the Amish community. The queens talked about the group’s history and culture, such as why they don’t use electricity, and the Rumspringa, a traditional event that sees young Amish adults run wild outside of the community to experience life on the outside. At one point, the two even discussed Amish Romance Novels, which Katya joked all had plot climaxes of “…a brief flash of ankles.”
Even after the queens left the stage after their hour-and-a-half showcase, the positive energy was palpable throughout the venue. Excited theatergoers enthusiastically jumped from their seats, still laughing and enthusing to their friends about how great the performances were. For a brief moment in time, those hundreds of UMass students weren’t thinking about their next “Blarney” beverage.
Nathan Legare can be reached at [email protected] or followed on X (formerly Twitter) @Legare_Nathan.
