A ‘Cracker’ That Goes with Everything, Miz—in ‘Mizchief!’—is a Can’t-Miss

Miz Cracker Performs the NY Premiere of Mizchief!

Thursday, October 8, 7pm at The Cutting Room (44 E. 32nd St.)

Tickets are $26 general admission; $40 VIP tix includes reserved seating & meet-and-greet) / $25 food/beverage minimum. Purchase Tickets at www.SpinCycleNYC.com

BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Hard to believe it’s been less than a decade since Gotham gays had to start sharing the wit, warmth, and weirdness of our beloved Miz Cracker with the world at large. But that’s been the case since 2018, when the top-tier NYC comedy queen arrived as a Season 10 RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant. Even among a gaggle of rare birds whose ranks included Aquaria and Monét X Change, Miz Cracker stood out as the odd duck whose appeal hadn’t been manufactured in the edit. Nonetheless, Miz only made it half-way through, placing fifth. But she bested that by earning runner-up status as a contestant on the Season 5 of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.

Since then, Miz Cracker has made her mark with a series of fruitful collaborations with other RPDR alum, while touring with her own solo shows, penning an award-winning column, and scoring a People’s Choice Award nomination. Far away from the white-hot lights of the TV studio, live performance is where Miz Cracker continues to make her mark. Manhattan audiences can see for themselves on October 8, when she brings the New York premiere of Mizchief! to The Cutting Room. “A surreal circus” that “merges high-brow drama with slapstick comedy” is the promise of the show’s promo material, which further guarantees “handmade costumes, acrobatics, standup, improv, audience participation, and five fresh, high-energy burlesque numbers.” We recently had a chance to chat with the artist; our interview yielded the below Q&A.

Scott Stiffler, for LGBTQCommunity News (LGBTQNews): Miz Cracker, you’re a hometown girl, bringing Mizchief! to Manhattan for its New York premiere. So everything will be new for us, yes—but are you arriving with material exclusive to the October 8 performance?

Miz Cracker: The show has a brand new number in it—because if I have something topical that I want to address, I always wedge a new number in. And that’s what this show is all about—responding to the times that we’re in, and being totally present with the audience.

LGBTQNews: How does the show vary from gig to gig, town to town?

Miz Cracker: I’ve never performed the same show twice… The stand-up will be mostly improvised. But none of this—the comedy, the choreography, the videos, the songs—existed before June of this year.

LGBTQNews: Does that come naturally, letting spontaneity lead the way rather than write it, hone it, repeat it?

Miz Cracker: I have never been able to do what a Broadway performer does, to bring a fresh feeling to something that they’ve done many times, which is such an incredible skill. I have always had to do something brand new—and it has to be surprising to me, in order for me to enjoy it. And because of that, I’ve had no choice but to be off the cuff.

LGBTQNews: You said this show is all about responding to the times–as opposed to what, simply addressing the times. Why does that action; that response, get equal billing alongside the Big Bad?

Miz Cracker: Well,  there’s this phrase that I’ve heard [a lot] recently, which is called, “admiring the problem.” It means when you are faced with that thing, everybody gets together and talks about the problem and how tough it is and how bad it is and how scary it is. But nobody talks about solutions. And I see how Democrats and liberals love to do this, to talk about how bad things are and how much we don’t like things, and just have no plan of action.

And our adversaries—the conservatives and Republicans—are very plan-oriented. And they’re not even really, truly,  a significant majority. They’re just really good at moving. Yeah. So in my show, I always talk about what we need to do, what we need to change, what we need to fix. I talk less about what’s going on—because we all know what’s going on. I talk more about where we need to go from here; how we need to change our attitude so that we can move forward.

LGBTQNews: I like that notion, that we can build behaviors that support some grand internal pivot. Have you experienced that personally, internally, mentally? And has it changed the way you move in the world?

Miz Cracker: That’s a great question. Absolutely, it has. Because I think everyone wants to do something, and they feel like, “Well, what can I do? I’ll go vote.” I don’t even know if that’s [our Midterm Election votes are] going to be counted, right? People feel very helpless… But there’s a book called On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, by Timothy Snyder. It’s not long [126 to 128 pages, depending on the layout], and it tells you everything you need to know to do—what people in Hungary did, to get rid of a dictatorship.

One of the things I took away from it is to connect with every single person around you. My attitude towards people used to be, if I could tell somebody’s  Republican, I wouldn’t even look at them. Now, I’m out there. I look at people. I talk with people, giving people friendly experiences with a queer person. I’m out there in my drag in places I shouldn’t be; straight bars, on the street, in the grocery store, talking to conservative people… I’m out there showing people I exist—so that if I go missing, people will notice!

LGBTQNews: So how does all of this figure into the performance we’re going to see?

Miz Cracker: Yeah, so take everything I just said, and remember: That applies to the outside world. In the show, we’re going to make fun of everything. We’re going to turn it all into a great time, because we need to do this. So my show is about taking all of that stuff we’re worried about, that’s unpleasant, and turning it into a great time. Have drinks. Have food. Be together. Look around at all the people who are here because they agree with you and say, “I’m not alone.”

LGBTQNews: Are the time we’re living in; this soupy haze of uncertainty–is it comparable to the isolation chamber during COVID. Or is this just something completely new?

Miz Cracker: This time—now–in no way is it unprecedented. This is not the first time people have faced fascism. We’ve had the Spanish flu. Stuff happens over and over and over again. So what are we going to do, throw our hands up and give up? Look back at the last time people had to deal with that. See how they survived. I mean, I had a terrible time. I perform live. I do not date. I do not have friends. I do not have hobbies. The only thing I do is get ready to perform, and perform dawn to dusk. Every day.  When that got taken away, that took my life away. My life ended during COVID—and what’s alive now is a different person.

LGBTQNews: So what is that person bringing to The Cutting Room on October 8?

Miz Cracker: Everything… There were years where I was touring so hard that I had designers making my  costumes, choreographers; video editors making my background videos. And the show had me in it, but it wasn’t necessarily myself. This show, [Mizchief!]. I wrote all the comedy. I made the choreography, the background video, myself. I made the costumes.

Every fiber of the show came from my blood, sweat, and tears. And it’s all been done in the last couple of months. Brand new, just for you. Because I love my New York audiences so much. So I cannot wait to share this show. As we said,  it’s dark times. But when we’re in this room together, I promise you: We’re going to make it a great time, which is what it’s supposed to be.

The Miz Cracker-created “Mizchief!” plays one show only, Thursday, October 8, 7pm at The Cutting Room (44 E. 32nd St.). Tickets are $26 general admission; $40 VIP tix includes reserved seating & meet-and-greet. There is a $25 food/beverage minimum at all performances. Purchase Tickets at www.SpinCycleNYC.com.  

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