Mandy Mango might be the second eliminated from RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 18, but she told Blavity’s Shadow and Act that she was glad she had her family and friends to keep her afloat while watching the season.
“I think right after you experience it, it’s one of those like downs,” she said about her time on the show, which included being placed in the bottom two three times. “It’s like a deep down and, like, you kind of have to pick yourself back up from it and process it, obviously make peace with it. And then you kind of get nervous about watching it on TV. It does bring back some of those feelings. But what’s so different about it is that this time your fans and your friends and your family are right there behind you to, like, uphold you and support you.”
“I think I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see all these fans just rise up and uplift me in a time where I thought like I really would be down. And I thought because I was in the bottom and because of these situations, I just was a messy booger,” she continued. “And, you know, maybe one of those words is true. But I like to think despite that, people still have seen the heart and soul of my drag, and I’m really, really grateful above all that that is what translated to everybody and that’s what resonated with people. Because I can polish up the mug, I can polish up the garments… the physical things. But to know that the spirit is there makes me know that I’m doing something correct with my drag.”
Reflecting on the lip syncs
Mango’s talent shone through particularly in the lip syncs; she successfully sent DD Fuego home after the first elimination challenge, but she was bested by Briar Blush after the RDR Live challenge.
“I think the first one, that song was high energy. I was really excited to do that one,” she said. “From working with DD in the girl group, I knew she wasn’t that much of a dancer. So I went into it with confidence, being like, ‘Okay, bitch, this is your thing. This is your song. You got this, as long as you get this table [costume] off.’ Ironically, I still had things to take off as a deer as well. So, there was still that aspect, and I think that the flavor of the song and just where my head was at kind of made me fumble.”
“Honestly, if you ask me what I did during the lip sync… I feel like I kind of blacked out a little bit,” she added. “I guess I suppressed it, but I think I still showcased a lot of high energy. But probably, I think to what the judges were saying, kind of honing in on that energy and grounding it more [could have helped].”
From nurse to queen: balancing drag and public health
Outside of drag, Mango is a registered nurse specializing in HIV and sexual health for the last seven years in Philadelphia, PA. She also worked as a clinical case manager in rural Pennsylvania and in one of West Philadelphia’s infectious disease clinics. She currently works for the Philadelphia Department of Health.
“I love being able to have this perspective on the community and being able to still care for the community and entertain them at night,” she said, adding that her coworkers were also very supportive of her drag career.
“You know, that’s the perks of working in sexual health and like LGBTQ health. You usually work with a lot of progressive and queer people. So yeah, they love drag, they’re so supportive,” she said. “They were shocked to see me—like, pleasantly shocked to see me—make it onto Drag Race. They learned I wasn’t just flying off to the Philippines for months. But yeah, I think being able to also represent Philly [and] represent the public health scene a little bit too has been such a blessing.”
“It’s a turnaround from when I first started off as a nurse because I was really hesitant and reluctant to let people know I did drag,” she continued. “I thought that people wouldn’t see me as professional if they knew I was also a drag queen. It also kind of translated into me being more withdrawn and quiet and shy. But when I finally had really comfortable staff, that really brought me out of my shell… I’ve really learned how to bring my whole full, authentic self to my nursing job, and that has only translated into me being a better nurse because patients can clock that I’m visibly queer and just feel more comfortable sharing more about their lives that they might have been nervous to share with, maybe, a cisgender heterosexual provider.”
Mango is currently using her Instagram to show her fans everything from her Drag Race package that they didn’t get a chance to see on the show. She’s also ready “to grow this drag queen nurse mission.”
“I wanna be able to start… my own podcast where I bring on some of my queer and professional colleagues to talk about what they do, share resources about Philly and beyond, and also just travel the world and meet my fans and get to see drag in different cities,” she said.
RuPaul’s Drag Race airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on MTV.