honey mahogany, drag queen, performer, recording artist, miss blow up usa 2011, lets plain wrap get to know her better. this is the forty-third installment of plain wrap’s interview series in which plain wrap interviews all its facebook friends. thank you, honey mahogany.

1. Tell us about yourself?

1. Voted Best Drag Queen 2011 by SF Weekly’s Readers’ Poll and recently crowned Miss Blow Up USA 2011, Honey Mahogany is a ubiquitous drag performer as well as a budding recording artist. Honey was also selected for the 2011 Hot Pink List by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and was the cover girl for the Guardian’s 2011 Queer Issue. Her single, a cover of Adele’s “Hometown Glory” was chosen as one of the best cover songs of 2010 by Limelight (a leading cover song licensing company) and is to be followed up with an EP due out next year. Additionally, Honey just completed a successful run in Dirty Little Showtunes at the New Conservatory Theatre Center, and she held the starring role in the recent House of Panic production Oprah: The Dragsical. Ms. Mahogany is going on to perform in Halloween: The Ballad of Michelle Meyers, which is opening Thursday Oct 27th and runs through Sunday October 30th.

2. Have you read any good books lately?

2. I WISH! With my busy schedule, I hardly have time to read these days… but I am looking forward to spending a week on the beach in Mexico in about a month. I plan to take a few books with me. One book that will definitely be in my tote is The Land of the Painted Caves—the sixth installment in the Earth’s Children series by Jean M Auel. I fell in love with the series after reading the first book The Clan of the Cavebear. I don’t think this last book got rave reviews, but after re-reading the last 5 books countless times over the past 15 years, I’m too invested in the characters to not read it.

3. Why did you leave your last job?

3. I left my last full-time job for school. And then I got a part-time job when I was in school, and then I had to leave that job because I was leaving school. Both were very healthy, pleasant transitions.

4. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?

4. Isn’t simply living life a way of improving your knowledge? But I suppose I have attended several formalized trainings at work (I am a social worker by day) that have given me tools to be better able to work with various types of people and issues. I’ve also done a lot of self-work—doing research on my own, but also learning from friends, fellow performers, trial and error. I feel like I’m constantly absorbing what is going on around me and trying to grow along with these experiences.

5. Tell us about the most fun you have had in life?

5. It’s hard for me to pick one moment or one experience and label it “the most fun” I’ve had in life. It’s like trying to pick a favorite food. I love all food too much to make that kind of a statement! The simple pleasures of being on vacation during a summer in my childhood where I had very little to worry about could be one experience. Reading a particularly exciting book by the fire with people I love nearby would be another. Spending 30hrs a week dancing during my last year in college, working on shows, and singing… Perhaps it is the very specific summer after completing my BA where I traveled to Australia by myself for 10 days. I spent my time figuring out my way around Sydney and Melbourne, making friends on the fly, and seeing the sites.