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The evolution of a Northwest Arkansas drag queen

By Shelby Evans

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She’s tall, tan and has long, gray-blonde hair – most days. Other days, her hair may be a medium curly ‘do, but it just depends on her mood. She’s a lover of all things couture and an aspiring beauty icon. She’s still young in her development, so she’s experimenting with a lot of different things. Her makeup is striking. Her lashes go on for days, and her cheekbones are so sharp they could cut glass. Her brows are thick and bold, and a big, bright lip – usually vivid pink – ties her face together. She’s outrageous but just the right amount.

Jackie England is her name, and she is a star waiting to shine. A drag star that is.

During the day, Jonathan Huff is a stock manager at Hollister Co. in Rogers. He takes care of shipments, processing and online orders. It’s usually a laid-back environment, but lately he’s been compensating for the lack of a third-floor manager. It’s become busy for him, but he loves it. If you go into the clothing store today, you’ll see him as the funny, sassy and sometimes serious manager who loves to make his work environment fun. When Jonathan is not organizing the back of the store, he’s in the storefront known for its dark lighting and fragrant air. As the customers come and go, they would never suspect that the man that helped them find a second pair of jeans or a smaller shirt usually has his mind in a much different place.

Jonathan looks like any other man in his early 20s. People may notice that he has a taste for fashion or a wide smile, but he easily blends in with the college population in Fayetteville. But when Jonathan is away from the general public and in the comforts of his own home, a new person takes form.

Jonathan has been evolving his self-image since he came out before he graduated high school.

Sarah Hight has been Jonathan’s friend since they met at Washington Junior High School in Bentonville, and he has always loved performing, she said.

“Jonathan has always loved the arts,” Sarah said. “More specifically, music and acting, and I know he’s been interested in them even before we knew each other.”

For the next five years of their life, Jonathan and Sarah became heavily involved with their school’s theater and choir programs. Performing is something they’d both like to have as a career.

Along with watching Jonathan’s love for the arts grow, Sarah also saw him grow in another way – by coming out to his peers and family about his sexuality.

“I was the first person he told he was gay – and I knew beforehand because how could you not?” Sarah said. “When he did tell me, he was so upset that I wouldn’t be his friend anymore and worried that I would hate him.”

Seeing Jonathan today as a completely different, confident person is a huge step, Sarah said.

“The hardest thing you can be in the world is yourself, and Jonathan is unapologetically himself,” Sarah said.

Jonathan’s parents have a different opinion about their son and his sexuality.

His parents found out their son was gay by reading text messages on his phone. His father is a preacher and became extremely upset. Jonathan was 15. Sarah remembers telling him that they would run away together, so they would always have someone to watch out for each other, she said.

After finding out, Jonathan’s parents threatened to send him to an all-boys boarding school and conversion therapy to change his sexuality, he said.

But these threats were empty, and tension at Jonathan’s house calmed down after a month, he said. His sexuality became a taboo subject and was not ever discussed. Even six years later, Jonathan’s parents prefer to ignore his sexuality.

But lack of parental support hasn’t stopped Jonathan from working for what he really wants. During the fall 2016 semester at the University of Arkansas, Jonathan quickly realized that school was becoming a distraction from his passion for performing and his dreams of becoming a drag queen.

“I’ve been putting this off since last summer, telling myself, ‘Oh, I’ll start in the winter,’ or ‘Oh, I’ll start next spring,’” Jonathan said. “I finally decided to stop making excuses and to just do it. That’s when I decided to take a long break from school to focus on her (Jackie).”

At the end of another stressful day in retail, it’s time for him to commute back home to Fayetteville. He’s exhausted; it was a rough day. Eight hours of covering both the back and front rooms was rough, but now is not the time to throw in the towel and go to sleep. Instead of having a relaxing night with his husband and their puppy, he puts on music and prepares some tea to help transform into a whole new person.

Jackie is too unique to place her in any one category at a time, but she does have a love for glamour and high fashion, Jonathan said. Jackie doesn’t just happen with a flick of a switch; she has to be brought to life through inspiration every time.

“Usually to get me in my Jackie mood, I’ll listen to my drag playlist I have on my phone,” Jonathan said. “The songs were specifically selected for my drag, and they have to inspire me and bring my creativity out. When the song is meant for my drag, I can envision an entire outfit, how my makeup will look, what nails I’m wearing, what hair I’m wearing and what heels. I see it all in my head, and I know that I can perform this song.”

It can’t be just any song from his 100-song playlist, Jonathan said. Some songs he loves, but they don’t give him the inspiration to bring Jackie to life. When the music is able to inspire him, he knows it is a song for Jackie. Every song Jonathan chooses for Jackie to perform also determines her style. From night to night, a song by Cher could inspire Jackie to be a shaggy gypsy, but a female empowerment song by Lady Gaga could make Jackie more business chic.

“My favorite songs to perform to have to be songs that make you want to dance,” Jonathan said. “They tell a story with the music – not just by the words but also with the accompaniment and mix. They’ll start off slow, and the chorus has a sick dance beat.”

Becoming Jackie is not as easy as it may seem. Finding the right size shoes is a pain, and figuring out fake eyelashes was a journey of its own. To calm his nerves every time he brings her out to play, Jonathan has to get into a zone.

“I listen to the playlist, drink some Tension Tamer Tea because doing makeup can be stressful and paint the makeup on,” Jonathan said. “Throw on the wig, and she’s ready.”

While Jackie isn’t ready to perform, Jonathan said she is his new passion, and he hopes to make her one of the best drag queens in Fayetteville. Before he can become the best, he has to start from the bottom and make Jackie’s name known.

Jackie has gone to C4 Nightclub & Lounge’s Diva Show twice hoping to meet Taylor Madison Monroe, also known as Jeremy Stuthard, the show’s hostess and drag queen bee of the club. Jackie wants to talk to Monroe about having a chance to perform during the drag show. But both nights she was away on vacation, and Jackie left the nightclub disappointed.

Tonight is different. Jonathan called ahead to make sure Ms. Monroe would be the hostess, and when it was confirmed, he knew this night was serious.

The show doesn’t start until 11:30 p.m., but by 8 p.m., his tiny apartment is alive with excitement. His husband Tyler Adams, who was Jonathan’s boyfriend at the time, is hastily attempting to straighten Jackie’s wig with a blow dryer and wobbly wig stand. Jonathan is taking a shower and shaving his legs, arms and torso for Jackie’s outfit tonight, and their young dachshund runs from room to room, hoping to pull the attention back to him.

After watching the wig fall off the stand for the third time, Tyler begins to lose patience.

“Jonathan, I hope you know I fucking love you because I fucking hate blow-drying this fucking wig,” Tyler said.

Thirty minutes pass, and Jonathan is finally out of the shower but quickly realizes he forgot something important.

“God-damn it, I forgot to shave my torso!” Jonathan said.

But he’s going to deal with that later. He has two hours to get ready, and his eyebrows alone are going to take at least half an hour.

Jonathan is seated in a room smaller than most people’s closets – a tiny bathroom in a tiny apartment. What little room he does have has to be shared with a washer and dryer. He has no space for a battle station, and the lighting is not the best – but he makes it work. Their lease is only for one year, and once it ends, he hopes to be able to find a place where he can give Jackie a room of her own.

Until then, he’s sitting on a barstool and using an end table to hold his makeup.

One of the most striking parts of a drag queen is her eyebrows. They’re usually thick, arched and bold. Jonathan applies a glue stick to his natural brows to make them into a smooth canvas.

“This is a very complicated part,” Jonathan said. “If you don’t do it right, your makeup is fucked.”

After his brows have all but been erased, it’s time for foundation and contour. Full coverage for a queen is a must. There can’t be any trace of a 5-o’clock shadow. Once every flaw has been covered, Jonathan paints a sharp line of dark concealer on the hollows of his cheeks and blends it out to give the appearance of a face cut by the gods themselves.

Jonathan is in his zone, but nerves and an excited dog soon distract him. He runs into the bedroom to ask Tyler how he looks and to double-check that his outfit is ready. Tyler yells at him from behind the wig to get ready because they now only have an hour before they need to leave. That quickly makes Jonathan return to the bathroom and begin painting on his eyeshadow and eyebrows.

Tonight Jackie is business chic because she is going in for an interview. Nude pumps, a pale pink pantsuit and a white crop top give her class with a touch of sultriness, Jonathan said. This makes deciding on an eye look even more difficult. After spending 10 minutes thinking of ideas, the color combinations come to him, and a deep, dark smokey eye is born.

Next up is the eyeliner, Jonathan’s greatest enemy, especially when pressed for time.

“I can never seem to get this right,” Jonathan said. “It’s never sharp or even.”

Tyler calls out the time to Jonathan while also informing him that he has finally finished straightening his wig, which took almost an hour and a half.

“You are not allowed to ever curl this thing again,” Tyler said.

It’s 10:30 p.m., and the small one-bedroom apartment is filled with panic. Jonathan still needs to put on lipstick, his wig, fake nails and eyelashes and get dressed. After making sure his bulge doesn’t show through his pants and admiring his outfit, he remembers the mistake he made in the shower.

“God-damn it, my torso!” Jonathan yelled while digging for hair clippers in their bathroom cabinet. Tyler starts shaving Jonathan’s body hair while Jonathan secures his hair in a net to make it ready for the wig.

It’s 11:07 p.m., and both Jonathan and Tyler are rushing out the door.

“Hurry! Hurry! We need to hurry,” Jonathan yelled at Tyler, who quickly reminds him that the reason they’re running behind is Jonathan’s fault.

Jonathan makes Tyler drive because he needs to glue on his nails, and he doesn’t think driving with heels would be the best idea.

“I really don’t know how girls do this all the time,” Jonathan said.

They arrive at the club at 11:28 p.m. – just in time. They show their IDs and pay the cover charge to the bouncer, who compliments Jonathan on his appearance. Just like that, Jackie comes to life.

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Photographs by Chase Reavis

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The club is dark, with bright neon lights flashing in the corners. Jackie and Tyler walk downstairs to the basement, where there is a small dance floor, a bar and a few seats for people to rest and drink before going back to dance. After trying her best to walk down the stairs gracefully, Jackie’s nerves kick in again once she realizes her thumb nail has come off and is nowhere to be seen. She panics – but only for a moment and decides she needs a drink to calm her nerves before the show begins.

She walks up to the bar and orders a cranberry vodka because she’s a lady tonight.

It’s now 11:40 p.m. The queens are late, as usual. The crowd on the dance floor has begun to disperse and leave an open area for the queens to perform. Jackie slips out of character for a moment and hastily asks Tyler if he remembered the $1 bills. Tyler casually pulls out a stack of money that they plan on tipping the queens with.

“I want to get good with Taylor tonight, so I need to tip her good,” Jonathan said before going back into Jackie. As she poses ladylike with her cranberry vodka, two girls come up and compliment her, asking if she’s one of the performing queens tonight. Behind her thick layer of makeup, you can see her blushing while explaining to the girls that she’s just a member of the audience tonight.

It’s 11:45 p.m., and the show is about to begin. The emcee welcomes the audience to the club, and Jackie starts to jump excitedly. As the emcee encourages the crowd to use flash photography and to give their tips in the raunchiest way possible, Monroe walks out in a long, blue-and-green ball gown with bright, teal hair, lip-synching a classic love song from the ‘80s. The audience begins to go wild, thrusting their dollar bills to her whenever she dances near them.

It’s the end of the show, and the three queens make their way back to the dressing room, which has a neon “VIP” sign over it. Close friends of the queens make their way back as well, and Tyler follows them. As soon as Jackie realizes what her boyfriend is doing, she sits at a table and waits to see what happens.

Tyler knows that Jackie needs a little push. Sometimes Jackie lets nervousness take control over the fierce personality she usually has. The point of tonight, the hours of getting ready and the pain Jackie put her feet through in those heels, was to meet Monroe and have a chance to work with Fayetteville’s best. Tyler is determined to help Jackie get there.

When he first steps into the dressing room, Tyler goes unnoticed. But soon the queens’ heads turn, and they call him “beautiful” and a “sexy little twink,” catching Monroe’s attention. Tyler knows it’s now or never, so he approaches her and tells her about his husband: a really ambitious and talented newbie queen who wants a chance to work under the wing of a countrywide star.

Those words are music to Monroe’s ears. She had actually been hoping to scout out new talent, so she tells Tyler to send Jackie in. Tyler walks out of the room with a smug grin and tells Jackie that she better go back there if she wants a chance to make herself the queen she dreams of being.

“I talked to her and said that you really wanted to perform here,” Tyler said. “So you better get in there before she goes out and gets too drunk.”

It takes a lot of convincing, from both Tyler and supportive people within the club, before Jackie finally makes her way back behind the velvet drapes into the dressing room. She freezes right after she walks in. The queens are breaking down their looks and are starting to look like the regular men they are during the week. Jackie sees Monroe talking to a friend but isn’t sure if she should say anything yet. She decides it’s best to wait patiently.

Monroe turns around to see Jackie, and the first thing she notices is how beautiful she is.

“I couldn’t believe how great (Jackie’s) makeup was,” Monroe said. “For someone so young, I could tell he was talented.”

Jackie’s nerves start to settle as she and Monroe begin to talk business. Jackie explains that she is interested in becoming a real drag queen and having a spot during Diva Nights. Monroe tells her what she needs to do to get there.

“First, message me on Facebook, so we can actually talk,” Monroe said.

Monroe then explains to Jackie that she is looking for young queens for an amateur night and gives her a few tips on how to look. By the end of the conversation, everything starts to become real to Jackie. She is no longer just Jackie England in a small apartment bathroom singing love songs, she is here in front of one of the most famous queens in Arkansas, being given the chance to start her career.

As Jackie leaves the room and she and Tyler make their way to their car, Jackie transitions back to Jonathan, and he starts picking off what is left of his fake nails and planning what’s next in his head. At the time, Jonathan didn’t know that life would get busy, and he would have to put Jackie away for a while.

Six months later, things for Jonathan and Tyler have changed. Jonathan is back at school, he and Tyler have moved into an apartment with a bathroom that has a special section just for bringing Jackie to life and one day on a road trip, they spontaneously decided to get married.

But Jackie finally came back into existence, and the biggest change is her confidence. Six months ago, she was a nervous queen afraid of how crowds, and Monroe, would react to her makeup and outfits. Now, Jackie has poise whenever the wig is on and knows that she’s a star. Heads turn whenever she walks into the club, and Jackie is too focused on her success to care what others think, whether it’s adoration or envy. It will take a lot of work, but Jonathan knows he can one day take the queen community by storm and maybe even become Fayetteville’s top drag queen.

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