A “RuPaul’s Drag Race” winner took on the recent Kathy Griffin controversy with a performance piece of her own.
Sharon Needles, who won Season 4, appeared at the P Town Bar in Pittsburgh dressed as the comedian, holding a mock, bloodied head of Donald Trump. She performed a lip sync to “Heads Will Roll” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, all the while holding the Trump head out to the audience.
According to club kid legend James St. James, who wrote a post over at the World of Wonder website about the event — and is entrenched in the “Drag Race” community — Needles had a replica of Owen Wilson’s head lying around that she dressed up for the performance. The wig is an old Joan Rivers one styled into Griffin hair.
“It’s kind of mind boggling the levels to this story,” Needles told St. James, “that a female comic in this day and age, who was a friend of Joan Rivers, and who was on ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ with our president, is subjected to this type of abuse. I mean… if only Joan was still around. And the fact that we don’t hold our male politicians to the same standard as female comedians is shocking. ”
Needles is famous for her sometimes gory and shocking drag. In her stint on Season 4 on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” she constantly surprised the judges, such as when she dressed up as a zombie with blood pouring out of her mouth. She got a reputation among the other contestants for being a “spooky” queen. Regardless, she ended up winning the whole season.
Watch part of the performance below, which was posted by Needles’ boyfriend Chad O’Donnell over on Twitter.
Destroy censorship pic.twitter.com/zfIPOIo9Lp
— Chad O'Connell (@ChadOConnellArt) June 6, 2017
Griffin became the subject of harsh critiques after a photo of her holding a decapitated and bloody Trump head made its way online. The stand-up comedian said since then, she’s received death threats and has become the subject of a Secret Service investigation.
She has since apologized for the photo. However, she’s been dumped by CNN and by Squatty Potty.
Needles isn’t the first public figure to support Griffin’s photo. Senator Al Franken said he still plans to appear with Griffin in July at an event to promote his book. Others, such as Jim Carrey and Ricky Gervais, have also come to her defense.