Local drag king Stevie Phoenix was chosen to compete in season six of Camp Wannakiki, a drag reality competition show. The show features drag artists from across North America to see who can last a week at summer camp and leave with the crown.
Each episode of Camp Wannakiki acts like a day at camp with a fun daily activity followed by the talent show where campers earn their badges. Unfortunately, there are not enough badges for everyone, so each night a camper must “take a hike.”
The show is hosted by drag queens Cherry Pi and Apple Brown Betty who are “Camp Directors” with Dear Ruthie as “Camp Counselor.” Ashley and Brandon Wright created and produced the show with the goal of focusing on fun and friendship and keeping the drama outside of camp.
Phoenix grew up in Fremont before moving to the Toledo area where he was first introduced to the idea of becoming a drag king. At a pride parade with his friend, he saw a float with a group of drag queens and thought it would be fun to become a drag king. His friend then took him to see his first drag king.
Once he got more into drag Pheonix was reminded of the feelings that he had as a child regarding his gender. All of these feelings were being brought back at 30 when he began his drag journey.
“I’m contouring my face and taping my breasts under my armpits to flatten my chest and all those feelings really started to rush back and I started to realize some things about myself, he said, “And, you know, I kind of took the drag to trans pipeline.”
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When Pheonix first began performing he would go to open mic nights with a group of other drag artists. Eventually, he was able to book a more permanent gig that ended up being a paid performance at Casey’s during their ladies’ night.
Then Phoenix auditioned for season six of Camp Wannakiki and was chosen to join the newest drag artists at Camp. Season six was filmed during the summer of 2023 over a two week period in Wisconsin.
“The tone was set instantly from the moment that I arrived, they have previous campers, like from previous seasons, they hire them as their production assistants,” Phoenix said. “They were just warm, happy like you guys are gonna have such a great time.”
Though Pheonix had a great time on set, he, along with the rest of the cast and crew, had to work extremely hard to bring the show to life.
They had to be up early in the morning to get ready for filming. A day on set began with putting on the contestants’ “daily drag face” which included the outfits that they wear during each episode’s daily activity.
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“We actually had to have duplicates of that one, you know, we’re literally filming in it every day,” Phoenix said. “And they’re very upfront, like, you are gonna get dirty. You may get wet.”
Each contestant had to have their talent show outfits prepared before filming began. They were given the prompts for each night as a rubric to help create their outfits. During his design process, Phoenix was unable to get feedback from anyone because of the NDA that he had to sign.
I had to just kind of trust my gut and keep plowing forward. I kept telling myself over and over again, they picked you because they like your art. So just do your art,” he said.
After every talent show, one camper would be asked to “take a hike.” This meant they were no longer able to compete in the daily activities or the talent show but they were still included in the process of running the show. They would help with behind-the-scenes work and were still able to participate in the talent show so they could display their outfits and the performances that they had worked on.
All 10 episodes of season six are available to watch on AppleTV, Roku or at outtv.com.
“Camp Wannakiki is a fun, out-of-pocket, deranged drag show about a bunch of comedians,” Phoenix said. “It has the fashion of RuPaul without the drama and bickering.”
For more information visit campwannakiki.com.
