Asbury Park NJ’s Paradise has become the nucleus for drag excellence in the Garden State and has launched the careers of a number of performers, several of which who went on to walk the runway of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Now, Season 17 breakout star Crystal Envy (also Miss Paradise 2022) is returning the favor and helping provide a platform to her own community, with Crystal Envy’s Diamond Race! Throughout eight weeks (starting Wednesday October 8th), eight queens will be battling it out to see who will become “the diamond of the season”! The inaugural pageant will be hosted by Crystal Envy herself (also the head judge) and she will be joined by fellow judges Mancie Mandell and Tastie.
The queens running for the inaugural Crystal Envy’s Diamond Race are: Allyria Everlasting, Ceviche, Heroine Wintor, Lexie Legato, Martine, Maryjane Monroe, Milani, and Sasha Curvy. (You can watch the official Meet The Queens video here)!
For Crystal herself, this is a way to showcase and give back to her own local drag community. Envy told me exclusively “This has been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and now this year that I got the opportunity to showcase my art on such a world renowned television program like Drag Race. I now want to be able to uplift my local community. This competition is going to be an eight week competition, filled with eight amazingly diverse and talented queens! We will be having our live competition at Paradise, which is my home bar and has uplifted some amazingly talented artists! Queens like Olivia Lux, Honey Davenport, Sapphira Cristál & myself are just a few of the queens that have come from Paradise and have gotten to showcase their art to the world & now I want to do that exact thing for my local community. I put together a cast of the best of the best upcoming talent from the Tri-State area. Be ready for twists, turns, gags & goopery! This competition is going to be epic; let’s see who the next Diamond is going to be”!
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