Student by day, drag queen by night, Jack Wilburn shares his journey balancing the best of both worlds.

Story by Jack Wilburn

Photos by Pearl Spurlock

Evelyn Everything gets studious in Alden Library, April 12, 2024.

During my three-hour drive from rustic Athens to urban Cincinnati, I let go of my studious and academic self to rediscover my glittery, fiery, feminine side each weekend. Like Hannah Montana, I get the best of both worlds by following the traditional college path, but some nights by the power of heavy cosmetics, wigs, nails and heels, I become one of Cincinnati's drag sensations. For most of the week, I walk the streets of Athens as Jack Wilburn, a classics major in the Honors Tutorial College (HTC), but by the weekend I prowl the city of Cincinnati as Evelyn Everything.

Evelyn Everything serves on College Green, April 12, 2024.

Jack and Evelyn are not too different. I do not find that Evelyn is a separate persona for me, instead, she is an element of myself unleashed when I apply my glam. The process begins by smearing a glue stick on my eyebrows. Then with contour, I shepherd light to the center of my face, somehow making the illusion of a smaller head. Within the process of erasing and redrawing features, my mission becomes finding the shape of femininity. I usually begin to feel a change in my personality at the final step of my makeup process, the application of my eyelashes. Once my face is done it adds a sway to my walk and shifts my gaze to a feminine one.

While Jack and Evelyn are really the same, my life as a drag queen and as a student do exist separately. Since I’m off performing every Saturday, I miss most weekends at OU. Though I cannot party on Court Street and take time to recuperate from classes, I do get to spin, twirl, dip and split elsewhere. Due to my classes, I have negligible time to recover from the demands of my work, diving back into academic pursuits immediately following a weekend of dives off the stage.

While the recognition of Jack and Evelyn is usually separated by a city, they still exist in the same body and share the same bank account. Drag is not cheap. The pressure of presenting new looks and hair to crowds each weekend plus the cost of restocking makeup means that most of the money I make through drag performances gets recycled immediately back into the drag itself.

Moreover, while the archetype of a drag queen may not align with traditional academic pursuits, my personal experience has revealed how drag can enhance an academic journey. Initially, the notion of a drag queen being an academic may seem incongruous, but the skills of a drag queen extend far beyond the realm of entertainment. Participating in drag performances has helped to develop my confidence, especially in public speaking. Through the platform of drag, I’ve cultivated the ability to captivate and command attention, skills that are undeniably beneficial in academic settings where effective communication is paramount. Whether it’s brainstorming ideas with peers, presenting research findings to an audience or collaborating on group projects, the social proficiency honed through drag empowers me to excel in collaborative tasks.

By pursuing my college education concurrently with building my drag career, I am approaching a path in which the two are uniquely intertwined. As a student in HTC, I am required to write a thesis during my senior year. To synthesize the sides of my life, my thesis will be about the role of drag in ancient history, investigating historical moments of drag and what role they play in history through a queer lens.

Classics and drag are also both undeniably interdisciplinary. Within the field of classical studies, scholars deal with language, archeology, history, epigraphy, literature and a multitude of other fields The varied skills of classicists mirror the diversity of talents honed by drag. I have learned how to style hair, do my makeup, emcee, dance and procure costumes. Since the sides of my life squeeze out as many skills as they can, I chose the drag name Evelyn Everything. My name is a nod to my aspiration to be the most well-rounded entertainer I can be and reflects the use of the word everything as slang in the queer community (i.e. “that’s everything!”).

My official drag name is Evelyn Everything, but my nickname at my home bar, Bloom OTR, is “Fireball.” It stuck because of my signature ginger hair color, frequent performance of Pitbull’s song “Fireball” and my energetic dance numbers. I always have lots of energy to expend (probably because I’m an Aries), and these days, I use performance as the outlet for all that pent-up energy. As such, drag has influenced my life outside of it because I have the capacity to be much more chill in dress and behavior. Because I give so much of my femininity and physical strength to drag, my personal style outside of it has become much more relaxed. The duality of my personal style springs from my needs as both Evelyn and Jack.

Drag is always undeniably authentic, and college is the time when people hunt for their authentic selves by cultivating their interests and diving into their prospective fields of study. Therefore, drag and college, though a challenging combination, is a perfect one. For me, drag is a model for finding authenticity because it is simultaneously a career and lifestyle. As I have navigated OU constantly seeking who and what I want to be, drag has come at the perfect time as the answer to that question.

A Double Life Fit for a Queen

Student by day, drag queen by night, Jack Wilburn shares his journey balancing the best of both worlds.

A student-run publication FOR OHIO UNIVERSITY AND THE CITY OF ATHENS