{"id":105137,"date":"2026-01-19T22:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T22:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/105137\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T22:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T22:29:12","slug":"columbia-sc-queen-competes-on-week-3-of-drag-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/105137\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbia SC queen competes on week 3 of \u2018Drag Race\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The third episode of season 18 of \u201cRuPaul\u2019s Drag Race\u201d saw Columbia\u2019s Kenya Pleaser<\/a> cruising through a live sketch comedy challenge and down the catwalk.<\/p>\n

Pleaser is a Manning native who came up in Columbia\u2019s drag scene and is the first S.C. queen to take to the main stage on the popular MTV reality competition show. After a bottom-two placement<\/a> in the premiere, \u201cthe Lizzo of drag\u201d has found her footing in the Werk Room, though not enough<\/a> to rise to the level of top two.<\/p>\n

In the Jan. 16 episode, the 12 remaining queens were cast in \u201cRDR Live,\u201d a parody of \u201cSaturday Night Live.\u201d Much of the contestant dynamics focused on the rivalry heating up between Briar Blush and Athena Dion.<\/p>\n

The crux of the challenge is to steal the show and, of course, make RuPaul laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cBitch, pick a role that comes into a scene and steals it,\u201d Pleaser commentates as the queens pick out roles, \u201cbe a scene stealer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JRK_7190.jpg\"<\/p>\n

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestant Kenya Pleaser performs at Capital Club in downtown Columbia on Dec. 5.<\/p>\n

Pleaser starred in the \u201cLipstick Lovers\u201d sketch with Vita VonTesse Starr and Nini Coco. The \u201cTurner Classic Movies\u201d parody saw Pleaser, as a plum lipstick, battling her scene partners in a love triangle gone wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just have to act stupid,\u201d Kenya says, \u201cand bitch, this is what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other scenes featured a butter churning competition, a sitcom origin story about judge Michelle Visage, and \u201cQNN,\u201d which parodied \u201cWeekend Update.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the runway, the category was \u201cAnimal Attraction.\u201d Contestants channeled an alligator, cow, poison dart frog and white barn owl. Pleaser took inspiration from a tiger, hitting the catwalk in a full bodysuit, tail and prosthetics. She added a wide-brimmed hat, gold tooth and durag to complete the look.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The third episode of season 18 of \u201cRuPaul\u2019s Drag Race\u201d saw Columbia\u2019s Kenya Pleaser cruising through a live…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123,29049],"class_list":{"0":"post-105137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news","14":"tag-rupaul"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}