With her outsized personality, drag queen Oblivia Queen of the Clueless has been entertaining audiences in Laramie for years. Travis Kirchhefer, the man behind Oblivia’s character, was persuaded to give performing a try after attending a Drag Queen Bingo evening. The annual event is organized as a fundraiser for Wyoming AIDS Assistance.
Oblivia’s debut performance was in 2006 at the Cowboy Bar in Laramie. In speaking about his experiences performing, Kirchhefer says:
It’s really rewarding to have people run up to the stage and want to give you dollar bills as tips and stuff like that. That tells you you’re doing well, you know, when you’re performing, whether you’re on stage singing in a musical or doing a play or lip synching in drag. You love to hear the audience scream and cheer and so you want to put in the work necessary in order to make that happen.
Listen to the Travis Kirchhefer oral history in the digital collection at UW’s American Heritage Center to learn more about being a drag queen in Wyoming.