High on Life with Norma Lee High

Watch out Southern California! There’s a new Queen on the scene and she is coming in hot with a crown! Norma Lee High, the recent winner of Vanity Halston’s Drag Star Challenge at One Eleven in Cathedral City, has come to slay. This East Coast transplant, as alter ego Josh Ferri, has a long history in journalism and social media marketing for Broadway, covering some of Broadway’s most iconic shows and rubbing elbows with everyone from Carol Channing to Darren Criss to Christine Ebersole with a list that goes on and on. She has mixed her flair for theatrics, her love of terrible reality TV, and her talent for putting together pop culture mashups to create Norma. She is certainly a unique force and though fresh to the scene, has a lot to offer. She is definitely one to watch.

From the moment she hit the stage at the beginning of the ten-week-long Drag Star Challenge, she instantly set herself apart with her quirky mashup that paired pop songs with TV quotes and a bit of Broadway. Thinking outside the box, she presented characters such as Sylvia Fine from The Nanny, Velma from Scooby Doo, the Black Dahlia from Hollywood lore, and The Fairy Godmother from Cinderella. Trust me, it all made sense on stage. Each act was a one-person show where comedy and every imaginable entertainment genre came into play. No wonder she took home the crown.

We caught up with Norma hot off her recent win over a cocktail (or many) at One Eleven.

What was your first exposure to drag?

My first memory of drag is seeing RuPaul in the “Love Shack” video. I was absolutely mesmerized by this fabulous creature dancing with the B-52’s. Then I remember sneaking The RuPaul Show on VH1 and becoming low-key obsessed. Growing up in the ’90s, I came of age with big drag films like To Wong Foo, Priscilla, and The Birdcage—which opened my eyes to this glamorous new world of becoming your own special creation.

What made you decide to enter One Eleven’s competition?

Two of my friends previously did the competition here at One Eleven Bar and I loved going each week to support them and see the local Palm Springs talent. But watching other girls perform week after week really gave me the itch to do it myself. I grew up a theater kid, so performing is a large part of me, and, in many ways, it felt like coming home. Also unlike other drag competitions, Vanity Halston doesn’t eliminate queens. It’s a growing experience, so as a baby queen, I felt safe learning to walk and later run in this arena.

What did it mean most to win?

My gosh, what a shock. My first time ever performing in drag was week one of this competition, and so I went in there not to win but to have fun and to learn. I competed against queens and kings with years and years (some decades!) of experience. I was by far the underdog of this thing, but my comedy and creativity won over the crowd and judges each week and I started winning challenges, and somehow it all came together for me.

What did you learn most about yourself from doing the competition?

The most powerful thing you can do is to follow your dreams. Tune out everyone else’s opinion of you and just live for yourself. It was so freeing and it really helped bring out a side of me I haven’t connected with in 15 years or so since I stopped doing theatre. I learned I am most at home on stage in front of a live audience.

You have lived on both coasts. What do you love most about living in Palm Springs?

Palm Springs is paradise! A beautiful little gay oasis frozen in time. I love the small-town feel, not having the traffic of the big California cities, but still having tons of great restaurants, bars, and events to keep you busy year-round.

What is your hometown?

Bloomfield, NJ. (Home of the final scene of The Sopranos!)

How did you come up with your drag name?

My best friend came up with it! I liked Norma after my grandmother and also icons like Norma Jean and Norma Desmond…and I’m a stoner, so she put it all together.

Favorite part about doing drag?

I get to be the leading lady of my dreams using the voices of talents far greater than mine.

Least favorite part about doing drag?

The pain of turning my boy body into hers. Also, I’m helpless in nails.

Craziest drag story?

I wouldn’t be here if Mo Heart hadn’t used her gifts to help me get in drag the first few times and give me advice, brushes, pads, etc. Always grateful to her!

What sets your drag apart from other queens in the business?

I like to think it’s my references. I live for Old Hollywood, and Broadway is my love language, so my drag pulls from areas a lot of my contemporaries are less familiar with. You’re not going to see me dip and split to a pop anthem, but you are going to laugh your ass off at a creative mix with lots of cutaways to everything from Bette Davis to Real Housewives.

What have you learned the most from the drag community in Palm Springs?

I’ve learned that all drag is valid and that there is no expiration date on living your dream. There are queens out here bumpin’ it in their 60s alongside girls in their 20s. The variety of what everyone can do here is really magical, especially when you consider what a small town we are. Also, I learned helping others, doesn’t diminish your star. The amount of love and help I received from the established queens here is unbelievable. Drag here is not a shark tank. It’s about paying it forward.

Your strangest hobby or talent?

I can memorize very quickly. I once took over the lead in a play in three days’ time.

What celebrity most needs a drag makeover?

Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Favorite hotspot?

One Eleven Bar in Cat City. And locals know the strongest drinks in Palm Springs are at Streetbar.

Favorite non-profit?

The LGBTQ Center of the Desert. They do amazing work for our community here. Find them & donate!

You also love Drag Race…what do you love most about the show?

I love that Drag Race brings subversive drag to the entire mainstream world. I am so inspired by watching these queens showcase their art and themselves as gay and trans people thriving in the world. I love the international franchises so much too because you get a sense of their unique culture through their art, which I always love.

If you were to audition for the show, what do you think you could add to the lineup that we haven’t seen before?

I think having a queen in their late 30s is fun just because it’s a different set of cultural references. I think I’d always be referencing. Also, I’m such a Housewives fanatic that when you get me in the confessional chair, there’s no way I wouldn’t believe I was Bethenny Frankel or NeNe Leakes narrating the season…and throwing top-tier shade, bringing Housewives-level drama to Untucked.

What would the name of your biography be?

I Was a High School Hussy: A Memoir of Pure Debachury

Favorite song to perform?

I do a whole Sylvia Fine number from The Nanny that is everything.

What is your after-drag ritual?

A joint and some YouTube.

What’s your favorite pickup line?

Just say hi with your name and your credit score.

What is the best way we can support the drag community?

Support your local queens! These girls are working hard living the fantasy, throw them some extra cash so they can buy the hair, clothes, and shoes on their wishlist and give you a better show. If you want your local queens to look like RuGirls, start tipping them like RuGirls.

What is your message to the drag community?

Stick together! We have so much hate coming at us politically this election cycle, there is no reason we should be tearing each other down. Fun shade is fun, but remember we’re a community and a sisterhood at the end of the day.

Where can we find and follow you? 

@NormaLeeHigh on Instagram and TikTok.