Newton’s queen of darkness wins Ru Paul’s Drag Race

In the world of drag queens, Aaron Coady believes the performers are like the 99 percent. It may not be lucrative, but for fans of the art there is a certain amount of respect held for those men who go through the long process of softening their features and becoming a persona for the sake of entertainment.

“They are paid in appreciation from the gay community,” he said. “Only the one percent gets the opportunity to do this as a career.”

Coady is immersed in that world. The Newton native’s alter ego is known as Sharon Needles, and after winning the fourth season of the reality competition “Ru Paul’s Drag Race,” Coady will make performing a full-time job.

“Shockingly enough, Ru Paul lost her (expletive) mind and chose Sharon Needles to wear the Drag Race crown and represent for one calender year,” Coady said. “But I will most definitely still represent the 99 percent.”

Coady began performing as a teenager after he ran away from Newton at 16. He said, at the time, he was the only out gay student at Newton Senior High School. The future drag star said he was bullied from the time he announced his sexual orientation but was not afraid to express himself. Coady admits to being a bit of a provocateur, having walked into NHS with a full face of makeup while sporting pink hair and full fetish clothing.

After a meeting with his guidance counselor, Coady was transferred to Basics and Beyond, where he said the bullying became worse. Before he transferred to the alternative school, he said the NHS adviser worried his attire and demeanor was a distraction to the education of the other students. After the increased bullying, Coady decided he wanted to move to a city with a larger gay community.

“I went to Des Moines first,” he said. “I needed to escape to the first bigger city I could find. The imagination that swarmed in my brain from childhood outgrew Newton.”

Performing in the basement of the now defunct Faces night club, Coady started to develop what would become the Queen of Darkness, Sharon Needles.

Faces wasn’t glamorous, but even though “the place smelled like piss 24/7,” Coady said it was his kind of bar and was happy being on stage crafting his alter ego.

“This was when I realized that sex and alcohol had a definite connection,” he said.

Years of developing his Needles identity earned him a spot on the VH1 network drag contest hosted by, arguably, the most well recognizable drag queen in the United States, Ru Paul. Coady said the contest was taxing, although rewarding. The process he goes through to become Sharon Needles would normally take three hours, but because of the filming schedule, Coady had to prepare hair styling, makeup and costume sewing in half that time.

All the contestants were responsible for their complete transformation followed by 32 hours of filming. Coady said that the cameras were present even during some of the more intimate moments of applying prosthesis and dressing.

“I’ve never had anything to hide, and I’ve never had a problem letting people peek into my world,” he said. “It’s amazing how much the footage is whittled down, and they are still able to tell a compelling and honest story.”

Coady now has the Drag Race crown to uphold. While he said being tossed a $100,000 prize won’t keep Sharon Needles from working, Coady already is lining up his next performance. After a 60-city Sharon Needles media tour, Coady will do some stage work in theater.

In true Sharon Needles style, the roles are unconventional but will keep Coady busy. He will take part in a “Silence of the Lambs” parody at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre titled “Silence of the Trans.” Coady will put his own take on the mass murdering Buffalo Bill as “Buffalo Jill.” The drag queen will then head to San Antonio, where he will don the fishnets of actor Tim Curry, putting a Sharon Needles twist on Dr. Frank-N-Furter in a stage production of “Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

But whether on stage or plain Jane on the street, Coady and Needles will do their best to honor the Drag Race title.

“Call me he, call me she, call me Regis and Kathy Lee, just remember to call me,” Coady said.

Mike Mendenhall can be contacted at (641) 792-3121 ext. 422 or via email at mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com.