Jinkx Monsoon

Jinkx Monsoon
Biographical Information
Drag Name	Jinkx Monsoon
Date of Birth	September 18, 1987
Age	36
Hometown	Portland, Oregon
Season Information
Season	Season 5
Place	Winner

Jinkx Monsoon is the stage name name of Jerick Hoffer, a drag performer, actor, and the winner of the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race.

Biography

Jerick Hoffer was born on September 18, 1987 in Portland, Oregon. The oldest of four children, Hoffer attended daVinci Arts for middle school and graduated from Grant High School. Hoffer came out as gay in middle school. They first performed in drag when they were 15 at the underage nightclub, Escape.

Hoffer was raised Catholic. When they were eighteen, they found out that they were of Russian Jewish ancestry on their mother's side. Their drag character, Jinkx, identifies as Jewish. Hoffer also suffers from narcolepsy, which they revealed in the season premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race. Hoffer also identifies as genderqueer and prefers they/them pronouns when out of drag.

They paid their way through college by working as a janitor and graduated summa cum laude with a BFA in theater from Cornish College of the Arts in 2010. They have lived in Seattle, Washington, since 2006.

Career

Hoffer began their career working on stages since the age of 15, beginning at The Streets in Portland, OR., an all ages gay homeless dance club. They appeared as the lead dancer in the world's largest drag queen chorus line, which made the Guinness Book of World Records. By 2012, they had advanced to roles in Seattle theaters, playing Moritz in "Spring Awakening" (produced by Balagan Theatre),  Angel in "RENT" (produced by The 5th Avenue Theatre) and starring in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (produced by Balagan Threatre and Seattle Theater Group). In 2013, Hoffer starred in Hairspray the Musical as Velma Von Tussle and  will reprise Hedwig in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" (produced by Balagan Theatre and Seattle Theatre Group) Dec 2013.

A trained singer, Hoffer is half of the musical duo The Vaudevillians, a 1920s revival act, created by Hoffer and their musical partner Richard Andriessen.  After their RPDR win, they booked The Vaudevillians for one night only at the Laurie Beechman Theater off Broadway, NYC. That one night show sold out for 6 months, enjoying 6 extensions.

Sharing their wonderful voice on episode six of RuPaul's Drag Race: Can I Get An Amen?, they continued on their love of singing to put out an album, The Inevitable Album, in May 2014.

Character

On her "Meet The Queens" interview for Season 5 of RuPaul's Drag Race, Jinkx Monsoon describes themselves as being Seattle's hottest, youngest MILF, and as the hardest working single mother in show business. In the interview they explain how they came up with their stage name:

"The name comes from Jinx, like you owe me a coke and Monsoon like the natural disaster because if there's a one in a million chance that something will go awry it's most likely going to happen to Jinkx, of course..."

In the first episode of RuPaul's Drag Race, Jinkx also described themselves as "Seattle's premier Jewish narcoleptic drag queen".

Jerrick describes themselves as being about contrasts and what RuPaul describes as "a stage left, off center kind of quality".

Drag Name Origin

Jinkx was their nickname at an outreach center for gay youth in Portland. It comes from the fact that if there’s one in a million chance that something’s going to go wrong it’s going to happen to them. Monsoon came from the character Edina Monsoon from Absolutely Fabulous.

RuPaul's Drag Race

In November 2012, Logo announced that Jinkx Monsoon was among 14 drag queens who would be competing on the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. They were inspired to audition after seeing Sharon Needles on the fourth season of the show. Monsoon won the main-challenges for the episodes "Snatch Game" and "Drama Queens". For the "Snatch Game", they impersonated Edith Bouvier Beale, who was known for appearing in the documentary Grey Gardens. Monsoon also impersonated third season contestant Mimi Imfurst for the episode "Lip Synch Extravaganza Eleganza". As part of RuPaul's Drag Race, Monsoon sang on the "We Are the World"-inspired song "Can I Get an Amen?" The song's proceeds helped benefit the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. Monsoon also holds the record for most consecutive weeks being in the top, at 9 weeks. On May 10, 2013, Monsoon was named the Season 5 winner of RuPaul's Drag Race, winning the title of "America's Next Drag Superstar."

RuPaul's Drag Race Stats

Jinkx Monsoon

Season Competed	Season 5
Ranking	1st (Winner)
Mini-Challenges Won	1
Times as Team Captain	1
Main Challenges Won	2
Times in Bottom Two	1
Episode Eliminated	N/A

• Jinkx is the winner of Season 5.
• Jinkx won 2 main challenges during her season, on episode 5 (Snatch Game) and episode 9 (Drama Queens).
• Jinkx won only one mini-challenge in episode 4, "Black Swan: Why It Gotta Be Black?" along with Coco Montrese where they became a team captain.
• Jinkx is the first contestant in series history to be ranked in the top placings in each episode for more than five consecutive weeks, with nine consecutive weeks.
• Jinkx is the only season winner to not win a main challenge within the first three weeks of competition, winning her first main challenge during week 5 (ep. 5).
• In episode 5, Jinkx portrayed American socialite Little Edie, and won their first main challenge.
• The only time Jinkx placed in the bottom two was in episode 11, "Sugar Ball" where she lip-synced against Detox to the song "Malambo No. 1" by Yma Sumac.
• The prizes Jinkx won included a custom jewel package from 'Fierce Drag Jewels' (ep. 5), a pair of fur coats from 'Fabulous-Furs' (ep. 9), and as the season winner, she won a supply of Colorevolution Cosmetics, a one-of-a-kind trip courtesy of AlandChuck.travel, a headlining spot on Logo's Drag Race Tour featuring Absolut Vodka and a cash prize of $100,000.

Entrance

"You know, I can hear the cackling from down the street."

Discography

Albums

2014 – The Inevitable Album

1. Ladies In Drag (Foreword by Fred Schneider)
2. No One As Sorry As Me
3. Coffee & Wine
4. My Heart Belongs To Daddy
5. The Bacon Shake (feat. Fred Schneider)
6. Everybody's Girl
7. Hold On
8. Hi-Jinkx Samba
9. Witchcraft (feat. Major Scales)
10. What About Debbie
11. Ballad Of Johnny And Jack
12. One Tiny Taste
13. Creep
14. A Song To Come Home To
15. Falling In Love Again

Non-Album Singles

2013:

"Can I Get An Amen?", by RuPaul feat. Drag Race Season 5 Cast

"Schizophrenic", by Two Dudes In Love feat. Jinkx Monsoon

"Bring It", by Manila Luzon feat. Jinkx Monsoon

Trivia

• Jerick Hoffer graduated summa cum laude with a degree in theatrical performance from Cornish College in Seattle
• Hoffer suffers from narcolepsy, which they explained to the other contestants during the show's season premiere.
• Hoffer's journey as Jinkx Monsoon is documented in the five part documentary web series "Drag Becomes Him."
• Jinkx prefers to be referred to by gender neutral pronouns.
• Jinkx's catchphrase "water off a ducks back" actually comes from a saying they heard from fellow Seattle queen and contestant from season 8, Robbie Turner.
• Jinx is the first Season Winner to have won the snatch game of their season (not including Chad Michaels who won Snatch Game on Season 4 but won Season 1 of All Stars) Second Queen who won Snatch Game of their Season and being the Season Champion is Bob The Drag Queen

Reviews About Jinkx Monsoon

"Jinkx Monsoon is not just a drag queen, she's the best fucking performer in Seattle." - The Stranger

"I fucking love Jinkx i have idolised her for years and i fucking love her to death" - Cherry Swan

"... Sings with the power of two Ethel Mermans in a bar brawl..." - Adrian Ryan, The Homo Agenda

"No one should be this young and yet this incredibly talented." - Broadway World

"Jinkx shows off talent that was only glimpsed at on "Drag Race" and proves to be a real star on stage" - Huffington Post

"...everyone leaves this show with sides aching from laughter." "A pure delight." - New York Times