Nina West

Tim Fulton 00:12Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast, presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, I sat down with Andrew Levitt, aka Nina West, Columbus's predominant drag queen and champion. It's been 20 years since Andrew became Nina — high time to take stock in his career and what's next. We discussed how he got started, the cultural phenomena of drag and how it relates to the Black and queer experience, the importance of being resourceful and scrappy, what it's like getting on and being on Drag Race, how he manages his career, and why you should take your broken heart and turn it into art. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Also, the Confluence Cast is on Patreon. Find out how to support this podcast on our website, theconfluencecast.com, or at patreon.com/confluence. The Confluence Cast is sponsored this week by Art Makes Columbus / Columbus Makes Art, featuring stories about our city's incredible artists, stories full of inspiration, challenge, passion, and success. For videos, articles, an up-to-the-minute calendar of events, and an artist directory, visit columbusmakesart.com, the resource for all things arts and culture in the capital city. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with Andrew Levitt, also known as Nina West. Andrew, how are you?

Andrew Levitt 01:57I'm well, Tim. How are you?

Tim Fulton 01:59I'm good. It's good to see you. It's been at least since the before times, probably a little bit longer than that. So you are best known as Nina West, and you've been on Drag Race. You've been a Columbus icon for years now. How did you get into drag?

Andrew Levitt 02:20Well, first, thanks for having me today. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to see you again. It's been way too long. It's really nice to be here with you, virtually. How did I get started? I was going to Denison University. I was a theater major. I was also the president of our LGBTQ student organization, which is still called Outlook. And so, I think what happened was, the university, and this organization specifically, had brought drag queens in from Columbus for years. It's probably one of the longest-running drag shows at a university in the country, maybe the longest. Denison's right up there. Which, both — incidentally, are Ohio schools, which is just kind of crazy. So when I was a freshman, I remember going to my first major drag show at Denison, in the student union, and it was drag queens from Columbus. And it was, like, Marianne Brandt and Janet Garrison and Dominique LaRue and Maria Garrison were the first drag queens that I saw. And then I ran for a role in the organization, which meant in my sophomore year, I would bring drag queens in to the university. I'd have to book the show at the end of the year for the organization. So I started to meet drag queens, and I was like, wow, this is not anything like I thought it was. And these people are really actually really wonderful and incredible. And so then, by the time my senior year came around, the senior show, my last time running the Denison drag show, my friend Justin Garrison and I thought we should do drag. And so, kind of as a joke, I was gonna do drag that one time and leave it there. And that was, like, in March of 2001. And then here we are, all these years later. I moved to Columbus after I graduated college, for a short interim period. I was gonna move to New York City, which is part of my story, and then 9/11 happened, and I stayed in Columbus. And by that point, I'd tried drag once with Virginia West, who's my drag mother. And, again, I thought — I entered this drag contest that I thought was just gonna be a one-off. It was called "Who Wants to Be a Drag Queen." And it was like — Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was a really big game show at the time, in 2001, right?

Tim Fulton 05:02I remember.

Andrew Levitt 05:03Yeah. So they did "Who Wants to Be a Drag Queen." And so it was like a contest, you could win a $150 cash prize, which, to me — I was trying to get work in Columbus, I went to work for CATCO, they told me no. So I wanted a creative outlet, and it's like, well, I'll try drag again. And I won the contest, and then I kind of was like, oh, that's 150 bucks, that's awesome. And I kind of left it there again. And then Virginia came back in July and was like, hey, I've got this show, you should do the show. And so that's really where it started. And I started to surround myself with a circle of friends that were primarily all drag queens, or drag entertainers, or boyfriends or partners of drag queens. My world became deeply immersed in Columbus drag. That's how it started.

Tim Fulton 05:52And so, from the outset, there are so many cultural touchstones within that, let's call it a world, like having a drag family. For those that have not watched Drag Race, what's a drag family?

Andrew Levitt 06:07So, a drag family. It's really interesting, the way this all works. For many people, this concept of family, and ball culture — this idea of belonging to a house, or a group of people — is really deeply related to a Black queer experience. And as it has evolved in its growth, as queer communities have evolved and grown, and drag communities have evolved and grown — a drag family is kind of, it's like, they are the people that, when you — it's just like a blood family, but this is your chosen family. The people that watch out for you. If you don't have food, they feed you, they clothe you, they teach you the ropes, they provide opportunity and access when doors are being shut in your face. It is a kind of a mother hen, and her chain is very protective. And she teaches — sometimes with love, sometimes with, like, hard knocks. It's just like a family relationship, but it's with a chosen family. And so, when I became Virginia's drag daughter — Virginia had taken me under her wing, I think I was, like, her first kid, her first drag daughter, in a sense. But she gave me her last name, so I was Nina West. Nina comes from Nina Simone, because I was deeply in love with Nina Simone when I was in college. I still am, but that's where the name comes from. And then West, Virginia's last name. So, long story short, basically Virginia really took me under her wing, she gave me a lot of opportunities, she put me in shows, and she really watched out for me, and she advocated for me and protected me from a lot of different things. And that relationship, to this day, is very invaluable to me, even though we've grown, and things have — you know, we've gone through COVID and things have changed. And she's still very dear to me. I would not be where I'm at without her.

Tim Fulton 08:21Yeah. And so, when did you — you know, I've worked with you on your podcasts and stuff. So, before Drag Race, you basically had two jobs, right? It was the bar, social media, event management kind of stuff. And then being Nina West, that was your other job.

Andrew Levitt 08:40Yeah. So what happened — my history is, yeah, I was working at Union Cafe and Axis Nightclub while I was doing drag simultaneously, when I first started. So I was a server. And that really benefited me, like, I was always present and around when opportunities were there. Virginia would be bartending, I'd be serving, she'd get a call from the owner, and he'd be like, hey, we want to get a show. She'd call him from the office down to the bar, like, hey, we're gonna do a show, can you book a show? And I'd be running around on the floor serving food, and she's like, hey, do the show with me tomorrow night? I'm like, sure. So that's really kind of how it started. And then, for years, drag pageantry was a big part of the queer drag experience. Pageantry was a big deal, and still is a big deal. And those were, before Drag Race, drag pageant title holders were the celebrities of the drag world. Like, oh, that's Miss Gay Ohio America, or that's Miss Gay Ohio USA. Which, you know, Virginia was a former Miss Gay Ohio America and a former Miss Gay Ohio. Yes. I mean, like, they were —

Tim Fulton 10:22So when you win those pageants — that's, again, before Drag Race — that was your ticket to, like, book a tour?

Andrew Levitt 10:31Yeah, you had this idea of, like — so if you win an Ohio pageant, you have the ability to go around to different Ohio cities, into their gay bars, and perform and entertain, which was a way to get out there, if you didn't have an opportunity in your city. And so, there was a lot of pressure for me to do pageantry. And I didn't see myself as a pageant queen, necessarily, because it's a really clean, proper, straightforward illusion, for the most part. I was really defining myself as a comedy queen and a camp queen — like, I'm a big linebacker, so let's dress it up, rather than try to hide it. So I really was trying to shy away from drag pageantry.

Tim Fulton 11:17And Virginia's background was pageantry, that was her background?

Andrew Levitt 11:22She had a strong foot in pageantry, she had a strong foot with a theatrical background, and she was show director at the bar that I was running through. So she was able to influence me in a lot of different areas. But she never pushed me to do drag pageantry. Pageantry is right for — it is not right for everyone, and I think she recognized that in me. And then, in 2008, I decided, I was like, alright, I'm gonna try it once and get it done. And it was a really successful run. And I went and competed for National Entertainer of the Year in 2008, and I won. Why I bring that up is because it changed my entire trajectory as a drag queen. So, before, I thought, I'm not gonna be a serious drag queen, I'm just gonna do it as a hobby. I'd love to do it, I'd love to perform. Eventually, I'll go audition for something, eventually —

Tim Fulton 12:18Go do theater, or something. Go do more traditional theater.

Andrew Levitt 12:21I still hadn't reconciled in my mind that this was a legitimate form of entertainment. I was, like, 24 years old. And then, by the time I was 30, which was — Entertainer of the Year was 2008 — I was like, I got this, this is what I do. I'm really good. We do this very well. I love my city, my city means the world to me, they're giving me this platform. And then drag pageantry entered my life, and it changed everything. I did Entertainer of the Year, I won National Entertainer of the Year. I did this very epic evening gown, that is — it's called the Moving Dress. And it's on my YouTube channel, if anyone wants to search it up. Cher has copied the Moving Dress, Elvira has copied the Moving Dress. It's rooted in — many people want to say, oh, you got that from where? I got my inspiration from — obviously, all art is derived from something else. It's hard to create something original. So, in my mind, I thought I was, but my inspiration for it was — I think it's like a French operetta, where the dress would lift up, and a smaller version of the singer would come out from underneath the dress. And it's the exact same thing. That was my initial idea for the gown. And so the dress is actually people, and it moves and it peels away and reveals an evening gown. And then the dancers come behind it, and it creates a train, very epic, very Mama and chance — if you're receiving Mama and chance, like the mother. So that began to solidify my name nationally.

Tim Fulton 14:03So you did that — sorry, I've seen it — but you did that at the Entertainer of the Year competition. That's when you debuted that?

Andrew Levitt 14:11That's right. Yeah, that's where I wore it, it was for that contest. I won that pageant, and it changed everything, legitimized me in a much bigger way. I toured the country promoting the pageantry system. I made contacts that lasted forever, including many people that went on to do Drag Race long before I did. And so I began to form these relationships that would absolutely come back to me on my journey. And so that changed everything. And I remember coming home from winning Entertainer of the Year and calling my boss and saying, hey, I think I'm going to need to work part-time so I can focus on drag. Well, that also was, like, a nail — that decision haunted me for many years, because they never would bring me back full-time. And I was struggling.

Tim Fulton 15:04So you were worried about that?

Andrew Levitt 15:05Oh my god, I was really — I was financially struggling to pull together my personal life, to do the drag, to be able to work. And I was like, please bring me back full-time. And, of course, it was a thriving business, it's still a huge business. So that was one of those things that, in the long term of the story, benefited me, because I learned how to really focus on being resourceful, being scrappy, figuring out how to make my ends meet without that income, and really pouring myself into drag. Drag became everything. So, by the time I went off to film Drag Race in 2018 — I would say by 2014 — so, 2008, I won Entertainer of the Year, I gave it up in 2009, I toured around through 2010. So I toured for a good solid two years, came back — the gig was always working in Columbus, in the meantime, doing my business gigs and doing bar appearances. But I was really trying to schedule in these moments to get out of Columbus, to make connections, to be seen. Very similar to what an actor does.

Tim Fulton 16:26I mean, it's exactly the same thing. Like saying, hey, I gotta go out and do pilot season, or, hey, it's really important for me to be around for this event. People are familiar with that. It's very similar.

Andrew Levitt 16:39Yeah. There is something about the world of performance art that requires you to have a deeper understanding of other things. You have to leave to come back. It's really hard to do that. So I was just really at this point in my life — by 2014, '15, I was comfortable enough that I could have quit my job, but I didn't, for fear of the other shoe falling. Like, I know that was ingrained in me by my parents — like, hey, you can't, theater might not work out, you have a backup plan. And that's something I'm really envious of, like, my younger — this next generation, they're like, I don't need a backup plan, this is what I'm doing, if this doesn't work, I'll figure it out. They're very resilient. And they're just like, it's just gonna work. And I wasn't raised like that.

Tim Fulton 17:37So, yeah, but I am very much of that philosophy — at least financially, you can't have all your eggs in one basket. You need a little bit of, whether that's money in the bank, or just another skill you have, of, hey, if this passion doesn't work out, I can always go and do copywriting, or I can always go and spin up a website for somebody.

Andrew Levitt 18:01Yeah, I would agree with that. I think the lesson I learned that I am grateful for, and that maybe you have as well, is that I am — like I said — resourceful. I know how to do a lot of things. Some of them I do really well, some of them I do okay.

Tim Fulton 18:18Right.

Andrew Levitt 18:18But I still can do it. And so if this didn't work out, I would have the ability and talent to segue to something else.

Tim Fulton 18:27And so what changed in 2014, '15, that you just — you had had enough?

Andrew Levitt 18:33I was — I'm a workhorse, I was working nonstop. So from really 2012, I was doing shows five or six nights a week, up until basically I left for Drag Race. I mean, if there was an event, if there was something to do, I wanted to do it. Because I had this very innate fear that I wasn't going to be able to do it. And I was really feeling like I had to figure it out.

Tim Fulton 19:06Were you concerned that, hey, I don't want to waste this opportunity, because I might be past my prime? Or were you not gonna literally, physically be able to perform? What was the worry?

Andrew Levitt 19:19I think there's a lot of that. I mean, there's a lot of ageism, especially in drag. I'm 42 now, which is not old, but in the world of drag, I'm on the older side of the scale. So there's a lot of ageism in drag. And, to be quite honest with you, it's also not a very consistent industry. I was lucky enough to be in a position of consistency, because I was privileged — as a show director, I had the ability to have first pick at gigs.

Tim Fulton 19:58And are you saying, like, you would book a touring drag queen at Axis —

Andrew Levitt 20:05I mean, yeah. There was a schedule. So we would have —

Tim Fulton 20:09You could put yourself onto a show with a touring person. Which, hence, it's a Columbus audience. And then, when did you start doing, like, Heels, the stuff where you produce the whole thing, and it's actually just Columbus people?

Andrew Levitt 20:25So the big shows started for me in 2003, I think, or 2004. Very early on. Virginia trusted me with my first mainstage show in 2003. I did Nina's Network News. And then in 2004 it was a cabaret revue. And then in 2004 was the first Heels support. And we came back to it — it was something, I laughed, I was like, oh no. No one liked Halloween. It was actually a really terrible show, no one liked the show. The show was broken up in three sections, and one section was called "Misery Loves Three's Company." And go with me on the idea: a bunch of people go to a Three's Company fantasy camp, where they have to dress up as the characters of Three's Company, and it falls into the pot of Misery. So it was like a Kathy Bates and a Jack Tripper meet — it's like an amalgam. It was like a real — and Mrs. Roper. It was super dense. It made sense to me, it made sense to nobody else.

Tim Fulton 21:36Okay, so how — I was gonna ask about this a little bit later, but since we're here — how do you put together a show like that?

Andrew Levitt 21:44For me, it's a lot of time. I'm very referential, I think, in the big shows. It's important to me. I'm referential in my drag overall. With the show, like, let's say I did a show called Ohana. That was a response to President Trump winning his election. And I remember feeling so defeated in that November 2016. We had just wrapped Heels before the election happened. He wins, and I felt so dejected. So I took that time period — my next mainstage show was coming up in April. So from November to January, I was like, I don't know what the hell I'm gonna do, I don't feel like I want to produce anything, I don't know how to do this. And then Carrie Fisher died in December. And then Meryl Streep gets up at the Golden Globes, and she does a kind of a tribute to Carrie Fisher. And at the end, she says one of Carrie Fisher's things that she said — and I think she put it in her book, Wishful Drinking, I don't know where the quote comes from — but Carrie said, "Take your broken heart and make it into art." And I was really moved by that. So, for that show, that was the impetus for the rest of what I created. So, I spend time with music, I spend time with visuals. I just kind of pore over things, listening to a lot of things, going back to things that are important to me. Specifically in that show, there was a lot of political issue and commentary. So I worked with anything from the Muppets to Disney to political discourse and Rachel Maddow to classical Brahms music, trying to whittle down and siphon out and comb through things that are going to tell the story that I want to tell. And it's really, really hard, because in the shows that I was producing, it's almost all pre-existing content. We're lip-synching, and you're trying to weave — I like, in the big shows, to tell a story, even as late or subtle as it may be, to have a through-line that connects it, that resonates with my message, and has a deep understanding, that is hopefully celebratory, or even a moment in the show that might make people take pause and think about what they're experiencing in their own life, and how it might interact with what they're witnessing on stage. We've done numbers like Handmaid's Tale numbers, and in that show specifically, we're like, if we're not careful, this could be a reality. And here we are now, in 2021, and we're looking at things that are — the very dangerous rhetoric that, I still say to myself, this isn't real. And it is. And so, anyway, the art of it all is the most challenging part, the most fun part, the most rewarding part. To lay everything out and vomit it all out on paper, or in a Pinterest board, or on my walls. I take note cards and I write every idea, and it'll be all around the room, and then I'll try to organize them by what they might mean. Is that a song idea? Is that a production? And then who would be good for that production? I start to think about cast members that I would work with, or have worked with in the past, and the talents that they bring, and where they can best be suited to show off the best of themselves in the show. And it's really a painful and incredible process. Like, every drag — every ounce of my breath, every day, I'm thinking about it. How do I convey this or that? To me, music is like a script, like in a stage show. So I'm trying to find the best song that gives the character the best ability to express an idea or an emotion or a thought. And it's proven very successful. And that's how the shows come about. But I tell you, it's a really long process.

Tim Fulton 26:08How do you — because this is partially the market we're in — because you book it a couple months ahead of time, and, okay, I've got two or three weeks, you're not going to extend it — do you have any sense of mourning at all about, like, you create this thing and then it's just done?

Andrew Levitt 26:27Yes, 100%. That is the beauty, though, I think, of a live experience, live theater, and life. Is that it lives on with the audience who is there to witness it that day. And, of course, it is painful to let it go, because you spend all of this time and this energy and this effort on it. And, of course, after it's all done, I am always like, well, nothing's guaranteed, so I don't know if I'm gonna get to do that again. Will I get the chance to do that again? And I've always had that kind of in the back of my head, saying, if this is the last time I get to do this, I better fucking knock it out of the park. I better make sure that people know where I stand. I better make sure people know what my art is about, to me. And I think that has been the most important part of the big shows. I don't think I ever once — my goal was to let the audience have a night to let their hair down, to forget about things, to be real. But then to, like, kick them in the ass and say, but remember this, this is really important. This is something you should care about. Make them think for a minute. And it's still — we stopped, we still are together, we still get to celebrate.

Tim Fulton 27:50And so you're writing and you're performing — what other hats are you — and you're directing, right? What other hats are you wearing there?

Andrew Levitt 28:00Producing. Finding money to do the show. So it is an all-hats kind of situation. The only thing I don't — I don't choreograph.

Tim Fulton 28:12Okay.

Andrew Levitt 28:13I have in the past. I know my strengths.

Tim Fulton 28:18It's not your skill set. So you have somebody else do that.

Andrew Levitt 28:21I have somebody else do that. In the past, it's been Aaron Kent, who I think is a brilliant, brilliant performer and choreographer. It's been Emily Karn, who is just so incredibly smart, and her body just moves in ways that I wish mine did. So, it also should be said, it's a truly collaborative effort. I work a lot with my best friend Patricia Taylor on everything that I do as Nina. She's a really excellent sounding board for me. We went to college together, and so she was there at the inception of Nina. She knows what Nina is, and isn't, as well as I do. She is really a part of the fabric of the character. And she's been a part of every mainstage show that I've ever done. She was a part of my DIY package, she was a part of everything it took to get to Drag Race. So, she's reflected in my work. And Virginia has been very impactful on, like, how things work initially. I didn't know how to make anything happen. And then you grow and you learn, and you're like, okay, I've got to see if I want to make this bigger, I've got to secure some sponsorships.

Tim Fulton 29:32I was going to ask, is that how you would finance most shows?

Andrew Levitt 29:36No. I should say — I think I can say this — those big production shows that I was producing were costing a considerable amount of money, and you would try to negotiate with business partners, liquor brands. Like, RuPaul's Drag Race specifically — you could get the paperwork in the spring. There was more required. You'd have to fill out some paperwork, and you'd do a couple of Snatch Game characters. When I auditioned for the season that I got on, it was all of the paperwork, plus basically many challenges. And, okay, Conde Nast runway looks — they want to make sure you've got a wardrobe to bring to the show.

Tim Fulton 35:27I'm sorry, one thing I was going to ask about the hats — do you do all your own costume creation?

Andrew Levitt 35:34No, I don't. That's a good — so, I might have an idea that I sketch up, or draw up, but I do not sew my own costumes.

Andrew Levitt 35:44So I usually work with Patrick Hall in Lexington, Kentucky. Or I work with a couple of designers in New York, and some in Dallas, and two in Los Angeles. So it just depends on who's available, and who can do what specifically.

Tim Fulton 36:00I imagine some of them are better at certain things than others.

Andrew Levitt 36:04Who's more costume-y, who's more evening-gown fashion.

Tim Fulton 36:09Got it.

Andrew Levitt 36:10I actually work with a couple of designers here in Columbus that are really great, really talented.

Tim Fulton 36:17You finally got it. Tell me about the process of — because I remember you had already started Drag Cast, the podcast. And I think you just said to me, hey, we're gonna put this on hold for a little bit.

Andrew Levitt 36:32Yeah, we started Drag Cast. And I don't know if you remember this. I started Drag Cast in 2015 — that sounds right. Yeah, 2015. Our first episode, the first episode we were gonna record — do you remember this? — my dog was already sick. And it was July 3rd, on the 3rd of July. On the 4th of July, I woke up, and I had to take her to the vet, and I had to put her down. And we were going to record our first episode on July 6th. And so, we did record it. So we started Drag Cast at that point, and we were doing it really religiously. And then 2018 came around, and I said, hey, we'll take a break for a little bit. And you're like, okay, whatever. And I was going to film Drag Race.

Tim Fulton 37:22Yeah. When you knew, you couldn't tell people.

Andrew Levitt 37:27No, I was sort of — you sign away your life. It's a big NDA. And I took it so seriously that I only worked with one designer, which I regret now. I wish I would have had more influence on my package when I took it. But the guy I work with is the designer I always work with, so he really did an amazing job. It's just, the judges want to see variety.

Tim Fulton 37:51So, they say to you, when they hire you, here's your NDA, and then, here's everything you need to bring. You know?

Andrew Levitt 38:02So, you get a call. And then — I don't remember how much time went by, not much time goes by, maybe like five days to a week — and then you start doing paperwork. You get your NDA pretty immediately. And they really stress that if they find out that you've talked to anyone, and it gets back to them, they'll remove you from the show. That is a common thing. They have removed contestants from the show. They never get to fit, they never even get to film. And then, once you never make it, they probably will never book you again. So I don't know.

Tim Fulton 38:34I can't imagine they would.

Andrew Levitt 38:36So people take it very seriously, because the drag community in itself is very small. So everyone talks, and you might hear from somebody in Minneapolis, like, oh yeah, blah blah blah didn't get on the show 'cause she was running her mouth. And you're like, oh, I'm not gonna run my mouth. So you're already scared, already terrified. And then you get your packet, and they give you an outline. I'm not gonna go into too much detail about what's in that outline, but you have 18 days to prepare, and seven bags at, like, 50 pounds each, to take with you to Los Angeles to film. My friend Andrew Mason came up from Tampa and helped me pack. Mariah Ward, who is a friend of mine, and Christian and Roni, and Patricia, all really helped get me together. Patrick Hall — it was all hands on deck. Making sure the shoes are refinished, shoes that match, and all of my bags. Because I'm a bigger person — this is a true story of my bags — I thought the weight restriction was so serious. It was 50 pounds a bag — 77 pounds — seven bags total. So I was trying to figure out how I could get everything there, because my garments, by my sheer size, weigh more than someone who's five-six and 150 pounds, or 120. So the options with what you have to take go down immensely by the sheer size of my body. And so I was packing my bags — I mean, I can't even tell you, every bag was over. And so I ended up taking only six pairs of shoes for a show that has a mini-challenge every episode. So that's 13 mini-challenges, 13 mainstage challenges — that's a lot of pairs of shoes. And for a drag queen, I mean, if you go back and you watch my runways, there was a pair of shoes that I spray-painted probably seven times — gold, green, white, yellow. Because I didn't have room. But then there are other contestants who are showing up whose bags weighed like 75 pounds, and they never weighed them, and they were just pulling out all this shit. And I'm like, well, wait a minute, they just said pack seven bags, I'll pack some bags, I'll get my stuff here. So that was one of those things that was a little like a needle in the side. I was like, it's not set up for a big girl to bring the things that are gonna allow her to be as successful. And I registered my complaint. They've heard me.

Tim Fulton 41:31Well, and it's sort of — I imagine they said it because it's like, well, that's the standard amount, you're not going to get charged more at the airport. But you're like, I would have paid an extra $25.

Andrew Levitt 41:43I mean, I have some — a shoe point on Drag Race — I just need to get there. Let me pay. I'll pay whatever. But yeah, I remember being taken to the airport, and Virginia and Patricia and Andrew and Tao went with me to the airport. It's really kind of amazing and cool. And it was just a very different experience that changed my whole life.

Tim Fulton 42:10Yeah. And so, fast-forwarding, what are you working on now?

Andrew Levitt 42:17Oh my gosh. Well, I'm working on a lot, to be quite honest. I'm also — it's COVID, though, so it's really difficult to do what I do very well, because I'm definitely an in-person kind of experience. But I'm doing a lot of virtual shows, I'm hosting a lot of events virtually for universities and companies and private shows, which has been really good. I'm also doing some exciting new projects that I can't talk about, which is really good. It means there's more NDA, which is lovely — it's a good thing, because it means you —

Tim Fulton 43:02And is that kind of stuff by virtue of having an agent?

Andrew Levitt 43:08No, I mean — yes and no. I think it's, like I said at the beginning of the episode, I'm a hustler, and I think anyone who knows me knows that I have soul. So I'm constantly trying to figure out how I can get closer to the things that I really want to do. And I don't really — so, I push my team a lot. But my team isn't very big. I actually don't have management. So I'm doing a lot of it on my own, which is okay, which is great, because — but it's also super difficult. It's another hat.

Tim Fulton 43:42You have to wear.

Andrew Levitt 43:44You have to manage your own time, manage my own schedule, a calendar. So — but I had a management team, and they were great. It was just, I needed — I am so used to, because of all my experience in the past, I needed to do it myself. It feels very luxurious to rely on other people, but I like to do it myself. Because it feels more comfortable to me, and I have a — why that is, I don't know if it's because I come from this background of, I've got to do this, I have to hustle, I need to make sure they get the Nina West touch. I want them to know that I am involved in it in some way or another.

Andrew Levitt 44:26So, but I have theatrical representation. They have television representation. Agents who kind of shopped me around, who help put me in front of the right people for the right projects. But that's been really touch-and-go, especially during COVID. So, I mean, I have some exciting things happening this summer, some stuff that's going to be announced for this fall and winter, which are big, big dreams come true. And I'm really excited to hopefully make Columbus really proud. That's the goal.

Tim Fulton 44:57And I want to wrap up by asking — I ask this of, I think, most of my guests — what do you think Columbus is doing really well?

Andrew Levitt 45:09What do I think Columbus is doing really well?

Tim Fulton 45:12And that could be even, like, this is why I stay, or what's great about Columbus. And there's a flip side to this question.

Andrew Levitt 45:20Yeah. I think that what Columbus does really well, in my experience, for me personally, was it really helped cultivate me. I was able to make mistakes here, and I was able to be corrected and embraced. And I think that the spirit of that is, in my mind, the spirit of the city. I think that there are a lot of people here who really care about people in this community. And I have benefited from that, of course. I think there's also a downside to that. And, like, I don't know, I can't speak for everyone's experience. So people might be listening to this, and they may be going, well, that's not my experience. And, you know, I want to make sure — my experience has not been easy. It has not been handed to me. I have really had to, in many ways, sacrifice a lot of myself, so people would feel comfortable with a drag queen being present at a GCAC event, really early, or a drag queen being at the zoo, really early on. These were things where I was entering spaces that we hadn't been in. And I had to sacrifice a lot of my own — I had to bite my tongue a lot, just to ensure that, okay, we were here, we're stepping into this space right now. And that, I think, is a credit to the people who believed in what I was doing, what Virginia was doing, what this queer community represents. There are people in those positions who made those decisions, who said, no, no, this is right. And so, when they opened it, I was very quick to say, okay, just slam the door open and let's go, alright, we're gonna do this.

Tim Fulton 47:18Because someone else might still have a little bit of reverence for, I am new here, and you may not be completely comfortable, and I'm gonna do my best to make you comfortable.

Andrew Levitt 47:31Yeah. I don't think I sacrificed any of my integrity. I don't think I did that. I think that I was always fully in the moment and very present and knowledgeable about what was occurring, but always very deferential to, this is bigger than me. And I am lucky enough to step into this, and I have to know what this means. And not everything was good, but I think we have progressed far, far away from where we were in 2001 when I started.

Tim Fulton 48:13Absolutely. Andrew, thank you so much for your time today. I love you.

Andrew Levitt 48:17Love you so much for having me.

Tim Fulton 48:29Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast, presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, and share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite drag queen. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. Our producer is Philip Cogley. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.