‘On the Dot’ – During TC Pride 2025, Miss Richfield 1981 Remembers That There’s No Place Like Home

What most makes her unique in a field of performers trying to be the uniquest isn’t her makeup, which from foundation to contouring to eyeshadow to lipstick to eyeliner might most politely be described as “overdone;” it’s not her costumes, just as overdone, ranging from a Valentine heart to an American flag to a Christmas tree, each one crowned by thick-rimmed glasses and a thick-rimmed wig and lipsticked lips that are somehow simultaneously shouting and smiling.

No, what makes Miss Richfield 1981 unique is the relationship, the rapport, she shares with her live audiences. Like a doctor attending a patient, she asks and listens and reacts. And then the reaction reaps a re-reaction, as dependable and as reflexive as an involuntary cartoon kick wrought by a pointy rubber hammer hitting home just below the kneecap.

The reaction is laughter.

And the audiences generating that laughter, the audiences are larger and rangier than ever.

Miss Richfield 1981, as befits her Midwestern roots, started out humbly. Russell King, the Clark Kent to Miss Richfield’s super-doer, appeared in a friend’s basement, spicing up a thoroughly unspicy Miss America TV viewing party … which led to more formal emceeing assignments.

“I started working with this fabulous community during the AIDS crisis in 1995, as I worked with the Minnesota AIDS Project,” Miz R remembers. “The disease had been around since the early ‘80s, but sadly, in the 1990s it was still claiming many lives and threatening our community with discrimination and hardship, as it can still do today.”

The laughter produced during that first outing wasn’t a luxury; it was a necessity.

Laments Miss Richfield, “They were dark days, but so very many, many of us worked tirelessly to bring some light and joy as we worked to raise funds to help fight the disease and educational efforts to bring awareness and understanding about AIDS.”

These public services led to more commercial gigs around the City of Lakes, including the joining of a full troupe of “female impersonators” from whom she picked up tips and tricks of the trade. Here she developed her signature combination of song, dance, don’t-go-there comedy … and audience participation, audience participation above all else. From venue to venue, she carefully gauged the crowd’s reaction as its members transformed over the years from rubbernecked gawkers to zealous fans.

These efforts eventually brought Miss Richfield to Minneapolis’s Illusion Theater, forging a business relationship that endures to this day.

Says Miz R, “Annually, I’ve done a holiday show there since 1999 with my fabulous ‘penis,’ which is also pronounced ‘pianist,’ Todd Price.”

The arc of her career continued to bend upward.

Recalls Miss Richfield 1981, “I emceed a cabaret for the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association that was being hosted in the Twin Cities.”

This led to a gig — a career, really — with Atlantis Events on cruise ships and resorts. This drag queen’s bingo card was nearly full.

“Finally, my travels took me to Provincetown, Mass.,” she says. “For the last 22 years, I’ve spent four months of every year on the tip of Old Cape Cod performing 60 shows each summer. Truly, that is what’s made my artistic life possible.”

Things got to a point where Miss Richfield had to present a new show annually, bringing that stylized entertainment from place to place to place.

“It’s a haul to create new ideas for each year, but it’s necessary with a residency in P-town,” she observes. “And it certainly keeps the work interesting to sing new songs and have new outfits and videos each year. Once I get a new one under my belt, I’m always grateful for the push to do it!”

The year 2025 is, naturally, no exception.

“I am celebrating our new medicated world with my show ‘There’s A Pill for That,’” she announces. “I’m asking people, ‘Do you have aches and pains? Maybe you’re nervous? Or you live in Florida?’ Whatever your condition, ‘There’s a Pill for That!’ So, whether you’re afflicted, addicted or conflicted, I’ll find just the right dose for you!”

There is a halfway serious subtext to this comedic work that’s part satire and part social commentary.

“Of course, it’s a riff on all the prescription pharmaceutical ads that constantly bombard us,” Miss Richfield reveals. “I think it’s fun and not political! I feel like we’re all weary of politics and unfortunately, that has gone far beyond being funny.”

Much of Miss Richfield’s funny was honed during Twin Cities Pride festivals over the years.

“So many of the very generous local performers, along with the Twin Cities LGBTQ+ audiences, have been so good to me along the way,” she says.

More than a few laughs were of the laugh-at variety, as opposed to the laugh-with type.

“Some of those memories are painful,” Miz R notes. “Like one of my first public performances [was] when St. Paul was trying to do their own Pride, which was fun … but their headliner was late, and I was stuck on stage trying to stretch for 45 minutes! Let’s just say I learned that I needed more material and a better plan for such occasions!”

Miss Richfield 1981 doesn’t want to be the only queen generating such material.

“I hope younger and newer performers get the same opportunities to make mistakes and learn because that’s often the only way to learn in this business — just do it!” she encourages.

The OG has learned about herself along the way to divadom, but she’s also learned about the big, blue marble shared by the fabulous and unfabulous alike.

“Now I get to travel to many locations around the country and in some cases, the world!” she exclaims. “I annually do a weekend in NYC, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Springs and other fun places. And my international travel is almost exclusively on Atlantis Events since 1999.”

But Miss Richfield hasn’t forgotten where it all started.

“These beautiful Twin Cities are the reason I have a career,” she happily, readily admits. “I couldn’t have done any of it without having an audience here first!”

All of that personal history will be funneled into this year’s show, “There’s a Pill For That!” In coming months, her heart still left in her hometown, Miss Richfield 1981 will bring that challenging material to the world … but in the end, this local-girl-made-good will simply be re-proving to the world what she proved in that suburban basement all those years ago, what she’s proved on every stage she’s ever graced: laughter is the best medicine.

missrichfield.com