Q&A: How to Be a Tarot-Reading Drag Witch with Hunny Blunt

Drag performer Hunny Blunt.

Drag performer Hunny Blunt is like really creative. Read the Q&A from our interview available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

ZACK ORSBORN: So I am joined by the magnificent Hunny Blunt, my dear friend from way back in the day. We met in Starkville, Mississippi at Mississippi State, and the first time I ever saw you, it was on Halloween. It was like 10 a.m. in the morning and you had this tall black witch hat on and a little black dress. No makeup, blonde hair, and I was like, who the fuck is that? I want to know her. I want to be her. And ever since then, we've had so many synchronous moments where we just meet up again back in life. You used to live down the road from me. And every time I hang out with you, I get synchronicities. So it's like we're cosmically connected. And I had to have you on the show. So thanks for joining me.

HUNNY BLUNT: Thank you. Kismet. Yes, you taught me what that word means.

ZACK: Kismet. And I remember back in your apartment down there, you gave me a really life changing tarot reading. I had all these thoughts. It was a very confusing time in my life and you sorted it out. Tell me about your tarot practice. How did you come into that?

HUNNY: Well, I've always been interested in the supernatural and the spiritual side of things. I had a little tarot deck as a kid and it got thrown away. And then eventually my curiosity piqued and I had to figure out what it was. Then I started really studying it and getting into where tarot and astrology meet, and they become kind of their own little story there. I used it to sort of find where I am in my story and still use it that way.

But getting into drag was the real amazing part. I've always been deeply spiritual, and being able to align that with my art has been so wonderful. Also actively being there and putting people back in control where they can see their lives again and activate their own synchronicities. It's amazing. It's a beautiful practice, tarot.

ZACK: And so how does tarot align with your drag?

HUNNY: Well, doing drag is its own thing. I really wanted to put some purpose behind my art. There's a deeply spiritual side of me and being able to do that in the glamorous part of my life was actually very grounding for the experience as a whole, because the art form can be very intense. Being able to practice a bit of detachment from the material plane and all the sequins and feathers and rhinestones and dive into a place that is deeply me, where it all converges.

I love being able to do tarot and let people know what that feels like. There's just something so beautiful. This is why I do this. Sometimes when I'm in drag and I've helped people and read people, it's fun to go out and perform and collect the dollars, but I feel like I'm actually doing the good work of a healer. I do identify as a healer. And I think that's so important for an artist to have purpose in their art like that. I'm so blessed to have found mine.

ZACK: Yeah, you're on your path. You're talking about how drag is intense. What do you mean by that? How is drag intense?

HUNNY: Well, it's an intense art form. I think everywhere you go, it's probably not only the most dramatic sort of career choice that you could make, there's a lot of divas, a lot of big personalities you have to deal with. Sometimes it's not, you know, drag is not for everybody, because I do believe everybody should try drag and experience the beauty of drag.

But this is like a full time lifestyle for me. I think for people, especially members of my chosen family, there's a difference where I've had members of my chosen family be like, drag was just this stage for me, this ladder to show me this thing. And I have other sisters who were like, this is our life. This is what we do. This is who we are. It can be a little intense sometimes as an art form.

But it's so rewarding. Art of gender expression. It's magical. It's allowed me to find where I am on my own gender journey, feeling very me. Very big.

ZACK: Speaking of big, you're kind of taking on that word and giving it a whole new life. One time, I asked you your pronouns, and you said Big and Bag. That was so funny to me. You're very quick and clever and you're good at improv. Where do you think that comes from? Because I know your mind must be going.

HUNNY: I like to stay on my toes. I like to be prepared for any situation. Not that I enjoy every situation that arises, but humor is a big part of my drag as well. I was put on Earth to make people laugh. I deeply feel that. I'm so glad I'm able to merge the tarot side of me with the side of me that is about the glamor, that is about the artistry, that is about the transformation, the transition, the beauty and the deepness that connects me to queer culture.

I feel like Avatar The Last Airbender sometimes. I'm going into the Avatar State and channeling the drag energy from the queens that came before me. There's a deepness in it. There's a richness in it. I feel like I have a culture and I'm a part of it. Another big reason I do drag is because I felt like I was called to do that. I've always been a little cross dresser. I've always been putting it on and now I can't take it off as fast as I'm putting it on.

But back to the humor. Humor is the acceptance of pain is something that I deeply believe. The worst things that have happened to us turn out to be some of the funniest shit that you can actually sit back and when you can truly laugh at some of the craziest things that have happened to you, you really just take some kind of power over it.

There is a joke everywhere. If you're listening for it, it's there. That's how I know I'm around my chosen family sometimes because the language becomes so different. We all get each other's jokes. People may say to us, oh, you hate India Taco. Y'all just talk so much shit about India Taco. You hate India Taco, don't you. I was like, no. If you knew India Taco how we know India Taco, then you would know that she deserves it and she has it coming.

It's that beat. It's that joke. You don't really get that kind of love. That's good drag queen love. And I think that's why I love the culture. Because I can playfully read my sisters while still expanding my horizons so much as a family. India is somebody who is deeply driven by her purpose who has come very far on her journey. To be surrounded by those girls is really very empowering. It keeps me in the right mindset to keep creating my art because drag, it's so easy to get confused on what your goal is and what type of queen you are.

I think the biggest problem with drag is that everybody is trying to be the same kind of drag queen. That one girl, it's that one Saturday night girl that turns it out and does the thing, and we all want to be her. And I spent a lot of time wanting to be her, but now I wish I would have spent more time wanting to be me. Because the second I stopped wanting to be that girl and I started realizing what makes me different is what sets me apart and makes me powerful. That sparked my interest in taking on Comedy Queen, the Comedy Queen system, which has been a wonderful system that I really enjoy that has brought my passion back for drag.

I'm here to make people laugh. That's what I've always loved to do. I do feel like I'm in great company. That is an important part of drag, to realize that you're different and go ahead and find your people who are also different. Really just do you and let them come to you because y'all will all find each other.

I'm so grateful that I'm a part of a beautiful drag house and a chosen family that is not afraid of working together to save each other. We've all been through some crazy shit and we're not afraid. There's no fakeness there. There's a realness that allows us to communicate and really be like, my sister, I need this. This is this huge thing going on in my life and I need your help. It's been huge and it rotates. We all get to take our turn being Cinderella. We all take our turn being the fairy godmother. That's family. That's sisterhood. That's another big reason why I do drag because it has put me very close to people that I believe I was meant to be here with spiritually.

I could cry about it. I really could. We've been through so much coming from Mississippi. Coming from the deep crevices. I'm from the Delta. I'm coming from a deep place where this queerness has found me. And I have been on this journey, and we have all made it to the grand land of Memphis. I love Memphis, but Memphis has really been a place that I'm very grateful to have been in with these people, because I have found these people and I'm so blessed to have found these people, and it's all been worth it to have found them. At some point you feel like, oh my God, this is what it's all for. I think it's a huge reason what my tarot has helped me because I get to take moments to ground myself and see where I'm at.

ZACK: And I know that a lot of your community is found at Lamplighter. You've taken over the Lamplighter Monday night. What was that process like? What has that journey been like at the Lamplighter and having your own show and giving a platform to new queens and returning queens?

HUNNY: Well, first of all, I love the Lamplighter Lounge. Shout out to the Lamplighter Lounge, Madison Avenue. One of the co-owners of the Lamplighter Lounge, Laurel Candido, she has been a huge saving grace on my participation in the artistry of drag in this town. It was very hard for me to get a foothold when I moved here. Very hard for me to become one of those girls that is memorable.

Laurel is one of the people that was like, hey, get on a mic at my space and make some magic for me. That's what I need, somebody to come in. She said to me, I need somebody to come into my space and make some magic and I know it's you. And that has changed my life. That is somebody who said, here is a microphone. You boo boo queen, because I look amazing today, mama, but we were not always that way.

It takes somebody who really takes a chance on you and has faith in you and sees the best in you even when I didn't see the best in myself. I really did the night that she offered me this, I look back and I can remember what I was wearing and I did not look good. I sprayed green spray in my hair and I was a turtle woman. I looked back, I was like, look, this turtle woman. But she was a strong, gay, powerful woman deep inside. And Laurel found me. Laurel found me as the strong, gay, powerful woman that I am.

She was like, here's this microphone and do some business. And ever since then it has been a joy to go every Monday. She was like come do it every week. Do you want to do it every Monday? It's yours if you want it. And I was like okay I got you. It has been amazing. It really has grown into something. We have a spotlight now. It takes away the atmosphere that you're in, you get transported into an entirely different place. I really get to perform like the nerdy little theater bitch inside of me has always wanted to do. I get to do that now every Monday. 7:00 and 9:00 at the Lamplighter Lounge. We have two shows.

ZACK: Really? You do have a theater background and you are one of the most dynamic performers. The way your whole body moves and goes with the music and your facial expressions. It gives me chills. I've seen you do some amazing shit. Where does that energy come from? How do you keep that afloat? Why do you like to perform?

HUNNY: So it's a spark. That's the best way I have always been able to describe it. It is an incredible spark. It's this thing in me that ever since I was a kid, I am snapping my fingers and listening to music on the CD player, getting mad when it stops. Having some kind of movement in me that has always been a little too flamboyant. I've always been a little too big. I mean, really, that's the best word. I've always been really too big for all that is going on here. I've had to carve out a whole different facet of myself in drag because I felt like I was just so big. I had so much to get out.

I think everywhere I go, I've always been the loudest person in the room. That's always been very hard in a way. I wouldn't really say that I'm always the loudest person in the room, but there's just something about me that is very forward. I think it's the fire sign energy. It's this big Sagittarius in the room. I've got Jupiter in the natural house as well. So that's like a huge thing where you do know that I'm in the room and you feel my presence. It's something that now I use to my advantage because I'm a performer.

I just believe it's just what I'm meant to do. This spark is definitely like, I feel right. Anything else I try to do, it just doesn't succeed. It's like Tinkerbell in the movie when she is choosing all the little talents. When she walks past the one that she walks past is the one that ends up being the one that's like here you go, it's you.

I'm so glad that I have had the emotional strength to accept myself as I am and accept my circumstances as they are in order to move on and continue creating. Because that's just a huge part of it too, is that you got to create with a beautiful mindset. You have to be in a great mindset for creation and I'm all about that. It's one of the hardest things to do, remaining free from negativity until you receive that creative impulse from the universe. You can't harp on anything. You can't have anything going on up in there. You got to be free. You got to be a little detached. And then like a bolt from the blue, the universe really gives you that creative impulse on like, oh, well, this is what I do next. I take this and this and this and I make something out of it.

So it's very hard. I really am downplaying some serious work here. It's really very hard to keep your emotions stable in especially a drag career in a drag queens environment with all these divas, all these personalities, everybody's got an opinion, everybody's got something to say. Everybody's got their own definition of drag. But at the end of the day, it still is art. And it is about what you want to do and what you feel like.

One of the things I love to ask young, growing drag queens and I love them. I have a big space for newcomers and a lot of my girls are very empowered. My daughter Juicy Massacre.

ZACK: Shout out to Juicy.

HUNNY: Shout to Juicy Massacre. I mean, all of my drag children as well. Shout out all my drag children. But Juicy, she's somebody that's with me every single Monday who has really been learning the craft of how to do this. Lamplighter has taught us how to run a show.

ZACK: And that's really good experience because you're one of also one of the most ambitious people I know. When you were living down the road, we filmed your first Drag Race audition tape, and that was a lot of work. And you put your whole Hunnussy into that thing, and I want to talk about that drive. What made you want to audition for this national platform? Where are you now with that? Because I know you're going to be on Drag Race one day. I've always believed that. So talk about that.

HUNNY: Well yeah, that was very difficult wasn't it. It was a lot. But you know now I'll tell you this most recent one, Zack, I did it in like less than four days. I've put out four since then so I've had it and now I do it not really more so to get on the show, but to show myself how strong and powerful that I am. Because you can't use any of the same footage. You have to use new footage every time.

So I get to have the stamp of who I was this year and get to watch boom boom boom and go, if I should go early on, God forbid, y'all will have more than enough content. Y'all have all five drag race auditions I auditioned. No, I've auditioned four times. I've filmed five auditions. One I did not send in because I watched the very first one I watched and I was just like, you know what? I'm not ready. I was like, you know what? I don't have to show them this version of me.

Like I said, it's like I work really hard and I want a big platform to showcase that. I work really, really hard and I love Lamplighter and it's prepared me for the big stages of the world. And I would love to be on the big stages of the world. But like I said, it's just about looking at who I am every year. And I love being able to do it because a lot of girls talk, a lot of girls talk a lot of shit. But not every girl gets in their tape every year. And I love to be that girl that gets in her tape every year.

There are moments where my heart has been broken. I thought my world has been over and I have put in my audition tape two weeks later. There are moments where I've had it together. We pull it together and I'm really am so and I enjoy it. I think I enjoy the process of auditioning generally. Well, I've auditioned for a cruise ship recently to be a drag queen on a cruise ship. I lost out to an incredible drag queen. But the experience, the drive behind it. I can put in an audition tape. Now, what is it, there's something else I can audition for. I just love to look at the video that I have produced now and be like, wow, you really have done it.

ZACK: It's a way to hone your craft even further. And it's like after you get done with audition tape, you're even more skillful. I feel like from the first audition tape that we filmed, I'm sure there's a huge difference.

HUNNY: Oh my God. Yeah.

ZACK: How do you think you've enhanced? Or how do you think your skills have honed?

HUNNY: I do what I want. I go with my gut. When you see drag queens perform and when you see a drag queen doing a song that she thinks you want to see her do right, she's performing this Ariana Grande gig because she thinks y'all want to see that. I'm talking about just any drag queen that is not doing the songs that's in their hearts.

We all have 7 or 8 things that we want to do and we don't ever pick the ones that are wanting. We always choose what we think they want to see, but that's not a part of it. They're actually there to see what is in your heart, what you choose to do. You see a lot of girls that sit out there and they don't really know the words to and they don't really have any energy to put behind it because they don't really feel what the song is about. They've assigned it no purpose.

The theater in me, it's like I'm Meryl Streeping the shit out. Who is the character in this song that I'm selling to the people? But I think a lot of times drag queens are not really like, I'm excited about doing this. I can't tell you how many performances where I have watched queens be like, why did I choose this number? Like while they're doing the number, you can just see it in their face. It's like, why did I choose this?

Because y'all weren't going to live. Y'all were going to be a dead audience either way, or they were going to have a good time either way. It's about what you want to do. And what is your art? What is it you doing? That's where I'm saying a lot of queens then they start to get lost in their purpose and what am I using drag to do? That's the big question I love to ask the young queens is what are you using drag to do?

ZACK: A lot of people don't know what goes into a Drag Race audition and all the decisions you have to make, talk about this last audition tape and what all you had to do and pull together.

HUNNY: For me, the hardest part of the audition has always been out of drag interview. Because it's the thing you open with.

ZACK: And why do you think that's so hard for you?

HUNNY: Like I said Hunny she's the T. She really is the T. But like me having to say I'd rather just show you what I do then have two minutes to explain what I do. I just feel like you want to see it.

I feel like this year actually was not as hard because I felt like I answered all ten questions like maybe I think 15 questions actually they want you to answer in this two minute time frame. They keep adding new questions every year. And so but you just have to be cool, stay calm and just talk about what you want to talk about anyway. That's kind of like what I started doing with this. At this point.

I like to think that RuPaul is snuggled up with his iPad, watching me every year, seeing what I'm up to. But in reality, that's only one facet of what makes up drag. A lot of the real groundwork is done locally. I'm very grateful to be where I am. I feel like that will happen for me when that's meant to happen for me. I really am. There could still be people here that I need to meet and I need to get to know. And I'm coming to find that out very recently.

I spend a lot of time hanging out with Imagene Azengraber and Brinka motherfucking Honeydew. We've given her a lot of middle names. But God, I mean, I'm telling you, I feel like I've waited my whole life to meet these girls and hang out with those girls sometimes because they are wild. Those bitches are some wild hoes. They are raunchy. They're ready and they're here for a good time. I love the girls that are here for a good time. God. And I love because that's the vibes I'm all about. The good vibes. I hate being in a place with people who suck the air out of the room.

There are some drag queens that are up in the make up and they're like, I hate being here. Why do I do this? And that fills up the room sometimes. It stinks. Now I'm not talking about that at the Lamplighter Lounge because I'm usually the oldest cast at the Lamplighter. Well, no I'm not, not usually. There's a beautiful place where the newcomers and the older queens come there and meet and kind of turn it out. I'm just at the nexus of it a little bit. I'm Momming. It's not like I'm the oldest, but I'm Momming. I'm mothering.

ZACK: From a little baby drag queen to a mom now.

HUNNY: A mom.

ZACK: I notice that you will bring up struggles, things you've overcome, hardships. What are some of the things that have happened to you? That where it's like, I might have to quit drag. What are some things that have hindered your path?

HUNNY: I will say Lamplighter Lounge is not the only drag in Memphis. We're one part of it and we do a lot of good work. Sometimes when you're on your shit and your popping your shit and you're doing your thing when you are so pretty and you're so talented people do—like, I hate to do the Nicki Minaj thing here, but people really will think that there must be something wrong with you. They project their insecurities onto you. They believe that something must be wrong with you because this is some pretty bitch and it really kills them.

What really has killed most of my haters is that when they find out that I'm actually nice, and then that's when they become my friends. It's just they're like, oh, we've heard about Hunny Blunt, and then they're like, actually are like, they chill and they smoke with me. We have a good time. We get some food in our bellies and they're like, this cunt is just living.

But a lot of the struggles that I have faced, a lot of times the community doesn't make me feel like the Memphis community. I'm not speaking on my Lamplighter Lounge chosen family. But the Memphis community has made me feel like Britney Spears sometimes. I feel like sometimes I am the only thing they have to talk about, because one of my biggest hindrances has really been the cyberbullying of it all.

And I hate to be like, I'm over here being cyberbullied. But God, I mean, the vitriol. Moth Moth Moth is the one that constantly is giving me new words and grammar. And she said this word that I had to Google. And it means excessive bitterness. And just cuntiness this mean little nasty cuntiness from out of nowhere that I constantly having to cut through to find the love in it all. And it's just like the cyberbullying. There's so much vitriol out there for me specifically.

I don't know another local girl that lives like this, that lives a life of this popular. I should be on a TV show somewhere for as many people that just have to call me out about just some random thing all the time.

ZACK: Yeah, it's because you're a star and they want to be a star.

HUNNY: I can’t say that, but you can.

ZACK: Then you’d be delusional.

When I've brought you up in conversation, I always say that I think you're a genius. The way your mind works, the way you're able to command a stage, improv, put together, work from nothing. You're very resourceful. And another thing I admire about you is you do this full time. I remember you were working at KwikChek, or The Crazy Noodle. And that was like your last job, right? Like go into work job.

HUNNY: Yeah.

ZACK: And you took a full leap and was like, I'm doing this full time.

HUNNY: No, I worked at a casino. Oh, I did a casino a little bit. And then I worked doing some stagehand work with the Orpheum.

ZACK: Oh, really?

HUNNY: Yes, theater queen.

ZACK: So, what made you want to take that full leap? How did that come about?

HUNNY: I mean, God, I was a server during the pandemic, and it really just speaks for itself. I may be busting my ass for $60 or $70 a week. Loved my job. Great job. But in unemployment, nothing. I had friends that were racking up, making stacks off of just sitting at home. And I was out there busting my ass, and I was barely making enough to do anything. And I started reading, well, I've been reading tarot, but then I started charging. Because readings were always free.

And then I watched a video of somebody really be like, if you assign spiritual energy to it, people get to tip you for an experience. Then it adds to the summoning of what it is they want. If I give somebody a good reading and they tip me well, they are doing action that really puts them on the vibration of receiving what it is that they've asked for. And it does just as much to help them as it does to me. Truthfully. And when it was explained to me that way, I stopped feeling all the guilt about it because I felt like it should be free. But I also need to be able to live so that I can perform this service where I really do make people get more in control of their life and accept things as they are.

A lot of people who come to me have forgot how to manifest. I use tarot to reteach the manifestation process to people. And it's I'm telling you, it's a hard one to do. It's a hard one to master because being free from negativity is such a huge part of it. And even most days I feel like I could manifest the world if I can only make up my mind on what I wanted. And when I do make up my mind on what I want, I do. Now I know how to get it. But it's something that I'm more so better able to teach than do, better able to clear up than or always do for myself. Sometimes helping other people also helps me.

There could be moments where I am stuck and I don't know what my next move is. And when you are in that place, I've always believed that you must help the person nearest to you. It will lead you to the next person who is really in need. Find somebody that really does need you. Because obviously there's usually somebody in your group, in your circle that really does need some reassurance that they exist and they matter. And if you can redirect that energy, a lot of the sorrow that you're feeling for yourself, if you can redirect it around into love for other people, I mean, it really does a lot for them. There's a lot into the process of manifestation in the process of remaining free from things that have hurt you.

ZACK: So another thing that gives you inspiration and another thing we connected on was The Wizard of Oz. But you are like super, super fan. You've read all the books. When did you discover Wizard of Oz? What does it mean to you? How was it informed your drag?

HUNNY: Oh, the Wizard of Oz is a bit of things. Since I was little, my Aunt Geri sent me, when my parents divorced, sent me an VHS copy. Even before that, I used to watch it all the time. When my parents divorced, she sent me a VHS copy of The Wizard of Oz, and I remember watching that movie all the time. The love of this all stems from a childhood trauma. Shocker.

But and then I also got the first book very young as well. Also got the first book for my birthday from my real father, which is one of the nicest gifts of that era from that place. Such a bright thing in a dark time. And I think that's why I love it so much. It shines like the Emerald City in my memories. This book, it dissipates all the darkness around it almost because I got it. They gave it to me on a plane mid-flight that my dad was flying in the air with thousands of feet in the air. And I get this gorgeous 75th anniversary edition. It's gold. The pages are embossed in gold. Gorgeous. I mean, beautiful book.

And I immediately started devouring every word. And I was done with it in a few short days. A Wizard of Oz book, it's like a stacked Magic Treehouse novel. It's like if you stack two Magic Treehouse novels, that's what it's like to get through it. It's not a difficult read. And then going on all the adventures and it's so queer coded. There's a transgendered princess named Ozma. Sis the rightful heir to the throne after the wizard. She's the empress of the Land of Oz. And she kind of restores the land. She's queer coded.

And Glinda is queer coded. I mean, there's so much queer coded magic around it. And I'm so glad it found me. I found it, and I don't know, I've always felt it. There could be some past life connection there for me. Really, honestly, I deeply maybe feel that truthfully. It is my autistic special interest. It's my thing. It's thing that I just, I'm obsessed with. I'm obsessed with it. I'm obsessed. And in all iterations. I used to hate Wicked because Wicked used to get all the love. The original books are just so good, so full of amazing source material that is never credited.

The images are gorgeous. I mean, there's just a lot going on there, and it's very hard core fantasy. It gets so deep and so delicious.

ZACK: How do you think it informs your drag?

HUNNY: The colorfulness of the characters. One of the characters that I do the chat is Chicken Lady. But she is inspired by Balina, the Yellow Hen from the third book. She's also in the movie Return to Oz, but she's not as yellow tinted as she is in the books. And she sort of inspired the chicken lady character, and it kind of went from there, and it became My Fair Chicken Lady. She became Chicken Doolittle. Like Chicken Little meets Eliza Doolittle and it was Chicken Doolittle. And actually India Taco came up with that nam. Shout out to the girl that makes the things and does her T. But gosh, it's amazing.

ZACK: Going back to tarot real quick, what is your favorite card and why?

HUNNY: Ooh, my favorite tarot card. I guess it would have to be, my card is The Hierophant. We all have a card.

ZACK: I always remember when I get it, when I pull a Hierophant, I'm like, oh, Hunny's here.

HUNNY: Well, Hierophant is somebody that you go to knowledge from, I am very much sitting in that life. It's the school of higher learning. It's somebody that is dedicated to the spiritual growth. Upright. It's about rising, there's a gap between your higher self and your earthly self. And it's about shortening that gap. You go from the school of higher learning to the school of hard knocks. Where that distance becomes greater, but I love The Hierophant, but my favorite card is actually, I think, the Star. And I think that’s a lot of people's favorite. But the Sar, it's number 17. It comes after the tower.

ZACK: Scary.

HUNNY: The Tower can also be beautiful in the sense of it brings much needed change. The Tower represents something that you've done and you've stacked it so high. And there's only so high you could stack over. The whole thing has to come down. And the universe is the thing that brings it down because it's gravity. You can't control it. You cannot, and I have several different decks. My Wizard of Oz tarot deck. The Tower is represented by the tornado.

This beautiful moment when you realize that the thing that the universe cannot control is the thing that brings her to Oz, the Tower. The scary thing is the thing that is this huge catalyst for the story. So a lot of times when you find that when I'm on that Tower moment, that's when the story begins. But my favorite is the Star, because the Star is about healing from the aftermath of that tower. It's about healing from the aftermath of a Tower moment and restoring yourself, restoring balance in you in order to see it happen for you in your world.

ZACK: Yes, and I feel like tarot is another one of your autistic interests because you are so knowledgeable. You know these cards inside and out. How do you learn? I've always been so fascinated with how you can pick up on something and talk about it extemporaneously. Where does that come from? You're such a quick learner. What is your learning process like?

HUNNY: I mean, it really is experience. I've read it all, but you also have experiencing the cycle of the tarot cards, of the hero's journey. It's also an important thing. I have been able to be like oh this is my Queen of Swords moment because. The Queen of Swords is the one that she's like, here is my kindness, but also here is my sword. I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid to cut it off because there was some moment, I realized my heart will be protected. But the Queen of Swords also teaches us to not always be guarded. You have to open your heart and trust every single time, regardless of how which is something I deeply struggle with. I'm often not a Queen of Swords journey in a moment. I mean, we're always on some kind of journey in the tarot. There's always some kind of cards that are going to correspond to what you were going through and how you can see yourself.

ZACK: Mine’s Ten of Wands right now.

HUNNY: You got to put something down.

ZACK: I know,

HUNNY: Ten of wands is a very beautiful, graceful warning for the universe. It says it basically says, the universe wants to bring you in something new. But you're at ten. You're going to have to—the universe cannot give you an 11th wand. You're going to have to make room for something that the universe is giving for your life, not like you're going to burn out. You need to put something down. Which can also be the case for some people who get the card. But a lot of times when you get the card, it really is just about the universe wants to bring you in a new wand, so you're going to have to whatever, drop whatever one of these ones, you're not using.

ZACK: The 11th wand.

HUNNY: There is no 11th, there is no 11th wand.

ZACK: Look at these chills. I'm going to have to write a poem about that.

HUNNY: You’re going to have to.

ZACK: I mean, you've inspired me to study tarot. I did a tarot project where I wrote a poem for each tarot card, and I would read about tarot, and really your passion for it and your love of it has really inspired me. And so last question I'd like to ask is if you had all the time, all the resources in the world, what would be your dream project? How big can the big get?

HUNNY: How big can the big get? My dream project if I had all the time, all the money and all the resources in the world, I would start making the Oz books into movies. I would cast myself as Glinda and I would take—I actually I would be Ozma, I'd probably be Ozma. I feel like with Glinda, those are big shoes to fill now.

ZACK: Ozma is cooler though. Kind of more punk rock.

HUNNY: So badass.

ZACK: And I feel like you're very punk rock.

HUNNY: Very, very. It makes me feel very good. I'd also give to the Lamplighter Lounge. A lot of it would be to see the Lamplighter Lounge in full swing. Do whatever they want to do if they want to add twice the story, buy every building in the lot, knock out the wall, make one big thing. That's really what I want to do.

ZACK: The lamplighter Lot.

HUNNY: The lamplighter Lot. I don't know. I have to pay it forward a little bit. I have to pay it forward.

ZACK: Yeah. I just pulled the Six of Pentacles yesterday and it was like give more than you receive.

HUNNY: Yeah. But you have to create the pattern. That card is about creating its own patterns. You wonder if you want the universe to be generous with you, you need to create a vibration of generosity. Do the smallest thing that you can. That is a fraction of that thing. And then the universe is going to see that and see it gain momentum. When the thing that you love gains momentum, it's about doing that little thing and keeping the momentum going. Because there's a lot out there in the universe. There's a lot out there in you that will kill the momentum.

Which is the beauty of tarot. There's people that have come to me that be like I don't know, I just, I don't know why I can't get it. It's like you're losing your momentum. You got to keep it up. It's like pain. It's like when something starts to hurt you, you start crying. When you're sitting in you're thinking and it's about that thing that hurts you and it starts to make you cry. When you start to feel all that pain that's when you have to go deeper. That's when you cannot draw back. That's when you have to push through that because that's where the good stuff is. On the other end of that. The enlightenment is there.

I lost my brother almost three years ago to a fatal car accident, head on collision with an 18 wheeler. And I had to make so much sense of that. Happened during a drag show, actually, which is crazy. I literally go out and do a number, and as I'm feeling the number, like I'm doing the number, all my energy's gone. I could not explain why. It was like there was a coldness in the room with a packed out house full of tons of people and we were at Bar DKDC and it's a murder mystery show. My sister calls the bar. The bar tells me to call my sister. My sister tells me my brother has been killed right after this Wizard of Oz number that I do.

And so I was like, I put so much into this number, and then I just—cold, just everything. I knew, I was like, oh my God, something, what has happened? Like I felt the sword. I felt the sword hanging over. I just felt it drop. I felt the drop. And luckily I was around family that really helped me in that moment. But God, cutting through all of that was deeply crazy. But I used to be so angry, and I used to have so much pain and sorrow about it. But now when I, like I said, you have to push past that. And that's where the enlightenment is now. I am grateful for the time I had with him.

How could he have been gone so young? How could this have been? It all eventually gets transformed. Transmuted. Because that's what I do. I'm a witch. That's what I do. I transmute the energy and I turn it into the things that I'm grateful for. The time that I had with him, the moments we shared, the things that he taught me. He was an artist as well, the things that he instilled in me. He was my stepbrother, but he's my stepbrother for 20 something years. We grew up together. And he had a long, hard battle with drugs. And after he had beaten this battle with drugs, that's when he dies. So it was just so hard for me to make sense of, like, what is this thing? But now I'm so grateful that he was able to live his life. He almost got engaged to a beautiful—he did get engaged to a beautiful girl that we didn't get to meet until, unfortunately, after he died. And so we had this huge moment. But he was able to be happy. He was able to find a peace within himself. And I'm so grateful that he was able to experience it. And I try to learn a lot of lessons from that. Like right when it hurts, you push past. That's where the enlightenment is. That's where the lesson is. That's where the love is. That's where the good stuff is. Because you remember all the pain when you start remembering, when I remember him all the pain comes to mind I'm like God oh I just, I can't, take it back. But you got to push past. It's on the end of it is. There he is. There's the image of the clear feeling of him, the piece of him that exists in my heart. And that's how you have to do it. And to be able to speak so calmly about this is crazy, probably makes me seem like a psychopath. But I've done deep work.

I've done deep, deep work to have to heal from that. Like there's nothing I cannot heal from. I have had to find, like Beyonce says in Lemonade, you know, found healing where it did not exist. A lot of being a drag queen, a lot of being a tarot reading drag queen—it's finding healing where it's not normally. But I'm grateful for everything that has happened to me that has allowed me to understand this process, but also teach this process as well, because obviously, I don't know everything. I'm not some mystical guru. I have a gorgeous voice and I can lead a guided meditation like nobody's business.

ZACK: You should do guided meditations for drag queens.

HUNNY: Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Okay. It's coming out next week, Zack. You'll see it.

ZACK: You'll see it. We're gonna record it after this right?

HUNNY: Yeah. Y'all think we're playing? I mean, like I said, I'm grateful to be able to create, to be able to channel it and to know what my purpose is and stuff. And I deeply want everyone in my circle to do the same.

ZACK: I'm so proud of you, like you've come so far and like, I don't use the word genius lightly. Like I truly believe that the way you heal people. I consider you a deep deep friend. I love you so much.

HUNNY: I love you. I'm so grateful. So grateful to be here.

Where to find Hunny

Instagram: @hunblun