The Coven of Misfits want to f**k monsters in Monster F**kers

“When the sun goes down, the misfits cum out.” Those are the words of Coven of Misfits promoting their drag and burlesque show, Monster F**kers , happening Sept. 25 at the Soft Spot Café in Garfield, with more shows coming up at Harold’s Haunt and The Glitterbox Theater in the coming months. Coven of Misfits is a queer, performing arts collective featuring Jami Starling , Maxxx Massacre , and Ramona Ripley . Starling is originally from southern New Jersey and moved to Pittsburgh after attending Western Virginia University. “My gender is dyke,” they say. “Gender fluid, genderqueer, nonbinary.” Massacre is originally from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area and first moved to western Pa. to study theatre at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. They identify as transmasc nonbinary. Ripley is from Westmoreland County and attended Duquesne University. They say that their gender is “whatever is convenient for the bit. I like being in that enigmatic state of being everything and being nothing. But I enjoy being able to say that I am genderfluid, and I am more confidently saying that I am nonbinary now.” The three met through performing with the Junior Chamber of Commerce Players (JCCP), Pittsburgh’s official Rocky Horror Shadow Cast; The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been a major source of inspiration to the group. It was Rocky Horror and its depiction in the film The Perks of Being a Wallflower that inspired Starling to start doing drag during quarantine. “Some people were making sourdough bread. I was learning how to beat a mug,” Starling tells Pittsburgh City Paper . (“Beating a mug” is drag slang for applying makeup.) Starling got Massacre into masculine drag for the first time when he played Brad with JCCP. “I started a little bit more in burlesque than drag particularly,” Massacre tells City Paper . “But I’ve obviously kind of fused them at this point.” Ripley came to drag through cosplay: “I was cosplaying as far ba