We all remember our first time. Maybe it was awkward, maybe it wasn’t how you pictured it, maybe you laughed at the wrong times, maybe there was nobody in the room except eight drunk dudes. But however terrifying that first time was, you knew that it could be the start of something incredible.

Andrea Alton’s first time involved a mullet, a crossing-guard vest and lots of drag queens. Oh, and she did it by herself.

As a contestant in the 2010 Miss Fag Hag Pageant at Comix, Andrea decided to take a character she’d developed as part of a sketch duo, and fly solo for the first time. Among all the sequined-out vocalists and dancers, Andrea could have been considered the odd duck out. Or perhaps just the awesome duck out. “There were all these drag queens, a really talented singer, and the costume designer from Mama Mia was there in this really elaborate outfit.” And there sat Andrea as Molly Equality Dykeman, a poet-slash-unlicensed school security guard, in her vest and fantastically bad hair.

Before becoming an almost-beauty queen, Andrea had only ever performed Molly alongside comedy partner Allen Warnock in their show Friends Forever. Then she got the call to do the Hag pageant, and had to pick a talent that would stand out. “I kind of didn’t even want to do it,” said Andrea. “But it was a benefit for the Harvey Milk School, so that was enough. And I knew that [organizer and host] Shawn Hollenbach would put on a really good show. I figured I would either be awesome, or suck.” She later found out that in the midst of the talent portion, “my friend’s boyfriend asked her what I would be doing for my talent. She told him I’d be reading poetry, and he just went, ‘oh my god’ and rolled his eyes.”

Good thing she killed! Her poems went over like gangbusters, especially the closer, “I Don’t Fucking Give a Shit.” Though someone else won the pageant, Andrea’s real prize came when, months later, pageant judge and fabulous character actor Leslie Jordan recognized her at his own solo show. “He just yelled, ‘Miss Fag Hag is here!’ and told me my comedy was brilliant,” Andrea said. Molly has since made appearances all over the city, and even has her own show in the New York International Fringe Festival called The F*cking World According to Molly.

The F*cking World According to Molly
The Players Theatre
115 MacDougal Street, NYC
8/13 – 9:15pm
8/19 – 6:00pm
8/20 – 9:15pm
8/25 – 2:00pm
8/28 – 4:15pm

More on Andrea (and Molly) at MollyEqualityDykeman.com.