Dungeons and Drag Queens: Fire Island Through the Eyes of its Worst Drag Queen

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Focus Mid-South

Ray Rico, a Latinx advocate, owns a digital marketing agency and publishes Focus LGBT magazine, amplifying LGBTQ+ voices in Tennessee and the Mid-South. He champions HIV advocacy, fighting stigma and discrimination. Through his work, Ray strives for a more inclusive society.
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In his second collection of humorous essays, comedian Greg Scarnici recounts some of his most shocking and scandalous experiences over twenty-five years of summering on New York’s Fire Island. From tea dances in Fire Island Pines to drag competitions in Cherry Grove, Greg Scarnici’s DUNGEONS AND DRAG QUEENS paints a picture of what a typical summer on the island of misfit boys is like. 

“If I were to explain Fire Island to someone who’s never been there, I would describe it as a bathhouse on the beach,” Greg Scarnici explains.  “Or Provincetown with more meth.” 

Nothing is sugarcoated in DUNGEONS AND DRAG QUEENS.  Scarnici spills all the hot tea from riding aboard a ferry in a dress with two hundred other drag queens during the annual Fourth of July Invasion, to getting innocently lured into a sex dungeon that was actually a 3×4 garden shed.  He discusses his adventures in the notorious Meat Rack and dancing until the sun comes up at the island’s annual beach celebration, Pines Party.

Every essay exposes a different, accurate and hilarious facet of Scarnici’s Fire Island. From “MuuMuu Land,” which talks about the magic that can happen by throwing on a five-dollar caftan, to “Suffolk Cunty Realness,” which details the creation of his alter ego, Levonia Jenkins.  The bearded Levonia (pictured on the cover) has had the honor of being crowned “the worst drag queen in Cherry Grove” four times, proving that one does not need a perfect beat or wig to be a crown-snatching female impersonator.   

DUNGEONS AND DRAG QUEENS simultaneously weaves in some of the island’s extraordinary history and introduces many of its true-life colorful characters. 

Greg Scarnici is a comedic writer, director, producer, actor, DJ and musician whose comedy videos have been viewed over 10 million times on YouTube. His work has also been featured on MTV, VH1, Fox News and CNN. Acting credits include appearances in 30 Rock, Online Nation, Nick Cannon: Short Circuitz and A Star is Born. Greg has also written and performed several stage shows including Queens, The Buddy & Barbara Comedy Hour, Sex Tape, Must Be The Music and Gender Fluids.  He also produces music under the name Undercover.

Greg currently works as an Associate Producer at Saturday Night Live. Books include his debut collection of humorous essays: I Hope My Mother Doesn’t Read This and SEX IN DRAG, a parody of Madonna’s infamous SEX book shot entirely on Fire Island.

DUNGEONS AND DRAG QUEENS is available on Amazon and at select bookstore retailers.

Visit www.gregscarnici.com