A Night Out With Miss Toto
Miss Toto (Rock Evans), 29, gets ready in the drag room of her UpTown apartment. Miss Toto was first introduced to drag while in graduate school at the University of Miami, studying marine biology, but she didn’t start doing drag full time until 2015.
On June 1st, the first day of Pride Month, Miss Toto performed at The Shedd Aquarium. One of the biggest pride and drag installations in the city. Miss Toto has a masters in Marine Biology, and before pursuing drag full time, she was trying to get a job at the Shedd. “I called them [The Shedd] out in 2020. I was like, how many of your employees have master’s degrees in marine science? How many black employees do you even have that don’t work in custodial? How many black employees do you have that work in upper-level management?” Miss Toto said. “But again, everything happens for a reason.”
June is the busiest month of the year for Miss Toto. On June 1st, she gave a lecture on drag and queerness at UIC and then rushed home to prepare for the Shedd. For the rest of the month, she has gigs Wednesday through Sunday. "I don't want to make a June schedule because I don't want to see how much I have to do and then overwhelm myself, but I might make one later."
On Friday, June third, Miss Toto DJs and performs at the Unfriendly Black Hotties at Hydrate Nightclub in Chicago’s Northalsted neighborhood. The show happens on the first Friday of each month, highlighting and celebrating Black artists.
Miss Toto has only been DJing since September of 2021, her first time in Berlin, Germany. "So I haven't even DJ for like a year live yet. But I had a feeling because I didn't really trust the DJ, who we were on this trip with," Miss Toto said. "My boyfriend was on his way over, and I was like, bring my USBs and headphones. I just don't have a good feeling about this gig."
“So we got there and didn’t book an opening DJ. And I was like, Well, I have my USBs if we need somebody, so the first time I did it live was in Berlin.” Since then, Miss Toto has played at clubs all over Chicago, HEAV3N party in LA and even opened up for Rina Sawayama in April.
Miss Toto’s DJ sets are dynamic and fun. She plays the music she wants to play and hopes everyone can keep up with her. “I like to play music that I don’t think people have heard in the club before but would enjoy hearing,” Miss Toto. “I want people to be Shazaming the music that they’re hearing be like, “Damn, what song is this?” or “That’s sickening,” you know, finding out about new artists they may not have heard of.”
Miss Toto is continually working to better herself and her drag. Last year, while in Berlin, she quit her job as an education manager for a nonprofit organization. “I was like, Why am I crying about this job that doesn’t even value me at home? It was the start of a new era,” Miss Toto said. “I am literally in Germany to do drag, and my boss is not respecting me. Yeah, so why should I give a fuck about this job.”
Since quitting her full-time job, she has gotten more opportunities, from performing at her hometown's drag festival to being on the reboot of Queer as Folk. "It's like a Sex and The City almost but with queer people," Miss Toto said. "The original one was just very whitewashed, but the new one is very queer, very diverse. It's amazing. A very full-circle moment to be like, that's a show that I was sneakily watching at my grandma's house on HBO. And now, I'm on it."
Miss Toto says she can’t think too much about what she wants in the future, but she knows she wants to continue performing and making music. “I would love to be a tour DJ and go on tour with somebody. That would be so fun, like, someone book me already."
While other opportunities knock, one of Miss Toto’s proudest moments of 2022 is the release of her first-ever single, “Lip Gloss.” Miss Toto wrote the song in about a day. A producer sent Miss Toto the demo and by 10:00 am the next day, the producer finalized the track, and fans of Miss Toto and soon-to-be fans can expect exciting things for her debut single more than just lip-syncing performances.
Miss Toto wants people to do one thing when they leave her show, be obsessed. “To be in love with me and be obsessed with me,” Miss Toto said. “I just really enjoy performing for people. So I want them to at least enjoy what I did, and if they love it and love me, it’s even better.”