Slightly Unhinged With Justin Pavis

She's the mug, she's got legs for days, and she's bringing some Halloween chaos to Slightly Unhinged! 🎃 Justin welcomes Portland drag queen Hex Kuntova to talk about growing up in Mexico and Salem, discovering drag, and building her place in Portland's queer nightlife. Hex shares how her love of makeup turned into a drag career, what it was like surviving a hit-and-run earlier this year, and why...

From competitive dance to millions of TikTok followers, Jaden Barba has spent most of his life performing. Now he's figuring out what comes next. Justin sits down with Jaden in Beverly Hills to talk about going viral on TikTok at 17, making the jump into original music, and what it's like growing up in the spotlight of social media. Jaden shares how his street dance videos took off, why he's takin...

CAMP is open, Logan is here, and Portland got one of its queer spaces back. Justin sits down with Logan Veilens, one of the owners of CAMP, the new gay bar in the former Scandals space on Harvey Milk Street. Logan has been part of Portland’s queer community for more than 30 years. He’s also a barber, personal trainer, owner of Best Coast Barber Co., owner of Best Coast Fitness, and somehow still h...

Bussy Syrup has a drag name some queens don’t want to say—and the story behind it is only the beginning. The Portland drag performer joins Justin Pavis for a funny, unfiltered conversation about drag culture, queer nightlife, sobriety, and finding a community where you can finally be yourself. How does a ridiculous Instagram username become a drag identity? What happens when your friends convince...

Q is here, and we are getting into the Big Biotch house. Justin sits down with Quenton McClure, better known as Q, one of his housemates from Big Biotch Portland / BBPDX. They talk about getting cast, walking into a house full of queer chaos, trying to play a social strategy game with almost no idea what to expect, and how the whole thing turned into a very messy little science experiment. They br...

Jon and Chris, the new co-owners of CC Slaughters, are here, and this one is very Portland, very queer, and very full circle. Justin sits down with the husbands behind the next chapter of one of Portland’s most recognizable LGBTQ+ nightlife spaces to talk about how they took over CC’s, why keeping it going mattered, and what they want the space to become. Jon is a Taiwanese-American manufacturing...

Gracie Sledge came all the way from Minneapolis, and that's only the beginning. This week on Slightly Unhinged, Justin sits down with his sister-in-law, longtime supporter, and Minneapolis correspondent for an episode that starts with reality TV, friendship, getting older, and being in your “fuck it” era, then opens into a much deeper conversation about community, advocacy, chosen family, and what...

Season 2 is officially here, and Jay Colby is kicking things off. Jay is a proud trans woman from the legendary House of Colby, Willamette Week’s No. 1 Portland’s Finest Drag Artist of 2026, and one of the faces behind Brunch Portland. She joins Justin for the first episode in the new studio to talk glamour, drag, business, community, and what it actually takes to build something that sells out ev...

We’re going to be real with you: this is the one to watch. Nicole Onosocopi is back for the Season 1 finale, and this time she is putting Justin in drag. Beard gone. Brows glued. Mug beaten. Wig on. Dress on. Full transformation! Nicole was the first drag queen on Slightly Unhinged, so it only made sense to bring her back to close out the season. What followed was part makeover, part emotional fin...

Justin is joined by Nehemiah Creel, a queer performing artist and business person based in Nob Hill. Nehemiah talks with Justin about growing up queer in Willamina, finding creative community in Portland, building confidence, and stepping into a more public version of himself. They get into small-town survival, religious pressure, queer art, merchant services, senior care, karaoke, and Nehemiah’s...

Justin is joined by Galen Ettlin for a conversation about local TV news, human-first communication, queer visibility, leadership, karaoke, Pokémon, and Real Housewives energy on an IKEA budget. Galen spent about a decade in TV news, including time here in Portland, before moving into strategic communications. He talks with Justin about what news work actually looks like behind the scenes, from fin...

Today’s episode is for the Bravo historians, the Housewives apologists, and anyone who has ever said “just one more reunion clip” and lost three hours. Justin is joined by Luke Hansen: Portland baddie, queer icon, friend to many, enemy to some, and a man with enough Bravo opinions to get somebody kicked out of the group chat. Luke and Justin talk comedy, performance, chosen paths, dramatic exits,...

For our final episode in Portland Pride month, Riley Burrows is back, and she is not here to sit politely in the guest chair. Riley returns for round two, renames the show Slightly Unhinged with Riley Burrows, and makes Justin answer the questions for once. What was supposed to be a normal guest episode turns into a full Riley takeover. They talk about the end of Season 1, what Justin has learned...

Released during Portland Pride, this episode celebrates one of the city’s most singular performers: Saint Syndrome, Portland’s Miss Gay Pride 2025 and the live-singing, piano-playing drag sensation behind The Queen’s Keys and Keyed Up Karaoke. Justin sits down with Saint to talk about classical piano, church music, coming out, drag, perfectionism, stage fright, and finding a way to make music feel...

This episode goes live the weekend of Portland Pride, so it only felt right to sit down with someone who has spent decades helping people feel at home in Portland’s queer nightlife. Bolivia Carmichaels is on the pod this week, and if you’ve been around Portland’s queer community for any amount of time, chances are she has welcomed you through a door, roasted you from a stage, hosted your bingo nig...

Portland drag queen Shandi Evans is regionally famous, deeply committed to Diet Coke, and unexpectedly knowledgeable about America’s wild pig crisis. Justin sits down with Shandi to talk about starting drag in a small California town with no real gay scene, moving to Portland, and building a career around hosting, performing, and being very good with a microphone. They also get into Jesus camp inj...

Monique Michaels is on the pod this week. She moved across the country for drag, and she came to PLAY! Justin and Monique talk about leaving Virginia for Portland, starting over in a new city, and what it feels like to walk into a scene where nobody knows you but you still know exactly what you bring. They get into East Coast vs West Coast drag culture, confidence, beauty, ego, performance standar...

Quesa D’Mondays is on the pod this week, and this episode covers a lot. Justin and Quesa get into how her drag name came to be, how theater shaped her, what made drag click for her in a way theater stopped doing, and how she turned that into full-time work. They also talk about queer identity, family dynamics, heartbreak, online hate, Pride, drag history, and the bigger purpose behind drag beyond...

Lindsay Givens is on the pod this week, and this one makes insurance feel way less miserable than it usually sounds. Justin and Lindsay talk about what insurance actually covers, why life insurance matters more than people think, and the kinds of claims that make you stop and go, wait… that paid out? They also get into networking, family life, working in the same industry as your spouse, and what...

Jordyn Jones is on the pod this week! Justin and Jordyn start with real estate, get into birding, Le Creuset, ocean panic, the feeling of sand in the flaps, and the very real need for boundaries when your job starts taking over your whole life. Jordyn talks about getting into real estate without ever really planning to, what people get completely wrong about the job, and how much work it actually...

In this episode of Slightly Unhinged, Justin sits down with Sean O’Hare, founder of Evolution RoofWorks, owner of PDX DJs, flight attendant for Alaska Airlines, entrepreneur, casino enthusiast, and one of Justin’s favorite humans. What starts with talk of opening a bar and spirals through business ideas, entrepreneurship, friendship, and chosen family turns into a much more real conversation about...

In this episode of Slightly Unhinged, Justin sits down with Riley Burrows, a high-glamour, high-energy drag performer whose story is as compelling as the performances themselves. From starting drag at just 13 years old in deeply conservative Idaho to building a full-time career as a traveling entertainer, Riley opens up about identity, ambition, survival, performance, and what it really takes to m...

In this episode of Slightly Unhinged, Justin sits down with Andrea Kramer for a conversation about burnout, big career pivots, and what it looks like to finally choose a life that feels better instead of just looking good on paper. Andrea shares the story of moving from the high-stress world of property management and mortgages into a completely different chapter with No Worries In-Home Care, wher...

In this episode of Slightly Unhinged, Justin brings the conversation home and sits down with the person who has been there through all of it: his husband, Daniel Pavis. This is not just a guest episode. It’s the real origin story behind Justin’s growth and the relationship that helped shape the life he lives now. Plus the love, friction, ambition, and belief it took to build something real togethe...

If you've been listening to Slightly Unhinged for any amount of time, you already know Mandy. She's been in the background of this show since the very beginning — her wine bar, Bouchon, is where the wine comes from in almost every episode, and her name has come up more times than either of them can count. This week, she finally gets her moment. Mandy is the owner of Bouchon: A Wine Bar in Cedar Mi...