Spartan Profiles: Josh Kilmer-Purcell

STAR GOAT FARMER

OK, so you’re a successful advertising executive, and your memoir about moonlighting as a drag queen in New York City has become a best-seller.  What next?  You become a goat farmer, of course, and star in your own reality TV show. 

That’s the thumbnail bio of Josh Kilmer-Purcell, ’91, who stars this fall in Planet Green’s The Fabulous Beekman Boys—a reality series about him and his life partner, Dr. Brent Ridge, on their goat farm in upstate New York.  The saga is also recounted in Kilmer-Purcell’s The Bucolic Plague (Harper Collins, 2010). “We had a lot of fun,” says Josh of the year-long shoot.  “Having cameras around heightens everything—whether it’s arguments, or funny moments.”  Josh adds, “This is not a show about city people finding the joy of fresh eggs and being barefoot in the grass. We show that farming is not a romantic quest. Things are not all fluffy.” 

Born in Albany, NY, Josh grew up in Wisconsin and chose MSU because of the hospitality business program.  But he switched to English.  “I loved everything about MSU,” he recalls.  “Being a big place, it forces you to be self-directed.  Also, I had a great mentor in (University Distinguished Professor) Diane Wakoski.”  Josh writes for magazines such as Out, and The Advocate, and he’s written three books. 

His tragicomic memoir, I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir (Harper Perennial, 2006)—focusing on his drag queen performances at nightclubs in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Tokyo, while working at agencies like SS+K, Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, and Merkley Newman Harty—became a best-seller.  “I still cringe whenever I send Diane a book because of what she might say was wrong,” says Josh. 

Today, he and his partner split their time between Manhattan’s Upper East Side and Sharon Springs, NY, where they raise 124 goats along with pigs, chickens, turkeys and llamas.  “You know, I really missed an opportunity at MSU to learn about farming,” muses Josh with a chuckle.