COVID can’t keep a legend like Bunny down
Pride month is halfway through and with NYC’s COVID restrictions slowly lifting after over a year of quarantine, people are excited to get back out and have fun for the first time in a while. And if you are a fan of RuPaul’s
Drag Race, you definitely know about Drive N Drag, Voss Events latest show. This show features some of the best Ru-girls out there from Violet Chachki to Kameron Michaels. And if you’ve watched the show before, you have definitely heard the name Lady Bunny before. Lady Bunny is a drag legend in NYC, known for her quick wit and for hosting some of the best parties and drag shows. And fans of drag and Lady Bunny get a chance to catch her on the Drive N Drag tour too where she co-hosts the show with Asia O’Hara. We got a chance to sit down and talk to the legend herself about her time on the tour and what it’s like to be a part of this sort of show after being quarantined for so long due to COVID. And if you want to see this show yourself, Drive ‘N Drag Saves 2021 tickets are available now on VossEvents.com.
Check out our exclusive below:
The Knockturnal: How are you doing? What’s new with you?
Lady Bunny: Well, the Drive N Drag tour is fun. Like a lot of people I spent the last year cooped up and so it’s been reconnecting with audiences in a safe, outdoor format of the drive-in. But it’s also fun to connect with the castmates. And Ms. Vanjie has certainly kept me laughing. The whole cast is fun. I met Kandy and GotMik and they are lots of fun.
The Knockturnal: How has the Drive N Drag experience been like for you so far since you joined the cast not too long ago?
Lady Bunny: It’s been fun. Like I say, when you’re a ham and you don’t get to be with crowds in a year – it’s fun to be on a big stage with lights and backup dancers. It’s quite a production and I make a surprise entrance. So it’s been fun to be in show-biz again and not focusing on some of the virtual stuff like podcasts and all of that and get human responses in real-time.
The Knockturnal: Yeah, a lot of drag artists turned to virtual events on Zoom when lockdown started and it was definitely innovative but seemed to lose its charm shortly after.
Lady Bunny: You’re right. The Zoom drag shows – the novelty did wear off. Although I did appreciate drag queens, DJs – they miss connecting with people and so they would do these things on Twitch and Facebook live and the novelty did wear off during the holiday
The Knockturnal: And with New York lifting a lot of the COVID restrictions, how have you made the most of it so far especially during Pride month?
Lady Bunny: Well, I will spend most of Pride month on tour. But two shows a night – I’m proud I can get through that right now with my old ass. I do think that a lot of people have been fearful for the last year. The safest place that we could be was alone. And now with the lifting of mask restrictions and the prevalence of vaccines, our behavior should change once we have been fully vaccinated. And since being fully vaccinated, I had the nerve to fly three times for the first time in a year over the course of the last three months. So, you can’t sell the vaccine as the greatest thing since sliced bread then not change your behavior. Because you can do more things and they can be considered safer. Like I say, this is why this outdoor format appealed to me. We are all easing back into what we are comfortable with. Are we all going back to clubs? The last time I DJ’d at Monster was the first time they permitted dancing in the several weeks I have been DJing. We are just reintegrating back into the workforce, into parties – and my work is parties. It’s been fun to see people coming to the show who are unsure if they are going to have a gay pride march. But then they come to the Drive N Drag show in pride T-shirts or in drag and in some ways this has become a substitute outdoor event for any places that are not having the official parade.
The Knockturnal: Can you give us some details on what fans can expect from your performance at the Drive-in Drag?
Lady Bunny: Expect the unexpected! This is a high-energy show with lots of costumes. And I am the comedy element and I do a parody of Madonna’s Vogue called “Drag Race Hoes” which I have updated to include the queens from season 12 and 13. And I also do my set where I tell jokes about everyone under the sun from RuPaul to the Kardashians. And that seems to be going over well. I really enjoy vampiring the youthful energy from a cast that is mostly half my age. So a lot of their stuff is about being sexy and dancing or stripping. And I am the comedy element. And Asia O’Hara is very good as an MC. She recently went around the crowd saying “Who is the biggest Ms. Vanjie fan? Who’s the biggest GotMik fan?” And then says “Who is the biggest Lady Bunny fan?” and then says “I’m just kidding.” So, it’s just an interesting dynamic to share the stage with another MC, and we haven’t really worked together before, but now we trust each other because we aren’t trying to best each other but rather trying to crack jokes at each other at each other’s expense for the enjoyment of the crowd. It’s a little dynamic where we don’t like each other. A stage feud!
The Knockturnal: And you mentioned you just met some of the queens for the first time while on tour. How has the dynamic been with the whole cast? Are there any moments that was especially funny that you want to call out?
Lady Bunny: Yes, when I was exhausted the first night on the tour bus, Vanjie came in and said
“I CAME TO SING BUNNY A LULLABY. ROCK A BYE BABY” and I was like “oh, that is the most soothing thing to hear.” I don’t know why she and I hit it off so well. When I worked at one Drive in Drag show in New York, we never really met each other but by the end of the day we were shrieking at each other. Ms. Vanjie is a scream, GotMik is the mascot. And I have now been getting to know Kandy. I have never met her, and on the show she is argumentative. And she is not that in real life. So, it’s been fun for me to get to know these new queens. I did not know Kameron, who I now share a dressing room with, and she is lots of fun too. When I first met GotMik I was like, you’re not nervous at all. Walking up and acing all these groups numbers and I was like “You just joined today like me!” and GotMik was like “I have actually been on the tour for a month before.” So it’s a changing cast. We were going to have Roxxxy Andrews join the cast but she missed the bus.