Let’s get back up in this gig
RuPaul’s Drag Race has been a show that prides itself in the drama, the fashion, and the personalities. Drag Race has always been, and still is, a beacon of representation for all the queer people in the world. And to commemorate the impact that drag has had on today’s world, Mama Ru has brought her famous Rupaul’s Drag Con to the big apple. Hosted at the Javits Center, Rupaul’s Drag Con is a huge convention that brings together everyone’s favorite queens from the show all to one place. Fans have a chance to purchase merchandise like pins and posters as well as having the chance to meet their favorite queens. Each queen had a booth set up with all their collectibles and fans waited in huge lines just to get a chance to see the queens that they look up to. And this Rupaul’s Drag Con, we got a chance to look around and even talk to some of the queens. Check out our exclusive interviews down below.
Trixie Mattel:
Q: How is it like to be at DragCon in NYC?
A: It is super fun. It is just like the DragCon in LA but I don’t know where I am. Like today I walked through the front door because I didn’t know where I was going.
Q: Did you see all the signs promoting your new TV show?
A: Oh I saw all the signs promoting the show which is very exciting.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about that?
A: I feel like a real TV star. It’s fun to be on Drag Race and in ads and when I was on American Horror Story. But to have a show with my name on it, especially with my name before Katya’s is really important to me.
Q: Is it going to be similar to your YouTube series?
A: It’s like our YouTube series except we also have scripted pieces, we have more cameras, better lights—it’s like our YouTube series doing drag. And it’s our great dichotomy of her being a freak from hell and me being more of a straight man. So it’s fun. And we have our editors Chris and Ron who did our original series, so that whole element is still going to be present of crazy editing.
Q: Can you talk about what it was like for you to be approached for a TV series?
A: Well, we love the YouTube series and we got so much momentum so quickly. Our videos went viral which in our community, videos going viral, not always a good thing. So, we are happy and whatever we can do to make more people laugh with us is always a good thing. And on YouTube it was always easy to get people to get involved and so on TV it will be even easier.
Q: And on your YouTube series you and Katya always come up with great openers. What would be your opener for today?
A: Hi I’m the woman who hasn’t washed her tights in so long that the texture and the feel of these tights is that of duct tape, Trixie Mattel.
Q: And what do you think Katya’s would be if she were here?
A: Hi, I’m not here because I’m Katya and on a tour, sometimes going to meetings.
Q: And All Stars 3 and Season 10 are happening—what are you looking forward to with that?
A: All Stars 2 was so amazing so I’m looking forward to seeing it.
Q: If you were on All Stars 3, what would you be excited for?
A: Well, I think we have all seen how I do on televised competition shows so we all know I can’t lip sync. I don’t know what I would do. At least on me and Katya’s TV series nobody can eliminate us. That’s the best part.
Q: Hopefully there’s no Pearl on any All Stars that you’re in.
A: Hopefully.
Milk:
Q: What is it like being at NYC DragCon?
A: It’s amazing. This is my hometown. It was weird getting into drag to come to the Javits Center. But, I love the glass ceilings here. They are ready to be busted. But it is sad knowing that Hillary was here when she lost the election. I don’t know if you’re a democrat like me, but DragCon is really livening up this place again.
Q: What is it like to meet all your fans here in NYC?
A: Well, all of these people are from all over the country. It is insane. The draw that this has is absolutely wild and amazing. The fandom of Drag Race is so talented and exciting and the fact that they are the future generation is pretty damn cool.
Q: If you could lip sync against any queen and to any song, who would you lip sync against and to what song?
A: It would be a Barbra Streisand song. And I would do it against Tammie Brown. Tammie Brown, Barbra Streisand, I think it would be weird and a MOMA piece.
Q: You could hang it up in the Louvre too.
A: Exactly, right next to the Mona Lisa.
Q: What’s the weirdest experience you have had with fans?
A: I think just when fans don’t come up to me to say hi, they just take a creepy, stealthy picture of me sitting on the subway and then tweet it saying ‘oh, I was just too afraid to go up to say hi to Milk,’ and it was just a picture of me picking my nose.
Q: So All Stars 3 and Season 10 have been confirmed, so what are you excited for about it?
A: I am just excited to see Drag Race. Drag Race is my favorite show ever, even though it causes me, like on Season 6, so much stress. It is my favorite show ever. And to just see drag queens know that they are coming back to TV and shared across the globe is so rad.
Q: Even watching it is stressful like you’re sitting there biting your nails
A: I think people are starting to realize how hard drag is. Like season after season and seeing the shit that we have to do is pretty cool.
Q: If you could be a part of any challenge or create your own challenge, what challenge would that be?
A: I think the challenge that I wish I could’ve done is from season 9, the cheerleading challenge. That looked like so much fun.
Q: Except it destroyed Charlie.
A: Did it? I heard she had diarrhea.
Q: I heard she hurt her body but then I heard she was purposefully trying to feign masturbation in that lip sync.
A: Oh my god. But, yeah, I think that would be a fun challenge.
Kim Chi:
Q: What is it like to be at NYC DragCon?
A: It’s amazing. I don’t get to come to New York often so it’s nice to have all the East Coast people in one place.
Q: Did you go sightseeing yet?
A: No, I have been so busy with this.
Q: What is it like to see all your fans all in one place?
A: Every time I meet them is exciting. With a big scale event like this, I don’t have too much time to converse but I get to see what they’re wearing.
Q: If you could lip sync against any queen to any song, which queen would you lip sync against and to what song?
A: I don’t know, I would probably lose.
Q: Well, who would you want to lose against?
A: Pick anybody I would probably lose.
Q: What song would you want to lose to?
A: Put whatever and I would probably lose.
Q: And anything else that is coming up that you would like to share?
A: Yes…you can feel it in my pants.
Violet Chachki:
Q: What is it like being at NYC DragCon?
A: It is surreal. This place is very special and this city is very special. And I think it is a different vibe than the LA one that I went to. It’s interesting and unique and the first one here so it’s just going to get bigger.
Q: How is this different than the one in LA?
A: I think LA people are a bit more relaxed in general. Even with the space and getting here, it’s a bit more relaxed. Like the first day was crazy. It was a madhouse.
Q: Well LA people are more relaxed because all they deal with is sunshine and don’t have to deal with actual winter.
A: Yeah, there’s lots of factors that play into that but I think here it is just really intense and everyone is super passionate and you can really tell.
Q: How are you balancing DragCon with New York Fashion Week?
A: I think that was probably why things have been so hectic. I had to walk a show yesterday in the middle of DragCon so I had to leave and then come back. It was a madhouse getting in and out.
Q: And I heard you’re starting your own fashion line?
A: Yeah, there’s going to be a collaboration with a clothing company that I am excited about. I can’t spill a lot.
Q: Can you talk about the inspirations?
A: Yes! I had a huge hand in the design process and a lot of the inspiration comes from a famous French fetish photographer, Pierre Molinier. I reference him for a lot of my work and he I would like to think of him as the 50’s and 60’s version of me. He takes very risqué nudes and very chic, surrealist photography so it is really cool.
Q: And you are that drag queen that loves to push the envelope with your looks and you’re also someone who is very outspoken about a lot of things like politics…
A: I wouldn’t say I’m very political. I think if something pisses me off then I have to tweet about it.
Q: Like that whole Vogue thing?
A: Yeah, that whole Vogue thing. It’s like, do you get upset or are you happy that they are trying to be inclusive or are you upset that they are using it wrong and they missed the mark? It’s complicated and they definitely missed the mark. But I am thinking they realized that by now. I know so many amazing people who are genderfluid and are genderqueer and who are trans and they deserve that spotlight because they have that struggle and the community would really benefit from that representation. They had a really good opportunity to do something good for a lot of people and they missed it. It makes me sad but at the same time I am a little bit happy that they attempted it. I don’t know. I wish they would be ballsy. Good journalism is about taking risk. And Vogue has been a joke for a long time. It is still a very wildly respected magazine and publication, but it is really just a sack of advertisement now. It’s all a hierarchy and there’s all these politics and it is all this stuff and I get it and it is an industry but you can still have good journalism.
Q: And Peppermint on Season 9 talked about being a drag queen and a trans woman and how she didn’t feel at place within the community. How was it like being on the show when the norm is being a cis man drag queen?
A: It’s complicated. I actually tried talking about it in the show but it was actually edited out. The first episode I go flat chested on the runway and I got criticized for it and they were critiquing my body and they were talking about how it wasn’t feminine enough and I wasn’t presenting myself in the right way or whatever. And so I talked about body positivity—or I tried to, they just edited my whole speech. I tried to explain why I was so upset with the critiques and why I felt it was wrong but I think they didn’t want any politically correct drama happening. Because I was really fired up, I remember.
Q: What would it be like for you to see bio queens and androgynous queens and more trans queens come on the show?
A: I want to see everything but the fact of the matter is that Viacom and VH1 run the show and it’s not like you think it is. It’s cute to think it’s like a real competition and that everything is fair and that it’s all perfect and everything is exactly how it looks, but it’s a TV show, it’s a business. It’s blatant.
Q: And a lot of Drag Race fans don’t get that and then come for queens like how so many people came for Nina after Valentina got eliminated.
A: It’s a game. And that is very apparent. And it is also a TV show and that is very apparent. I think people forget that.