All Drag Queens Go To Heaven with Irene DuBois

Alec and Loni are joined by the Alien Queen, Irene DuBois, and it is out of this world! First, the two share their visions of Heaven to go along with this week’s Maxi Challenge. No necks were broken during the recording of this episode. Then, the queens polish up their Metallica runways while Alec and Loni let their opinions shine. Plus, Irene RuVeals if Luxx Noir London ever accepted the true length of the 40-inch wig.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello, Hello, Hello, and welcome back to another episode of
Squirrel Friends, the Official RuPaul's Drag Race Podcast. Now listen.
If you're a returning listener, welcome back. If you're a
first time listener, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. I'm Aleck Mama, and
I'm here to introduce America's sister, the Queen of all Media,
Lonnie Love. Hello, Alec, how are you might hear him? Good?

(00:27):
What's going on? I heard there was something in the
news lately about our friend Nina West. Yeah. I wanted
to give a quick shout out and a show of
love to Nina West. Recently, she did a wonderful open
letter to Out Magazine. If you go to out magazine
dot com or either check out Nina West on her
Instagram you can find it. Because she has been going

(00:47):
through a lot. She does these drag story times and
she's been getting a lot of negative protesters. Just recently
on Twitter, there is a video of a man bay
sickly trying to interrupt her show. She handles it with
Grace at the library while she's reading Two Kids or No.
This was an actual show that was eighteen and over.

(01:11):
They check I d S and this man comes in
and he's saying, they are children here, there are children here,
and everyone is saying there are no children. They're here,
kids here, there are no kids here. And it's eighteen
plus and they checked our I d s. And so
because of all of this, she has been getting a
lot of because when the pandemic was happening, she was

(01:33):
doing story time. And I just wanted to reiterate she
is one of our RuPaul drag Race sisters. She is
one of our RuPaul drag Race sisters. And she's from Columbus, Ohio,
and she is known in Columbus, Ohio as being a
big fundraiser, like if you need to raise money, you
go to Nina West. She's raised so much money for
the community and for Columbus Ohio and raised awareness of

(01:55):
Columbus Ohio that they've named the street after her in
downtown Columbus, Ohio and West Way. And it's not just
since drag Race. For the past ten years she's been
reading two Kids in the library. And let me let
me tell you, for all these girlfriends out there who
are listening, drag time story telling is basically a drag
queen just reading a children's book in a library. That's

(02:16):
it that's getting kids excited about reading. It's somebody in
a big costume and a big wig. The kids get
really animated, really excited. And all of these people have decided,
after all this time, where there's not been a problem,
that all of a sudden, because I hate drag queens
that I hate gay people. I've come up with an
idea that they're all grooming and that they're all predators.

(02:38):
So it justifies me being a dick at a live show,
and it's not the case. And the whole reason it's
in this country. The thing about Nina West, she is
the most kid friendly drag queen I've ever seen, and
she would not do anything to hurt a child, and
she even quoted as saying when she came on rupas
drag race. The reason why she does this is because

(03:00):
are a lot of LGBT plus people that have children
and they want to see part of their culture reflected,
and so that's why she also does it, and so people,
I just wanted to show her some love alec because
I see the negativity that's happening with her, and she
gave a wonderful open letter that I want everyone to

(03:21):
go to. I will post it and also will also
retweet it on my Twitter at Lonnie Love because we
have to show love to the people that are doing
good and everyone is allowed to express themselves and she
is just a wonderful, wonderful persons. I wanted to give
Nina West some love, and that's all I wanted to do.
I mean, the thing that's absolutely bananas to me is

(03:41):
that one of the last Drag Queen story time things
was protested against in Columbus, Ohio. The Proud Boys showed
up and they were armed. So it's kind of like
there's something there's a disconnect happening when you have guns
showing up at a library where somebody's reading the kids exactly,
and you know. And the thing is is that now

(04:02):
she's having like even at this show that she was
at where the man was protesting, there were police officers outside,
so now they have to have security because people like
him come in and protest and things like that. And
it's not even like that this is all about fun.
This is about, you know, something for the children. So

(04:23):
we just want our squirrel friends to be aware of
what is happening. And this is the reason why we
have to have allies. We have to have we have
to speak up, we have to vote, we have to
make sure that there are policies in place that protect
everyone and allow everyone to be and express who they are.
So shout out to Nina West. And with that said,

(04:43):
we're gonna get into this episode three, which is exciting.
Three allread so fast it is. I mean, come on,
give me the spoilers so that everybody the spoiler alerts
if you haven't listened to the show yet. I mean,
we did tickets like detour to talk about Nina West.
But that's important because we have to tell the truth

(05:04):
on this show. We have to tell the truth about ourselves.
We can't give the story to other people to tell,
because they're gonna tell it. In this episode, spoiler La,
we're going to talk about the Heavenly infomercials that they
filmed this week on RuPaul's Drag Race, they had a
metallic themed runway. We're gonna talk about that. We'll see
how the lip sync for Your Life and Elimination turns out.

(05:28):
And we have a special guest joining us a little
later to chat about her time on this season, The
Alien Queen herself, Irene du Bois, she's here, so stay
tuned for that. But first it is time for fifteen
seconds to say. Alec and I have fifteen seconds to
race and say all of our most important thoughts and

(05:49):
takes on a topic given to us by our producers.
Producers want to rush through our opinions at once point.
It's like, I want to hear your opinions, but I
want to give almost as made a whole hour of it,
I guess. So we could talk about me in the
West for an hour, but we're gonna talk about this episode. Okay,
fifteen seconds talk about what this week? What we're going

(06:11):
to talk about for this episode. We have fifteen seconds
to say who we think had the best debut of
this season of Drag Race and why God, Lonnie, that
was so good. You could do this for a living,
you could be you're ready, okay, ready, set say my
favorite person in the first episode, first two episodes was

(06:31):
Anitra from Las Vegas. I think she had the best debut.
My favorite part of drag Race is discovering new talent,
and for me, she's the new find of the season
and I hope she stays up there. Okay, great, you're
not really good Okay, okay, okay, you're gonna time yourself.
Don't cheat. Okay, let me time you. I'm gonna pull

(06:51):
up my phone seconds a lot of time. Okay, I know,
but this is the lightning round. Okay, readyness set say.
The person that I think had a really great debut
is um the Mistress, because mrs is bold and proud
and she is herself. She she's showing that she's Texas

(07:13):
and I love her in her comedy and I can't
wait to see more of her this season. That's that
was perfect alright, goet this. I love it without even
watching the clock. That is amazing. I do like Mistress.
I told you that I saw her in Texas and
the thing that oppressed me about her was she did
a whole bunch of lip syncs, she grabbed the mic,

(07:34):
and then she went out into the audience. Now you
know me, anybody who does crowd work is impressive to me.
You love that you do that all the time, all
the time. I love I love crowd work. What do
you love about it? Because I love meeting people. I
love meeting people. Do you have responses planned in your head? No?
I just wanted it happened because if a person comes

(07:55):
to a comedy show, they're looking to laugh. Most of
the time, they're looking to laugh, they're looking to half
a good time. So you know you will find that
people are just giddy and open. Plus you know they
probably had a look drinking. I know there are people
who do crowd work all the time. You just person,
I mean, anybody who like and I just kind of

(08:15):
what happens is, I'll get into it and then if
somebody's boring. But that was our fifteen seconds to say.
If you want us to say something for fifteen seconds,
d M or message us your ideas at Alec Mapa
on Instagram or at comic Lonnie Love on Instagram or
at Lonnie Love on Twitter. And with that said, we

(08:38):
gotta take a quick great because we gotta get into
this episode. Alex and I gotta work on my crowd work.
I know that we'll be right back, and we're back.
There was some gossip this week in the in the workroom. Okay,

(08:59):
remember I tell told you when Robin Fierce came in,
she looked at Amethyst and said, I'm not saying nothing.
I'm not gonna say nothing. You don't not gonna say that,
fan so I was like, oh, what happened. Yeah, but
see that's if you say that, I'm not gonna say nothing,
then everybody's gonna hang on that. It has to like

(09:19):
you want to don't do that, don't do that. So
what Robin and Amethysts spilled the beans on was the
fact that they used to date. They briefly dated, and
Amethysts was the one that said, no, we should just
be friend. There's a big history of like drag queens
dating other drag queens. Alaska and Sheer Needles used to
be a couple. Oh really, Bob the drag Queen and

(09:42):
ms Cracker the word thing. What. Yeah, I don't think.
I don't think I'm speaking out of turn. But they
used to. Maybe they just did it, Maybe they just screwed.
I don't know if they dated. Maybe they dated for
fifteen minutes, I don't forwever hours long. I know that
Brooklyn Heights and Vanjie had a thing you at the
t e E. These are all the important facts. I

(10:05):
think that I would not have the energy to have
a show bance while I'm doing a show. Yeah, afterwards,
I would be like during a competition, I wouldn't want
my focus to be divided. I want to take this
back because Amethyst says she's a bad texter. Robin was
very busy, and they just said it was a mutual
split up. So, you know, it's hard to work with

(10:27):
someone or it's hard when you're a creative person, it's hard.
I dated a comic one time, and it was hard
because we were in competition with each other and it
was like he was at a different level than I was,
and then I started growing and it's so I think
sometimes that could be a little bit difficult. If you
are in this, you have to be with somebody who

(10:47):
lines up with what you do. If you're dating another actor,
which I've done, I don't recommend it because one of
you is always going to be working and one of
you is not. And when one of you, like when
you said that, when they're not on your level, it
takes a really secure person to kind of be happy
for you and be cool, do you know what I mean?
But if you're dating another comic and they do what

(11:08):
you do and you're doing better than that gets tricky. Yeah,
And so it's just best to just, you know, at
that point, break it off, which now I'm going to
go back, because I am right, Amethyst is the one
that broke it off, and Robin said that the chapter
is closed. So I think Robin still have a feeling,
you know. That's what I really, That's what I got

(11:28):
that okay, But she was the one who said the
chapter's closed. So you think that she's like in denial. Yeah,
I think so. I think it was. You know, well, listen,
a woman knows, you know what. We got a lot
of episodes with those two, hopefully you know. So as
Lucy La Duca doesn't think that she should have been
in the bottom from last week, she's angry, she's embarrassed. Right, Well,

(11:51):
she came in with guns of blazing and she had
her whole kind of talent show thing worked out. I'm
gonna sing live. I mean I get the thought says
behind it. If I sing live, that's something that not
everybody else is gonna do, and I'm gonna stand out.
She did stand out, but for all the wrong reasons.
So she seems really determined to do much better in
this episode. Well, the thing is that Rue Paul came

(12:14):
in for the Maxi Challenge a beautiful suit. It's like
a black and white print suit. I asked Rue on
set where did the suits come from? And he said
a lot of them were vintage, but I think he's
having things made. Now, okay, this was a black and
white print. It was so cute. I love a good
black and white print because you know, and then the

(12:35):
pop of color was around his neck. He walked into
the workroom and says, three four of adults in the
United States believe in heaven, but what heaven actually looks
like is someone else's guest. So for the Maxi Challenge,
he wants the queens to sell us their vision of
the afterlife or the queer. After I thought that was funny.

(12:57):
The queer that's very funny. That's very funny. So he
divided them up in three teams. Now, the first team
was based on a Nietra. She got picked because she
won last week's challenged and you had amethysts, and she
got picked because she survived the lip sync. And then
the rest were called the leftovers. Right right, there's a

(13:18):
lot of people leftovers. Well, you know, it's the top
of the season, so there's gonna be group challenges where
they just gotta you know, they want to see all
your individual performances. That you have to break them up
into groups, especially this year's sixteen Queens. Oh my god. Well,
first of all, my idea of the queer after, and
I want to hear yours mine is like I go

(13:38):
to Heaven and it's like the NBA, only everybody is
gay and they want to have sex with me. That's it.
That's it. I arrived in Heaven and it's like the
Staples Center and I come in and everybody's like, right
this way, and they walked me right to the locker room.
Oh I hate you, and all the refreshments are for

(14:00):
we get free pretzels, free beer, and just kind of
hang out with the gay NBA for the rest of
my life. You know. My My idea of the queer
after is actually coming and learning everything that I should
have learned on earth, like how to walk in heels,
how to put on the correct eyebrow, how to put
on an eyelash correctly. You've had time to learn that.

(14:25):
I should have learned it earlier. Alec, That's what I'm saying.
I just should have. But that's like to me, the
ultimate you know, It's like that's why I love you know,
the Queen's because my sister is calling me. Oh hi,
I'm podcasting right now. Can I call you back? And
it is everything? Okay, okay, all right, I'll call you afterwards.

(14:51):
For Heaven six. I'm turning my phone off. This is
a nightmare, squirrel friends. I thought that we had act
you we silenced alex Phone, but we didn't. So your
idea of the queer after is another episode of celebrity
drag race. Yeah, you had enough and I will be

(15:14):
the Rue Paul positions. Okay, alright, I would love that one.
So we've got three teams. We've got a Nietra Lux,
Sasha Selena, and Masha Masha Masha on one team, which
I thought, okay, I'm not gonna say right now because
I'm like, I'm looking at the teams. I'm like, hmmm,
that's interesting. Then I'm team two. You had Amethysts, you

(15:35):
had Lucy, you had Aura Spice, Princess Poppy, and then
the leftovers were Mistress Malaysia and Jack's and Robin and Sugar.
So it was this is what I wanted to ask you,
because we go into the workroom prep day. But before

(15:58):
we go into the workroom prep day, you know, if
you had to pick just based on what you see
right now with all of those ladies, which ones like,
Just pick the top two that you would want to
work with. Okay, I'm already looking at the first team
and it has some big personalities in it. Selena s.
Titties is a lot of energy and Marsha Marsha Marsha

(16:20):
is a b f A and musical theater. So I
think I would gravitate towards Team one. Team one, Yeah,
I would gravitate towards Team one, but I would love
to have I think Mistress Isabel Brooks has a lot
of talent. But this is the thing. Sometimes when you're
this plus sized person, people either they're intimidated by you,

(16:42):
or they try to take over you. They try to
ignore you. Huh. I have found in my fifty years
of living when you are a talent like that, either
people are intimidated or they tend to try to ignore you.
And the reason why I say that is that when
the leftovers got together and started talking, Mistress was trying

(17:07):
to get them together, and then Sugar, of course being young,
started talking, and everybody started getting annoying. And then that's
when Jack's came in, and then Jack's started taking over
when actually, if they would have listened to Mistress, who
has I feel a lot more experience, who are creative,

(17:28):
you're saying that they kind of slept on her until
Sugar got annoying, right, and then once Sugar got annoying,
then Jack's jumped in and Jack's were just like, you know,
it just slide down to the end of the of
the table, you know, and then that made Sugar get
into her feelings, you know, and so then the other
teams were looking, Spice was looking, and Spice was like,

(17:48):
something wrong with my sister and going to the workroom
prep day, you know, you can see that there are
some emotions that's going on because now you have these
three teams. Marsha thinks that Masha should serve as God
for their group, and I like that, see Marsha. Marsha.
Marsha is very creative, and so she can automatically pick
and shoot. This is when you're smart. If you know

(18:10):
that you're on a team, you gotta try to stand out.
You're going up against two other teams. So the thing
that Marcia is, Marcia is like, Okay, who's the person
that we know that should probably play God. Now she
said that Sasha should play God for the group. Lucy
wants to play Dolly Parton because she is a good
Dolly partner in person, right, so she wants to be

(18:32):
God for the group. Mistress thinks that now going back
to Team three, Mistress things say they should feature gay icons.
The other girls are not listening because they're too busy
into their own feelings. Right, Sugar is full of ideas.
And then that's when I said the group was getting
annoyed because she just won't stop talking. She she won't

(18:53):
stop talking, and I think that she was like saying
something about heaven was gonna be like this messy thing,
or like you got to heaven and there would be
gay icons, but they'd all be busted. So everybody's kind
of like, no, no, no, because the thing you want
it to be funny, and you want it to be
fun you don't want it to be I mean, there
could be some slight shade, but to me, it's an infommercial.

(19:15):
And it's like, to me, if you're saying this is
an infomercial, to me, a infomercial is what you're selling something.
So if you're selling queer heaven, okay, you want to
go there. It's a place. I had an answer right away.
I know what my queer heaven looks like. I mean,
it's like it's just it's heaven. It's all the good
stuff that you want to get. So they all arrive

(19:38):
on the set. I could kind of tell before they
went to rehearsal who was going to do well because
in the third team it seemed like they were all
over the place. And the other thing that people don't
get is with the comedy challenges, the thing that's going
to help you as a solid getting middle in an end. Yes,
we always say that. You you always tell me that
you know it's writing. If writing structure, I mean, it's

(20:00):
like writing a joke. You have to have a beginning,
you have to have a punchline. So they have the infomercial.
There's Michelle, who's directed a billion of these things at
this point. She always directs the mini challenges. She understands comedy,
she understands acting. She knows because this is her subject.
She knows she can look immediately and tell you how

(20:24):
to create your three minutes and make it right right.
And if Michelle is questioning a joke in the sketch
as your making it, and she's like like at one
point she goes, okay, so in your queer after you
can have a mimosa inside of mimosa, and they went yeah,
and then she went she went why yeah, yeah, no,

(20:48):
you want to laugh. You want you know, like if
there was like a buffet where you can eat like
whatever you wanted for as much as you wanted and
you never gain any weight. You know, there's there's some
comedy in that. There's a whatever, right, But it was
funny because Sugars team, which was the third team with
Mistress and all of them, Sugar made the comment that

(21:09):
she was doing all the work like they didn't have
any lines, which at the rehearsal it did kind of
look like they were just like looking around. So I'm like,
did they write a script, did they write outline? What
did they what were they? What have they been working on?
We have to go to a break, but I gotta
tell you a joke, one of my favorite Heaven Hell jokes. Okay,
we'll go to break. So this guy arrives in Hell

(21:32):
and the door the elevator door opens and the devil
standing there, and the devil says, welcome to Hell, and
the guy goes, okay, because do you like gambling? He goes,
I love gambling. He goes, well, on Monday is gambling day.
You could play craps, poker, everything you want to do.
It's all gambling. And the guys like great, and he goes,
do you like drugs? And he goes yes, hecause Tuesday
is drug day. You can do as much coke as

(21:55):
you want. You could shoot up heroin, crystal meth. You
could do as many drugs in hell on the Tuesday
as you want. Tuesday's drug Day. And it goes great.
Because do you like gay sex? And the guy says
no one, And he goes, oh, well, you're gonna hate Wednesday.
We'll be right back. We'll be right back, and we're back.

(22:25):
Thank god, I'm still laughing from your joke. Okay, you're
gonna Wednesday. Look. Look we are now at the work
room runway day, and I love this time because you
get stories. You get the stories as everybody's putting on
their makeup. This is your chance to get acquainted with
everybody as they're beating their face. They do appreciate these beats.

(22:48):
I do a lot, I really really do. Selena is
confident that her group did well. Sugar and Spies discuss
how they felt about their group. Sugar felt like her
group was being too serious, they weren't can have any
of her ideas and Spice tails Sugar to stand up
for herself. Yeah, I feel okay, I feel a little

(23:10):
sorry for them. I did. I think. I think that
everybody kind of like is ready to hate them, you know,
and just kind of there's a generational divide. I think
there's resentment because they're not live queens. But as I
watched them more and more, I see that their skill
to what they do. It's not what the other girls
are doing. They haven't been performing for ten years, but

(23:30):
there's there's something that they do that they figured out
that they're good at, right, And you know, this is
the point of where you kind of do feel for them,
like yeah, you know, so some of the queens are
loving them, and some of the queens are like okay.
Um Jack said that she wrote the entire script for
her group, even though Michelle was like, what's happening and

(23:51):
so we'll see. Yeah. I don't know if I take
credit for that, but she said that she wrote the
whole thing. Malaysia had a really big beat. Malaysia a fox,
just talking about being Christian and battling being attracted to
men and prayed every day to not be gay. And
she had a very interesting story about how her family

(24:12):
accepted her and that way, you know, her mother loves
her and the family accepted her. Mistress revealed that her
parents were not accepting of her and she had to
be out on her own as a teenager, and that's
when she found drag. Yeah, she was out on her
and I do get that about her. I do get
there's kind of a what I get about mistresses. When

(24:34):
she said it the first episode, you have to earn
my sisterhood. I don't just say everybody's my sister right away.
There is something about her that seems to be like
I'm gonna watch everybody and wait and see who's cool.
I could really relate to Malaysia because, especially in the
African American community, there's steal, this stigma about homosexuality and

(24:58):
sexuality in general, and so in the church, Oh my goodness,
it's just it's so bad. I mean still to this day,
Alec I have a friend who his whole family. His
father is a minister and his brother is a minister,
and he has determined. He let them know he came out.
He said, I'm not gonna not be who I am

(25:21):
because you know, you guys have these policies. And this
was maybe last year they've been knowing. You know, they
get along as a family everything. But he said he
called me one day and he was in tears because
he said he was on the front row and his
dad was preaching and started preaching this whole anti gay um,

(25:41):
you know, in front right, you know, right in front
of right in front of your own kids. And he
was so angry and he was so mad, and he
was so hurt. And this is what people go through still.
This is the reason why I wanted to be a
strong ally for the lgbt Q plus community because I
have friends who there are a lot of people to

(26:02):
this day that are still like, you know, they will
kill themselves or you know, they will stay in the closet,
they will try to marry another sex when they know
that they are gay, because they're trying to steal hide.
And we have to let people be themselves. And it's
a fear of like this whole thing about like your

(26:23):
parents love when you're a kid, as your brain is
forming as your child. You know, did you ever lose
your mom and a supermarket when you were a kid?
You can turn around and they're gone. That feeling of panic,
that feeling of like loss of abandonment is like so
strong in us that as queer people, when you fear

(26:44):
the rejection of your parents, it's really like you're gonna
lose your life. You're gonna lose your world if my
mom and dad don't accept me. So the fact that
Mistress went out on her own found a community tells
me that she's a really super strong person. Yeah, and
that's why we you know, we advocate these groups and
if you you're you're never alone, but we asked people

(27:07):
to reach out to different groups. If you are, you know,
you don't have to be homeless. There's their their organizations
out there to help you. And this is another reason
why we're so happy that, you know, Drag Race has
been able to go on even in season fifteen, because
we we still need to have this platform to show

(27:27):
the love and all the creativity of the community. So,
you know, with that said, we're gonna go to the
main stage because I love when those lights come out.
I know they added they added a little bit of
things to the intro this year, like brush and they
got rule comes out and it's kind of Marilyn Monroe

(27:49):
roost down. It's gold metallic with platinum blonde hair looking
like Oscar. Looks like an Oscar. I'm amazed that she
looks this good and platinum blond here, because that's such
a difficult color, like that's not good, that would wash
anybody else out. But it just it makes her face
look warm and everything. I know that Ravens doing her makeup,

(28:11):
so she looks absolutely fantastic. I mean it just looks golden.
The judges this week are Marion Morris, who you say
is a country singer. Yes, she's a strong ally, very outspoken.
I want to see her stuff now. And she's just
a great and I've interviewed her a number of times.
And when I say a cool person, you know who
knows who she is and stands up a great ally.

(28:34):
So I was happy to see her as a guest judge. Also,
we had Michelle and T. S. Madison, our new Britating
regular judge. Have you met T. S. Madison? Yes? I
love Madison, I love it. I had dinner with T. S.
Madison in Atlanta with her mother with T. S. Madison's mother,
her mother Mary, who now lives in that great, big

(28:56):
house that she's bought for them outside of Atlanta. And
I'm just fascinated by her story. You know, she's this
person who is uh, started out humble as a sex
worker and then figured out media and has made her
own fortune. She's our own person and now she's completely
blown up and just from being authentically herself who is Yeah,

(29:18):
And those are the people we support. And she once
told me, I have nothing to hide because I own
my entire story. That's it, that's it, nothing to high
and that's why it's beautiful. That's what we love. Now
let's talk about the infomercials and finally get to see them.
Team Anietras is Palm Spring is heaven for the gays.

(29:39):
It's kind of true. It's kind of true. If you've
been to Palm Springs. The entire city council in Palm
Springs is gay. And there their Palm Springs Pride is
in November because it's cooler, and there's all the high
schools in the area, all the marching bands from the
area march in the Palm springs Pride Bride, which I
think is so cool. So it starts off with Selina

(29:59):
s he's dead and Sasha Colby is God, and she's
telling her that you died, and she's introducing you to
all the parts of heaven. And each time she does
to signify the scene changing, she breaks her own neck.
That that crack in the neck is hilarious. It's can
I tell you. I love when RuPaul cackles. I just

(30:20):
love hearing it. It's not it's like, yeah, she laughs
with her whole body. And that's when you know you're
winning if you make RuPaul laugh, make mother laugh. The
gay amenities were for all. They had Lux Noir playing
the psycho therapist. Yeah, very good. I thought it was
really good and had a beginning of middle and then
and everybody was really strong. Yeah, definitely. Then we're onto

(30:42):
team Amethyst. The opening was not time well to me.
You know, she was on her knees facing one of
the pit crew and she was trying to make and
this is the thing Michelle told her, you have to
be quicker. You know, when you're popping out, it's like
popping out, you know. It was a joke of somebody
she's blocked by one of the pit crews crotch and

(31:04):
looked like she's giving a b J And they said,
are you a drag queen? Yes, and she has to
pop out her head. So it was like all these
like three it was a series of three questions that
she had to answer really quickly, but she was going
so slowly that you missed the joke. Yeah. Yeah, the
timing is everything when it comes to I mean, they
were using a lot of gay lingo and ponds. But

(31:24):
you know, the best thing about this infomercial was the
Dolly parton. That was the best. Just like, I've never
heard anybody do a vocal impression of Dolly Partner. I'm
funny that Lucy Laduca has a higher voice naturally, but
she did this whole Dolly thing where she kind of
like squeak at the top of everything. Is She was
really really good. They should have added more of Dolly,

(31:47):
you know, because the rest stuff it kind of got lost.
But then it kind of it was kind of all
over the place. It was kind of all over the place.
Now Team Leftovers. This is the thing where they were
putting down sugars ideas they had an idea that Heaven
was about drag hagatry, like it was about like girls
who enjoy going to drag shows, and that doesn't seem

(32:08):
like that seems more like something that queer people are
annoyed by rather than Heaven. And so they kind of
like shot themselves in the foot with that, because then
it was just about this. It was just about Sugar
being annoying and all the other queens going like, she's like,
do my makeup, I want to go to your drag shows.
I want to tip everybody, and it's kind of like

(32:28):
we've all seen that girl in real life. It's like,
I don't want to see you after I'm dead, right,
right right. And then I was like, it's supposed to
be positive and happy. Why are they doing something where
you know it's too close for comfort. Yeah, so I
didn't I didn't like that. And then it was funny
because after they showed that, did you see the judge's reaction?

(32:49):
They were like, I have to say that it's becoming
like you know, like towards the end of Heidi Klum's
tenure at Project Runway, if she didn't like something, she
was just like, oh that's ugly, Like she would just like,
and I think at season fifteen their civil but they're

(33:10):
not pretending anymore. No, no, it's lights out. When Hamethas
came out in that flat shoe in the first episode,
I thought Ru had murder in her eyes, like if
looks could kill, she'd be full of led like buck shot. Well,
they compete as teams, but they will be judged individually.

(33:31):
Thank goodness. This was horrible. So now we go into
the runway category and it is metallica, so it's all
kind of metal looking finishes and everything. Uh A. Nietzsche
was first out. She came out in a short what
she called Charlie's the rown Wig, and she had kind

(33:51):
of like a Gaga looking outfit. It was a metallic
body suit with a stockings and a long cape that
had pointy shoulders. Rue said that she looked like a
lesbian baked potato. I love that. I loved that. I
thought it was good. It was really good. I always
love like the metallica looks. You know. She had Sasha Kobe,

(34:14):
who looked like a metallic bird. She had a head
dress with like these metallic spikes coming out of it,
but they were all silver, so she looked like a
Las Vegas show girl, complete with the tail and a
metallic front that was all silver and shiny. And this
is where like to me, Sasha Kolby, like even in
the first episode when they were doing the opening number,

(34:36):
it's she knows how to be noticed and also she
knows how to paint for the stage. This is where
her experience as because we've had people on the show
going I had my outfit backstage and I didn't know
that it was going to photograph that way. This one
is not making a false move. She knows how to
do her face, and she knows what's going to read
on the runway, knows that body honey. Next he has

(34:57):
Selina s titty because I'm a street girl all l a.
So she dresses a lamppost full of signs that was
a silver metallic body suit and she had a sign
in front that looked like a street sign that said
s Titties Boulevard. She had a head dress on top
that looked like the top of a lamp post. I
like the idea. I didn't like the execution, Okay, I

(35:21):
like the idea of you coming out covered at Michelle
had a funny joke. He says, you know what she speaks,
having all of the Los Angeles references all over her body.
I don't know. There was just I feel like there
was a better way of doing this. I kind of
wanted to see the outfit underneath the signs. I guess, right, yeah, yeah,
that's what you were missing. And I think it looks

(35:41):
kind of crafty to me. It looks kind of like
this is the second run way. Okay, I get it,
I get where you're from. I get me. Yeah, I
need to see some glamour now, and the next one's
coming up. I need to see glamour. It's like, Okay,
we get the camp, we get where you're from. We get,
but now let's show us that glamour. So that's that's good.

(36:03):
Way Up next is Lux Noir London, Lux Noir London.
Who is? I said she did drag on Instagram for
a year. It seems like she's a really good look queen.
This is. She came out in a gold metallic goddess number.
Her hair was kind of swooped up into this upd
kind of like how Rue Paul has done up to
in the past. But this was a really beautiful gold

(36:26):
cape that had movement to it our gold body suit underneath,
and I thought, I thought she looked gorgeous. And the
long gold nails, she gave me a feeling of Simone Ish. Yeah. Yeah,
she does remind me of Simone a little bit. And
also in her interview she seems so young, like she
seems like she just turned twenty one. She's cute as

(36:49):
a button. Next up we have Marcia Marsha. Marsha, here's
my problem. Okay, okay, Marcia isn't kind of like this
Dirndal German dress version of the tin Man from Wizard
of Oz. She has this corset top with a short
skirt that kind of pleats out in in in this
kind of silver copper metallic. Last week they said you

(37:10):
have to step your makeup up. Yes that you just
had mascara on and some chapstick and it's not enough
for drag race. Now, when they give you a note,
they're watching to see if you're listening, and if you
don't take the note, then they think, oh, you know
better than me. I've been doing this my whole life.
We watched fifteen seasons of these queens. We're not pulling

(37:32):
a note out of our ass. We're giving you a
note to make you better. And she didn't take the
note at all. No, no, So I'm kind of bugged
by that. Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. I want to know what
was going through her head where she heard the note
she took it. She said, I will not disappoint, and
she had on chapstick and she had a little rude. Well,

(37:57):
she's young, and she's pretty. She's adorable. I mean, there's
no question about it. She's very possible. But they're saying,
we want to see drag. So tell me the difference
between regular makeup, because this looks like regular makeup and
drag makeup. Okay, I will be glad to illustrate the difference.
Lonnie Love and two thousand and two, I was doing
a movie where I played a drag queen called Connie

(38:17):
and Carla, and that that was the name of the movie.
It was with near our Dallas and Toni Collette, and
so we did makeup tests before we shot, and they
had me in a black wig and full makeup, and
I just look like a crazy Filipino lady. I just
I passed. So they said, we have to make her
look more like a drag queen. So they put me
in a big blonde wig, and they exaggerated my makeup

(38:39):
so it looked like I was a man impersonating a
woman instead of somebody just passing. And I think what
Marcia is doing is she's already a pretty girl to
begin with, so she's not doing the makeup that Mistress
Isabella is doing. Mistress Isabella is doing everything she can
to make her look like a glamorous drag queen. And Marsha, Marsha,

(39:00):
Marsha is painting to just kind of walk on the
subway and pass. Okay, that's the difference. It's an exaggeration. Yeah,
and under these lights, and if you don't have a
lot of makeup on under these lights, it's not gonna
read right, Yeah, yeah, don't it doesn't. Okay, thank you
for that explanation. You're welcome, Lonnie Love. Next up, we

(39:22):
have Amethyst, who also with the gold route, but this
time she had on a gold bodice suit that had
a little skirt cleaning out of the side, and this
gigantic gold cape that billowed far more than luxneours. Dude.
She had this big, frizzy blonde wig that was all
frizzed out and Ruce said a note to self, never

(39:44):
perm your own hair. Yeah, but I like this wig.
I like the size of this wig. I thought you
looked great. Yeah, the symmetry of the hair with the
outfit was perfect. This is it was perfect. It was
a perfect gold outfit and I really like it on her.
Up next, we had Princess Poppy, who came out as
kind of this robot girl, kind of like something that

(40:05):
Katy Perry wore, I would wear in concerts. She had
a bright blue wig. Well, I love the size of
the wig. It's like again another metallic corset dress that
had a mini skirt like a metallic tutu at the sides.
She looked great, But again this was kind of like
it's I don't want to, you know, put anybody down

(40:27):
or anything, but this was like it's season fifteen. Step
it up. Yeah, I mean it's a little bit. It's nice,
but it was like, it's not this is Movie Awards,
this is this is MTV, and so I get it,
but it's like Drag Race season fifteen. She could have
added a long train, she could have did something to
to just you know, vev it up a little bit

(40:49):
more or something new. I mean it's kind of like,
you know, That's the other thing is like there there
were some queens who it's clear they've done their homework.
You know, they're coming in with these all these Ashen
references and all these great clothes and everything, and I
feel like this is a good reference, but it's it's
kind of it's four years ago. Yeah. Next we have Spice,

(41:11):
Spice and Okay, so the Spice girls, Spice and Sugar
are kind of they are obsessed with dolls. So again,
this looks like a brat stall. Spice came out in
kind of this green aquaetti wig in the first episode
when they were racing around looking for their wigs and boxes.
I thought that was hilarious. This is a two parts
She has a little metallic mini skirt, a little metallic bra.

(41:32):
She has silver gauntlets on the side. It looks very good.
She looks like a brat stall she has. I guess
both these girls are kind of short because they both
wear part of the Sugar and Spice looks seems to
be like platform heels in every color. Yeah, what you
think of this longy? Did you like it? To me?
It's it's not drag racy enough. It's just it's it's

(41:52):
beautiful and great. I think people, you know, it's drag
is not just putting it on a different color wig
and saying yeah, now look, you know, it's it's more
than that. It's it's it's having some creativity, is doing
something that's different. I mean ruffles and trains, and it's
a point of view. I mean she's not even padded. Yeah,

(42:15):
you know, like when he said last week when she
came out in the kind of beauty and the Beast thing,
and you said, it was like, well, it just seems
like cosplay, like you were like wanted to be Bell
for Halloween. I don't really know who you are, and
so with these things, like I know, okay, I get it.
You like brat stalls, you like barbies, you want to
look like one, and you're coming out with these looks,

(42:35):
but I don't really feel like I know them. And
in spite, should you even be on Drag Race if
this is what you're giving for the first two runways,
I'm sorry, Wow, Lonnie, I don't hate them saying. I'm
saying with safe place, Lonnie, this is supposed to be

(42:55):
a safe space for scroll with experience comes you know
they're gonna believe me, and fans are going to see
this and they're gonna be like, Okay, it's It's the
equivalent of taking a knife to a gunfight. You know,
it's season fifteen, you gotta step it up. Next up,
we have Aura Marii, who kind of looked like Poison Ivy,

(43:19):
the metallic version of Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy in
the Batman movies. She's in this beautiful lee it's hard
corset outfit that has like leaves growing out of it.
She looks like, it's what I'm talking about, creativity and
metallic broccoli. She looks really cool. This is what I'm
talking about. She looks like, what do you call it?
It's not broccoli, what's the Brussels Brussels sprouts. She looks

(43:43):
like a drag Brussels sprout. And she was making a
number of faces and Ruth said that she looked like
she was forcing out a fart. She was having fun. Okay.
Next we have Lucy Leduca. Lucy I love saying that name.
Lucy Leduca. Lucy Leduca came out. She's like she was
a who was piste off because she was in the
bottom last week, and so she really brought her a game.

(44:04):
This time. She is in this metallic almost kind of
like Joan of Arc looking armory colored multi colored. It
was like it's gold and it's purple and it's red,
all these different metallics mixed together, and she looked beautiful.
She had like Bob length hair and everything about it

(44:25):
really works. She looked like she was on a spaceship
from Vegas. This is what I'm talking about. This was drag. Next,
we have Jack's. Jack's came out and kind of a
camo things. She said, she came out, I'm not a gamer,
so I don't I didn't know what she was talking about.
She said that this is her favorite video game character
that is also her namesake, Jack's. So Grandma is going

(44:49):
to have to google that because I don't play games.
Do you do you play any video games at all?
I got a headset, so you know, oh you play
that's you do like Oculus stuff? Are you? I'm trying
to we're working, so yeah, yeah, but I got she
did look like a gamer, like a video so, you know,

(45:12):
on the on the she has kind of this flak
vest in the front that's like camo, and the sides
are kind of gauntlet arms. Calls like a suit of armor,
so she has metal on the sides, cac in the middle.
She looks like a drag soldier. I liked it. I
wasn't blown away by it, but also I don't know
the reference, so who cares about? Robin Fierce came out next,

(45:36):
and I love this. She kind of looked like the
Dora milage from Wakonda Forever a black panther. She did
come out with a spear. She has this wig that
was made out of long braids. This kind of reminded
me of the Princess Leiah metallic bikini from Return of
the Jedi. But she added kind of this gossamer gold

(45:56):
cape with these gold boots, and I thought she looked great.
This is how you this is what you do when
you're doing drag race. I mean the braids we're also
braided with like gold string, so that you saw the
go highlights in the braids, with the spear, with the boots,
it all came together, like you said, this is drag
I think the thing is with dragons. If you're visible

(46:17):
from space, you're in the like if there was a
satellite picture of the drag race area and we can
see her out that then you're in the zone. Speaking
of which, we have mistress Isabella Brooks, who came out
with a platinum blond wig. Her face is beat for
the gods, beat like her makeup. When you see her,
like they said earlier, she's like this glamous drag queen.

(46:39):
But at a drag queen, she looks like she owns
a piece of parlor. This is really an amazing transformation.
And I love her story that she's been doing this
since she is a teenager, so this is her livelihood.
She doesn't take herself seriously, but she takes the art
form very seriously. She said she likes streetwear and she's
a big girl, so she likes big pieces. So she's

(47:00):
dragging a giant gold chain and say giant gold chain.
The links are like they're huge, and this metallic mini
dress with this huge shoulder pads. She's great. The proportions
of her stuff are for her body and she knows
how to look sexy and that's and that's what's important,
and that is why she's a contender. She's a contender.

(47:22):
She's a contender. She's a contender. Now somebody who may
not be a sugar. All right, here we go again.
Sugar came out in. I feel like they're come out
in different versions of the same outfit. That's what I'm saying.
It's kind of like, Okay, this is the Sugar's version
of the same outfit. This is Spices version, and I
think it's to their detriment. Yeah, do you know what

(47:44):
I mean? If you're gonna be twins, like you said earlier,
treat them as individuals. They're not treating themselves as individuals.
So because she came out, well, she has these metallic chaps,
which wasn't you know, she's not showing your legs and
these metallic chaps that look like bell bottoms that go
over her platform heels, and I thought it was kind
of awkward. I felt like she was going to trip

(48:05):
over it. She has a metallic kind of halter top
and a silver wig that's in ponytails and she has
silver pigtail holders at the side. She has pink gloves. Again,
it's cute, it's but it's like it's like you said,
it's cosplay. Like if we were at a cosplay convention
for toys, I would know that she was a brat

(48:26):
dollar and that's nice, but is it drag it? Last
we have Malaysia Baby doll Fawks. Malaysia Baby Doll Fox.
This is another one who is an expert at what
she does. She's a makeup artist in Miami, and you
can tell her face is beautiful. She had this horned wig.
It's a silver wig that was styled into two cones

(48:48):
on top that looked like horns. Beautiful and what can
only be described as like a silver and white Oscar dress.
It looked like an Oscar gown. She likes light colors.
Last week she came out in a white gown and
this wasn't a repetition of it, but it seems like
that she likes the lighter colors. Yes, well, she knows

(49:09):
what goes with her skin, and I think that's why
she because there is sleeveless, but then she has on
gloves so that highlights that beautiful cocoa skin that she has.
And she has chains all around her, which gives you
the metallic right. So I think she knows her body.
I think she knows her face, She knows herself, she
knows how to paint. And I love when queens say

(49:29):
I looked at the women. Kol said, her drag and
its purest form is a tribute to the black women
in her life and to me. When I see Malaysia
baby doll, foxes beat, it's like you must have seen
people like that growing up, or somebody was beautiful that
you you're now painting that face because she's really good
at it. And I could tell she's good at it
because she does not look like this out of drag. Definitely,

(49:53):
you know, she's different. So it was a great I
like this runway. The judges gave their critiques. Some of
the things that they said was that, you know, they
felt like Princess Poppy was getting lost. It was very simple,
like what you said. They said that Jack's she doesn't
pad or she doesn't cinch. Also during the infomercial, they

(50:16):
got lost with the oh that's what she said. I think.
You know, sometimes you can be a team player, but
to your own detriment. Also another one that the judges
were concerned with was Amethysts and the Blue Humor, how
it didn't hit, but also Michelle told her about contouring
the nose. She said, she is making it too thin.

(50:37):
She should be proud. Amethists was like, well, no, I
don't like my nose, and she says, no, that's what
makes you different, I know. And then RuPaul said, I
love your nose. So Michelle is you know it made
me think of Barbara Streisan. You know, it's like Barbara
Streisen's nose is one of her defining features. If you
really kind of like, are not hiding it and everything,

(50:57):
it can become a beautiful defining feature for this definite
looking forward to seeing what she's gonna look like, because
that knows contour is not helping, it's not making it
look smaller. So Rue Paul calls out forty five names
and saves them all, and then forty five queens are safe.
It's like, so the challenge winner was Sasha Kobe. She

(51:18):
wins five thousand dollars in the bottom two. Yeah, that's
a lot. In the bottom two where Amethysts and Princess
Poppy they lip sing the song Ain't no Mountain high Enough?
But I've been one and only Diana Ross right, and
Amethyst kind of took it seriously, kind of like I'm
doing Diana Ross. I have this Diana Ross cape. I'm

(51:39):
gonna bring Diana Ross energy to it. And Princess Poppy
kind of like I saw halfway through it, She's got
I gotta come up with something. So she started goofing,
which I think works most of the time. I mean,
i'd see Bendela Creme like bend La Creme can do,
like Cardi b or Nicki Minaj. She starts goofing. You
can't stop looking at her. But I think that rue

(52:00):
as a kind of reverence for Diana Ross. Yes, I
do too, being from the Brewster Projects. Yeah, and I've
told you many times, you know that's she's a Brewster
Projects girl. She would drive through when I was a
little girl in a limo and wave at us, and
I was like, I'm following you, bitch, right. You know,
there's a reverence that that Diana Ross. At one time

(52:22):
in the seventies, she was our black queen. Oh my god,
you know, no bigger star, no oscar, nominated actor, best
selling recording artists, She's everything. So I don't think that
Rue was kind of pleased. I mean, Poppy was doing
really funny stuff. She was pulling faces, she was on

(52:43):
her back, she was kicking up her legs, but she
was being goofy, And I think that rude didn't think
it was right for the song, and they ended up
keeping Amethyst and they sent Poppy home. Her exit line
she had two middle fingers to the queens and a burp,
and in her exit interview she says, I agree with

(53:03):
what the judges were saying, and now I can move
on and open my meth making business. I love a
good I think she was kidding, but I love it.
I love it. So I'm glad that Sasha one. Yeah,

(53:24):
she was the one that deserves This is the thing.
People can say what they want, They can think that
stuff is fixed or you know what I mean. There
have been rumors and stuff, But when you're in a competition,
you compete all the way until that last note of
the live sync. Don't lose hope, don't lose energy, Stay
in there, hang in there. You never know because you're

(53:47):
still trying to convince the judges. And this was one
that I have to say. The judges got right, They
got it right, they got it right. Well. Listen to
Squirrel Friends. Our special guest is crash landing here after
this break did about her time on the season. Don't
go anywhere because Irene Duvoi is coming up. Squirrel friends

(54:12):
were back and delided to be joined by our guest today.
She may have been on this season for one night only,
but she will always be a rude girl. She comes
in peace. Please welcome to the program, the alien Queen
Irene Duoir. Oh my god, the thunderous to clause is
making me feel there's your Muppet Show intro that we

(54:33):
used to every week. How are you? I'm killing it.
I'm saying, yeah, you're You're on the road already, right,
It's very true. I'm in an airport right now and
living my best life on the road performing for divas
all across northern California. Wow. So since the premier since

(54:53):
being announced, did you find like all your bookings happened
right away or those were starting to happen the minute
you were cast the show? Um? No, the bookings really
started to come in after the announcement. My manager sort
of was reaching out to different venues and pitching me
out and it's been lovely to see them come through.
And now that I've been eliminated, I've actually been getting
several more. She Angela is set the President. When she

(55:21):
was kicked off of her season, uh, she called she
personally called all the clubs and said she was on
the show and failed to mention when she was kicked off.
So she had like all these bookings right away. But
I think she proved that it being kicked off first
really doesn't mean that it's over. It's really just the
jumping off point. Do you feel that way? Um? I

(55:43):
hope that that's true, you know what I mean. It's
one of those things that's like I've been doing drive
for ten years and yeah, you know, I've been keeping
it pushing this whole time. I'm not going to stop now, right.
I'm a workhorse. I like working, so keep working. As
long as people are giving me the opportunity to work,
I'll be there. Right. I think that's the best feeling
of like being exhausted after doing something you actually love.

(56:06):
Let me tell you, I'm fucking exhausted now, Okay. I
think everybody's asking. Everybody's wondering what the ice water bit?
What were we missing? What was what was what was
the thing that happened when you did it live? You know?
I think that part of the the humor of the
bit is that I'm taking something simple that should take

(56:27):
about fifteen seconds, sure, and I'm stretching it out, and
I think that the longer it gets stretched out, the
funnier it becomes. Right, So part of that is that
because that's the comedy. Yeah, I'm stretching. I'm doing this
long drawn out infomercial about how to make a glass
of ice water. So you know, there's a lot of
camp that comes from me fumbling with the ice for

(56:50):
an entire two minute period. Understood, There's there's comedy that
comes from me, you know, taking a long time to
actually pick up the picture because it's so difficult for
me to get my nails into the handle, right. I
just had to cut because I had to get that
whole thing done in a minute, I know. I mean
there was certainly that was certainly the feeling we got
at the very beginning of it that it was like
it reminded me of the Jinx Monsoon peanut butter sandwich

(57:14):
bit that she did for the dance Challenge on TikTok,
which she filmed before I filmed the show, but didn't
air until after I had filmed. Understood, it was sort
of one of those things where I was like, you know,
watching her succeed at a bit that basically has the
same bones as mine. It was it was sort of
difficult to see. But my bit also has you know,

(57:35):
there's there's things that were cut out in terms of
like descriptions of where you can find things like water ice.
So so is that an accurate portrait of your of
your sense of humor? This kind of like left of center,
kind of dry. You know, there's one thing that I
cannot say negative about the show. Actually, there's a ton

(57:57):
of things that I can't say negative of the show.
I'm very happy with the show. But one thing that
they really did right was show my sense of humor.
I think that they really took the time to showcase
who I am as a comedian outside of the ice
water bit. I got a lot of screen time, and
in that screen time, I was cracking jokes. I was
doing reads and I love a joke that goes over

(58:17):
people's heads. I love a joke for me. Yeah, And
you know, you did see your sense of humor, and
you did see like you establishing rapport with other queens.
I'm thinking specifically of Mistress Isabel. I was filming a
movie in Houston and I got to see her perform.
So I've seen her live and she's amazing. And you
said you knew her from the Houston drag scene as well. Yeah,

(58:39):
I grew up in Houston and I started doing Dragon
Texas specifically, so right as I sort of flew the
coop and moved to Seattle, Mistress sort of emerged as
a baby queen. But I got to know her drag
through sort of the people that I had built relationships with,
specifically my dry children who stayed in Houston. So when

(59:02):
she got on the show, I became aware immediately and
we sort of began talking over social media. We both
knew of each other, and it was sort of, Hey,
it's good to know that there's someone else who's sort
of going into this blind. You know, both of us
are sort of established local performers, not necessarily social media
or TikTok queens. Walk us through that the beginning of

(59:26):
your drag journey. You're in Texas, What does your life
look like? Where are you? Where are you living? I
started doing drag when I was in college at Southern
Methodist University in Dallas. I was studying theater, specifically playwriting
and directing, and I was very interested in drag just
because the theater world at the time was not really
doing it for me in terms of breaking barriers, right,

(59:47):
I sort of felt like theater as an art form
had become more about rehashing the classics, and so I
was doing drags sort of as an outlet from my
more avant garde proclivities. And and I started doing Dragon
Texas they did not know what to do with me
because I was going to do performance art and Texas
Dragon is all about polish and pageantry, and you know,

(01:00:11):
in order to get work, I sort of had to
learn the craft, which I'm very happy I had to do,
because when I make to Seattle and I finally found
an audience for my sort of twisted, weird off the
beaten path ideas, I already had a lot of experience
in terms of building a look and harnessing the craft

(01:00:32):
of drag, putting together a silhouette and styling a wig. Yeah,
your looks were great. I mean they were absolutely great.
So that leads to my next question, because you kind
of like painted the picture for us. The differences between
the Houston and Seattle drag scenes. Now, from what you said,
it sounds like Houston is more like glamor pageant, and
there's more wiggle room in Seattle for like the alternative

(01:00:54):
drag Act. To sum it up simply, I would say,
in Houston, it doesn't matter what you do as long
as you look good. In Seattle, it doesn't matter what
you look like as long as you perform. Well, oh,
that's really interesting. I haven't been to Seattle in years.
What could we expect it in a drag show in

(01:01:15):
Seattle that you would perform at Chances are someone's going
to pour something on themselves or open up a bottle
of beer with their ass and drink out of it,
or that's a Tuesday night over here. It's just eccentric.
You know, people are very interested in being unique in Seattle.
There's not a there's not an archetype of a successful

(01:01:35):
Seattle drag queen, because to be successful in Seattle you
sort of have to have your own gimmick, right. I
think the biggest challenge at this point, and tell me
if you agree or disagree, is making things new. I
mean coming out with stuff that people haven't seen before.
I mean, you're kind of like avant garde. Take reminded
me of the stuff that Jimbo did or Willow Pill did,
and it's really about like, it's how do we reinvent

(01:01:59):
the wheel here and present the panel with something they
haven't seen before? And it's very hit or miss, you know.
I I thought that because of the success of certain
queens in the past, that I might have success myself
with presenting something out of the box. But that bit
that I did in particular just did not land that day.
So yeah, gosh, Now you said you and Bosco from

(01:02:20):
season four teener sisters, what's your relationship? Like, what do
you guys meet? Um, we have been doing drag together
for god probably like five years now, but we met
at a party that used to happen in Seattle once
a month called Rapture, hosted by a local icon named
Arson Nikki, who just created this space for artists to
sort of show up in a look and exist in

(01:02:41):
a place together where drag can sort of be without rules.
And I remember meeting Bosco and being like, Wow, you
were beautiful, and a few months later sort of saying like, Hey,
I hope drags working out for you and she's like, yeah,
I sort of haven't had a chance to do it yet.
I haven't really have been given any opportunity ease, And
I said to her, you know, we just gotta keep

(01:03:02):
getting your face out there and being nice to everybody,
actually the producers, and she sort of grabbed my arm
and leaned in and went, I'm so fucking sick of
being nice. And that's that's when I knew that we
were going to be best friends. Yeah, it's like when
somebody speaks the same language, or you find out you

(01:03:23):
meet somebody who hates all the same people, it's you're
my friend for life. Now. It seems to be like
the existing controversy on the show right now is like
there's a divide between the queens who came up performing
like you have for ten years and Lux Noir and
the Sugar kids, the Sugar twins, Sugar and Spice doing
things primarily on social media. And my question is is

(01:03:47):
there room for queens who come up working primarily in
social media. Of course, there's live performance and touring. The
best part about the art form of Dragon is that
there is room for everybody. Um, there is no one
right way to do track. There is just a wealth
of opportunity out there. And I admire anybody who can
find and carve out their own path and sort of

(01:04:07):
explore their own version of success. And I have to
say I'm incredibly proud of the twins for everything that
they've done, and I really look up to them. I
think they're remarkable businesspeople. The one thing that I will
say as like a warning is if you want to
go into an industry and you want to subvert the rules,
I think it's important to at least understand the history

(01:04:28):
of industry so that you really have a grasp of
the rules that you are subverted. Isn't that interesting. It's
kind of like, as queer youth, we kind of find
the subculture and we find the references on our own, right.
You kind of like somebody takes you to a revival
house and you see a Betty Davis movie, you see
Rosalind Russell and anti Mame, and that is lodged in

(01:04:48):
your memory. It's I think with the young queens, they're
they're they're flipping through magazines and going through social media,
but it sounds as if, and I kind of agree
that there needs to be a deeper dive if you're
going to do this. I think the drag Race does
what it can in terms of encouraging the queer youth
of today to sort of go out there and explore
the references. But I think that part of the problem

(01:05:11):
is that it's sort of like when the teacher tells
you to do the assigned reading, it's not so appealing.
I think it's on a lot of I think it's
on a lot of the sort of middle grounds performers,
the the Queen's like me who've been around for you know,
more than a few years, but we're not necessarily like
legends or icons yet to sort of say to the
the gen zs like yeah, you were beautiful, you're killing

(01:05:33):
it on social media, go watch all about the right.
It's kind of like, listen to me. I won't walk
you with through everything. It's like I don't really feel
like spoon feeding people things, And you're right, it is
kind of like more exciting to find a step on
your own. So you came up with the alien queen aesthetic?
Can you walk us through the genesis of that? Yeah,

(01:05:55):
it was sort of I've always really been interested in
all of growing up in Texas as like a very
flatboyant queer person was having trouble making friends, and so
I spent a lot of time at home watching things
like Star Wars and just sort of being interested in
sci fi was something that was there from the jump,
and when I started doing drag, there was always this

(01:06:17):
sort of undercurrent of I wanted to be futuristic. And
it wasn't until I sort of gave myself permission to
stop being a glamazon and to start being an alien
that I really began to bloom as an artist. And
it sort of came from being in Seattle and being

(01:06:39):
encouraged to find my own path and not fitting it.
Definitely was not there when I was in Texas. You know,
in Texas, I think if I was doing sort of
my experimental alien drag, they would have been like, you know,
get back to the bar, very glamor where's all the sparkle,
there's all the sparkles. But you know, I do love
a good sparkle. I'm an alien covered. I love when

(01:07:01):
you referenced hr Geiger, that's like my favorite. I remember
looking at those illustrations as a kid after Alien came
out and just being fascinated with his art. So good
for you, and it sounds as if you found that
thing that takes you out of the box. When you
said the word you started to bloom. You found like
an aesthetic that kind of like opened up your imagination,

(01:07:23):
and it has really led me down a path of
creating art that I am very proud of and I
really believe in, and I'm really happy to create. Now.
What I wanted to ask because we got to wrap
up here because you've got a gig to go to.
What's what's your drag superpower? I always feel like drag
is like a superpower. It's like there's there's Diana Prince,
that there's wonder Woman, So what's your superpower? I think

(01:07:45):
that drag as an art form sort of allows queer
people two take control of the narrative of our own
femininity and reclaim the power that inherently lies within femininity,
something that a lot of us are bullied for being
feminine growing up, and it takes a lot of courage
to embrace that femininity. And I think my superpower that

(01:08:07):
came from that is that I'm sort of unshakable. It
doesn't matter what you think of me, because I love
who I am and I'm proud of myself and so
other people's opinions really just don't FaZe me anymore. Yeah,
it's the reframing of the femininity of queer people as
a strength. You know, it's like all the things that

(01:08:29):
we were taught that we're weaknesses as kids, you know, vulnerability,
basically available. Yeah, I mean, those are the things that
that's where all our richest lives. So what's next for you?
I'm it's been so great talking to you. What's next
for you? Thank you. I'm just hoping to, you know,
travel a little bit and show people what I could do.
I feel like I didn't get a wealth of opportunity

(01:08:49):
to show all the facets of my drag on the show,
So I'm very excited at the prospect of sort of
being at live shows and letting people know that there's
a lot more to me than the way I performed
some rings. Absolutely absolutely okay. So where can folks find
you on the socials? You can find me on Instagram, Twitter,
and TikTok at Irene the Aliens, Irene the Alien I'm

(01:09:10):
following you on Instagram. Now, before you leave, last question
from the squirrel prints did Lux ever? Except her wig
was not forty inches? Here's what you need to understand
about my beautiful, talented sister Lux. The rules of physics
that govern our reality are not the same rules that

(01:09:31):
govern her reality. Lux lives in her own dimension and
the rules of things like measurement and length are completely
different in that reality. They don't apply to her. So
whether or not you and I see forty inches, that's
not significant. It's about what luck, what LuxI is. Alright, Irene,

(01:09:56):
thank you so much for talking to us today. We
wish you the best of luck again. Thank you so
much for sharing your art with us. Everybody, do yourself
a favor. Follow Irene on Instagram. She is spectacular. I
love the dobby, the house elf. Thank you look that
you put together. That was so fantastic. All right, thank
you so much, and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you,
Like I hope you have a good day. All right,

(01:10:17):
but bye, and we're back. What an episode episode three? Yeah,
So you know we we've given our opinions I think
pretty respectfully on this show. And so when you talk
about the queens on social media, let's change the culture

(01:10:39):
of the Rue Paul fans and make them supportive and loving.
These girls go through so much in order to get
on this show. They do a million shiit gigs. You're
you're seeing the tip of the iceberg. Every week of
their journey of what they've gone through. So if you
tweet them, show them love on all of their socials
and don't forget to tweet us or d m us

(01:11:00):
if you have any questions are hot takes for the queens?
Where can we find you? Lonnie Love a comic Lonnie
Love on Instagram and at Lonnie Love on Twitter. Okay,
you have two million followers on Instagram? Does that mean
you have two million d m s every day? And
I don't even go through those? But how can we
find you on Instagram so people can follow you? I
only have thirty thou followers, so I will read your

(01:11:22):
d m I will read them, I will read them,
I will answer them, and I will on the air
and you can find me at Alec Mapa on Instagram.
You can listen to Squirrel Friends, the official RuPaul's Drag
Race podcast, on the I Heart Radio app or wherever
you get your podcast. And if you like this episode,
make sure to rate and review us five stars please

(01:11:44):
and tell a friend. Watch all new episodes of RuPaul's
Drag Race Season fifteen every Friday on MTV. We'll be
back next Monday for an all new episode of squirrel Friends,
the official RuPaul's Drag Race Podcast. See you next time. Bye,