00:00We're the team from RuPaul's Drag Race Season 18, and this is Deadline Contenders Television, the nominee studio.
00:22To me, there's no other show that has queens that have as much personality as ours do.
00:27There's heart, there's comedy, there's emotion, there's queer story.
00:31That, to me, is what I think is our power.
00:34Yeah, it's the raw talent that just needs a showcase, and we're lucky enough to be able to put these
00:42amazing artists on TV and let them do what they do.
00:45And we have RuPaul, who is the most fantastic host and guide and spiritual guru, leading the whole team.
00:54But, yeah, it's the queens and their talent and their love of drag and just their exuberance and their spunk
01:04and fight.
01:05Because it's a competition, they want to win, and it comes across.
01:10Yeah, it does.
01:11Well, the experience, it was a rollercoaster start to finish, and I came in, I always say I was a
01:18big fish in a small pond in my local scene, and I entered a full sea of whales, okay?
01:25I mean, look at the girls.
01:26And, you know, it's a pressure cooker.
01:29You get in there and you start questioning, like, wow, what is it that I really do if you're not
01:34100% secure in it?
01:35And it was the trials of the show and constantly going 100% the entire time.
01:43And I turned out for the better from it.
01:47And I even said when we all came back together in the last episode that the queen who entered the
01:54workroom is not the queen leaving.
01:55I feel way more secure with what I do.
01:57I'm a much stronger performer than before.
02:01And that's just now.
02:03I mean, look, five years from now, who knows what's going to happen, you know?
02:06I'm going to quit.
02:10Again, it starts with the queens.
02:12Like, Mikey had a clear idea of what she wanted, you know?
02:17And that's always helpful because not every queen comes with a clear idea.
02:22So sometimes I'm kind of fishing around and what do you think about?
02:26And Mikey was like, I know what the song, I know what I want to do.
02:30So that made my job a lot easier.
02:32I think one thing that makes this show really unique is that we are kind of always gauging where the
02:42producers are, where the contestants are, and just trying to, like, roll with them.
02:47And so there are a lot of situations where we might have something in mind, and then it needs to
02:53pivot.
02:54It needs to get bigger.
02:55It needs to get funnier.
02:56It needs to get more earnest.
02:58It needs to get sillier.
02:59And so I think that's a little bit different.
03:01There are a lot of other reality sets where we're just basically creating a beautiful house, and then we walk
03:06out, and then whatever happens, happens.
03:08But with us on this show, we're kind of side-by-side with the producers, with the talent, and we're
03:13always trying to amplify what they want.
03:15So if somebody comes in with an idea for, like, a prop or a set piece for a talent show
03:20or something like that, if all of a sudden, you know, something changes about the physicality of it,
03:24or if something isn't working, we really have to, like, you know, engineer really quickly on the spot.
03:30And that is really fun, and it's a muscle that we're not using all the time on every other show.
03:37I love the Rusicals, which Jamal is a big part of, and the queens get to showcase, you know, their
03:42brilliance.
03:42And it's just such a collaborative thing with Leland, our composer, and all of us putting it together, coming up
03:47with an idea,
03:48and then spending a lot of time to make it happen.
03:50And then, you know, it basically all comes together in, like, two, three days, and boom, they perform it twice,
03:55and then it's done.
03:56But it's such, so much momentum and kind of creativity, and just, we need to have to hit a rhythm
04:02and just dive in and make it happen.
04:04But it's really fun, because everyone is going full throttle, whether it's the set or the queens who are, you
04:10know, performing their asses off.
04:12And Jamal coming in and just honing it all, it's pretty fantastic.
04:16So much fun.
04:16I look forward to it, but then I'm also terrified every time I know that it's coming up, just because
04:21we don't have a lot of time.
04:23You know, I have 90 minutes with the queens at most, and then, you know, it's showtime.
04:29So we might have 10 minutes in the morning when we block again, but it's really fast.
04:34It's crazy.
04:35I was going to say, my favorite set from the season, we were the first cast to do Snatch Game
04:40of Love Island.
04:41And I think that goes to show that the show is always up to date with pop culture references, and
04:47not afraid to play with what people are talking about nowadays.
04:50And I think that's kind of drag, too.
04:52When we're at our local shows, you know, we're creating mixes based off what's popular now, or just like pop
04:56culture moments.
04:57So that's what I really appreciate about the design of the show.
05:00Yeah, I mean, obviously, we have some favorite colors on the show, and the favorite colors pop like crazy on
05:06white.
05:07So it was kind of like everything we love in a sauce that was like mixed together, and it turned
05:11out perfect.
05:12You know, we love sparkly.
05:13We love hot pink.
05:14We love orange, and it pops like crazy on white.
05:16The queens pop like crazy.
05:17So, yeah, it was kind of nice to have so much intense contrast and so much eye candy on that
05:27particular show.
05:28It's so funny because you don't know this about us, but we watch you all on the monitor.
05:32And, you know, my team works 12 hours a day.
05:34They work really hard.
05:35We're all there long hours.
05:36It's really hot in the valley.
05:38But whenever we watch the monitors, we're like, these girls are working so hard.
05:42It's crazy.
05:43Everybody is like, you cannot complain because look at these girls.
05:46You know, they did not know these songs.
05:48They had not done this kind of dance before.
05:50They've also been up for, you know, 14 hours.
05:53And I was like, they are working so, so hard.
05:55That's like summer camp, though.
05:56It was so fun.
05:58I loved it.
05:59I loved it.
06:00I loved it.
06:01Speaking of the colors, though, my friends always joke that if you're not paying attention to the episode, it's like
06:06Cocomelon.
06:07It's like the colors will bring you back to watching the screen.
06:11I'm very fortunate to have parents who are also a little older than my age range for parents.
06:18And they have always, from day one, pushed me to do what I love.
06:23And growing up, it was theater performance.
06:25And I just knew that seeing how my dad worked very hard with his career, he said, I want you
06:34to just do what you love.
06:37Like, that's what's going to make you the happiest.
06:39And I think they were a little, like, a little suspicious of the drag at first.
06:44Like, they didn't really understand, like, is this, like, going to make any money?
06:49I mean, I, like, all parents think, right?
06:50And then once I told them how many challenges I won leaving and how much money I made, they 180'd.
06:56And now my dad works at a specific store.
07:01A lot of customers come by.
07:02He tells every single customer that.
07:04I love that.
07:06Do you watch RuPaul's Drag?
07:07Do you watch RuPaul's?
07:08Yeah.
07:09My son won that one.
07:11And I get messages on Instagram all the time about it.
07:13Oh, my gosh.
07:14But it means the world.
07:15I'm very fortunate.
07:15And I hope if there are, you know, queer kids watching, maybe they're showing their parents for the first time,
07:21saying that this is not that out of the ordinary.
07:24Like, there are families out there who are loving and supportive.
07:27And you can, too, honey.
07:28It's been everything I've wanted, and I think more than I expected.
07:33I've been going internationally for the first time.
07:36And to have a meet and greet in Paris, to know that there's fans across the world who are watching
07:42the show, and they feel the effects of the show, the reach is unbelievable.
07:45And to be a part of this specific season, especially with the political climate we're in right now, although it
07:53is a very conservative time for our queer community, to have been able to be a solace every Friday for
08:03people who are feeling a little lost right now, it feels very important to be doing this.
08:08My favorite moment is definitely finale, watching the queens backstage before they go out for these finale performances.
08:18And you almost see it in their faces, their entire bodies.
08:22There is so much fight and joy mixed into one.
08:26It's almost like you also see their, like, all the trials and tribulations and everything that has come to this
08:31moment right before they go out that I, it's, like, it's my favorite.
08:39I work, you know, helping produce the show, and we're preparing the queens, you know, just to do this challenge
08:43and that challenge.
08:44But it's on them.
08:46So, like, seeing Mikey pull out this Drew Barrymore in the Snatch Game of Love Island was insane and so
08:51gratifying and fun to watch.
08:53And then also, like, something like in the Rusical, like, we knew Mikey was a talented performer.
08:58But she starts belting as Fanny, and we were all like, what?
09:02So that's so gratifying.
09:04She's belting and twerking.
09:06Yes.
09:09I will say that one of my, a magical moment was watching the finale at a watch party in Phoenix
09:17and watching how the audience responded to the performances was so cool to me.
09:23And this was my first time actually going to a watch party.
09:26And it was like a sporting event, you know, like everybody's yelling at the screen.
09:31And I'm like, wow, you know, to affect culture like this is just, and to be a part of it
09:36is something very special.
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