ELIMINATED QUEENS Week 6 - RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE DOWN UNDER - Reality TV Contestant

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Welcome TV Reload listeners. As you may know, my name is Benjamin Norris and this is your podcast to get all the inside goss on the popular TV shows you may be watching from around the world. Undeniably, our TV sets are a major part of our home entertainment, and yet very little is known about how our favorite shows

I'm great, thank you?

How are you very good? I'm very excited to be talking to you. It's actually really scary how fast this season is going. Is it a bit of a whirlwind for you at this point?

It actually is, even though you know we've had finished filming, it's still a freaking whirlwind.

I wanted to ask you about because, I mean, you're a very recognizable queen in Melbourne. I mean I was just saying to you before we started that you're one of the only queens that have actually seen live, you know. I wanted to ask you how this opportunity came up.

I mustome if they had reached out to me previously, but because of lockdown and I have my own business, I really had to look after my business because I employed drag queens and so that's where my focus was this time round.

My focus.

I didn't think I'd ever get the opportunity to be on this kind of platform because for me, Ripple's Drag Race is the Olympics of drag. So I never thought it would happen for me because I'm an old girl, but this time the opportunity came around, the timing was right for me, and also the rent on my venue went up by sixty percent after COVID, so Mumma needs

I just think, you know, it's a lot of pressure because you're going onto this show after watching it for so many years, and it's your Olympics. So what was the reality of being a part of a show like this in comparison to what maybe you'd construct it in your head.

It's nothing compared to what I constructed in my head. So really blew me away with the whole process and what's involved in it, what I would need to bring to it. I really actually wasn't prepared and I don't really listen to a lot of online chatter about stuff. So I'm not really that kind of a person. Because I've been in the public eye for many years and people used to come for me all the time. So

So I realize that now.

So I'm going to listen a little bit more to some of that stuff. Yeah, it's definitely it's a world of its own.

You know. It's funny about reality TV as well, is that we get an opportunity to see a version of ourselves.

I mean, it is a version that's been constructed.

But we get to see ourselves from how other people would see us. Has that been quite surreal? And what did you learn about yourself? Watching yourself back?

Difficult for me because a lot of the takes that they have shot the times when I thought we weren't filming, So you see me with like crazy eyes and weird mouth things, all this weird shit going on when I thought the cameras went wrong because I get bored easily pretty sure. I've got ADHD, you know, and I want to do things keep myself awake, and they captured all of those things.

It was that shit on.

TV that was hilarious, not really for me to watch, but what I have, I've got a huge sense of self now because that insights and Instagram especially show me where my biggest followings are. And I also get a lot of communication back from two countries. In particular, Spain is my second most followed follow me Spain and first

It's funny we get so critical about those sorts of things, but it is who we are. For years, I used to get really funny about I'd be like, oh, I've got jows and aw yeah, and I'd.

Be really critical and I think to myself.

Why because we're so critical on ourselves, but other people aren't seeing that. I do relate to the fact that I think you have some resting bitch face at certain times, which I'm here for. That's a part of the magic of you though, you know what I mean, Like, that's why you've been so successful. You've got to adopt all of those things that you put out into the universe.

Yeah, exactly, and I'm very I am multifested. It's amazing that, you know, even the girls you know, allude to this drunken character. But that's a character that I can draw on. And it's a dry shoot, so there's no alcohol, but it's clearly I'd look drunk at quite a lot. That's part of who my bumper character is. And I can draw on the funny bumper, the drunkum, the serious. You know, I can draw on what I need to at, you know, kind of any given time. But it is a character,

You can definitely tell that you've got the work, that you've put the work in, that you've been around. You get that vibe from you straightaway. And I think it's a good question to ask you about Rue Paul the series. You know, it's such a global phenomenon at the moment. How influential is the show these days on what's actually happening in the drag scene from what you've seen around Australia.

I think for me personally, it hasn't. It's had no effect. I know it's a weird thing to say, but I'm a stage venue girl, so you know, I work work, work, work, work, So the RuPaul drag Race world for me is it's a world, but it's not my world. It's a weird thing to say, but that that's I hadn't really had it affect me.

After being on the show.

I can definitely see how it's influenced some of the girls that I work with, for sure, and I've certainly learned a lot from being on the show, and it's a universe. Rupel's drag Race is a universe, and I'm really super excited and looking forward to creating other Bumper images. Bumper looks Bumper gigs because of now of what I've experienced, and it's a world that I think I've been so busy working that really I just did not know that it was that amazing and I could learn so much from it so I.

Had on the show.

I think the amazing thing about doing a show like this is how it can change you. You know, not everyone gets the opportunity to do a show like this, which you've been very lucky to get into. Do you think that your drag will look quite different to what it was before you did the show?

Yes, I think look wise, definitely. I think experience wise. No. We've had our viewings here in the venue and I can It's weird because now that I've been on the show, people, I can hear people in the audience like talking about me and say, oh, remember when Bumper did that? Blah blah, remember when Bumper did that. You know, it's a different kind of conversation, but I'm not being any different in

I think it's really fascinating the way that RuPaul's and this particular show has influence art and influence fashion, and they're two things that people don't necessarily draw to straight away, but it certainly is happening in industries around the world, quite impressive and.

Always That's the funny thing. It actually always has been happening. Drag has influenced for many, many years, and I think I don't know why.

I just kind of wasn't looking with those eyes.

But now that I've been on the show, I really do want to work and I think maybe it's because I spent so much of my time working in community.

That's that's a lot.

I put a lot of energy into that, So I may have to pull back from some of that because I really do want to work on other aspects of Bumper, and I really do want to get into TV in film as well now because it's time.

Yeah, there's a lot of people actually coming off these shows and getting a lot of work that way. How come you made the decision to go from New Zealand over to Australia And what made you choose Melbourne is as where you wanted to call home.

And New Zealand.

I ended up doing the biggest gigs you could ever do, and I had been on TV as well, and I thought what do I do now? And there's a couple of raining queens there as well that you know, I couldn't really topple them over because they were, they was and they're still going today. And one of them's actually my inspiration, Buckwheat. So I wanted to make my own stamp. And I've always loved Melbourne. I've worked here before and so that that's why I decided to come here. I

You know.

I always get really stressed about these challenges because I always think of myself and how I would do them. And as soon as that annual drag Brunch was announced, I was like, I'm like, what act would you put together?

And then I was watching you.

You seem more determined than anyone else about doing comedy, and I knew when Gabriella was saying to you, be really careful with comedy because it can fall down where I actually didn't think you did too badly because I was genuinely laughing along with you, but I was. But I was curious to know when you knew that there was going to be sort of like a talent contest you was it comedy and comedy only or did you have a backup plan?

God?

No, so that I wasn't supposed to be doing that.

So I love writing lyrics and I like singing, so my track hadn't been cleared in time, so I think I just got through EPRA because you know, we were only a short time to put all this stuff together, and it took me two weeks to do the recording of my track that I wrote and the backing vocals, and then got cleared by OPRA here in Australia, but I think it was the day after we were shooting, or got cleared in New Zealand the day after, so

Can you give me a bit of the track.

Now that we've it's been a time, I'm going to remix it because there's something else has happened since, which I'll announce down the track and then yes, I will definitely have that track online.

So what about a name? Can you give us a name of the track so that we know what we're looking about?

Way, Bumper's Way, Bumper's Way.

W A y.

Well, I mean it's really stressful when you're putting that together. So like, I can't believe that you had such a short turnaround to try and put a comedy act together. My lad fear is doing comedy in front of a live audience.

So I think you did so well well.

I wish we had an audience that we have been a lot better for Bumper because I'm really good at like one on one and bom bom boom boom. When you've got four people like miles away from you and that's it, it's you know, it's a different, different scene, so you know, it is what it is.

I landed in the bottom.

I'm not I'm actually not upset with that because I thought it was not my best work.

So I was okay with that.

When you first arrived and you've got all the queen's there, how close to how you thought people would go in this competition?

Is accurate to how you thought it was going to go.

Gabby, Oh my god, so good. Loved her from the very very outset, so I knew she would do well. I bloody knew Isis will do well. And then as the season progressed, I really thought Floor would do great as well. And of course Hollywood slays a performance. Is absolutely an amazing performer.

Has it brought you girls closer together like as in doing this sort of a show with a high pressure that it is. Does it make you all like a tight unit? Or is there is it fragmented after doing something so intense like that.

It's a unique experience and we've all said that to each other that you know, no one else has actually had that experience. And I hear that all the time with the different community groups that I work with.

But this is.

Definitely a very very unique situation with men dressing up as a woman online television with a worldwide audience. It's very very unique. So we actually have really great conversations together, really honest ones, really supportive ones. As I said, I've got Ivory staying with me at the moment, who I love. She's here doing some gigs and I had I've had ready to come and stay with me as well and

It's my favorite way I would stay.

Love that hotel met too.

I'm just about to write to them because they need coming up. But you know, we've got homes all over the place, and Gabby's like me too. She's been looking after some of the girls. They've gone for viewings in Ballarat and they've stayed with her. I don't know what the other seasons do like that, but we definitely have each other others. Back to all of us in New Zealand. People have got a home Melbourne, Sydney.

Barrett, you've now got all these new homes.

You're like a drag mother for everyone in Melbourne, and then they can be a drag mother for you when you go there.

Well, they can just buy all of my seven yarm blank because I'll be staying at the QT in Auckland QT in Sydney and I won't be saying it bet Gabriellism Bella.

I think I'll go and stay a hotel.

You needed to be more upperclass, you know, there was a there was a couple of moments that was a little bit confusing, with some drama with your relationship with Ashley Madison, who wanted to speak to about this last week. What was the tea in regards to your relationship before you both did the show.

Before, Well, she worked for me and we worked for many years together, and then we had a bit of a falling out.

I suppose. I don't know what it was about. I got us think about that anything.

Roll back the decks.

Anyway, Well, a long time ago we had a falling out, and then we didn't have a falling out, So, you know, I think it's just those relationships. But we we're family. We're drag family through and through. So it's one of those things that just happened. But then it didn't because we've been fine.

Do you know what I mean. It's like you argue with your family and then you make up. That's exactly how we have been.

Yeah, yeah, totally, because as you would have seen on the episodes, we both talk about each other all the time and we're both in each other's lives. Ash was at my house last night with Ivory. You know, we're just we are family. You know, family fall and family fall out, but we have been in much more than we've been out.

Yeah, it was so. You heard the conversation that I had them with with Ashley.

Yeah, I love I love your post. You're you're because you're very you want to learn about the girls and what's going on. Whereas you know, a lot of the podcasts I just had to not follow because they kind of they verge on the edge of being rude because they just haven't really done the homework, I suppose, whereas you do.

It's great.

I'm fascinated about the reality TV side of it, you know, these social experiment side of it, and you know, and the joy of being selected.

To do this show. I think the whole thing fascinates me.

And that's you know. And I thought, for you, you are somebody who is going to be remembered for this show. You had so much energy, you had so much skin in the game, and I think that made it very interesting to watch. And I think you should be really proud of yourself for being true to yourself in there and giving the audience something to invest in.

No, I really appreciate that, thank you, because you're right. And reality TV there are producers and directors and they want you and they tell you what to do. As I said before, now many people can tell Bumple what to do. So they would want a storyline or want to go a certain way, and just especially culturally, if it didn't sit well with me, I would just own up to it whether well Bumble wouldn't do that, bump

I think that's what's so impressive. And you now have a global audience. You know, you have these people following you from all around the world. Speaking of you know, being a global audience. Though, I'd love to see an Ossie queen from our down Under series on the US All Stars. Who do you think would be the best person who's our best shot of winning that competition if we were to send one of our down Under girls into that.

To be honest, any of the previous winners, so Keita could do it, Spanky could do it, and Quen Kong could do it, And then me, yeah.

I think throw Art Simone in there, and then I think we've got our I think we've got who is she?

I don't know. She's some sort of underground queen.

She worked here for a little bit too.

Who do you reckon? This year's Miss Congeniality is like who did you me?

Mother?

You know, I deleted this question off the podcast after doing the first season, and that was because everyone I asked who was Miss Congeniality, they all said themselves, if it's not you, I'm now sounding like Michellevassage. If it is not you, who is Miss Congeniality?

Of you know what, each one of the girls had a moment for me that was super special. So it's very difficult, and I'm being honest, you know, very difficult because they all gave of themselves, so can't really.

Say, okay, well, can you give me a souvenir moment? Then, in regards to working with RuPaul, people want to work with RuPaul and they want to have like a moment that they will have that's a moment between you know you and them, what's going to stay in your mind?

This song's very easy for me. Twice in two different episodes, Ruth says when we're judging after the runway, says, straight to my face, Bumper, you look twenty five years younger. Not once, but twice. I was like, damas game.

In I think you're ageless. I don't even know how old you are.

Like, I couldn't even guess, Like if you offered me a million dollars and gave me an age bracket of between twenty and forty, I've have no idea.

Well, actually, that's the second strangest thing I get online is people are shocked at my age?

So great?

How old are you? You shouldn't ask a girl that.

Am I going to get back one?

How old?

One? Fifty one?

Oh my gosh.

When you work as much as I have and just I keep my body in shape, you know, I'll just give one work until I want to stop.

I want to see you come back because I do this show again because I want an old queen's like Australian old queens your Paris is.

I just got a notification actually that I am the oldest queen to win a lip sync It was Raja.

Oh my god, now it's me. Now it's you.

You've found that out this morning.

There you go, You're in the Hall of Fame.

I was also going to ask you about Rees Nickelsen and Michelle visage. Did they teach you something? How did you go with their comments? Did you enjoy what comments? They offered you in your critiques.

I don't think you see it in the series, but Michelle was really super hard on me. I think they gave her the best moments with me, which is great, But she was so hard on me, so it was which is great because people don't really talk to me like that. So to have her like come straight in every time, there's always something with her and she was right, she was never wrong. So high praise her, love her a bit, just so on point Reese, so fucking smart. You know, I just want like the one percent of

So I really appreciated working with him, and I'd love to work with them again.

I could definitely do with some of his brain cells.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, Well, just before you go, I always ask someone Everyone who joins the podcast gets asked this question, is.

What is something from behind the scenes?

Not necessarily to peel back the layer too much and revealed much about the whole report, but what about from you? What's something that happened during the makings of this season that we won't see on television that you can share with us.

What don't think anyone realizes that the stage is actually perspects?

Have you ever danced on perspects?

Never? It's a dream of mine.

Perspects. It's so fucking hard.

That's why it's so shiny on the screen, but it's a very difficult to per form on. And I know this is why I'm now going to start listening to the things online, because I probably would have figured that out before I went on there for the first time.

It's very slick grey well.

I remember this one Queen was saying that they put like velcrow dots on the bottom of their high.

Heels the New Zealands as well, so they wear bulve crow bush shoes the heels and there are like sand paper.

There's a secret from behind the scenes that we've told them.

I don't thank god they hit those buffa love.

I am obsessed with you and I'm looking forward to seeing you again in Melbourne, where it is my hometown, performing and I'll be in your audience.

I think you're an amazing talent.

Thank you so much. I'd love that time. Thank you so much.