It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast.
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Welcome back, guys to TV Reload. My name is Benjamin Norris and this is your podcast to get all the insight goss on the popular shows that you may be watching from around the world Underniably, our TV sets her a major part of our home entertainment, and yet very little is known about how our favorite shows get made.
So each episode I've been finding the guests that want to dive just that little bit deeper into the shows they're currently making, so that you can hear all the exclusive stories and gain access to the biggest names in Australian television. I want to thank you for downloading all subscribing to this podcast however you found me. I love hearing your feedback, so make sure you leave a review
or a comment on your chosen podcast platform. Today's episode, I'm joined by the winner of RuPaul's Drag Race down Under season three. It is the Fabulous isis Avis Lorenz. The Melbourne based drag queen has been dragging it up for over a decade with hosting, lip syncing and over fifteen years experience in sewing and Designing. To say that Avers brought a polished performance is simply an understatement from help the other Queen's her Donna Tulliversaci in the Snatch
Game and a Kylie Green fairy that actually worked. Ice has walked away with a crown and possibly the only negative thing I could say about the series is that we kind of knew who the winner was when the series first started. I will find out how Avers celebrated the win and who was sitting right beside her that made the night so special. Avis will unpack the highs and lows from the series and talk about the most common questions that she gets asked by you, guys, the fans.
You will get an exclusive reveal on miss Congeniality in the eyes of this year's winner, and we will talk about All Stars and if the winners should return if Down Under it doesn't All Stars for series four. Plus we will get plenty of exclusives from behind the scenes of RuPaul's Drag Race down Under, which is now available
to watch on STAN Australia. If you've fallen just that little bit behind anyway, let's bring ices into the podcast and guys, I hope you enjoy this very special look at RuPaul's Drag Race season finale for twenty twenty three. Even though you can kind of hear that I have a bit of a coult. Anyway, guys, anyway, guys, let's bring Isis into the podcast. So how are you anyway? How have you been surviving the week?
Great? Thank you so much. It's been a crazy week. On top of winning, we're also on tour, which is just already chaotic. It's been incredible, incredible.
Well, the kind of felt like the competition was yours to lose from the start. I mean, everyone I spoke to was like, isis has got this in the bag? I wanted to know, could you feel that fan favoritism coming in throughout your time on the show.
I could feel the love. I'm not sure if I was a fan favorite. And there's so many wonderful girls this season. Polly gabs floor bumper, just there wonderful personalities. All the girls are very wonderful personalities, and like, going into it, I thought I'm Al was going to have an amazing ride because she just her personality is incredible. I love her to pieces. So while I had a good run and I was sort of maybe front runner,
if you will in people's minds. I was under no illusion that you never know what's going to happen in drag Race and tests ever we want. It takes all different kinds of people to win. I'm just stoked that I'm the one. You came out on top of the end.
Well. I saw you with the Mullen Rooge premiere and you addressed as the Green Fairy, and I was like, I think you're going to win, and you went, well, hopefully. I don't think you knew at that point.
No, we had no idea, still a few episodes to go. I think we were about the halfway point by then, and you just don't know what You just don't know what's going to happen. You don't know how they're going to edit it. I don't know what they want you to, how they're going to be I was just thrilled to be a part of the process.
How did you find out? So I believe that you got to watch it in a screening, which is basically the same time as the rest of Australia was watching it, Like, what was that whole process like for you?
It was very nerve wracking. I've been watching the season in Melbourne at the Osbourne and I've been watching with everyone around me, and I only watched the first episode by myself first. I had that luxury with timings and stuff for the doing parties, but for this one, especially having all my friends, families and colleagues around me and peers was magical. We sat next to Gabriela, who's an incredible, incredible queen, and to have her support during that moment
was just heartfelt, untouching. I will churish it forever.
I just want to know what happens when you win? What did Friday night look like? What did the weekend look like? Am I a crazy person? Just for wanting to know how you celebrated this? Well?
We celebrated just after. We had a few drinks, did some interviews, had photos, just celebrated to the win in the moment, you know, hugged my family and friends and just reveled in the revel in the wind. And then I got out of drag and then went and had a burrito. Still into each this Italian lady, she needs to man ja. So we did that and had a little dinner and then I went out for another little drink afterwards and just relaxed, just because being on tour
is such a such a strenuous process. Are you going from city to city and performing and packing up, packing down, maneuvering planes, as Lady Gaga says, bus plane, another bus club, another club, gig. Just it's incredible. So to have sort of a moment of stillness and just to reflect was perfect.
You know, it's interesting you were saying before or about these other queens that you were up against and the people you expect to do well in a competition like Rupouls Drag Race. What are your thoughts on you know, what it's like to be a queen on the scene of Australia versus the ability to take on this competition. Are they two different things? I mean, just because you're a good queen on the scene and everyone loves you, does that mean that you're going to win RuPauls.
I do think that Rupuls Drag Race is a for Repulse Drag Race. You definitely need a wide set of skills. You can't really be a master of one skill and think you're going to be a winner. It's not that kind of race. Unfortunately in Australia. I think a lot of the big city queens have all of those skills sort of drilled into you if you're coming up through
the scene. A lot of us do production shows. A lot of us do you know, produce our own shows as well, which within just those two sort of skill sets are a lot of other minor skills that will give you longevity and the skills to win drag race. Speaking from my point of view in Melbourne, I've been
working for ten years now in the drag scene. I already knew sewing, I did that at university and then learning how to do make up over the past ten years, or my makeup and working with production shows, working in teams, working as a solo artist, working you know, hosting is a big one, you know, learning how to work a crowd. Developing all those skills takes time and of course you have to have the talent there as well to do it. It's not easy to win drag race, as a lot
of people will attest to who have won. But if you go in there hard on your sleeve and the belief that you've you've got this in the bag, you're halfway there. The rest is your talent and skill.
I was watching you this season and I thought that you had such grace, you were so humble, and you had all of these qualities that made you very airy to me. I just really enjoyed watching you, but I was curious to see how you felt watching yourself back on the show. Did you enjoy watching yourself and is that how you felt and how you wanted to come across.
I did enjoy watching myself. I went to the competition and making sure that I was being as genuine as possible. It's not always possible, but to be myself, and you know, react to things how I would normally react to them, and so I'm very pleased with how I came across. It's anything that I said on the season, whether you know they have left it in the edit or taken it out, I knew came from a place of love
and my own knowledge sort of things. So I was pretty content even before hand, being like, whatever they have to put on there, I'm cool with. So I'm I'm very pleased with how it's presented. But I knew that I was going to be good anyway.
So who was your strongest competition? And we take you back to the start when you first are there on episode one and you're sizing up all the other queens, Like, who did you think was going to be your toughest competition?
Great question, I was. I was definitely thinking Hollywood, with her experience in theater and all of her performance talents, was going to be a very strong competter. And she proved that. And I also think Flaw with her personality and her paint arm. She's so beautiful. Yeah, I knew that Gabs was going to be a crazy one and that I think that a lot of people would respond well to her, and they have, and I'm so happy
for her. She is an incredibly talented girl, and that point of difference that she has with her own sort of just quirky mind is just a star quality and something to behold that's just incredible. So it's no wonder that we all made Top four, and I knew the bumper was going to be fierce competition. She's had a wealth of knowledge and experience that's incredible. I thought, I'm always going to do incredibly. I hope she's in All Stars. She better be in All Stars because otherwise I'm going
to turn. I'm going to turn.
Well, that's a good question. Do you think that you and Spanky and kid Amaine should come back and being in All Stars. Considering that you've won, do you think you should be included if they do in All Stars or are you happy to take the win and see who else can take it now?
Look, I would never say no to another opportunity to go on Drag Race. It's my favorite TV show. I am you know, I'm already I was honored being a part of it and lucky to be a part of it already. To go onto it again would be an incredible experience going to say no that at all. Having said that, give me a minute, I'm going to I'm going to take it. I'm going to take a year at least to enjoy what I've achieved so far, and
then we'll see what the future holds. But I do think, especially for like the girls who went out and home early, they didn't get a chance to show who they are enough. It takes a couple episodes to really get to know a character on television, and these girls just they need, they need this exposure because they're so talented. So I would I would say give them the give them the go first, especially on All Stars. If you've got an All Stars All Winner season girls We're here, or maybe
even a versus the world. That would be incredible to be able to be able to do, because then you've got sort of a very high caliber of drag sort of going into it. But otherwise, for an All Stars, you really want to see personalities you didn't get to see enough of one.
Chance and circumstances what I always say, and if you actually look at the American version some of the other versions around the world, every first episode of Rubehoul's you can see that it's quite loud at everyone's trying to find their place. It's always for me. I almost feel that this is a very bad thing to say, and I'm sure Amial will kill me, but I almost feel like I could do with that. The watching the first
episode of every series. I think that's a weird thing to say, but it's so stressful because I'm like watching everyone. I was so stressed for Ammial when Ammil went home, you know what I mean, Like, I feel like I just want to turn up mid slumber party.
Yeah, well, it's the first episode. Is where you actually sort of is where you find you're finding your feet in that first episode. You don't know it's a new environment, it's a new experience. You're learning things for the first time, and how I think operates behind camera on camera, it's it's a whirlwind. So I've always said that first episode
should be a non elimination episode. So you find your feet, you're all good will, you learn who everyone is, and you get to have a wonderful time and just sort of relax into it just a little bit. And so in that way, the second episode you're sort of poised and ready to sort of take the competition on from a really good place. That's not how it works. Unfortunately, hopefully we get ammal for season one of All Stars of down Under.
You have to be really humble, I guess in this. But when it came to that finale, do you think that producers had their work cut out for them to make the finale a little bit more tense than it really was.
No, I don't think so. I think up until the last episode is sort of like, you win as much as you can and that's great, and the last episode is where you prove yourself. It's sort of like a clean slate almost. It's your last chance to be like no, no, I'm in the Superstar and both Flaw and Gabriella did an amazing job at that. I mean, it's probably one
of the best episodes of franchise. Just the way that it was edited is beautiful, and all our stories and of course a challenge which is just top notch in my eyes, a little bit biased, I know, but you're aloud. I've been while I had three wins under my belt going into it. Flow her personality and her vivaciousness is just infectious, and so she could have taken the crown.
And then Gabriella, with her quirkiness and her lovable Alarican persona and just her story and her growth through this season was also another incredible reason to take the crown. It was a hard one and going into the finale, I was, oh, you know, while I did have the three wins, you don't know for sure. You never know for sure, you don't know what's going through Ru's head, and you're on a counter egs before they've hatched.
There seemed to be a lot less drama this year than Series one and Series two. And when I say that, not that we saw that much, but we did hear a lot about the production of the show, and that there was a bit of drama behind the scenes. You know. All the feedback was that you guys were getting along. Do you think that they chose you to be like that so that we could have a softer season.
Well, good question. I don't think so. I think they were. I think I chose them an amazing cast that would bring a really high caliber of drag and a fun caliber of drag. You know, you don't know when you get put into a fresher cooker, a situation that is drag race, that's going to bring out the best and worst in people. And I think that just this season, we were able to do our best and be the
best and that we supported each other. Not only is the cast, but also the crew was very supportive as well. I think that maybe production did hear speed back or get feedback from past few seasons, and they've applied that feedback. It's the cast was very loving and we went in being very loving and supportive of each other because we all know that it's a really hard slog and that they're not gonna they're not gonna go easy on us
with the challenges. They're going to test us. Not called a challenge for a reason.
So yeah, the series wasn't without its talking points. I mean I was talking to a lot of queens that are international and they were all watching it. I don't know how they were watching it, but they were all watching it and talking about it. And we had the Kylie Runway, the choices for the lip sync around the world. People were like, what are these songs? Who were picking these? And then also the fainting. So, I mean there was a pretty big season when you look at some of
those big headlines. For you, what was the fans coming up and asking you because you're walking the streets, what were people wanting to know from you? The most great question?
I do think that the Kylie Runway was quite a hitting point. A lot of people were sort of like, why weren't they They just said, why were the more Kylies? And it's just sort of how the cookie crumbles. Production don't control the situation much because then it's going to be it's going to be inorganic. You want some drama, you want some head to head situations. And while we could have been done without having two double ups on the Kylie rue Way.
Well there were almost three double ups.
Well, yes, there was almost three. We did have Ivana who was also a green Fairy.
Why the Green Fairy, I mean your Green Fairy. I saw it in the flesh and it was phenomenal. I mean it did look the best green fairy out of the ones we got to see. We even got to see Havana's both thing. She put it online. But you know, when I saw it in the flesh, I just thought you looked magnificent. But just why the green Fairies. It's not even a big Kylie moment. She was dropped into Mullen Rouge at the very last minute of that movie. It wasn't even in the script, like the movie had
been finished by the time they put her in. So it was interesting that that would be a Kylie that people would choose.
Well, yes see, I suppose what you don't want to do is have an obvious Kylie because you think that someone else can to do that as well, like a spinning around Kylie or you know, slow Kylie. You might find it know someone else can do because they're easier looks to do. For me, doing the Green Fairy was
very important. It was basically I had two options for Kylie was Green Fairy and a Mooglaire copy that her mum made for her for one of her first Australian tours, and I went with a green Fairy because every year, every day through you know, year ten or nine or something, I would watch Mulan Rouge after school. So it's very sentimental to me to sort of bring an element of my childhood into it and sort of re reenact that.
So it's also sort of more of a niche Kylie reference than not everyone would know or you know, go for but I don't know why. But also Flaw and also Ivana also chose them. I'm not sure of their reasonings exactly.
They bring home after school as well to watch it.
For me, it was a sentimental choice and I've seen many a girl do the Blue show Girl or the peach show girl look, so to recreate that on the one where I was like, ah, that's all, let's do something, try and do something new, and I'd already done a Red show Girl, so you know, you want to try and chose some diversity. So reason so many and diverse, but you know, it did make for some cam TV and sometimes you don't want to compare girls to girls,
but in this season we've got to do that. A couple of times, which made it for an interesting television I've.
Heard from other people that you know, sometimes producers will see that there's going to be a double up of outfits and actually appreciate that because that can create some tension between your queens, you know what I mean. Like that means that we have a rivalry, we have a comparison, and I'm here for that. I wanted to ask, I ask you about Queen Kong and Spanky, who got to be in the final episode with you. What was that
like working with them? I mean, did you get the feeling that these queens have star power?
And I did recognize their star power. Both of them are juggernauts of dragon Estrailed down Under. We've seen the medioic rise of Queen Kong and all of her talents and being nominated for a Loki. It's just she's incredible and Spanky, her vibrancy and her personality, in her electricity that she has. It's just a spark that comes from her, you know, and to come from a small and she lived. I knew her from her Melbourne days and she's the same bright spark that has just illuminated the drag scene.
So to work with them at the end in that final episode. It's incredible. I loved it. I loved it. We were stars up there on that stage, and I'm glad we get that platform to show the world what dan Under has to offer.
Yeah, I can't wait to see what you do next. You know, before we go the series is being made all around the world. Has a very watertight format, but now more than ever, people seem to be online talking about whether the format should be mixed up a little bit.
I don't necessarily want to bury you with a comment on this, but I do think it would be interesting to know, surviving a whole series of this show and seeing how it all works, is there anything about this format that you think would work better in showcasing Queen's on the show like this or make it more entertaining.
Oh that's a great question. Why change something that's working is one sort of comment you could apply to it. But I do think that with the different variations, potentially making each variation a little more specialized to their region might make you know, a little more interesting for not only the home audiences, but it would also give a taste of what each little franchise in their own respected
parts of the world can offer the world. You know down here, we could film something at Sydney Harbor or you know in Melbourne that is it's a little more at Landish or even the Cuisines or whatever that sort of you know, it really gives a taste of that part of the world that might be really awesome to put in there. But really the franchise itself is a mashup of America's Got Talent, Project Runway and Next Top Model, So it's already like a mashup of itself, a mashup.
It's already almost like what it was a parody of of reality TV, and now it's its own juggernaut.
So there's nothing bigger. There's that reality show at the moment in the world exactly this many franchises going into production around the world at the same time. It's crazy, it's insane.
It's insane. Drag is taking over the world and I couldn't be more pleased.
You have such a good place in that as well. I can see you going so far with it, I think extraordinary. One thing they hate about not getting this in our Australian series is the miss congeniality. I'm sure people have asked you this question whether you've been doing the media rounds, but can you help me out with this? I guess you are the winners, so you're the most entitled to hand over. Who was the Miss Congeniality of the series?
Oh, oh gosh, that's a lot of power.
It's a lot of pressure. But if anyone can do it, it is you little me.
I would probably, oh gosh, I would probably say Bumba. She was the most caring and loving of the season. She really sort of was there for a lot of the girls. Yeah, we can go with Bumba, Bumpa love Miss Congeniality.
I'll take it, and I know that Bumper will as well, which is which is great. I've got friends that have done this franchise all around the world, and the one thing that they always say is, no matter what other shows they do, they still get asked this one question. What is it that RuPaul was able to teach you?
RuPaul had been teaching me for the past ten years, teach all of us. She's a very wise, wise soul and that's come with you know, a lot of trial and tribulation and success walking the sort of the wholes of drag Race is an experience like none other. It's powerful to be able to go into my favorite TV show and feel at home. And I think that's what Rue has really given the world and given a lot
of queer people. It's a atlet. It's a home away from home that we can we can dive into and escape too, because sometimes we have few parts of life that don't really fun. But Rue has really created this franchise and this.
Space to play, I guess is a little thing about it, you.
Know, Yeah, a space to be ourselves throughout the whole world, and that is incredibly powerful. The shock waves that it's sent through society is undeniable and incalculable. So I think that's what she's brought. She's brought a safe place for many queer people around the world. And you know, she can't receive enough thanks for.
That, so yeah, very quickly can It's the last question I ask everyone on the podcast. What is something from behind the scenes, something that people the fans didn't see that they would love to see, kind of like maybe a story of your time on the show, something that's silly that might have happened that wasn't shown.
Oh gosh. In one of the early episodes, we were driving back to the hotel where we went down into the car park, but the van was too high and so above Gabriella and I a bit of the glass broke and fell onto us. And then in the final episode we performed to walking on broken Glass, so there was a huge, fullstopmer death of Gabs and I that were just like, what is the universe telling us? It was just incredible. So there's a little bit of a
tidbit for you that it didn't make the edit. It's just ah incredible.
Well, congratulations, you were well deserved and I'm so lucky to be able to have spoken to you today and for you to be so generous with your time, and I'll be in your audience. I can't wait to see what you do next.
Thank you so much for it, for having me. Ben