It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week Their Life. Welcome back to TV Reload. My name's Benjamin Norris, and on this podcast I go behind the scenes with the biggest players in television. Each episode you will get a front row seat with content makers like executive producers, writers, editors, and casting agents, plus the talent that we see on our screens.
TV Reload reloads the shows that you are currently watching and gives you a better insight into our television industry and our streaming services. This week on the podcast, I have the top three queens from RuPaul's Drag Race down Under Season two, and on today's episode, I will hopefully give the fans a better idea of Queen Kong's resume and help you ask that question. Is Queen Kong our
winner of the second Down Under series? This Saturday is already the finale, and while the series has been on a wild ride, I think the finale is going to be an excellent celebration of three very very popular queens who truly deserve to be there. Queen Kong is of Tongan and Samoan heritage. She originally hails from New Zealand, but is currently residing in South Australia and was probably the most established queen at the start of the series.
Kong is known for her powerhouse performances and is also a professional dancer, which is why the fandom started off with huge high hopes for this awesome drag Queen. We will talk in a sabotur the clash with Beverly Kills, who she thinks could easily sit beside Rue Paul, and we will tackle the shady or Lady quiz with the very first official request to be a lady. However, let's
get started with today's guest. I'd like to welcome Queen Kong from RuPaul's Drag Race down Under season two to TV reload.
I feel like it's just giving people more power to feel seen, acknowledged and heard. First start.
Queen Kong and sister can't.
Personally, I've had a lot of violent depths my ego.
Everyone knows who Queen Kong is. She is a legend in the drag scene.
Well, I don't like it when someone raises their voice at me, are you cheam? Queen Kong and I knew they were going to do it to the tour of us, but they're going to make US rivals.
Which Queen will be crowned down under next Drag.
Superstar beyond more community development queens rather than TV personality.
Hi there, Queen Kong, How the hell are you?
I'm good? How are you doing?
All the better for being able to talk to you this morning?
Amazing, So condragulations on making it to the top three. I think that you had some of the strongest storylines of the season, making me think that you could win.
Oh wow, I'll let you be the judge of that, because I'm not going to get my hopes up because if I lose, I'm coming for you. Ben.
We'll look do that because then we could just have a commiseration drink and I'll be up for.
That totally, many many, many drinks.
Do you think, though, that having a journey in your efforts on a show show like this may give you a better shot of winning.
I think watching it back, I definitely got a lot of screen time and also a lot of screen time for the audience to warm to me and feel like some love me. Majority of them loved me. Some of them are just like, oh, go to the therapist, and I'm like I am chill the fuck out with you. But yeah, I think watching the Bag, I definitely feel like people know me through and through. And the thing about it is walking in you saw it in episode one, or the queens are like, oh my god, Queen congs here,
Queen Cong's. Yeah, the majority of these girls only have ever really met me through the lens of a screen or seeing me on stage. They see that monster performance fierce and fear as because they don't see the pile of shit in the dressing room that's transcrape it together to get on stage and you know, look like a warrior queen. And so I feel like this was a really good indication of who I am and what I'm about and my values and yeah, I'm silently confident. But also, hey,
they can go either way. Both those girls are just icons in their own life.
I kind of thought, you know, when it comes to therapy with Rue Paul, he played a therapist on the Brady Bunch movie. So that moment where he was given well, she was giving you some really good advice. It slipped me back to that Brady Bunch moment. I don't know, how do you ever seen RuPaul in the Brady Bunch movie with.
The Black Wig. I remember that Black Wig, and I was like, how can we forget let's not remember that week. I think she's forgotten it. Yeah, those moments were while like, you know, I think there were a couple of moments with Ru where she really gave me mama love, like and she you know, I've spent years going to therapist and you know, had so many people give so many different bits of advice, but she hit it on the
head with a couple of those moments. There was a chat she had around shame, which is inherently built into most of us, but especially in the FIVEPOC communities, you know, when it comes to being queer, you know, and also
with Dragon. So when she brought that up and we spoke about my father and all that kind of stuff, these are things that I for myself, you know, talking to another person of color who's also been through it and is now in a platform where she's God, you know, I'm going, you know, who has to listen to them this example of excellence. And so there was that moment.
Also the moment in the workroom where she spoke to me about giving my inn a child permission to have fun you know, and I think I've never heard in those words before, but when she said, I felt something in my heart just like unlock and open, and I went, Wow, she's really good and this is why we call her Mama rou So I've got lots of love, love and respect for that black Wig from the Brady Bund.
It's money can't buy therapy, you know, so it years to come when you say I learned this from my therapist RuPaul, you know, it's.
Crazy, literally totally and hopefully she doesn't charge me your royalty fy for that.
Well, throughout the series, I've been asking everyone if they are I've learned this from the Instagram lives that you will refer to it as your edit? But are you just happy with the way that you came across for how viewers got to see you?
Yes, you know, like I'm one of the fortunate queens where you know, we obviously and you would obviously know this, like you give everything, you know, like the producers get everything from you, and you know, whatever gets chopped up and left on the dis floors really at their own liberty. But I feel like with my edit, they really did kind of capture my essence, you know, and the things that I that I face, the things that I struggle with, my values, all of it, and I feel very fortunate.
You know, I think people got a good idea of who I am and what I'm about and what I will do if I win.
What does it mean to you to have made it to the RuPaul's Drag Race down Under finale?
Like?
What does it mean to you personally?
Ah? Personally? Like I just think, you know, thinking about that little child that really was talking about, Like I think about think back to then when I would watching TV and going, the only person that we look to that looked like me was the rock doing the rock, Johmpson. So I'm going, I definitely wouldn't want to be a
wrestler like I want to be with the wrestler. So thinking about that child and also thinking about my niece, my nephews who you know who I'm raising as well, going, you know, this is the possibilities for us to exist in these platforms and spaces. I can only imagine what this impact will do for that generation. So even though it doesn't seem like it's about me personally, I know that's just a torch that I get to pass on to you know, my nephew and my niece when they
succeed my lifespan, and so that means a lot. It means a lot to me.
Powerful when I was growing up, it wasn't even the rock. The rock came around when I was in my twenties, so there was less. There was less than a rock. That's what I'm going to say to you. Right now.
We've come a long way.
We're moving forward and that's great.
Does this final three feel right? Or had you expected there may be someone else in the final three?
No, to be honest, this feels right. You know. I think walking in, I had ideas of who I thought was going to go forward, and to be honest, and I've said this to Spanky, like I think we all kind of like cut her out in the beginning in the first one two episodes, but really quickly she stood up and let us all know what time it was. Like,
Spanky Jackson is a force to be reckoned with. And so I think when I walked in, I was like, Okay, Hannah, hopefully if I don't get cut out, and if I did, be humble about it, don't cry and maybe Mini or Yuri you know that there was definitely others that I thought were going to get just based on face value. So it makes sense now, like those two girls killed the competition, and I'm lucky that I got there at the end because there was touch and go for a minute.
I don't know, because like I knew who you were before, I didn't think I think this is right. I don't think I knew anyone else and think it was just you that I knew as an established queen going into the show. So being such an established queen, do you think that RuPaul's is going to change much.
Of your life?
I think, like, I don't think it's going to change the landscape in terms of what I'm doing, but I feel like it's going to broaden the outreach, which is the main reason why that was what I wanted to get out of it. You know, I wanted to again, you know, for the younger brown boy, black boy who's watching the TV to go, I'm going to be I'm going to be a glamorous drag warrior that has anxiety and depression. That's what I'm going to be when I
grow up. So I wanted to be that. But I think moving forward, I think it is just going to amplify it. And I was just an Inner Borough for the Fringe Festival, and you know, you kind of underestimate how many people watch Drag Race across the world. It's
the most watched TV show. You know, walking down the street, people recognizing me out a drag, Like there was a thing that I loved about the anonymity of drag, being able to do the show in the club and then walk out and people just think I'm the security guard that's completely gone, Like it's completely up the table now, and so it's wild people recognizing you down the street.
And I think knowing that the way that I was portrayed on the show and how I help myself was seen and the people that also feel the same way are resonating with that, who don't feel like they can really do drag because they're not extrovert extroverts. Like I'm
definitely an introverted extrovert. So I feel like it's just giving people more power to feel seen, acknowledged and heard and you know, feel like they have the possibility across the board to stand up and do the drag that they want to do, you know, might not necessarily be as polished or might not necessarily be as talented or funny or charismatic, but you know, it's a valid you know, if you have a purpose and a mission for your lifespan for your art, Like, who's going to tell you
that you're wrong unless you're telling yourself you're wrong. So yeah, I'm excited for that aspect of what drag Race is going to do for me and what the plans that I have to use this platform to forward this kind of activism work, this movement that I've been doing before the show started.
It's my favorite thing about you.
You is that introverted, extrovert quality, and it kind of I'm people see me extremely extroverted, but I actually have a large part of my personality that it's introverted, and it's not something people understand very easily. I loved when you could see that one of the queens in the make of a Transformation thing was being really loud, and you were like, I'm so glad I didn't get that person.
That would be too much for me. That's the same for me.
People think because I'm really loud that they try and match me with loud people, or they thought I was sassy on Big Brothers. So they would sassy. People would come up and go, I'm the bitch of the group too, and I'd be like, what.
Thank you, I loved you by the way, You're amazing.
That's nice to say, but it's kind of funny because you know, people expect you to be a certain way and I'm not always as loud, which is, as I said, my favorite thing about you is just being able to be both.
I think is important.
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I guess too. I think the way that I thought because before Drag, I was going to a professional dancer and I'm a leo, so I've definitely got that like the show boating, like show pony aspect of my personality. But because I've always performed like professionally, like I've always used the stage to exercise all of those, like those egotistical, you know parts of me.
And I think if you met me a year ago, you probably would have hated me, like, to be completely honest, because I like, not that I was a count, but I was a bit of an asshole because I thought I was it. I thought not like my shit did it's sting. Like the way that I did Drag was still the same way, but I feel like my approach was a lot more aggressive, and I feel like I've really like made my approach more sophisticated, and I've kind
of bored my stuff down. I think personally, I've had a lot of like violent deaths to my ego, which has been so beneficial in the best way possible, and it's just really made me look at myself and go, well, you know, like what am I other than I can do these amazing things with my body now, But when I turn forty fifty, Like, I'm not going to be the backflipping drag queen at forty I'm not going to be the drag queen that's going that that people are
coming to the club going ooh, Anti Kong needs to retire, Like I don't want that, Like I want to make sure that the impact that we're making sort of surpasses my physical capacity to be so I want to make sure that that sets up a space for others to push the envelope further. And so, you know, I've done a lot of self growth and the journey mentally and emotionally has been really rewarding, and drag has been the best way to do that. So yeah, it's exciting.
It is so exciting.
But I think that's kind of the hero's journey that we don't realize is that you prove to yourself that you can do something and you have a false confidence about yourself, and then the real journey is being able to work out what it means and how to do it well, you know what I mean. And that's where you pull back and you know it is a little bit harder, got to take take yourself down a few notches,
and you've got to sort of musculate it. As I said to you, I think this is one of the reasons why I think you could win, is because we got to really go on this journey with you and see that this all means something to you.
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, I feel you and I also think, like you know, in terms of what I represent like because it's across the board. I think, you know, you're never going to be physically, mentally, emotionally completely ready to go for your dreams, you know. I think that's the reality. I think so many of us, you know, will put us ourselves off of going for something at a time, going ah, you know, like I'll give myself maybe another year to go and lose some weight or to do this before I even
go for it. I don't think for me walking to the competition, I went, is this the right time? Maybe? But if I wait and I'm going to miss it and I'm going to have to go with it, and rather than like thinking about what I used to be, I'm going to deal with what I am now, you know, gather it into the boat, push up the canoe into water, and just hopefully think that we like swim across that water and not sink. And so it's a humble approach.
And I think the way that my journey went is definitely for myself what I needed and watching it back and going wow, like I'm really proud of of myself, and I feel like I wanted to let it all hang out, and there was actually something that like the reason why Roue always took time with me is because I would never project confidence. You always go, how are you feeling today, and I'd be like, horrible, I feel stressed, I feel anxious, I want to go home and up I want KFC.
Like She's just like, you know, there was a degree of her trying to like not only give me confidence, just sort of like make me stand up in moments where I was just like just being honest and going, I'm not saying that I don't.
Feel valued or valid or worthy. I'm just saying to you right now, you've asked me the question, and I'm just what I do is if I'm feeling it, I'm just going to talk about it. And it might not be the best thing that you want with this TV show, but that is the reality and if you want projection to badly.
But it's also the expectation that I think a lot of people had on you as well, because, as I said, you know, you're an established queen. People knew who you were, and then you're then putting this huge expectation on yourself.
And I could see that at the start.
It seemed like you got into your head a little bit, and I felt like that might have been the biggest turtle of that might have been the inner saboteur, as RuPaul likes to say it, and then thinking well, I have to be this level above everyone else because I've been doing it longer. What was going on in your head? Like what was it for the first two weeks that sort of had you in the bottom.
Even Yeah, it was, It's definitely exactly what you said, honey, Like I think, you know again, people had their preconceived ideas of what I am and who I am, and I think there were acting a degree of arrogance and also just someone that was really upper zone arts and I think and the best way obviously possible, but I think realistically, like the people that actually know me in my circle, because I keep my circle so tired, and people that know me know what I'm like, and they
were just like they were mostly concerned about me because of that aspect, knowing that they knew that people would be expecting the world from me, and I don't really deal well with expectations. And so the first couple of weeks it was really difficult, especially in the acting challenge, like because I am an actor, you know, trying to deal hearing you know, Resko, you're a destroyer of worlds. You're like outside of this, like you need to prove this to her, And I'm sitting and going, I don't
want to prove shit to any of you. I'm literally trying to live, like and also like like there were just so many things in my mind of just like trying to breathe through what was happening for myself, but also hearing the critiques and not taking them personally and just going, obviously, I'm not reading and so if there's something that they're not they're just not happy with what I'm delivering because that's not what they think I should be delivering. And I'm going, is that really on me?
Or is that on you? Because you're expecting me to be something that you think I am, Because then if that's what you want, then like let's do a lip think and I'll show you. But like outside of that and be acting challenge, I'm probably not going to be able to access that this time around. But moving forward, I feel like if I was competing again, which I would love to, there's definitely things that I feel like I can I'll be able to access more now and
have a bit more fun. But it was just a reality of being thrown into that pressure cooker and just going, oh my god, stop thinking on me like that, stop talking about me like that, stop saying there's like none of me, but just know me.
Don't get me wrong.
I thought if I ran into Queen Kong in the middle of the night, I'd be a little bit scared of the person who I might have been a little bit scared, but I feel like getting to know you throughout the show, I know that there's that little bit of warants, that little bit of insecurity, and those are the things that people relate.
To, you know.
But in the club too, like I'm the first person that will greet peop because I because also physically, like I'm massive, so I know that it can be really intimidating when when I walk into a space and it was just like oh, go hi. But like I always like make the conscious effort, and I've always been this way to like, you know, to greet people, to hug people, to make them feel welcome, because you know, I don't
want to feel uncomfortable. I also don't want people to just you know, and I think our drag our drag community is really unriddled with like this idea of you have to be a bit, you have to be shady, you have to be really pretty, you have to be nasty. And I've always hated that because, you know, because I don't want to feel like my impact on someone is going to make them upset for the rest of the night. Ruin. Then I will make them scared of drag you know,
it's been the opposite for me. All the drag queens for me growing up made me feel safe. You know, there were big seven Polynesian drag queens that would chase men down the street. You know, there was no bodybuilder drag queens. I'm going you definitely felt safe when you were in their clubs. And so, if anything, that's been my approach to trying to, you know, affward that way of being is to create that physical safe space for
people because I can't. It's something that I try to hold me and make people feel loved, you know, because essentially that's what you want to feel. I want to feel loved and cared for and safe. Well.
I quite liked you in confrontation. I thought you handled yourself really well. I mean you had a few run ins with people. I think the world with Beverly really stood out for me. Where did that clash come from? It kind of was a bit of a surprise that you guys went head to head. I didn't see that coming.
It was a couple of things, you know, And I think watching it back, like I can see how people are taking it. I also feel like people don't necessarily understand why my response was the way that I responded.
There's one thing that I don't deal well with because I tried to always give respect, you know, and I felt like some of the and the thing is like Beverly was at the time, you know, being trying to be shady and trying to throw a dust and I think because she doesn't really know how to throw dust in a way that is like funny, you know. The way that was coming up to me was really disrespectful. And I don't like it when someone raises their voice
at me. And it was one of the things where she was like no, no, no, no, no, no, you need to come here and show me. And I'm like, listen, girl, listen really quickly, Like you know, you don't like I'm a pink color. Like where I come from, it's different, and when you put your finger in someone's face, it means a different thing. So like there was that trying to navigate that hit space and go don't take it personally,
She's just in her feelings. But then there was also the boundary being crossed of her disrespecting me, and so I was trying to have this conversation and then when it switched to me not being the maternal mama coong that she was expecting. I'm going, this is a microaggression because it's not my job to be your mum. We're competing, Like you've also been antagonizing me for the past few episodes. You keep coming at me like, oh but we're If we're in the bottom, I'm going to send you home.
And at no point has any of my reads in the season been like discrediting other people, Like they're all playful things that are like throwing dust that people can we can all up about, like rather than going I'm better than you, you know, and if we would head to head, we would be this. And so I feel like there was just a build up of that kind of disrespect where I really let her us know what time it was, and it came out in probably a
really harsh way, but yeah, it was. It was. It was a real big lesson, I think for the both of us, and we The beautiful thing about that situation when we did do the lip sync, which was absolute chaos. I think at the end of it, hugging her, oh aye, it was absolute chaos. You know. I was like, well, you want to do you want to go.
Have you seen the video, the meme or whatever. I don't know what water combat one, No, the one.
Where they're in where they bought the barbies in the dryer and the dryers going around.
Have you seen it? It's so funny. I could not stop laughing.
It's like, because it's so true. That was kind of how it was. But interestingly enough, you mentioned something there about putting your finger in someone's face. What would you say is the biggest difference in the culture of drag between Australia and New Zealand.
Well, I think you see it reflected in me spanking and Yuri, you know, I think like you see the difference in the way we carry ourselves, but also the way we talk to people. You know, at no point do we ever really there's a There is like a it's not even a casual racism element, but there is definitely casual racism and down the under specifically Australian humor that gets really tricky to navigate sometimes, but it is. It's that the physical boundaries because where we come from
a New Zealand it's a different hill of fish. Because there are the vast majority of queens in New Zealand or the ones that run the scene anyway are of color. You know, so our values already embedded in the way that we operate and we deal with each other. Where here in Australia there's only like a handful of us that are really in the clubs, let alone a few of us on one hand that is, you know, being
a leader in the communities. And you know, up until me getting on the show, there hasn't really been any really other representation of that kind of value system in Australia and so therefore those kinds of boundaries of this where I come from, that means straight up combat, you know what I mean, like you know, physically, but I'm not saying that I wanted to hurt her or physically
like fire her. But it was the trigger. It's a trigger where you go, oh, you're just you're now just suspecting me, and now you're not only standing up, you're raising your voice and you're yelling at me, and then you're putting your finger on my face. Like there's just like, we don't do this where I come from because it
means a completely different, different thing. So there's a cultural aspect to it that that was a bit of a clash and so this conversation me and Devli have had then we hugged it out after our lip sync and
I love her and my little sister. She's twenty one, you know, at the time, she was twenty one and she was very young, and I'm so excited to see what she does, you know, with their career to start her career really, you know, with this level of drag and to you know, she's going to find yourself and find herself and find herself. And by the times she gets to me my age, Spanky's age, in the mini's age, you can only imagine, you know, the impact is going to make for the people that you know feel seen
by her. So yeah, lessons will learn. And I think for the drama aspect of reality TV, they really turned that up to make it look really, really uncomfortable, which it was uncomfortable, but yeah, I think we resolved things. And I can't wit to see her on the road and Kiki, and we're actually working on a little duo number now, a Mortal Kombat jew and people love it.
I have seen that Mode Kombat one as well. It's very good.
You know.
My interpretation of Beverly was that she bought the RuPaul's Drag Race showbag and put everything on. While she was acting it out and being able to be sassy, she probably didn't understand, you know, that there's more to it than just being shady, do you know what I mean?
Like I just felt like.
I feel you, but I also feel like, you know, for for Bib like at that time, like she was being really like in her If I think about the headspace that I was in with all the circumstances that we were under, you know, like my headspace was my headspace, I can only imagine what that was like for Beverly, because you know, she was she was definitely feeling like
she was right to her feelings like I did. And also the way that she was responding was like there was definitely prompting happening, you know what I mean, Like she was getting whispered years and told to say certain things. And I think the difference between the older queens were whenever someone one of the producers would say something to us, and if I didn't agree with it, I'd be like,
I didn't say that, and I'm not saying that. It's not what if I say that I'm gonna look like a dig here because like it's so inconsistent to everything else that I've spoken about, Whereas I feel like Beby was still navigating that space, and so I think this was a big lesson for her. And I think already now I'm looking at a dragon Nowlan three starting to evolve, Like no, not only just by physical physical transformation, I feel like she's starting to grow, which is really exciting.
And again, I can't wait to see the impact she's going to make. She's a fucking force and she made it, you know, to the top five, and when she gets on All Stars, all the drag races down under the versus the world, I feel like she will be one to watch, Like, you know what I mean.
Yeah, I think you're right, And you know, even you saying that says a lot about your character as well, so it's quite nice to hear.
I think it was really emotion and I think it was emotional too, because like what I didn't want to do, and I knew they were going to do it to the two of us, but they were going to make us rivals because we're both like performance queens. And there was a couple of times when I was whispering to baby. I was like, they're literally trying to make us rivals stop taking the bait. Stop at you know, it's really
not good for us. But you know, then once many left, they needed drama and they get that episode when we had that massive to they were like, Okay, Maty, go one. We need the drama. And I'm like, what's not going to be me next minute.
It's interesting that you say that, though, because you know, when we are younger, we are looking for approval more so. And I say to a lot of people going into reality television, it's so easy to look for approval out of the people making this show. But don't lose who you are, because if you're trying to be something for someone else, you're not truly being yourself.
And it's a dangerous game to play.
So dangerous. Yeah, And I think that's the that's probably
the biggest lesson I think he's had. And I think she's also received a lot of love and all of us Season two girls were there for her, for everyone, like we all love each other, you know, And I think coming out of it, and you would notice too, no one understands that experience and what it's like other than the people that you experienced it with, you know, and I think again, looking at it now, we've all had a few months away from the show and now
watching it back. You know, we have a season two chats, so when everything's happened, we're like, how you feeling, girl, how are you feeling? Like, how's it going? What do you need? Like we get on chats and we just make sure that we're checking in because you know, the audience, they get so involved, and you know, I've definitely had many a Beverly fan come to my comments and go, you're so mean and you're a bully, and how do
you treat Beverly like this? And like rather than taking the high road like I take the low road and themselves you don't even know meally like.
True though, with the negativity, you just block and ignore what people say unless you have a strong backbone and you're bored. If you've got a strong backbone and you're bored, you can go all day with the trolls.
But otherwise just block and ignore. You ain't getting anywhere, not going anywhere.
But it's so well, you know, like I think the troll thing, like it's so funny, how invested people get and I love it because it means that they're engaging with the show. You know, they're watching, they're getting our views up even though they're sending hate. I'm just going, man a, go and touch grashs b go and work at the cinemas and be a projector because that's what you're doing. And see, you don't even know the present.
So each you know, what so wild how people feel so driven to get online and you know, go to bat for the queen that they support, but again that's support for that other queen, and we just laugh about it, you know, towards each other. I'm like, I'll send Beby a screenshot going, look, you know, stop ghost like, get off your Brainer account and writing horrible messages to me on my page. Girl, like that can happen.
I always say to people though, it's just I like to put a positive spin on things. And yourtrols are your biggest fans because people who are bothered totrol you are passionate people who must be so invested in the show. You know, they're closer to being your fans than they really are being your enemy. So you just don't take it too personally and touch grass funny. Just have been getting a lot of I've got to ask everyone who's made it to top three, everyone's been asking you to
ask this. What can future queens do to stand out when it comes to auditioning? Like, is there anything that you did to make people take notice of you? What advice do you have for people you know who would want to be.
Where you are?
Yeah, it's everything we've been talking about, baby, you know. And I think the biggest thing I could say is take your time. As much as it feels like you're being rushed, I feel like, take your time, not only with decisions you're making, take your time with things that you're going to say. You know, also like and the way that you respond, Like, I think it's always important to respond rather than react, and like, obviously sometimes you know,
moments get the better of us. But I think the biggest thing for me was taking my time and allowing myself to just like do the thing that I needed to do and go through what I needed to go through and not speed up that process. Because I also, coming out of it, I feel like such a better human being before being a bit of drag queen. And so I would say, yeah, take your time and definitely try to be yourself and let the floors hang out, you know, flaws and all, so well, what's in all? It's important.
I've also been asking because race is are so fat. Reasoning Will sounds so good on the show, but it kind of feels like I'm thinking there's more room on that panel when we need someone from Australia.
Or New Zealand to join.
Who do you think would be someone from the queer community that would be perfect to be sitting alongside Michelle Vassage, RuPaul and Reyes Nicholson.
Ooh, like we have obviously the comedian aspect of Reese. I would like to see your First Nations like Australian or First Nations New Zealand counterpart, someone who's crow. I'd like to see, you know, there's well like I want to see someone like Ben Gratz, who's miscellaneous. She's like the First Nations drag mother of Australia. Not very well known, but she's the creative director of World Pride. Like queens that are like doing it actually in the industry, that
are actually like uplifting our community. I want to see more community development queens rather than TV personalities on a TV show, and that's just because of who I am. So yeah, more color, more color on the panel would be great.
And I've also been asking a recommendation if there is a series three for down Under, do you have someone that you've worked alongside over the years or someone that you think would do well on the show.
Oh, yes, a couple. I think top of my list would probably be Chocolate Box, who was most personations. She is a Brisbane queens and queen, and I think everything that I lacked Chucky has in terms of the fine aspects, in terms of like reacting, I'd be like, she's another prime example of First Nations excellence and I would love to see a queen like that get onto that TV show. So she's probably the top of my list.
You normally ask like a behind the scenes question, but you know, we're keeping that on the down low because we don't want to ruin too many of the Ruphole's secrets. So I've been playing this game shady old lady. So I'm just going to ask you a series of questions. If you don't want to answer the question, you can say lady, or just answer the question and you could be shady. It might not even be shady. You might just be you know, you might just be speaking your truth.
Okay, cool.
Who was the most talented this year?
Oh? Oh, spank you? Jackson was like, was Bealy the most talented? Because she just surpassed all of our expectations in every aspect?
Who was the funniest queen?
Ah? This is the thing they didn't air. They didn't air as much of Hannah's personality as they should have. But Hannah is a funny cook dog. She's hilarious. I would say, Hannah, Hannah, maybe we're all in stitches. Backstage, you just take the purse out of everything. It was so funny.
Oh what a cook dog? What was that?
Yeah? Yeah, she was such a cook dog just do stupid things in that backstage and also in the challenges, So Hannah conduct Yeah.
Okay, who did you maybe not like or maybe didn't get enough time to get to know?
Oh I wanted to get to know Aubrey more. Yeah, because like Aubrey, I think was the newest to Drag general and I think seeing what she was doing after a year in Drag, I was just like, who was this little girl? She's amazing? Like Aubrey, I wanted to get more time to know.
Yeah, who was the messiest queen?
Like in like as in sea as in shady like or messy as in like dirty.
I think it's a bit of both. Really.
It's like, you know, the messiest queen to me is the person who probably is a little bit unpolished with their shadiness and you know, probably leaves the most amount of makeup on the bench.
I think those two kind of go together.
True.
True, I'm going to be a lady because I can't drink.
One just all of them. It's the most shame Yeah, yeah, that's great.
No one, no one in the entire time I've been doing this podcast for this season has said ladies. So I'm very excited about it. I'll have to dust out that.
Sound effect to make it work. I don't know if I'm.
Allowed to ask this, but you know, if it's not you, who do you think deserves to win?
Oh? Babe, Look, they both deserved to win, I think and Paul because all three of us are such champions for what we represent. I think Spanky is like you know, on paper, she's blown the accomplishment out of the water. So I would say thank you and then Hannah is also just equal. She's perfect, and she's head to time perfect, and she's polished. She is an amazing human being. Like both of them equally. You know, I would not be mad at either of them one. Yeah.
Well, Quen Kong, I have been in your audience for longer than RuPaul, and I will continue to be in your audience. Good luck in the finale. There's a lot of people rooting for you, and just enjoy the experience.
Thank you, my love, thank you so much for having me.