It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week.
Are right. Hey guys, welcome back to TV Reload. I want to thank you so much for clicking and downloading. On today's episode with Sasha Colby, the winner of RuPaul's Drag Race season fifteen and special guest of Rupaulse Drag Race Down Under, which has already started on STAN Australia. I started watching RuPauls Drag Race around season five and this show has been such a huge part of my life. I would say, without making it sound very dramatic, We've
had RuPaul's Drag Race parties at my home. I've covered down Under for four years on the podcast, so having an international queen on the show today is I guess the best way to describe that is magnificent. Sasha will talk about their relationship with Rupe Paul and what they think of him stepping back from hosting down Under.
We will openly.
Discuss Sasha's early connection with Michelle Visage and what it is like to sit beside her for her first season hosting an entire season without Rupe Paul. I will discuss some of the mantras Sasha Colby has and what they hope to install in the Australian New Zealand Queens. You will get everything from a discussion on who should have gone home in episode one, future plans to visit Australia, and even some insights on Australian drag versus American drag.
There's actually so much to discuss, with so many inside revelations as per usual, So sit back and relax as we unpack the wonderful world of RuPaul's Drag Race down Under.
Hi, Ben, how are you?
I'm very well.
I have to start this by saying congratulations on the win for season fifteen.
Oh well, thank you so much. I was like, what do I win now?
And it's such an achievement with that sort of being the master class of RuPaul's drag Race. I think we all turned to America and it's it's.
The harder one to win.
Thank you so much.
I wanted to ask you about down Under. How did the opportunity come about? Like what was your reaction to being asked to come down and be a part of this.
You know, I was in a let's say October. I was in Hawaii.
I was the Grand Marshal of Junolulu Pride and the producers thereon give me a call and I was like, do what he.
Wants and he's like, I have a great idea. What are you doing this day. I'm like, I think come free.
He's like, we would love for you to be a guest judge on the first episode of POS Drag Race down Under. I'm like, down Under, that'd be amazing. He's like, yeah, you're gonna be one of the first like winners. We're going to start, you know, bringing on winners for the show and to judge, and we would love to make
you the first one. And I'm like absolutely, as a Polynesian down Under like I live, because it showcases so many different cultures, not just you know Australian drag New Zealand and then that you know cultural Maui and Samoan and it's a great place to see my kind of you know, people that are my ethnicity.
This is the first season we haven't had Rupe Paul as the host, and your presence had me turn around to my friend while we were watching it and we said, we're not noticing RuPaul not being here as much.
And I think it had a lot.
To do with the effort that you put into what it is that you do, and the care and the consider about the way in which you were talking to the contestants. I thought you should be really proud of being able to sort of step into that and do such a good job.
I took the like, the asking of me to be a judge, I take it very seriously.
I you know, I've been in.
The pageant world for years and I've been judging national pageants here, and I just have a way when I judge.
You know, everyone has a perfect score. And I always when I.
See a critique that I see needs fixing, you know, technical critique or something that they could that would help enhance them, I always like to give the critique and then give a construction, a construction of criticism or a solution to that. You know, like I love this silhouette, but if you've pulled this up higher and make this it's to help the girl grow.
And a lot of times, you know, I just don't like a judge. It's like I just take that. I don't think it look good on you.
Okay, that's just preference, Like what are you doing to help her her craft?
And that's what judging should be.
Had you watched any of the Rupholes drag Rice down on the seasons before, because I was thinking if I'd been ask to do something like this, I'd be like, I mean, I'll sound old when I say this. I like, get me all the Davy Days, but that's not what we're talking about. I feel like, get me all the episodes.
I actually have.
I've watched them all. I really fell in love with Spankie Jackson's season. I just thought, Thankye and Queen Kong and Hanaconda or like, just among all of them, there's just so amazing. We were so fun, and then I got to do a tour last year with Anitra and all of Australia.
We did a whole tour and.
We're actually coming back in twenty twenty five, so keep an eye out for that in April.
But yeah, we're really excited.
I got to hang out with the girls that I would watch them on Drag Race, and this is before I was going to be a judge, So just actually just getting to know the Aussy girls was so much fun.
And then being able to be a.
Part of the franchise by judging and seeing the up and coming girls and seeing like you know, different queens. Also being able to reunite with them has been really cool.
Can you say like a big difference, because I mean you've com paid it in the US version and I can tell you watch a lot of them, a lot of the franchises around the world. So what the big differences between say America and Australia.
I would say obviously like budget and like quality.
America just has more money.
We have like a bigger studio here and so it's like kind of just one spot where it's a little more makeshift, you know, we do what we do in Australia and in New Zealand when we're filming, so there's a little bit more of like a scale down quality, but it's still an amazing like production and the people
are always so great. But honestly, I just think it's the resources of drag that we kind of get a lot more in America that to have different points of views and different styles where it's a lot when you're in you know, a smaller country, like you know, a smaller continent where you don't have a lot of resources except like trying to order online and then trying to make them your own so it's much more difficult to source you know, like already great drag or like drag designers,
but it does help. What drag is is making it yourself and figuring out your own style and really you know, working in And that's what I think I love about watching the down Undergirls is they're really good at being crafty and make shifting and working with the resources that is available to them, which is really really commendable.
One of my favorite things about watching you when you did.
Your series was your ability to do the work for yourself, but it also felt like you were able to help others and I thought that to me showed real character. And then I wondered being over here giving your impression of what it takes to win the show like this, Were you able to say to the Aussie queens at that stage of the competition, like this is what you need to do to stand out?
Yes, I mean I talked to each and every one of them when I would give their critique as if I wanted them to win and encourage their eye, but also push your eye further to give it that winners you know, that winner over one two, like you know, kind of checked things that really you know, put an outfit from like a seven to ten, and that's you know, with work and practice and exercising your drag, I to know how to put something together really quick and how
to make it work for your body, you know, and how to make it work for you and then sell it because you got to fucking feel it. You can't sell it if you don't feel it. So you can tell the girls like not comfortable in her outfit, or like she's like mad because maybe something didn't work out right, and it's all over her face, so you gotta fake it, mama.
I think we saw that with Listen to Innocence.
I was like she could say that there was something about what was happening that might feel uncomfortable, and then it was that you picked up on that and explained that because like as the viewer, you know, that's all wastele and you kind of ah the voice of the people at that point, you know.
Yeah, which is also too. I'm like if I don't say it.
Twitter, don't say it, and then they're coming for you.
So it's like, let me just tell you now and let it out and like hopefully it'll just like pass on.
One of the things that I think that you would always be asked for the rest of your life is about Rue Paul. You know, I always asked this to people like yourself when I've met sort of more the internationals than anyone else. But did you walk away with something like was there something specific to you that Rup Paul taught you? Because I know he has a lot of values and a lot of mantras that we know, but I just wondered about you particularly, was this something that he taught you.
The wild thing was that this felt like so at ease. I kind of, you know, was really nervous. It's like, don't meet your idols, you know, of the highly likely to disappoint you.
But Rue didn't.
And what I like talking to Rue is like, I'm a pretty, you know, metaphysical kind of person. Like I'm a spiritual person and I believe in you know, meditation and yoga. You know, I got crystals and like candles and do all those things. It's my form of spirituality. And like I believe in manifestation and the art of you know, the law of attraction.
And so does Rue.
And Rue will say certain things to me sometimes that I can tell that he obviously.
Like listens to like the same self help and self work books or teachers.
So it kind of made me feel really like, oh, she's she definitely gets me when I say certain things like there's just you know when she talks about she talked about connection to source and nobody really says source energy when they refer to like God energy or like the universe, And that's such a specific teaching of like this one guru named Abraham Hicks, and I was like, oh,
she like listens to Abram Nicks. It was like the founder of like law of attraction and things, and it just made me feel at easy, like Okay, all my all my fun spirituality that my you know, certain people might think is like hokey, the best drag queen the entire world does the same thing.
Absolutely and you can own that. You know. It's interesting.
I always think about you, and I think about your currency being similar to rue in lots of ways. With your vulnerability, I think, you know, you've been able to share your story in a way that makes you so accessible, and I think that is far more challenging than people realize.
I mean, it's far more brave to be able to do that.
Oh yeah, I mean I also was, you know, being from Hawaii, IM just a very We have the love of spirit instilled in us. You know, we're taught to always care about our neighbor and always offer help whenever it's needed to even people you don't know. So I just have this natural like mother energy. And I'm also hyper aware because my drag mother told me when I first started dragg like, hey, you look like a bitch on stage, so you've better read nice when you're off.
And I've just kind of always kept that idea, like, you know, be nice off stage. It's it never hurts and it's kept. Nobody wants to rebook a meani, you know.
Like no, no, no, I never took.
You're not getting booked again.
So I mean they can see how many hair whips I do, or like how fierce I am. But I just love when I hear a booking like, oh my gosh, she was so fun behind stage, Oh my gosh, she was so much fun to the girls.
Oh my gosh.
She hung out with the drag queens like no one ever hangs out with the local queens. It's those things that make my heart happy, and then it makes them want to rebook me. And make more memories, and that's all life is, especially as a drag queen like I guess, to be so lucky to make the craziest memories and how the funds of stories to look back when I'm older.
It's such a gift.
It's important to you. I think, you know because you remember, like you know, because you've done. I was listening to probably about four podcasts this morning while I'm on a road trip, so I listened to like four podcasts that you were on talking about your story, and I just was like, the more and more I heard about the work that you did and the pageants that you did,
and how you can collected things along the way. That was the take home for me was that you really collected things and watched the way that other people treated you, and you thought about how you wanted to be treated.
You know, you put yourself from their shoes.
I didn't.
That's amazing that you noticed that. Thank you, Yeah, I did. I'm a teacher, I'm a learner. I'm a mirror of the people around me, and I really value when people just are themselves around me when they don't think anyone's looking, and you really understand, like how they are, and you learn what you like and you learn what you don't like, or like, oh, I don't want to treat people like that.
I'm going to remember that, or oh I like how that, I'm gonna remember what that person did to me, you know, and I like to pass on that knowledge and not ever be somebody. You know, I met my hero and she had a bad day and it kind of ruined my whole idea of her. And I never want to be like that to somebody. So I wish trying my hardest to put my best forward.
For sure, you could easily have like a really big ego as well. That's what I kept thinking. You know, last night I was watching some old episodes just to refresh, knowing that I was talking to you today, and I was saying, how good you are, And I think to myself, just chatting to you, now, you consciously remove ego from yourself.
Thank you, thank you. I mean, I got it. I'll get a big oldhead.
I would be a monster, But luckily my friends all keep me in.
Lovely check my partner whenever he thinks that I'm getting out of control, he tells me to do the dish.
He's like, do the dishes.
We've got a dishwasher, but he tells me you handwashed those dishes.
Girl, I want them hot hot.
Before we go, I want to ask you, like the reunion of Michelle Visage, like what sort of a relationship or friendship have you been able to keep going?
It's been so nice with Michelle.
We've known each other as acquaintances before I got on the show, like we've known who each other are. I've never like hung out with her, met her before the show. But my best friend is was her makeup artist for a long time on the show, and he was my best friend that would help me for the for the package for drag Race. So she kind of also knew that my best friend President was helping me and she could see like his little hand in my package was very you know by the book and you know was
doing her judge's duty. But after I won, Jess was just so lovely, just so such mother energy, such like mothering the mother, which is so nice, you know, because the mother needs to be mothered as well. But she was great, like she has always been so like welcoming and really encouraging and just like I just love everything you're doing and being able to sit there with her in her first episode, as you know, holding the reins
of drag race down under. It was really nice to be by her side and be a sense of support and even just walking her and on like encouraging her. Like they're moments you know when I'm like, you're doing great, girl, this is amazing, like you know, like really really making memories with her. And then we got to hang out for the premiere, which is so much fun. Got to watch it together. Was so happy at the.
Edit, so we were we were really happy.
I have to let you go.
But I just wanted to say I always finished my podcast with it behind the scene sacred, and I was wondering about it. If you can help me with this. We had two queens that did not go home in episode one?
Is it bold of me?
Is it bold of me too? If you had to send one of those girls home? No, who would you have sent home?
Honestly, I can't say. I was literally the whole time you.
Say can't afford you said, can't say? Is that is that a clute?
I cannot say.
Okay, it's just because.
Like I was, that was an actual thing.
I was like, oh, this is going to be hard, and I looked at Michelle and I'm so glad I'm not I'm not the one who wants to make the decision.
And then you get stuck on a podcast with me. Okay, all right, can.
I just tell you I am I'm in your audience. I am such a fan of you. I think that you are so brilliant.
I look forward to coming to Australias to buy my ticket and be in your front row to watch you.
Yes, well, let us know that.
Let me let me pr no, we can make sure to say hi at whatever city we're at.
That would make my years.
So thank you, Yes, Ben, absolutely thank.
You for being so generous with your time and chatting with me. I'll let you go.
Oh yeah, We're gonna have so much fun you in Australia soon