American drag performer and winner of Ru Paul’s Drag Race Season 5, Jinkx Monsoon speaks to QX ahead of her performance at West 5.
1. As the winner of season 5 of Drag Race, how has your life changed?
Life has been a fabulous whirlwind of travel, making friends, and making scenes. I am so grateful to now be able to do what I love, bring it around the world, and actually make a living doing it. Drag Race made it possible, and now I get to do things like visit London with my music partner Major Scales and spread our version of holiday joy!
2. Tell us about your play, The Vaudevillians, it’s had fantastic reviews! Will you be bringing it to the UK anytime soon?
We would love to bring The Vaudevillians to the UK! It’s silly, 1920s coke-fueled fun that might fit in perfectly this side of the pool. Major Scales and I worked on creating that show for about five years, so it’s really our baby. Maybe we can do it next year In London? Have your people call our people darling, let’s make it happen!
3. You’ve got quite an extensive theatre background, was producing your own show always a dream?
I’d always wanted to eventually come to New York and be able to perform on Broadway; like any young, flaming theater queen, it was a huge dream of mine. To be able to bring my own show smack-dab onto 42nd street by Times Square was more than I ever could have asked for, especially coming right off of a Drag Race win. Now I get to have regular shows on both coasts in the US. It’s really more than any one queen deserves! But I’ll take it, haha.
4. Back to Drag Race, the show was edited to seem like you had quite the crush on Ivy Winters, was this accurate or played up for drama?
Well, you can pretty much assume that everything on that show is played up for drama. Ivy was the best friend I had at the time, and we were basically in quarantine! Imagine going that many weeks without so much as a porno to ease the loneliness! So, I’d say it was a fifty-fifty mix of reality and fantasy.
5. You had quite a tense relationship with Roxxxy Andrews during the season, but this seemed to have been resolved by the end. Are you two still in touch?
Well, once the season is over, we Drag Race Sisters all tend to let go of the drama, and now a days we all truly get along like a family. It’s a very supportive network of very sweet, talented queens, and for the most part we get along like family.
6. You were branded a ‘comedy queen’ at several points, is this something you feel is accurate? Did you feel pigeonholed?
I’m certainly glad that SOME people thought I was funny! I think most queens have a strong current of comedy underneath all of them, that’s part of why Drag Race is such an entertaining show. And when you do what we do, dress in extravagant/ridiculous outfits for a living and perform huge numbers all the time, from opulent stages to hole-in-the-wall dive bars, you’ve got to have a sense of humour. I think my personality just lends itself more to comedy than some. If I can’t laugh at myself, how the hell can i laugh at anyone else?!
7. Who are you hoping to see in the next season of All-Stars?
Definitely Alaska 5000, Ben De La Creme, and Ivy Winters.
8. Are you excited for your show at West 5? Any other plans while you’re here in the UK?
So excited! It’s going to be UK realness for us. Major and I plan on having a full English breakfast every morning, even if it kill us (it might. Black pudding, really?)
9. What’s next for Jinkx Monsoon; more theatre? Are we looking at the next big Broadway baby?
I mean, fingers crossed! I’ve got a lot of tours set up currently with Major Scales and our various shows, but after that I think I might take a little time to refocus on true theatre. I do so miss my musical days! 😉
10. Finally, how did it feel handing the crown over to Bianca Del Rio this year? Was there a teeny tiny temptation to snatch her wig instead or was it water off a duck’s back?
She deserved that crown, and I was honoured to be able to put it on her head. There’s no resentment on my end there. Plus, the pig’s blood I had rigged up didn’t tip over. Maybe next year, hah!
