A diamond in the rough of Off-Broadway darlings, BenDeLaCreme is a performer unlike any other. She stole the gay hearts of Drag Race fans on Season 6, and left them GAGGED with her sudden exit from All Stars Three. She’s currently touring the UK with her hit show Inferno A-Go-Go so we caught up with her to hear all about it!
Hey there… Mz Crème! We’re feeling nasty. How’s the tour going?
It’s been going great! We kicked off with two amazing sold out shows at the Clapham Grand in London – The show was so well received and I can’t wait to share it with the rest of the UK!
On tour you must be so exhausted! How do you keep up the energy? Is it hard staying terminally delightful?
SO. MUCH. COFFEE. It also helps that I love what I do. No matter how I’m feeling on the road, the second I step out on that stage I am feeling my oats. I also travel with an amazing team who help me stay sane on the road. Plus this time I get to road trip around the UK with my amazing support act and good friend Meth – she keeps me in the trouble everyone else tries to keep me out of.
Do you have any bad habits when you’re jumping from town to town?
PRIMARK. Every time I arrive in a UK city I head straight for the Primark. I’m obsessed. Dear fans: please buy all my t-shirts at the shows so that I can have more room in my luggage.
Oh she loves a bargain does she? So you’re back in the country that originated the language! Are you a fan of the UK?
Absolutely. This is I think my 6th or 7th time here at this point – I’ve met SO many lovely people and the cities are so beautiful and vibrant. And you have lots of really good weird snacks we don’t have like flake bars and those weird potato rings. And today I saw prawn flavored Pringles in a gas station so that’s worth the trip right there.
Those ARE so friggin’ good! How does a solo tour compare to hitting the road with a crowd of queens?
Well those tours are always super fun because the Ru girls are all on the road so much we don’t get to see that much of each other. It gives us a chance to catch up and kiki. But my favorite work to perform is my full length solo stuff. I consider myself primarily a writer, and that’s a skill I don’t get to show off when I’m just doing a couple of numbers. Really creating a fully realized theatrical experience is my passion.
Have you found that audiences here react differently to those back in the US? How are us Brits as an audience?
Oh, UK audiences are right up my alley. There are some audiences out there who want any queen who comes off of Drag Race to just holler catchphrases from the show for an hour. That’s all well and good, but that’s not what I’m here for. UK drag has such a cool campy cabaret, pantomime style history. Audiences have been exposed to more of that. They’re smart and willing to go on the ride you want to take them on. Jinkx Monsoon, who also does very theatrical, witty, high-camp shows, and I are always talking about how well UK audiences respond to our specific style of performance. You don’t have to explain it to them.
Right, so a few inevitable Drag Race questions. Are you keeping up with the new crop of girls?
The main thing I know is that I can’t walk into a gay club without hearing someone scream “Vaaaaanjie.” So kudos to her.
There has been a lot of talk about the hate that can spew from devout fans. As someone who the fans have really rallied around, how do you feel about all of it?
One of the main issues I see is that people who claim to be fans of the queens are actually fans of the show rather than they are the people on it. That is to say, they buy into the drama and the cattiness above the wellbeing and happiness of the actual humans they say they love. True fans support the entertainers. I wrote a VEEERRRRY long social media post about this right after AS3 ended and the RPDR fandom was going bonkers. It was picked up by a ton of media outlets so you can google it if you want to read ALL my thoughts on the matter. I would say, in a nutshell, drag is a celebration of identity and community and creating something wonderful in the face of adversity. To get involved in all the negative speech online is to miss the point entirely.
And finally, the all important question. What does RuPaul smell like?
Money.
So let’s talk Inferno A-Go-Go! The divine comedy of Dante’s Inferno travels through the nine concentric circles of torment within the earth core. What made you think “YAS QUEEN, this would make a sickening drag show!”?
Yeah it’s a pretty weird place to start, huh? Well for a long time I’ve been making shows that are a combination of theatrical story telling and cabaret. Inferno seemed like a natural fit since it’s one journey but divided up into all these themed segments. And the themes are all things peeps in the 14th century thought were sinful: Lust, Sodomy, drinking too much… it’s basically designed to be a drag show.
What do you hope people take away from this theatrical experience?
Well I hope people they laugh a LOT – but I also hope I also can stretch their minds about what a drag show can be. So far both of those things have been working. And who knows? Maybe I’ll sneak in a life lesson or two.
