After several visits to the UK for club and bar shows, RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon and best friend Major Scales are readying themselves for their West End theatre debut this April with The Vaudevillians. Jason Reid and Jinkx chatted Drag Race, instant fame and the U.S elections this week….
Hey Jinkx, how’s life been treating you since you won Drag Race?
It’s worth living
That’s good to hear. In your personal experience, what are the pros and cons of such instant and huge fame?
Pros: I get to work as much as I want, which is what I always wanted in life.
Cons: I have lost all sense of obscurity. There’s no way to disguise yourself when people know how you look as a drag queen and as a man.
That must be very difficult. The fans are a tad intense. What has been the most interesting or surreal experience since the show?
The most surreal experience is anytime someone I consider a huge celebrity already knowing who I am and being nervous to meet ME. It blows my mind.
For you, which comes first: fame or artistic integrity?
When I was a kid, it was FAME. Now that I’m nearing 30, it’s artist integrity. I’ve learned that money is whatever. I make a comfortable amount of money. When I’m happiest is when I’m creating what I want to create, not when I’m getting paid the most.
I TOTALLY agree! So, then, what do you make of people becoming famous for, well, not a lot? It’s puzzling, right?
I think it has an expiration date. Audiences are already getting sick of watching people who bitch and moan and don’t contribute anything to society. Talent and dedication is becoming the standard once again.
So tell us a bit about your show, The Vaudevillians.
My new show is actually six years old. I’ve been working on it since I graduated college with my best friend and roommate, Major Scales. It is the brainchild, love baby of our two antiquated aesthetics.
How does that partnership work between yourself and Major Scales?
We share responsibility of the show, 50/50. I come up with most of the comedy and spoken material, but the show is nothing without the musical numbers, which is all him.
You studied theatrical performance. Would you say you’re happiest when you’re treading the boards?
Yes, I’m happiest when I’m on stage because pretty much everything else in life bores me.
Finally, a question I asked Lady Bunny and Jackie Beat a few weeks ago; we’ve been enthralled (well, I have) with the U.S election. So, between Hillary, Bernie or Trump, which would you bin, auction off, treasure?
Bin: Donald Trump. Bin: Donald Trump. Bin: Donald Trump.
The Vaudevillians: Jinkx Monsoon & The Major Scales
Fresh from a sell-out Off-Broadway run and an astronomically successful stint in Australia, Drag Race star and unconventional thespian Jinkx Monsoon has touched down in London with partner in sonorous crime, Major Scales.
Jinkx is bringing her magic velvet-gloved touch to the Soho Theatre, which makes for the perfect backdrop to her and Major Scales’ smokey, crushed velvet, cigarillo-smoking, tie-adjusting, champagne-swilling 1920’s glamooooor dahling!
It’s the UK premiere of The Vaudevillians, a multi-faceted amalgamation of music, dance, comedy, vintage cabaret and drag. If what we’ve seen of Jinkx Monsoon in the past is anything to go by, this is bound to be a sublimely ridiculous, totally unique performance.
“I’ve been working on the show since I graduated college.” she told us “It is the brainchild of me and my best friend and roommate, Major Scales. The love baby of our two antiquated aesthetics.”
Well! That certainly sounds suitably surreal. So put on a gorgeous green cocktail dress, saunter smokily down to the Soho Theatre, and sit and gorge yourself on a visual theatrical feast. Delicious dahling.
• The Vaudevillians is at The Soho Theatre from Monday 25th April – Wednesday 18th May. For tickets and more info go to www.sohotheatre.com.
