Drag! Drag! And more Drag! ‘All Stars 3’ ended and Poof! Season 10 of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ pops up. We are so spoiled! Queer media is getting bigger and stronger these days, and we at Loverboy stumbled upon a new show that for sure will catch fire. ‘Queens’ is an upcoming scripted drag comedy web series about the day leading up to a manic night of a drag pageant and the misadventures each contestant has to go through that delays their arrival at the gig. We sat down with creator Justin Gray, a drag performer himself, to discuss the project and the future of his world of drag.
So, tell us a little about yourself, where you’re from, what do you do, is your Grindr setting on Standard or the Metric system?
Hey! Hello! Hi! I’m Justin, I’m a writer and drag performer (Fisher Price) based out of the fantastic city of Toronto, Canada! Oh and 100% standard. Height, weight, and distance are easier to visualize in those, but temperature should always be Metric. Like, how is 32 freezing?! Nonsense!
You’re here today because we’ve caught wind of your web series project ‘Queens’. What prompted you to start developing this idea? Can you tell us a bit more about it?
Yeah! So, a bit of a back-story to me: I’ve been working in the film industry for a while now and finished up my film degree at a university in Toronto. While at school I made a cute mini documentary on this fab performer in the city, Faye Slift, and that really made me explore performing in drag myself! So, I did! And just from working with these other queens and befriending them I just fell in love with the comedy that is involved with the job. The people and situations we, as performers, find ourselves in is comedy gold! So, I began taking notes and writing them into small stories and it
snowballed into the show after that! I felt like I was the gay Jane Goodall and they were Drag Queens in the mist. As a consumer of queer media, the only thing around that is purely drag-centric is reality shows (Drag Race and The Trixie & Katya show), so I wanted to create something scripted; something funny; something that brings in the real-world absurdity of the job to the format of online television… Thus, ‘QUEENS’! A combination of two of my favorite shows: ‘Arrested Development’ and ‘Drag Race’.
Since we’re in a post Drag Race world, do you think there is a longing for more content involving drag?
Oh, totally! Since the show the amount of drag-related content that has beenappearing online, in media, and in print has just boomed! Every time there is a new season, the trending tags on social media have all been about drag.
Where are you folks at with the project? When will we be able to watch the series?
Currently, we’re ready to go! We have a strong team of people working on the project and have pumped out teaser trailers to give people an idea of the visual tone of the show as well as displaying the type of dry humour that will be present within the stories. We’re aiming to have it ready to be released late-2018/early- 2019. Essentially, we’re tucked, loaded and ready to go!
The show seems to be based in Toronto, is there a reason you are setting it there? Or do you want to move it to other cities?
It never occurred to me to change the city location and hide it being Toronto. ‘Queer as Folk’ was all shot in Toronto but they based the story in Pittsburgh which is something that always annoyed me. It’s a common thing in TV and Films, there is some type of mindset that the project won’t be successful, or won’t be taken seriously, if it’s based in a Canadian city… like, queer people are everywhere… not just in America. But in the future, if and when we do a second season, I don’t see why not changing it up and incorporating other cities and their communities in the
project.
Would you only cast real life drag performers for the show?
If they nail the character, then HELL YEAH! I always want authenticity to the roles, LGBTQ+ people playing people in our community. Nothing shakes my tree more than straight actors playing queer roles; there are tons of LGBTQ+ actors and performers out there that don’t have the ability to get cast in roles ‘cause they “present too queer” and I find that TOTAL BULLSHIT! Like, how is a straight person better at being queer then a queer person? Pfft. So yes, ideally yes. Plus, most of the drag performers I know have gone to a theatre school or have been in films before.
Are there any high-profile queer actors/drag queens that you’d love to work with on the show?
Oh god! Ummmm Oh! Miriam Margolyes! Fuck she’s so damn funny; Cakes Da Killa would be fab to have music performer on the show; Alan Cummings… swoon; Trixie and Katya obvy; hmmm oh god I would totally shit twice and die if I ever got the chance to work with Jane Lynch.
What do you want your audience to take from ‘Queens’?
I just want them to laugh and enjoy our show. Simple and easy.
Since this is a show focusing on the drag community I have a very important question… if you could get the rights to one Mariah song to have on the soundtrack, which one would it be and why?
Ohhhhh Bitch. There are two! Heartbreaker and Fantsay. Ugh I love them both so much!
