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OCTOBER 6th: The Queens Who Saved Halloween: The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Resurrection
For many, Halloween is cancelled this year, with no parties, no trick-or-treating and a lot of new movie content postponed. However, for those who like their Halloween with a dose of drag, horror, filth and glamour, The Boulet Brothers are back with an exciting new project: The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Resurrection. Trust these queens’ creative output to be thriving during a pandemic!
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The Boulet Brothers have previously hinted at wanting to bring back queens from previous seasons, but of course it wouldn’t be in the typical “all-stars” format we’re familiar with. This new project is a two-hour film-part horror movie, part documentary and part reality competition, available on horror subscription service Shudder.
Dragula had its debut on the Hey Qween network on YouTube, before Season 2 premiered on Amazon Prime and both Season 2 and Season 3 are currently showing on U.S. Netflix. The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Resurrection is a Shudder exclusive and this feels like the perfect match. Shudder champions ‘high-quality, spine-tingling, and provocative’ content. With a diverse catalogue of independents, horror classics and a few campy ones too, Dragula will be a fantastic new addition.
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With three finalists in the mix, in a bone-chilling twist future season 4 competitors could find themselves up against someone who only narrowly missed the crown the previous time around.
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See article here: https://werrrk.com/2020/10/06/the-queens-who-saved-halloween-the-boulet-brothers-dragula-resurrection/
Drag Race Holland: 'Meet the Queens' (Sept 15th) and Weekly Recaps
After the joy of the recently concluded Canada’s Drag Race, I’m excited for the next instalment of the Drag Race franchise- one a little closer to my side of the pond. Drag Race Holland is hosted by stylist and former Holland’s Next Top Model mentor Fred van Leer. The series will premiere on September 17th on WOW Presents Plus in the US and select territories worldwide, and on RTL Nederland’s Videoland.
On 7th September, the Meet the Queens video was released, introducing our Drag Race Holland contestants, with promo looks paying homage to the Royal Family Orange of Holland. Get ready to become better acquainted with these queens below!
Miss Abby OMG @missabyomg
Miss Abby OMG grew up in Brazil before coming to the Netherlands, giving her the title of first Brazilian queen to participate in Drag Race! Co-founder of the ‘Mermaids Mansion’ drag house (alongside Envy Peru), Miss Abby OMG is known for her high-energy performances. The diverse Mermaids Mansion house are a ‘mixture of different cultures come together through beauty, fierceness, and elegance’. From a glance at her Instagram, beauty, fierceness and elegance are certainly qualities she possesses!
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Roem @roemservice
The youngest competitor at only 21-years-old, Roem describes herself as a ‘cyborg from the future’. Roem grew up in the Dutch Bible Belt and knows how to survive in a difficult environment. Roem is perhaps most known for Rapal Dark Res, her cartoon parody show, which managed to make the most chaotic moments of RuPaul’s Drag Race even more ridiculous and hilarious. Roem is unique in the sense that she is a digital queen and does not perform live. However, with such a strong digital presence, expectations run high!
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Chelsea Boy @xochelseaboy
Chelsea Boy’s promo look establishes them as a stunning visual artist. Their Instagram is full of striking looks that blur the lines of gender, and they are a self-described “gender hybrid transformer”. With a recurring #letskeepitsurreal hashtag, their aesthetic blends the futuristic and sci-fi, using unconventional materials and prostheses, with punk-rock influences to create looks any club-kid would be jealous of. Chelsea Boy often performs to 80s nostalgic music, giving their performance style an exciting retro-futurist quality. Oh, and they also sing live!
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July 15th: Sasha Velour's Nightgowns: A Perfect Fit for Quibi
At first I was a little sceptical about the Quibi format- a streaming service designed for mobile phones, with short form content less than 10 minutes long. I’m yet to sample any of the other available programmes, but Sasha Velour’s NightGowns docuseries harnesses every available minute to create something spectacular.
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NightGowns provides a fantastic bitesize view into the world of drag. Celebrating drag in an inclusive way is key to Velour’s drag mission and she manages to demonstrate an impressive range of drag styles and gender expressions in her six-person cast. Sasha Velour is an artist that draws on a myriad of influences in her own work, so it is unsurprising that that her shows host such variety.
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Drag is an artform that lends itself to the Quibi format surprisingly well. As ensemble drag shows such as NightGowns often see drag artists deliver one short performance, the format doesn’t stage too many limitations. We see one lip-sync performance from each artist and a brief introduction into the personal messages and work-process behind them. In the first episode, Sasha Velour sets out her mission statement: “It doesn’t have to do with disguise, but transformation is important. We’re transforming the system that doesn’t work for us.”
In episode two Sasha Colby gives an emotionally-charged performance of Janet Jackson’s ‘When I Think Of You’, using the character of a popular high-school girl experiencing a breakup to play out her own emotions. Colby touches on the importance of representation in art, describing a life-changing moment of seeing trans drag performers and realising that she could do drag. As a former Miss Continental winner, there is a certain level of perfection and prestige an audience has come to expect of Colby, and she certainly delivers.
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A recurring theme through each episode is drag as emotional catharsis, and this is definitely evident in Vander Von Odd’s haunting performance. This horror-inspired artist and The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula-winner often celebrates the beauty of body modification and extreme, otherworldly silhouettes. Behind the dark, gothic performance there is always a heart to it- here quite literally, as Vander staples paper hearts all over their body in a statement about turning pain into positives. Post-performance as the camera takes us back-stage, we see the remains of the staples in bloody marks all over Vander’s face, emphasising their total commitment to the performance.
July 10th: Cheryl Hole Debuts New Podcast “Girl Group Gossip”
Hi Cheryl! I’m very excited to speak to you today! To be honest, hearing any new human voice is a huge treat at the moment… how have you been keeping busy over these last few months?
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Do you know what? I was thinking that lockdown was going to be one of those quiet times where you can just learn to crochet and do fun stuff like that. But the age of digital drag has really taken off, so I’ve been twirling in my living room for the kids every single night basically.
I was going to say I noticed you had been busy with digital drag! You have a Chromatica themed show coming up for Digital Pride next week. How has it been adapting drag to a digital setting?
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I do indeed! It’s one of those things that I’ve always wanted to explore with my drag. I see so many creative artists like Juno Birch etc. that have such a strong online presence, they do such strong editing with their videos and I would love to have done that. But when you’re on the road, you don’t really have the time because you’re going from city to city and then you’re turning up and doing the gig, so I’ve really used this time to hone my skills and learn new skills, like editing. It’s been quite strange performing to a little green dot on your MacBook!
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Sounds like you’re making the most of your time! We’re really here to talk about your new podcast ‘Girl Group Gossip’. Was this born out of lockdown or something that’s been in the works for a while?
I love podcasts- I normally stick them on when I’m doing a long drive or I’m in the bath, just because it’s that comfort of a voice, of a conversation, even if you’ve got nobody around you. I’m a talker and I love to talk, and I’ve always wanted to do a podcast. It wasn’t until I was in lockdown and I started thinking ‘well maybe I could start a podcast during this time’. Everybody knows me for my passion for girl groups, so it was only inevitable that I was going to put that skill to use and perhaps educate and revive some love for some girl groups across the UK and the world.
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In the podcast trailer you say you’ll talk about girl groups including everything from girl bands, such as The Saturdays, to Desperate Housewives…can you tease anything more about what we can expect?
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So the podcast is called ‘Girl Group Gossip.’ Now to the naked eye that just seems like we’re going to talk about girl groups, girl bands. But if we go any deeper, we’re a group of girls gossiping, we are talking about a group of girls- that could be a group of girls on a TV show, a group of girls on Loose Women for example, so the topics are endless! Whilst we’re focusing mainly on girl bands, I’m definitely open to doing many an episode. I’ve just binge watched Desperate Housewives, so I have fallen back in love with Wisteria Lane and all the girls on the lane!
May 14th 2020: Lockdown Listening: The Boulet Brothers' Creatures of the Night Podcast
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The Boulet Brothers’ world is one that continually captivates me- whether it’s re-watching Dragula for the fifth time, a digital drag show or an Instagram show-and-tell, The Boulet Brothers’ have been one of the key comforts in my new lockdown life. Their digital drag show Theatre Macabre was completely bewitching- a masterpiece that entirely exceeded the boundaries of what I thought digital drag could achieve.
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I was ecstatic to hear the announcement of the new podcast, The Boulet Brothers’ Creatures of the Night, which premiered on May 8th, 2020. The podcast is brought to us by the legendary horror publication Fangoria and describes itself as a “horror variety show”.
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The podcast begins with a devastating journey through a calendar of The Boulet Brothers’ events and appearances that have been interrupted by Covid-19. Following a discussion focusing on the ways drag has adapted for quarantine, of course referencing Biqtch Puddin’s innovative Digital Drag shows, this first episode is structured around Pandemic-themed movies. Dracmorda, Swanthula and all-round assistant Ian each pick a Pandemic-related movie to discuss. Ian picks 2006 infertility pandemic film Children of Men, Swanthula’s choice is Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2002) and Dracmorda opts for Trey Edward Shults’ It Comes At Night (2017). You need not even be a fan of The Boulet Brothers or drag to enjoy this podcast- the discussion of horror movies is accessible, engaging and frank. They focus on the movies’ socio-political significance, symbolic imagery and the relevance of these films to the current pandemic. They also raise more pressing questions, such as: how did Selena maintain her ‘punk rock Street Fighter’ hairstyle in the post-apocalyptic world of 28 Days Later?
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It is a delight to hear a more relaxed, open Dracmorda and Swanthula Boulet than the judges we see on Dragula who, by necessity, maintain a colder and distanced approach. Their charm certainly shines through as Dragula hosts, but there is something particularly endearing about hearing their opinions stripped away from their dazzling and intimidating gothic glamour appearances. The addition of Ian also provides an interesting dynamic, with a third voice sparking debate and keeping conversation riveting. I have to admit a gleeful satisfaction as Ian and Swan get carried away in conversation, much to Drac’s despair as they creep into the allotted time for discussing the “more sophisticated” A24 film It Comes At Night.
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This week sees Swanthula’s pick for the final segment, ‘Haunting of History’: They dicuss Poveglia, a haunted island in Italy, famous for washed up bodies of plague victims and, later for illegal torturous psychological experiments.
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With the iconic Dita Von Teese lined up as the next guest, I have no choice but to subscribe…
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