Building A Drag Empire :: RuPaul's Perspective

The latest twist in the RuPaul empire, is happening come this May... and it's just such a remarkable drag. What's next you may be asking? Especially for someone who has a successful seven-season (and counting) television series, a new album (Realness brings the total count to six), successful makeup and perfume lines (Hello, Glamazon), a couple books and a fab Podcast (What's the Tea?)? Just the beginnings, of a very, very long list. What do you do once you've become a cultural phenomenon? One, whose followers hunger for more?

You do what any self-respecting institution does...you hold a massive convention!

RuPaul is doing it, as only RuPaul can, in an glamazonian extravaganza under the name RuPaul's DragCon! And girl, this multi-faceted, "way-more-than-just-drag" event is taking center stage in Downtown Los Angeles on Saturday and Sunday, May 16 and 17. It's the perfect chance to commiserate with others of a like mind and, perhaps, get to know better what your own personal costume is... the persona you show the world. As the lady herself says, "We're born naked and the rest is drag."

THE RAGE MONTHLY HAD THE HONOR TO ONCE AGAIN CHAT, WITH THE QUEEN HERSELF, TO GET THE SKINNY

I'm fascinated by your latest venture, DragCon. Can you give us a primer on what it's all about?

Well, the goal here is to have a place where people like us,can go and meet other people like us. It's very broad and it's not just drag... it's for anyone who dances to the beat of a different drummer. It's for people who relate to drag, as not only a brilliant art form, but as an expression of the "anti matrix," or the anti status quo. Drag really represents breaking the fourth wall.

Most people don't realize that they are in some form of drag and they don't really know it. It's like, metaphorically speaking, the people who take the blue pill and live in the matrix and don't even know it. They can't see any further, than what it says they are on their drivers license.

DragCon is a convention for people who understand that. Or, for younger people who understand even just a piece of it. Those who know something is up and yet don't fully understand what they are feeling. It's a place to ask and get answers to those questions.

You have really managed to create a culture, or perhaps it's better to say that you have shed a light on a culture that was already there. It's really lovely to be able to have done that don't you think?

I am proud of the fact that through "Drag Race" we've been able to launch all of these stars as a result. We're almost up to 95 girls who we have unleashed on the unsuspecting public (laughs). I'm not certain of the number, it's 89 or 95 or something like that. There are a lot of girls who have come through our show and they are travelling the world as we speak!

I remind people however, that this beautiful window of opportunity that we're enjoying right now could change at any second. You see a lot of young kids on social media, who kind of take what they have for granted. That's their prerogative and it's fine. But the truth is, especially for someone our age; it can change at any second.

All of these things we do, be it the convention, the show, the tour or all of the music, any of it, I know not to take any of what we do here for granted. I've learned not to, because I have lived through losing it before. It can all be taken away and end at any second. It is inevitable, of course, that it will end at some point, but I know enough to enjoy what I have right now.

What's the most surprising thing for you at this point in your career?

I guess the most surprising thing is that "Drag Race" is still really kind of underground. We're not at all like "X Factor," "The Voice" or "American Idol." We're still chugging along, but I don't know that it will ever become truly mainstream.

For people to understand and accept what we are doing goes back to what we were talking about earlier. They themselves would have to accept that they are doing a form of drag, as well. To understand that all of "this" around us is Illusion, not unlike the concept in the film "The Matrix." It would take a major deconstruction of their whole belief system. And, most people don't want to do that.

Even if they have an inkling of what we're actually doing, the de-constructing of what we understand as male and female and "realness" in our culture - even if they have a sense that it is absolutely right on the money - most people don't possess the courage to question it in their own lives. That's why our show is so compelling. It's because of these kids, our contestants, who against all odds, take that major leap, out of what they know. It's a courageous step in a lifetime and that's why they are so compelling to watch.

Our culture can be like that...fear-based. We tend to stick to what we know, rather than venture outside our comfort zone.

People often feel more comfortable in fear, rather than in love and openness. Most people are afraid of the truth, because they don't want to wake up from "the dream"and do something about it.

When I was a kid in San Diego, I used to go to the beach a lot. We lived out in Lemon Grove and I would catch the bus to Pacific Beach. When I would come back, the kids in the neighborhood would say things like, "You must think that you're better than us, or you think you're white or something, going to the beach on your own." I said, "No, the truth is, that the beach is fucking fabulous and what is your freakin'problem?" (Laughs)

It was a great lesson to have happened early on, because it taught me that people feel threatened by someone who is actively pursuing a better experience. I became a living testament to growth and change by doing those things. It was threatening to them, because it made some of them realize that they weren't changing and so they would demonize what I was doing.

Throughout the years and in the different circles that I've been in... and I have been in a lot of them, many times, I have had to say "goodbye." Usually because they couldn't keep up with looking forward and changing an old idea or an old directive for the better. That speaks to why people are often more comfortable in fear, than they might be in something new and better.

Here's a final question. What would people be most surprised to know about you?

I think that they would be surprised to know how much of an introvert I really am. And, how much energy it really takes for me to put myself out there. My natural inclination is really not to be around people and to be on my own... I'm very content being by myself.

I love our conversations, and I appreciate what you are doing so much.

Thank you so much, sweetheart. Joel, you are a prince.

As are you... or perhaps... should I say queen?

They are all applicable (There's that distinctive RuPaul laugh).