Sitting in her Brooklyn hotel room ahead of that city’s production of A Drag Queen Christmas — a celebratory annual holiday revue starring some RuPaul’s Drag Race’s most celebrated queens, now in its 10th year — mistress of ceremonies Nina West quickly shows how she won the Miss Congeniality title in her Drag Race season. The activist, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-endorsed fan favorite, and proud “black sheep” of a political family, who has used her platform to spread much-needed joy year-round since competing on Drag Race Season 11 and All Stars 9, speaks eloquently enough that she herself could run for office. But she feels she can make more of an impact as a “disruptor outside of the system,” and she also believes that even light-hearted, escapist entertainment like A Drag Queen Christmas can make a difference — at a time when the LGBTQ+ community is craving connection and comfort.

“I’m really just excited to use this opportunity to tour the country with a message of hope, with a message of joy, and a message of marking a new tradition or coming home to a familiar tradition,” says West. “I think innately, our act of getting in drag is at its core a political act, because we’re bucking the system and we’re wearing clothes that are not made for what our gender-marker might be. And that’s political alone, but at its core also, drag is this subcultural art form in that it’s multi-pronged. It is there to be political, but it’s also there to be a reminder of what we are as queer people, which is when people oftentimes don’t provide us a space, we find our own space and we create our own joy and we create our own celebrations.

“And I think that this is just a further continuance of that we’re celebrating. We’re continuing this joy down this path. That’s what we’re doing with this Christmas tour, which is reminding people that there’s joy out there in the world to be harvested and to be shared and to be given to one another. I think that that’s the job here. The job is to be givers of joy and using our platforms to speak to that joy, and to also challenge people into what creates the best, most equitable and fair and equal society and culture for all of us.”

In the video above and insightful Q&A below, West opens up about why drag, the arts, celebration, and coming together as a community are so important right now, and what her hopes are for the new year. Click here to learn more about West’s work with her Nina West Foundation.

LYNDSANITY: So, we all need a little Christmas — A Drag Queen Christmas — right this very minute. Full disclosure: I don’t know if you know this, but the original timeslot when we were supposed to do this interview was the morning of Nov. 6.

NINA WEST: Oh, wow.

Yeah, we were going to do this at 9:30 in morning the day after the election, and I actually wondered if that was going to be the right time for either of us to talk about a drag Christmas tour, so I postponed it.

That’s good, that’s good. Because I don’t know if I would’ve been in a state to chat about it.

Exactly. And knowing how political you are and you whole AOC connection, I would love to talk about some political stuff with you and about the amazing activism that you do. But before we get into that stuff, let’s stick with the fun stuff, which is the A Drag Queen Christmas tour. We do need escape right now. Plus, the holidays are going to be a little bit weird this year — some people might have to go home to their families and have awkward conversations around the table with their MAGA uncle or whatever. What can people who are looking for a good time expect from this show?

Yeah, the holidays are here, and there’s no other better way to spread Christmas cheer than with something that’s very queer. That’s a rhyme, and you can put that in print! Because I think that A Drag Queen Christmas is such a fantastic way for a lot of people, who choose to celebrate the season in this way, to have this fabulous outlet to celebrate. This is my fourth year hosting. I’m honored to be a part of this tradition. It’s the 10th anniversary tour, which is the biggest tour yet. And this Christmas tour is just a nonstop cast of some of the greatest people who’ve ever walked the runway. We’ve got Brooke Lynne Hytes, we’ve got Roxxxxy Andrews, we’ve got Jimbo, we’ve got Sasha Colby, we have Plasma, Plane Jane, Sapphira Cristál, Lady Camden, depending on what city and what stop. You just can’t beat this lineup. I just think there’s nothing more fabulous and wonderful to welcome the holiday season and make it so affirming than A Drag Queen Christmas.

Is there anything special you’re all doing to commemorate the 10th anniversary of A Drag Queen Christmas?

It’s big! Oh my God, it’s so big. Big production value. We’ve got some incredible dancers, every single number, every single show. The production value is just big, so over-the-top —  I mean, no crumbs have been left, as the queens say. No crumbs. So yeah, it is a big, big show and a big tour, and it couldn’t come at a better time.

In general, how do you think the arts, and particularly drag, are important in bringing community together and just bringing a bit of levity and hope when we all need it?

I think the arts are more important now than ever for people. We’re going to see this massive influence in how art is going to shape our conversation surrounding what’s going on in the world and what’s going on in the country. And so, aside from the fact that the show is a joyous, wonderful, fun time for people to come and turn to if they want a distraction, also for many people across the country, this show is a tradition. Like I said, it’s the 10th anniversary, so over the last decade, people have been coming with their friends, their chosen family, or they’ve been coming with their actual biological family, and they’ve been marking the holidays in this way. But I think it is really important to acknowledge the fact that art — regardless of it’s drag or if it’s film or if it’s television, or if it’s local drag in your own community, or painting, whatever it is — is going to save us and get us through this. And those conversations that are really vital to have are going to be centered around art in some way or another. I’m really just excited to use this opportunity to tour the country with a message of hope, with a message of joy, and a message of marking a new tradition or coming home to a familiar tradition. Everyone’s coming to the show for a different reason, but at the end of the day, we want everyone to leave having had a wonderful time, the ability to leave our problems at the door and come in and just celebrate and have a great time. So, that’s our hope. And then, looking forward.. we’ll see what happens.

Do you believe that the best art comes out of dark and troubled times? People have referenced other moments in history, or other fraught political times or times of war, and cited that some great art was created during those times.

I think that all art is a response to some things at any given point. It could be a global dark time. It could be a personal dark time — someone’s personal depression could lead to some of the most magnificent things that we’ve ever seen, but there might not have been any global calamity happening at that time. I just think art deserves protecting in any way, shape, or form, in any time period — the value of what it does for us to find comfort, to find solace, to spark conversation, to have collaboration, to grow from, and to learn from. I think that’s the job of art. I don’t think it’s any less important at any given time. It’s so important all of the time.

Do you feel that drag, specifically drag, is inherently a political act?

Oh, yeah. I mean, putting on drag is a political act; there’s no way around that. I think I’m so old-school that drag is political to me, right? But now drag is on television all across the world, so people are coming at it in a different way than how I came to drag. My perspective is going to be different from someone else’s perspective who may be 20 years younger than me. But I think innately, our act of getting in drag is at its core a political act, because we’re bucking the system and we’re wearing clothes that are not made for what our gender-marker might be. And that’s political alone, but at its core also, drag is this subcultural art form in that it’s multi-pronged. It is there to be political, but it’s also there to be a reminder of what we are as queer people, which is when people oftentimes don’t provide us a space, we find our own space and we create our own joy and we create our own celebrations. And I think that this [holiday show] is just a further continuance of that we’re celebrating. We’re continuing this joy down this path. That’s what we’re doing with this Christmas tour, which is reminding people that there’s joy out there in the world to be harvested and to be shared and to be given to one another. I think that that’s the job here. The job is to be givers of joy and using our platforms to speak to that joy, and to also challenge people into what creates the best, most equitable and fair and equal society and culture for all of us.

Well said! Would you ever go into politics yourself? Nina West for President! I’m sure you’ve been asked that before.

No, no. I come from a family of politics, of politicians. I grew up in that environment and I grew up in the culture of that. I think that I’m better served outside of that, using my voice and my platform, raising money for causes that are very, very near and dear to my heart, specifically LGBTQ+ causes, and being there for my community in ways that I don’t know if I could do if I was an elected official.

Tell me more about your family’s political background.

I was raised [in politics]. I went to the Republican National Convention in 1992 in Houston, Texas, with my grandfather, who was a delegate. Everyone — my parents, my grandparents — all had partisan jobs working for the party in some way or another, the Republican party. And so, I am kind of like the black sheep of my family, and I proudly wear my fleece! But I also recognize that in my desire to seek equality and equity and my desire to want to be a voice for myself, primarily provide agency for myself, that I feel like it’s better for me to be a disruptor outside of the system. … I like where I’m at now.

Is your family cool with what you do for a living?

Oh, yeah. I mean, we have many families across the country where this year they’re going to have to have those difficult conversations — or they’re not going to! How that works and how I navigate my own personal relationships with my parents is challenging. And with my siblings, it’s challenging. But those are those things that I keep kind of close to me. Those are personal things that, however I navigate that, I use that to inform me and empower me going forward as my public persona. But I really try to keep that part separate.

I understand that. I do think it’s interesting, though, because I imagine with your background, you have a well-rounded understanding of why our nation is where it’s at right now. You probably have a lot of insight.

I think my desire being a progressive was to have collaboration and conversation. For many years, I think that’s where I sat on the fence: “OK, how can I get you to see my point of view and understand where I’m coming from?” And I think that that necessarily wasn’t always understood nor is it reciprocated, nor is it respected, especially in this era. So, right now, my goal is to be my best advocate for myself and for my community, and regardless of whether or not someone wants to understand that, it’s not my job. This is all in process]; we’re only three weeks out from what’s just happened [with the presidential election], so I’m still processing and trying to figure out what my role is in all of that. I know that I’m not giving up. I know that I’m not going to sacrifice my voice or my desire to fight for this community in the way that I have in the years past and basically my entire queer life. But also, I think I’m taking some pause, like lot of people. I’m taking pause to reflect on where I’m best at and where my best resources and where my efforts are best laid. And I don’t know if being a conduit for conversation is necessarily the best place for me right now. I think more so advocating for my community in powerful and thoughtful ways is really where I think I’m best at of use.

One of the reasons I’ve brought up this line of questioning is not just because you’re so politically astute and active, but your whole Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez connection. I think that was one of the best moments in Drag Race herstory. AOC was so sincerely upset when you were eliminated in Season 11! She was on Instagram Live expressing her sadness and giving you a shout-out.

I’m such a fan of AOC, and I’m inspired by how AOC navigates a really crazy, crazy world and navigates social media and does her job, I think pretty remarkably. I was thrilled that she was moved by my elimination — as much as I was moved by my elimination! I think it was such a funny, weird thing that came out of my experience on Drag Race, and I’m just grateful that she saw me and connected to me in a way that I was hoping everybody would, being vulnerable and telling my story — which I had no intention of doing. I had no intention of being that vulnerable in television, because you get caught up in it. You get swept up in the moments of all of it. I had no intentionality of revealing so much about myself in that way. But she connected to that, and lot of people did across the world, and I’m grateful for that.

Did you ever have conversations off-camera or after the show, like via DMs or anything like that?

Yeah, and it has been lovely. I don’t know her, I shouldn’t say we’re friends — I don’t have her number in my phone — but especially when I was eliminated, there was some DMing back and forth, which was awesome and made me feel just really great about myself and about the work that I had done up to that point, and the work that I continue to do. Drag is this art form that is so uniquely queer, and it’s so uniquely positioned in its point of view within a community, which makes it very, very unique now. And it belongs to the world right now. Drag is in pop culture. Everybody can have access to it and can do it, but at its core and at its roots and at its growth of where it starts, it comes from LGBTQ+ people. And it’s a wonderful thing for us to be able to celebrate that. Again, I keep going back to these notions of celebration and joy.

‘Tis the season!

Yes, but it’s also what drag does. Drag is there to provide agency, and drag is there to defend and protect and to give the community agency and power. I think in this holiday spirit we do that, but also at its core, that’s what drag is — just this magical, powerful, wonderful queer art that we get to celebrate and embrace. I’m really grateful that a show like Drag Race exists, and that drag has popped into the pop-culture zeitgeist and changed how people view things and care for one another and care about their LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters. It’s remarkable. I do believe drag at its core as an art form is this joy-filled, complex, wonderful thing.

I also think it’s great that drag has gone mainstream, mostly because of RuPaul’s Drag Race. But a few years ago, I moderated a panel at DragCon called “Seasoned Queens” with some veteran drag entertainers, and the debate came up that some people kind of miss when drag was more subversive, disruptive, underground, or even dangerous, and now it was too mainstream and safe. As someone who’s been doing drag for 20 years, what are your thoughts about that?

I think drag exists in a variety of ways. … Being dangerous to me is drag with, I guess, no definition, no boundaries, no borders. I think that it still exists. It’s just, where do you find it? Because it’s like the conversation surrounding art. People are going to continue to create it. What we’re seeing as a whole, what we’re all consuming, is a very safe form of drag which is produced and created for television. But this dangerous, club-kid, Goth, dark, genderfuck, however it’s defined, it exists. It still is happening. Art will be created. These people will create this art. As much as people want to try to say, “Oh, it’s being watered down,” actually, no — you just don’t know where to look for it. Our show is in Brooklyn tonight, and Brooklyn is the capital of where, in my mind, creative, new, smart, stupid, awesome… it’s all being created here. The drag scene here might not be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, but what they’re doing here, five years from now someone on Drag Race is going to be doing it, and you’re going to go, “Oh, that’s so amazing, that’s so hot!” But some king, some queen, some entertainer here in Brooklyn — or in Poughkeepsie or in Sheboygan or in Ames, Iowa — they’re doing it already. It’s just like, are you willing enough to turn off your television and go out into your local community and go see a local drag show? That’s really where the challenge is, because it does exist. I know it for a fact that it exists.

And it’s very important, given all the things we’ve been discussing, that we support local drag and keep it going, because there are some people in this country who want to shut down that kind of entertainment. But I know you use your platform, which you have from being on a mainstream TV show, to promote many causes. What are you doing with your platform these days?

I’ve raised money for local organizations in Columbus, Ohio, since 2001. I created the Nina West Foundation in 2015, and we’ve donated millions of dollars to organizations both locally and nationally. I utilized my platform in a variety of ways through the election. Specifically in the last few months, I was trying to engage people in getting involved in phone-banking, canvassing, finding out how to get involved in the electoral process. That’s just a topical, recent example. Going into 2025, I’m doing a production of Into the Woods which benefits Nationwide Children’s Hospital, an organization I’ve worked with many times over the years. All the money raised goes to palliative and hospice care for kids who are fighting or battling diseases. And also, in tandem, the largest Ronald McDonald House in the world is in my hometown of Columbus, so we’ve done a lot of work with them over the years. But specifically, more so the call, I think, is to work for LGBTQIA+ causes right now, and to help make sure that our LGBTQIA+ youth feel safe and seen and protected. I’m working with a local organization called Kaleidoscope Youth Center, which is a LGBTQIA+ youth drop-in center in Columbus, Ohio, the only one in the state. And I’m also servicing and working with organizations like the Trevor Project, which is who I raised money for on my season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars — I raised well over $70,000 for them both in crowdsourcing and on the show. So, I’m continuing that work and continuing to tell those stories and those narratives to ensure that people, when you see yourself, you can be yourself. That’s a really powerful statement.

I remind people again why this Christmas show is important. When people come here, when they see queer art being performed and celebrated, they feel like maybe that’s the one thing this season that’s going to get them through. Because for a lot of LGTBQ+ people, the holidays are not great. They’re not fun. They don’t have a family to go home to anymore. It’s difficult. It reminds everyone of what’s maybe been lost during their holidays, from when they were kids to how they are as an adult. And so, I think my job as the host and my job with the show, and what I like to do with my platform, is to remind people that they have a place and that they are in fact valid. They should embrace their own agency, and they should take up space and claim who they are. And that’s all enveloped and wrapped up in this.

You’re Miss Congeniality for a reason!

They can’t take that [title] away from me. It’ll say it on my grave!

It’s a well-earned, well-deserved title! So, let’s wrap this interview on a positive note, because obviously we’ve talked about some things that aren’t so celebratory. Going into the new year, which is probably going to be a weird year, what are your hopes for 2025?

I think the next year is going to be requiring us to reconnect with one another as a community, and remind ourselves of who we are to one another. I think it’s a year for refocusing and growth, and I think that’s exciting. And I’m up for the challenge of being reminded of who we are at our core as an LGBTQIA+ community. I think that’s something to look forward to, to see the vibrancy and the beauty of this community really show itself. I think that that’s what people need to look at that, and I think that that will happen.

Nina West for President! Just sayin’.

When fan favorite Jimbo first competed on the inaugural season of Canada’s Drag Race, the comic clown/queen/genius pulled off one of the most unhinged and iconic exits in the Drag Race franchise’s herstory — no doubt speaking for all of North America, on both sides of the border, as he dramatically collapsed on the runway and unleashed a pained, birds-scattering “WHYYYYYYY?????” wail. RuPaul, who got his own start in an ’80s punk band called Wee Wee Pole, later cited the exaggeratedly breastplated British Columbian’s disruptive style as proof that “punk’s not dead” (a slogan that, of course, is now emblazoned on various Jimbo merch).

“I was so happy when Ru said that to me as an artist,” Jimbo — whose first memory of being aware of professional drag was “growing up with RuPaul on TV” — marvels. “It was such an honor for Ru to pick up on those bits of my history and what make me a drag performer and performance artist. There is that punk aesthetic in drag, just because it’s all about non-conforming and pushing boundaries. It’s all about being an artist and an individual and saying ‘f— you’ to a system.”

Three years later, on his third Drag Race try, Jimbo had the last laugh — or the final “f— you” — when he pushed those boundaries all the way to the finale of All Stars 8. There, he avenged his previous two shocking defeats (he also controversially stalled in seventh place on 2022’s RuPaul’s Drag Race: U.K. vs. the World) and, after lip-synching for his legacy to tracks by new wave/punk legends Cyndi Lauper and Joan Jett, the clown claimed his crown.

But back in 2020, when he was “still kind of feeling a little bit some kind of way about how it all went” on Canada’s Drag Race Season 1 (“I really left the show going, ‘What the f—?’”), Jimbo made a surprising post-punk artistic statement. He enlisted his upstairs neighbors, Canadian production company Studio 549, and paid tribute to another ‘80s artist, with a faithful, shot-by-shot remake of the Buggles’ scrappy, low-budget “Video Killed the Radio Star.”

“I love the idea that that was the first video put out on MTV, and that was one of my first videos that I was putting out to show myself,” Jimbo, now 41, explains. “And I love that D.I.Y. aesthetic. I live on an island of artists, Vancouver Island off the west coast of Canada, and we’re kind of known for having to make our own fun, make our own vibe, create fun for ourselves and for each other. And that video definitely has that aesthetic of a bunch of artists getting together and using their strength to create an elevated performance.”

While Jimbo is known as one of the Drag Race ’s greatest comedy queens, as is the case with most many great queens — and clowns — his art is rooted in trauma. “Trauma is all about how you deal with it and how you pick yourself up and how you move on,” he shrugs. “I’ve had a lot of pain and sadness in my life, but I’ve had so much joy and opportunity and awesomeness, and I am so grateful and lucky to be able to laugh at my hardships in life and to try my best to learn from them and weave them into my story — so that other people can learn and benefit from whatever I’ve been through and how I process that. I think there’s all kinds of things in life that happen to us that you can be crushed by and devastated by, or you can learn to accept them and weave them into your art.”

As an MTV-raised queer kid watching RuPaul, To Wong Foo, and another big influence, the “emotionally available and spontaneous” Pee-wee Herman, Jimbo was “always curious about drag and beautiful things, shiny things, all those girly things that as a boy in the ‘80s I was told [not to like]. I had to like the color blue and G.I. Joes, and I had to play with boys. But I wanted Barbies! I wanted to be with the girls and all those things,” he recalls. “I used to do drag with my brother. We’d steal my mom and my grandma’s clothes and my mom’s makeup. We’d hide in my basement in a room that was called the Dungeon. It was this kind of forgotten room filled with family s—. And we would hide down there and get our life and live our fantasy and just have fun twirling in clothes and doing something that was ‘bad’ and a secret. We’d have to hide from my dad, who was terrified that he had two gay sons, because my brother’s also gay.

“And so, I used to hide and do my makeup, and all those things as I became a teenager became horrifying,” Jimbo continues. “If my mom ever brought up to my high school friends that I loved dressing in my mom’s clothing, that was mortifying. I would just absolutely die. It wasn’t until after high school, when I was in university and in an artist crowd and started performing and being a clown, that I allowed myself to start performing in drag and letting that side of myself back in, giving myself permission to do all that. And that took a long time. My first performance in drag was me performing as my evil stepmother. I performed this character called Karen, and it was a bouffant, twisted version of my evil ex-stepmother who had tortured me. It was very cathartic and very fun and wild and twisted, and the people at the show were like, ‘That was so f—ed-up and amazing!’ And that was my first kind of taste of it.”

Jimbo, whose full name is James Insell, actually got his “Jimbo” nickname from his father, with whom he had a fraught relationship. Both of his parents were alcoholics and eventually got sober, but his dad died in 2018 and never got to see Jimbo the Drag Clown in all his grand, grotesque glory. But Jimbo’s mother was always his biggest fan. Recalling his “first taste of feeling flowy,” Jimbo says fondly, “My mom put makeup on my face and I was maybe about 5 or something. I remember just looking in the mirror saying, ‘Oh my God, Mommy, I’m beautiful!’ And she said, ‘Yes, you are, baby.’ And ever since I had sort of a fascination around beauty, and then being a little rebel and being who I am. When you’re told that’s ‘not for you’ or ‘no, you shouldn’t like that,’ it kind of makes it extra-exciting.”

It’s that extra-exciting element of the twisted and the forbidden that is the throughline of Jimbo’s underground art, whether it’s his freakish silhouette proportions (“Bodies are bodies and people are people, and there are all kinds of ideas of feminine and masculine”) or his obsession with scary clowns (“I love things that are meant to be beautiful or happy, but through the process of painting or whatever it is, they become creepy”). And then there was his Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?-inspired Snatch Game impersonation of pants-pooping “faded starlet” Shirley Temple (“There’s something so tragic and intriguing about a child star that never outgrows their childhood fame”), which made the usually unflappable Kandy Muse break character and probably clinched Jimbo’s All Stars 8 win.

Jimbo explains that “clowning is all about being really present, and it’s all about throwing away your expectations of what you’re going to do and being open to the possibilities of what could happen. … It’s all about showing up, allowing yourself to be seen, and going with your ‘worst’ idea in the moment,” and he reveals that he didn’t put much planning into his now-legendary Temple impression. “I didn’t even know I was going to tap-dance. … I strapped those on my feet and I just made it all up on the spot,” he chuckles.

Jimbo presumably put a bit more rehearsal and thought into his current Jimbo’s Drag Circus tour, which runs through June. The tour resurrects Shirley as a hip-hop comeback star rebranded as “Sweet T,” along with five other characters, including Jimbo’s other iconic Snatch Game impersonation, Joan Rivers, in a “fallen angel number” complete with backup dancers.

There’s no “Video Star” number in the revue, sadly, but Jimbo and his collaborator Andrew Fields have composed a full score for the show and are writing new music while on the road, so perhaps the Buggles’ super-producer Trevor Horn, who is aware of Jimbo’s “Video Star” homage, will work with Jimbo one day on original material.

“Oh my God, pull some strings!” the punk clown laughs, when the idea of a Horn collab is brought up. “I’m a storyteller and I love singing, and it kind of makes sense that those kind of go hand-in-hand. And so yeah, I really would love to put out more music and make more music videos.”

In the meantime, tickets for Jimbo’s Drag Circus tour are available here, and his full interview can be viewed below.

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Exciting news, everyone! Kieran, dim the lights…

American Idol returns February 18, with The Voice returning February 26 and The Masked Singer on March 6. Y’all know I can’t quit these shows, after recapping them since Iam Tongi was practically still in diapers, so I am launching my new subscription-based Reality Rocks Substack for all you fellow diehards out there!

For a low-cost subscription (with a one-week free trial to start), you will get access to my recaps of all three series. I am considering also writing about So You Think You Can Dance (which returns March 4) and maybe some RuPaul’s Drag Race too. You can subscribe in the handy widget at the top of this post.

Subscriptions are just $8/month. There is also an $80/year option, but to be fully transparent, the monthly option is probably better for most since I will be taking blogging breaks when those three main shows are not on the air. I have a little free intro post up now that goes into my history of ‘Idol’-atry, but paid posts will start on American Idol premiere night, the 18^th!

Once again, there’s a ton to discuss this week. We had the RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 finale and disappointing “reunion” show, an even more disappointing (and unnecessary) “Comeback” show featuring a bunch of randos from American Idol Season 18 competing for a spot on Season 19, unnecessary post-performance meltdown from Idol contestant Hunter Metts, and even a Bobby Brown reveal on The Masked Singer.

So this week, my “The Day After” cohost Jeffery Austin and I discuss all of that, along with our usual sidebars about the greatest all-time Drag Race lewks; that time Jeffery forgot the words to a Taylor Swift song in front of Taylor Swift’s mom; that time Jeffery swallowed his pride and Fort Worth Pride; the hotness of Chayce Beckham and Hunter Metts; the uselessness of Bobby Bones; the mystery of Katy Perry’s supposed lazy eye; Jordan Matthew Young’s glorious head of hair; and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga‘s Best Original Song chances at the 2021 Oscars,

Oh yeaaah… and we also get into the Knockout Rounds of The Voice Season 20, focusing as much as we can on the positive: Mega-Mentor Snoop Dogg’s fantastic coaching and Pia Renee’s fantastic rendition of “What the World Needs Now.”

American Idol is dark till May 2, Drag Race Down Under doesn’t start till May 1, and I can’t seem to get Jeffery to regularly watch The Masked Singer, so we will return when the Forth is with us again on May 4. Until then, you can check out my American Idol, The Voice, Masked Singer, and Drag Race articles on Yahoo Entertainment here, and  thanks as always to our American Idol pals Brandon Rogers and Blake Lewis for our funky “The Day After” theme song.

It was a packed reality-TV week, as Hanson and Kermit the Frog made their debuts on a “game-changing season” of The Masked Singer, we found out the final four on RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K.,  the United Kingdolls announced their summer concert tour, Denali was controversially told to skate/sashay away on RuPaul’s Drag Race U.S., and on/off Voice coach Gwen Stefani released a charming new single, “Slow Clap.”

This week, my “The Day After” co-host, The Voice Team Gwen finalist Jeffery Austin, and I get into all of that. But we mainly stick to what those who still listen to this podcast really want to hear: discussion of The Voice Season 20 and American Idol Season 19. While we are little more excited about one of those shows than the other (regular “The Day After” listeners can easily guess which one), there’s plenty of chatter about both.

And of course, we take our usual conversational detours, covering Yngvie Malmsteen, bad TikTok habits, Hollywood stereotypes, Family Ties, Jeffery’s Season 9 Voice run, Jeffery’s multiple American Idol auditions, Katy Perry’s underrated Smile album, and Blake Shelton’s old reality series Nashville Star. <Slow clap>

Speaking of Nashville, Jeffery is moving there next week, so we are taking next weekend off and will be back in two weeks’ time. But this super-sized episode should tide you over until then. In the meantime, thanks as always to our American Idol pals Brandon Rogers (whose vocals can be heard on the new Coming 2 America soundtrack!) and Blake Lewis for our funky “The Day After” theme song, and if you prefer the written word, check out my Drag Race, American Idol, The Voice, Songland, America’s Got Talent, Masked Singer, and Masked Dancer articles on Yahoo Entertainment here.

Yes, this week my “The Day After” co-host, The Voice Season 9 top four finalist Jeffery Austin, and I are back to celebrate 10 years of The Voice,  as the show’s 20th season premieres. Of course, it’s not much of a celebration, since we devote a great deal of this week’s podcast criticizing The Voice‘s failure to launch superstar careers over the past decade or showcase many superstar-potential singers this week. And then we move on to the shows we really want to talk about, American Idol and RuPaul’s Drag Race. It is what it is, and we said what we said.

But don’t worry, Voice fans! We are excited about a few contestants (Raine Stern, Victor Solomon, Zae Romeo, Cam Anthony) and returning coach Nick Jonas’s chances of winning this season. And there is plenty of nostalgic Season 9 talk, because no fewer than three of this week’s Voice hopefuls auditioned with songs Jeffery sang during his run on the show. Clearly Jeffery’s legacy and influence are still felt, 11 (wow, ELEVEN???) seasons later.

And of course, we take our usual conversational detours, covering everything from The Real World (not just the new Paramount+ reboot, but the Miami, London, Paris, Seattle, and San Francisco seasons of the ’90s), to Nokia clamshell phones and the old IdolVote iPhone 3 app, to Nick Jonas’s solo career, to my crush on future Drag Race U.K. winner and my future spouse, Bimini Bon Boulash. (“Lyndsey Bon Boulash” does have a nice ring to it.)

Thanks, as always, to our American Idol pals Brandon Rogers (whose vocals can be heard on the new Coming 2 America soundtrack!) and Blake Lewis for our funky “The Day After” theme song. Next week, Jeffery and I will be back to talk more Idol, Voice, and, if I can convince Jeffery to add one more TV show to his viewing queue, The Masked Singer Season 5. In the meantime, if you prefer the written word, check out my Drag Race, American Idol, The Voice, Songland, America’s Got Talent, Masked Singer, and Masked Dancer articles on Yahoo Entertainment here.

Hello hello hello! Welcome back to the Pork Chop Loading Dock. American Idol is about to start up again, followed by  next month’s premieres of The Voice and The Masked Singer, so this will be the last solely Drag Race-centric episode of “The Day After” for a while. But what a time to focus on RuPaul’s Drag Race, on both sides of the Atlantic – especially the U.K. version of the show, which featured lots of (Banana)drama this week.

First, Jeffery Austin and I venture across the pond to discuss RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K.’s seven-month production shutdown, the quarantined queen’s emotional return to the Werk Room, Bimini and Sister Sister’s glow-ups, the herstory of Eurovision, new flatmates A’Whora and Tayce’s supposed “sexual tension,” Joe Black’s squandered second chance, the difference between Primark and H&M, the British seaside’s cruel summers, and RuPaul’s shocking “I was rooting for US!” Tyra Banks moment.

And it’s all soundtracked by the bop of 2021 so far and the current No. 1 song on the U.K. iTunes chart, “U.K. Hun” (the United Kingdolls’ version, of course)!

Here’s United Kingdolls’ debut Ruruvision performance.

Bing-bang-bong sing-sang-song ding-dang-dong #DragRaceUK pic.twitter.com/d87LOzKw6d

— RuPaul’s Drag Race UK (@dragraceukbbc) February 13, 2021

Then, we head back to the States for a discussion of the “Bossy Rossy After Dark” acting/improv episode, including the star turns by Olivia Lux, Rosé, Denali, Symone, and Kandy Muse; Tina Burner’s ill-advised Ronald McDonald color palette; Elliott With Two Ts’ problematic social media posts and alleged micro-aggressions on the set; and Gottmik’s anal-beaded eleganza.

Once again, we are serving you an adequate podcast, made of words. Vintage? No. Elegant? No. Still stuck on Drag Race? Hell yes! Jeffery and I will be back next week to talk Drag Race as well as the Season 19 American Idol premiere, including Claudia Conway’s much-hyped Idol audition. In the meantime, if you prefer the written word, check out my Drag Race, American Idol, The Voice, Songland, America’s Got Talent, Masked Singer, and Masked Dancer articles on Yahoo Entertainment here.  And special thanks to our American Idol pals Blake Lewis and Brandon Rogers for our funky theme song.

Hello hello hello! Welcome back to the Pork Chop Loading Dock. My “The Day After” cohost Jeffery Austin and I missed last week’s taping, so this week’s podcast is twice as nice, as we dive into two episodes, apiece, of RuPaul’s Drag Race U.S. and Drag Race U.K. We are serving you an adequate podcast, made of words. Vintage? No. Elegant? No. Still stuck on both series? Bloody hell yes!

From last week’s mostly disappointing Bag Ball (in the words of Violet Chachki: NO), Kandy Muse/Tamisha Iman Untucked drama, goodbye to  Trade of the Season™ Joey Jay, and Tia Koffi’s iconic behavior, to this week’s disco herstory lesson, emotional Tamisha farewell, sweet ‘n’ sour Ginny Lemon “elimination,” and my crush on my Trade of the Season™, Bimini Bon-Boulash, we cover it all.

Have a listen, and special thanks to our American Idol pals Blake Lewis and Brandon Rogers (whose Season 6 Idol co-star Jordin Sparks was just revealed on The Masked Dancer) for our funky theme song. If you prefer the written word, check out my Drag Race, American Idol, The Voice,  Songland, America’s Got Talent, Masked Singer, and Masked Dancer articles on Yahoo Entertainment here!

We are now four episodes into RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13, and we finally know who the “Pork Chop of the season” is. And sadly, it’s Kahmora Hall, who despite having some of the best runway looks of the season — or any season — struggled in last week’s musical number and this week’s acting maxi-challenge. But at least this “walking painting” sashayed away in style.

This week, my “The Day After” cohost, The Voice Season 9 finalist Jeffery Austin, and I discuss Kahmora’s bittersweet exit and much, much more. Is Symone the queen to beat? Has ice-skater Denali lost her footing? Is Tina Burner overconfident and overrated? Is trade of the season Joey Jay still single? Can Jeffery name at least five non-”Believe” Cher songs? Why does Jeffrey Boyer keep showing up on RuPaul’s Drag Race? Why do queens keep showing up on the runway in outfits they can’t move in? And can the RuPaulmark Channel be a real 24/7 channel on the WOW Presents app, please?

And since, as the song goes, drag is all over the world — it’s a phe-nom-e-non, it will go on and on — we also get into our hopes and dreams for Drag Race Canada Season 2 and the just-announced Drag Race Australia Season 1. And, speaking of amazing musical numbers and acting challenges, we of course Ru-cap the best Rusical EVER in Drag Race herstory, this week’s Rats on RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K.! (Yes, it was a Cats parody, and yes, it paid tribute to the Prodigy. I think Keith Flint would have loved it.) We also debate who the U.K. trade of the season is, because we like to bring to the hard-hitting news, and chat about other random things like the forthcoming Britney Spears documentary and the Valley Girl dialect.

Special thanks to our American Idol pals Blake Lewis and Brandon Rogers for our funky theme song, and if you prefer the written word, check out my The Voice, Drag Race, American Idol, Songland, America’s Got Talent, Masked Singer, and Masked Dancer articles on Yahoo Entertainment here.