Original subtitles

♪ I am American, American... ♪

- We are the largest and fiercest tour

starring drag queens in the world.

- ♪ My, my, my, my country tis of thee ♪

♪ These are all my friends, we are a family... ♪

- Oh! - Aah!

- ♪ This is who I am and who I wanna be ♪

[cheers and applause]

[indistinct conversations]

- Being gay was such a hard thing

for me to accept as a young man, and it was such a hard road.

If I had "RuPaul's Drag Race" at that age,

it would have been the easy way for me to know

that there was people out there that were just like me.

- When you get the type of people that we do,

that are so passionate about these performers

and have stood in line

and ordered tickets months in advance,

and you feel that synergy

between the performer and the audience,

that's what makes the most magical experience

that we get to witness every night.

- That magical moment when a crowd is, like, let's go,

and they're clapping and they're cheering,

and then you turn the lights down and you press play,

and it all lights up together

and everyone's just, like, cheering, and--

that's the best part of touring.

That is the whole point of doing this.

- Sometimes it seems like we go to places

where it's actually kind of

the only queer thing that happens there.

It just becomes this, like, place

where you can go be yourself or create a character

in a way that you can't in the day-to-day world.

You'll be accepted, and that means a lot

to a certain amount of people in the world.

- Our Werq the World crew,

with the queens, the dancers,

the production team, is about 21 people.

It's big. It's a lot of people.

In order to accomplish something of this size,

you've gotta have that many people.

- We work at least 15 hours a day putting this together.

It's a mind-blowing amount of work.

Werq the World means

we are literally hitting up every part of the world.

We wanna werq, werq, werq, werq.

- Hey. Y'all made it?

- I'm one of the producers.

I've been there since the very beginning.

One of the queens were like, "Jon, you know everything.

"Every queen comes up to you,

"and you know what the answer is.

You don't realize how much people need you."

It's like having 20 people have one of your fingers,

and, like, they're all trying to grab a piece of you

all at the same time.

- Are we going on soon, Jon? - Yeah.

- Uh, how soon? - Like 10 minutes.

- Where's the--Jon?

- Can somebody message Jon

and get this fucking started already?

- Jon, please come up to the meet-and-greet.

- What do you need? Person to Jon, person to Jon.

We need this, we need that.

Hey, Jon, Jon, Jon, Jon.

And so it's comforting to know

that if I'm not here, things will kind of collapse.

- Oh, my God, am I gonna smell like a man?

Oh, no, I do have my deodorant. It's here.

I have all my stuff now. - Yeah, it's here now.

- [squeals]

[hums circus tune]

Okay.

Insurance.

Oh, what's this?

And the bobby pins.

- Uh, there were some bobby pins on the table.

I'm Kenny. I work on the tour,

kind of in a role of, like,

filling in for what needs to be done.

So technically tour assistant,

but working towards managing the tour with Jon in the future.

- And we have to rush, rush, rush.

No glamour, no luxury.

Just rush, girl, get to it. Hit it.

Put her to work.

- As far as, like, knowing about drag

and keeping the girls on time,

I'm good at sort of managing what needs to happen backstage

to make sure we're ready and on time,

and in as good of, like, spirits as possible.

- Uh! - Almost there.

- Touring with a group,

it definitely makes life a little bit more spiced up,

if you know what I mean. [laughs]

No, it's a good time.

I mean, a lot goes into this.

There's a lot of moving parts.

We've got people pushing trailers, changing tires,

booking flights, zipping up, gluing, snatching, yanking,

pulling, organizing, attempting to organize.

It's fabulous.

- This is my mom.

She born and bred me.

I mean bred and born me. [laughs]

- I haven't bred you yet. - Aah!

[laughs] This is a children's program.

- Okay? - Is it?

- I don't know what that means. What about bread?

- It's a carb. [laughs]

- I'm gluten-free.

- I like Wonder Bread.

- Mmm. - Mmm.

- With PB&J.

Wait, am I-- I'm looking at you, right?

- Yeah. - Okay. [clears throat]

I'm Liam Riley,

and on this tour I'm Shangela's personal assistant,

and I also assist Valentina.

She's perfect, she's beautiful, she looks like a model.

I'm probably sweating like crazy right now.

- Yeah, you look greasy.

- Oh. Gotta go.

There's, like, levels of hierarchy on this tour.

Like--well, in my mind. [laughs]

I would consider Shangela my mom, obviously.

- For my mix, I have to record a laugh.

So what I do is I hit go.

This is how you do a home studio, okay?

Then you put your pantyhose up. So you hit record.

This is to stop it from, like, p-p-p stuff.

[laughs]

[different laugh]

[different laugh]

[laughter plays back]

- Oh, that was you cackling? - Yeah.

Joelle made me record some laughs, but--

[laughter plays back]

Which one?

- I am scared of her.

- Liam--Liam is my drag daughter.

That's Liam, AKA Andrew AKA Bambi.

She got a million names, honey, a million names.

- Do another one.

I think you need to be, like... [light laugh]

- You say that?

- Was that not ha-ha-ha?

- No. Channel your inner actress.

Like you're a villain.

- I was--okay. A villain, okay.

Liam, at the core, is a sweet person,

and that's why he kicks it with me.

I don't kick it with people

that aren't kind, generous, good-hearted people.

[high-pitched laugh]

Bitch!

- But those are good.

- Oh, they are? - Yeah.

- Oh, Lord.

I almost feel, like, responsible for Liam,

like a big brother/big sister kind of way as well.

We've been friends for a couple years,

and he also works with me as my assistant.

So, you know, she's got a lot of roles.

- What are you wearing for meet-and-greet?

- Uh, let's do the red dress.

- With the red jewels? - Yeah.

- So Shangela's my drag mom, and then Alyssa's my grandma.

- We gonna do a toast, honey. - Alyssa.

- I need my daughter, my granddaughter.

It's a family--

- Oh, shit.

So then it goes Violet is my Aunt Violet.

- Bitch, where do you find the time?

- It's called talent.

- And then my Uncle Sharon. [laughs]

I call Sharon my uncle because I think it's hilarious.

- I know.

Thank God. It feels like a whole new world here.

- Trump is fighting with Canada.

He's best friends with North Korea.

My vintage "Roseanne" T-shirts are worth nothing,

but my Kate Spade bags are flying off the shelf.

- Oh, my God, I'm sure.

Fun facts with Sharon Needles.

- All right, I gotta go get dressed.

- "Drust."

But, like, when it comes to, like, little girls on the tour,

it would be me and Valentina,

so I consider Valentina, like, my sister,

because we're, like, the little girls as everybody would say.

- Little girl?

Little girl? Little girl?

- We're like twins basically. [laughs]

- Little girl.

- Did you miss me? - Oh, I missed you.

I've been yelling for you this whole time.

- I was so lost. - You were?

- That was five minutes.

- I was so scared, and then the--

- He called me.

He said, where's your baby?

I said, my baby?

I said, that's little girl.

- Little girl.

Hey, little girl. [speaking Spanish]

Dad, let me out.

I'm locked in my booster chair.

- I slept like a baby.

- [humming]

- I'm hungry.

- I'm so hungry.

- And I need to pee, and I heard people clogged the toilet.

- With what, with toilet paper?

- Yeah. There's a sign literally on the front of the door

that says, no toilet paper.

- Or with poo-poo? Poo-poo?

Poo-poo, poo-poo-poo.

- You would think a bunch of men are on this bus.

- ♪ Poo-poo, poo, poo, poo-poo-pee-doo ♪

With Shangela, I share a really close friend,

which is her daughter, Liam Riley,

and that's my little sister.

Little girl?

Have you seen his porn?

Yes, you have.

He swears he hasn't seen Liam's porn.

- Liam's porn? - Miss Jasper.

- You'll have to show it to me.

- Oh, I have not seen it.

That is my sister. How dare you?

- That's incest.

- Yeah, no, that's my little sister.

She comes over to my room and we kiki, girl.

- She looks so butch in, like, porn pictures.

- Butch? Butch? - Liam?

- I wouldn't say butch, girl.

That's a little woman.

- I have an adult history,

so I've done adult films before.

It's not something I'm ashamed of.

It kind of put me on a platform.

In nightlife, there's a world

that, like, porn stars and drag queens

are the same kind of level.

In the gay community, there's a level of celebrity.

Porn stars and drag queens,

like, kind of share that kind of relationship together.

Like, we work in nightlife together, we work at gigs,

but before Shangela was my full-time job,

I also did a little bit of that. [laughs]

The bus is hard. It's so hard,

but it also becomes, like, your little safe zone.

- It's long hours, it's chaos.

Nothing ever goes how you're told it's going to

or how you think it is.

And on this tour, you're in a new country, a new city,

around new people, and that's every day.

And then on top of that, something always goes wrong.

- My poor Hermes scarf.

It was just thrown in the bag like it's trash.

Some of these ho's couldn't even spell Hermes.

- [mispronouncing] Oh, that's Hermie?

[laughs]

- Hermie!

- This is the one, the only, Epiphany Mattel.

She's part talent and part assistant.

- It's the living doll and Latrice Royale ♪

♪ And we're doing it and doing it ♪

♪ And doing it well, let's go ♪

I am an independent artist, a rap artist.

This is actually my first tour,

and actually my first time performing my music live.

I've never been overseas, so this is all an adventure for me.

I try not to get caught up in all the politics and everything,

because really, I'm not inserted in the group.

So I have the luxury

of being able to be on the outside looking in.

But I wouldn't trade the experience for the world.

- [laughs] - Do you remember in Glasgow,

our taxi driver was, like, "Who's that girl?"

- What about the pizza guy? The pizza guy?

- Oh, my God.

I don't know. I could be so married in Europe by now.

I wouldn't have to want for nothing if I moved here.

- Let's go, boys!

- When we're up there, we're partying.

We're having a good time.

Regardless of whatever the day was

or who got on our nerves,

you know once we hit that stage and do that number,

it's like a release.

Every time is like the first time.

[cheers and applause]

- Now boarding, flight to Finland.

Hel-ski-ski. How you say? Hel-sisi?

- I probably could have picked

a much easier crew to travel with.

Actually, I know I could have picked

a much easier crew to travel with.

But I guess the juice is worth the squeeze.

- [hisses]

- Hel-sin-ski. Hel-skin-ski.

Hell, no.

- I mean, just look at the girls.

We have Valentina, Violet, Shangela, Alyssa Edwards.

I mean, like, we're talking about big personalities.

So trying to not only travel with all those personalities,

but to manage those personalities is--

it's a job of itself.

- Hey, girl. - Hello.

- Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your wig cap!

- Let down-- [all laugh]

- What's up, bitch?

- Hey.

- What's up, Rapunzel?

- Hey, boo.

- Hi, sweetheart. How's it going?

Mwah, mwah.

- Boys still come to drag shows?

Mwah, mwah.

I'm so glad the history is continuing.

Mwah, mwah.

- All right, right here. Three, two, one.

Got it.

- I'm helping.

- Hi. Go on in. Very mindless.

It's just one, two, three, one, two.

- Come on, Marta.

- And it's funny, when you go through their phone

and take their picture, sometimes I find a nude,

and it's bad.

Three, two, one.

- All I've ever wanted to do in my life

was go to meet-and-greets and karate-chop my fans

and go viral with it.

- Mira, mira.

- You'll have to cut that out.

And can you Photoshop nails on me as well?

At least I shaved.

- Me, too, bitch. I got a massage today.

- We know. We know you got a massage.

- I know. Then why'd you tell me I didn't shave?

Because I sure shaved for my massage.

- How was the massage?

- It was delicious. He was Turkish.

- I like that.

- And he was scratching my head, and then I had 10 minutes left,

and then I got a call during my massage.

The disrespect.

Daddy? - Yes?

- First of all, you interrupted my massage.

- You missed my birthday.

- Brandon Voss. I'm Orphan Annie,

and Brandon Voss is Daddy Warbucks.

And I call him Daddy.

A lot of people call him Daddy now.

- What?

- Daddy, you want some champagne?

- Girl, I'm getting lit.

You don't wanna fuck with me right now, bitch.

- Daddy, can I serve you a glass of champagne?

- Fix your hair, fix your mug.

- Sure. - Yeah?

- You do need to fix your mug, sweetie.

- He's just Daddy.

He says, "Girls, get ready, go out there,

make me some money," and we do, you know?

- Look at you and your little business thing you do.

- She farted.

- You're over here on your phone, like--

- Okay, you two have 14 minutes.

- Buy, sell, trade.

- It takes you 14 minutes--

- Guys, it's actually ringing.

- No, that's too little bit.

- We're just trying to have a moment.

- No, you're trying to distract from getting ready.

Let's go.

- Aah! - Hello?

- I'm not gonna be able to help you in a few minutes.

- I'm sorry, are you on the phone?

- Not anymore. Go get ready.

- All right, just say the magic words.

We have a really fun dynamic.

I really, really enjoy working with him and for him,

and we do have, like, a good rapport

and a good kind of back-and-forth.

So it's all in fun and games,

and I think it keeps the tour interesting, at least for me.

- This is your last show, Violet.

- I know. That's why I have to cause a big stink.

- You do that every show.

- Well, your farts stink.

- I have to cause a really big stink today.

- Her farts smell.

- I'm going to delay the show on purpose.

- Yesterday she farted in the dressing room.

- Bitch, that was you.

Bitch, I walked through the dressing room today,

and it spelled funka-scram.

- Aah, aah, aah!

- What?

- Aah, aah, aah, aah.

Thank you, mama.

Would you care for a mint?

It might be laced with tardiness.

- Yeah, tastes about right.

I'm Nick Rubertas.

I am the production manager

and technical director for Werq the World.

- I'm Ben Rubertas. I'm Nick's little brother.

And I do follow spot and set all the gear up

and make sure it works and fix his mistakes.

- [laughs] Yeah, okay.

- You won't do a shot with me?

- Shots? Now? Now?

- Here I have my signature drink.

It is champagne with a splash of St. Germaine and raspberries.

The raspberries represent the red M&Ms.

- What? - In my champagne.

- The girls, as dramatic as they are,

they are the cream of the crop.

So that's kind of the best part about it, so...

And then when you get to go out with everyone,

you know, it's very rewarding to see what you did.

- It's me! Just me, nobody else.

Hey, guys!

We're in a restaurant in Sweden.

[all laugh]

- Halleloo, motherfucker.

- Oh, and then the dancers, those four.

Wait'll you talk to them.

They're, like, all insane.

- Hiya.

- On the Run tour two. [both laugh]

- Oh, I didn't see you there, camera.

Hi. Hey.

We're just doing our own thing, being natural.

We're natural beauties.

- Let's go. Where's the meet-and-greet?

- Guys, I need security. [all laugh]

- Mwah. Mwah.

- Wait. No, let's stand here.

- Kennedy. [all laugh]

- We're RuPaul Season 11.

- No? Nobody?

- Go home!

Hi, how are you?

- We gotta go. They're gonna get mad at us.

- [cackles]

- My name is Chancelor Dayne.

This is Filip Lacina,

Vincent Michael, and David Ratcliffe.

- The Werq Boys. - Whoo!

- We're the dancers.

And you say, yes, okay,

I'm totally gonna go on a world tour

with the most famous drag queens in the world

to different places that I never thought I would be.

It's definitely, yeah, unexpected.

And unimaginable.

You never know what you're gonna get into.

Putting the heels on for the first time was really fun,

because you turn into, like, super sissy girls,

and, like... [laughs].

- That hurts.

- And then you put a thong on with that, too, and then us--

- You have a show. - You have a show.

There you go.

- These dancers are-- they're hot and flexible.

With their hot and flexible bodies,

they can help me flip into all different positions.

- You smell good, too.

- Oh, thank you. It's--oh...

- Back to Werq The World. Halleloo!

- I love Violet's number. I love what we wear,

although we're pretty much wearing nothing.

It's expensive. It's very sparkly.

[cheers and applause]

- My name is Ray Pierce.

I was brought on the tour originally

specifically to fly Violet.

I'm an aerial director. - I'm close with Ray

because he's literally attached to me by a rope.

- I am human counterweight for Violet,

and so I'm in a harness offstage on a ladder,

and I am mirroring her moves.

So when I go up, she goes down. When I go down, she goes up.

When she goes up at the end,

I'm literally jumping off the ladder

from about 12 to 15 feet off the ground.

But for the audience, they see this beautiful, glorious lift

as she just soars into the air.

That's the magic of what we do.

[cheers and applause]

When I first came on the show,

all I was here for is to fly Violet,

and I stood backstage and watched the rest of the show

in sheer awe of the amount of talent

and the diversity that there was in this cast.

It's not a bunch of individual acts.

It is an entire group of people that is all working together

to move forward this incredible energy and passion they have

about the people that come to the show.

- That's what I love most about this show,

is you can do anything like with drag,

and it's so many different like avenues

that you can take.

You got Sharon Needles, who goes the Halloween route,

you got Detox, who goes Madonna.

Kim Chi goes the cosplay route,

and then you got Shangela, who busts out the Beyonce.

But, like, you can literally do anything,

and that's what I love so much about this show

is it's limitless.

[cheers and applause]

- Me and little girl, this is our moment.

This is our city.

We're in Stockholm, Sweden. - We are.

- And we are doing an after-party together.

- Is it tomorrow or tonight?

- My little sister, we're gonna get her into drag.

I'm real excited, because it's gonna be a moment to be shared

and to look back on and remember forever, you know?

- And then they're gonna introduce you--

- Me and then her.

- And then you do your thing, and then you introduce her.

And then when you do your thing, and then--

- The honor. - Yes.

[both laugh]

- That's a moment.

- It's gonna be her first international booking,

and we're gonna do it together.

My little girl is gonna grow up with me.

- Now, see, this is my daughter.

If she needs anything, she knows she can go in this bag,

she can get whatever she needs.

- I go to the house and I'm--

it's like shopping in Drag World.

- Yes. Now, are you ready for tonight?

- Yeah. - Where's your music?

- Um, right here.

- Oh, she's turning the party tonight.

She's going onstage, her first international show.

Yes, baby, she's a Wadley.

Her fourth show in life,

and she's already got an international booking, okay?

Miss Bambi, and she's gonna be fire.

She's gonna be fire.

We'll put her through the gauntlet in a nice way.

Because I'm her mother, and I had a mean mama.

[both laugh]

A mean mama.

She'll come, she'll be like, I totally know what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna, like, do this, and I'm gonna do that.

And I'm like, nope, that ain't gonna work.

That ain't gonna cut it. What are you gonna do, mama?

- Who, Alyssa? - No, you.

My mother was on the road.

I had to grow up without my mother at the house.

And then when she would come home,

she would go, what are you wearing that for?

Girl, go in there and get something else.

Oh, my God.

So at least I'm right here.

I take my children on the road with me.

Very J-Lo.

Very J-Lo with her kids.

Very Beyonce, Blue Ivy.

Just take them on the road.

You going on tour, everybody going on tour.

What performer are you gonna do?

- Okay, I am doing my Ariana Grande look.

We just got my wigs.

- Always Ariana Grande, always. Go ahead.

- Okay. Well, we got my wig styled today by Miss Epiphany,

our tour hair and makeup artist.

Nice little ponytail.

- And you gonna get out here and twirl tonight, right?

- Yes. - But don't start out twirling.

- No. - Make them milk it.

So what are you wearing?

- We're gonna go with this little pink little number,

just walking out of the crib.

- Uh-huh. You know you're gonna need

a safety pin to hold the back up.

- Yeah. - Okay, very good. What's next?

- And I have my show costume. - Uh-huh.

- With a cover-up,

because a good Wadley always has a cover-up.

- That is true, mama.

Okay, remember from your last performance, what'd I tell you?

Connect with the audience. - Yeah.

Slow down. - Eyes. Slow down.

You're up there having a good time.

Tell the story. - Yeah.

- You know the song, tell the story.

Okay, cute. You ready.

- It's exciting.

Nonetheless, it's an experience.

It's what I keep telling myself so I don't get nervous.

I go before Valentina, which is also a huge thing.

Like, you know, Valentina's my sister, so it's exciting.

I just wanna make sure I look decent.

I can't be raggedy, not around these girls.

They don't let you be raggedy.

Being on tour, it was really cool

because I'm amongst the best of the best kind of drag queens.

And to get advice from everybody I admire so much

and really respect and look up to,

I think that was really cool.

My Aunt Kennedy, like, she'll always be like,

girl, you need to put on more makeup.

- Once you put it on top, you can always--

when you dust it off, you can put some more shimmer on top.

Because you're painting like you're a woman on TV.

We want you to paint for the spotlight.

You know, don't brush it in. - No.

Ooh, that's a showgirl.

- Shut up. - [laughs]

- See, I'm old school. I use powder puff.

Listen, it's powder. - Yeah.

- You can always dust it off. - Yeah.

- But you need to put it on or you gonna be washed.

- Yeah. See, I have my aunts here.

It's a good old family event.

- Girl, you're lucky. - [laughs]

Okay, I need to pack Shangie.

I'm still an assistant at the end of the day.

- Oh!

- Okay, she got a little something-something.

A little cheek.

Girl, let me see those eyes. Show those eyes.

- Don't start. - Okay.

Very feminine.

- Okay.

- Oh. - Whoo!

- Oh, Bambi!

- Are you jealous?

[all talking]

- No, it's not working.

- Will you--the skirt up, the panties down.

- Should I just say fuck it and don't wear panties.

- No panties.

Take those panties off, bitch.

- I know. - Take the panties off.

- The panties are fine. The panties are good.

- Girl, I can see your panties.

Yes.

- Girl, she said we don't have panties.

- Let's go.

- Where is this going?

- Both are with me.

- To the venue? Okay. - Yeah.

- Let's go.

- Want me to hold this for you?

- No, I'll hold it.

- You got it? - Yeah.

- This is my little sister, Miss Bambi.

Some might say I might have a bad influence on her,

to make her late.

And I told her, you will not get that from me.

I'm not a great example for timeliness.

And she did not shave her arms today.

- Hey.

- And she will hear about it tomorrow morning,

because tonight, I'm gonna encourage her and support her.

- Whose wig is that?

- I don't know which one it is.

- Girl, did y'all bring a brush?

- Leave her alone.

- That's your sister. Be supportive.

- This is how I'm supportive.

- Bambi. - That's a woman!

- Aah!

- Get in the bus.

- Anyone? Anyone else?

- She's performed at this venue before.

- She has?

- Being around the girls,

it really influences the way I look at drag,

because their drag is so elevated,

and it's-- they take it so serious.

Like, it's, like, their everything.

So I look back and I'm like, I wanna do that, too.

- We made it!

- I'm so excited we're here together.

- Me, too.

- And we're working on the way she walks, the way she talks--

- Everything. All of it.

- Everything, what she wears, where's she from--

- [gasps] Yes.

- What's her sense of style-- - We're still looking.

- What kind of numbers does she perform?

- So the bus is yet to come, technically.

It's really exciting, though,

and I'm excited to perform here tonight.

- We're gonna all be front row waving, I promise.

- Bambi, have a lovely show! - Thank you.

- It's gonna be on Instagram if you fuck it up.

- Where's your perfume? - I know.

To have everybody come to the show is really--

it was really special to me, and it meant a lot.

Kim Chi went to the club. She never goes to the club.

Sharon was there.

Aquaria, she came and supported.

Like, Shangela, she introduced me.

- But tonight, coming to the stage

for her very first international performance,

I want you to give a big old halleloo welcome

to my daughter, Miss Bambi Wadley!

[cheers and applause]

- I don't know, it was a really special night for me.

I think it's gonna be one that I always remember.

My first international gig. [laughs]

I had the best time of my life.

[cheers and applause]

Thank you so much, Stockholm,

for having me for my first international gig.

[cheers and applause]

And hopefully not the last.

- Yeah. Hey, girl.

- And now we'd like to introduce the Latina...

[cheers drown her out]

Give it up for Valentina girl!

[cheers and applause]

- Baby, you can't say that we have not carved out a space

in the world of drag tours.

- This tour, we are changing lives.

- It's amazing to me that a drag show

is selling out theaters across the entire world.

So many people are brought together because of this show.

- I'm not looking forward to leaving the tour.

I'm going to miss all these people,

and I cannot wait to get back with them again

on the North American tour.

So I've got that to look forward to.