Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.MX

- [Jerick] So I think my goal,

as a drag queen, is to be known

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

as an artist and not just a female impersonator.

And really change people's minds about

what it means to be a man who

dresses up like a woman.

I mean not many 23 year old boys

make such a good 40 year old woman.

(soft synthesizer music)

The first time I ever did drag,

I just used my mom's foundation,

and then put a bunch of green

eye shadow on my eyes.

And black eyeliner and did my

eyebrows black and then put some lipstick on.

And I wore this really really cheap

fake looking plasticy blonde wig.

And my mom's bustier which was

about three sizes too big for me,

so I had to safety pin it just so

that it would stay up on my body.

And I went to a Halloween party as Hedwig.

And my mom didn't know about it

because my mom had always told me

that she was completely fine with

me being gay, but she thought that

being a drag queen would be just pushing it,

and I think she knew that I always...

Had that brewing inside of me.

That I wanted to be able to dress

up like a woman every once in awhile.

- Well the very first sign was when

I found my lingerie in his bedroom,

that was a pretty big hint.

He went through a stage where he'd wear

my headbands and my sister's headbands

around his waist with long t-shirts,

and he did that for quite awhile.

- [Voiceover] He didn't play with cars

and trucks and G.I. Joes, he played with

dolls and wore capes and not capes because

of superhero capes, but capes more like

"Look, I'm wearing a dress" cape.

- I just wanted him to feel comfortable

with who he was, I never wanted anyone

to make him feel like he wasn't

allowed to be who he wanted to be.

- [Jerick] The very first sign she

could have had was the fact that

I learned every word to the movie

Death Becomes Her.

Something about their heightened femininity

in that and their desire to be young

and beautiful forever, I think it

appeals to people with the drag bone inside of them.

Broken down, flaccid, boozy undertake,

flaccid, flaccid, flaaa...

I love to talk like Meryl Streep

whenever I get a chance.

- As soon as he watched one movie,

he would know all the lines and

be the people, almost their character,

and he loved Death Becomes Her,

I don't know how many times I

rented that movie for him,

and it went on for years.

- I'm a girl!

My ass!

Earnest!

I can see my ass!

I just, and another thing I didn't know

I wasn't supposed to say at seven years old,

my mother really had no business

showing me that movie.

- Get it, pup.

Come on, get the tire!

(dog barks)

Get the tire.

Growing up, Jerick was always interested

in being the female characters.

He'd often tell me oh, it's because

they have better powers, or I like

their costume better, and I always

knew it was just him expressing himself.

Even playing Ninja Turtles, the little figurines,

he would wanna be the little side character

not even one of the main characters

as long as he could play the girl.

- [Jerick] Other things as a kid was

Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit

and Catwoman was another one.

There are a lot of really hyper feminine

villains in American culture.

I wasn't really raised by a lot of men.

I was raised by a tribe of women.

I grew up in a generation where a lot

of us were being raised by single moms.

It's depicted in television, strong

female mother characters.

That's just something that's

always resonated with me.

I think drag is an art form the same way...

Commedia dell'arte clowns are an art form.

You create a character and have to

think with both brains.

You have to step into this consciousness

of a fictional person and make on the spot

decisions and actions and behave this way,

the way of this person you invented basically.

It's not just a form of self expression,

but it's a form for discussing topics and...

Bringing certain things to the foreground

that you want people to start talking about.

I can call out all kinds of bullshit

as Jinkx that I would never even

really talk about as myself.

- [Voiceover] I think the first time

Jerick ever went out in full drag

was at SMYRC which is the Sexual Minority

Youth Resource Center.

There were a lot of days where we

were all just hanging out around and

in the main area where there were some

couches and a stage and a CD player and stuff.

He put on a CD and he was just dancing

around the rec center trying to get

people to dance with him, but nobody would.

I was sitting on the couch and he just

asked me if I wanted to dance around with him

and I said no, but he decided I was going to,

so he just grabbed my arms and

pulled me above the couch and

made me dance with him.

I guess after that we were friends.

Yeah, that's how I met Jerick.

SMYRC would host monthly drag nights

and I think it was the second Friday of every month,

and then we would have open mic night

the last Friday of every month,

and this has been a long standing tradition.

We had a giant costume closet behind the stage

that they would spend hours in.

I mean Jinkx would be in there

for hours, the doors would open at four

and all the queens would go running

to the costume closet, then you

wouldn't see them until the show started at eight.

And I think Jinkx was probably 15 or 16

when he did his first performance at SMYRC.

- SMYRC is the shit!

♫ Jinkx-a-licious, definition, make the gay boys horny.

♫ Everybody loves me 'cause I'm

♫ Cheesy and I'm corny, you can see me

♫ You can tease me, if you pay me

♫ You can squeeze me, it don't take

♫ A lot to please me 'cause you

♫ Know this bitch is easy, Jinkx-a-licious ♫

- When I started doing drag at age 15,

I was keeping it a secret from my mom.

But my grandma knew.

I stored all my...

All my drag stuff at my grandma's house

and I would stay with her on the weekends.

Originally, I learned everything about...

Dressing up like a woman and acting

like a woman and what a polite lady would do

from my grandma.

And then I felt like it was just as much fun

to do the exact opposite of what

she told me to do as it was to

do exactly what she told me to do.

I kept it all secret from mom by

hiding it all here.

- [Voiceover] Yeah?

- [Jerick] (laughs) And she would just

think I was spending the weekend at Nana's.

And Nana knew I was going to the

nightclub in drag and everything because...

- So did I.

- [Jerick] Yeah, no, I know you did too,

but Nana, if she was home I would

always go have my last looks with her,

have her give me...

- [Voiceover] Look over your makeup.

- [Jerick] (laughs) A grade, yeah, over

the makeup and the hair.

I remember this one time I was

like well I think this hair looks good

'cause I'm doing a country number tonight

and this hair's country, and she said

something like no no no no, Jerick,

country singers have their hair

very neat and nice and quaffed and that,

that does not look very good.

(laughing)

And she let me borrow her big

gaudy rings and stuff too.

- [Voiceover] Yeah, she did have

gaudy rings, that's for sure.

And I always see, I always see everybody

out on the front porch drinking iced tea

because of Nana's iced tea moments.

- When I was ten years old, it was early September

and I was extremely excited for Jerick's coming.

I knew he was gonna be a little boy,

and he was already mine, and I had

decided that I was part of the pregnancy

and on the day he was born I started

having cramps in my stomach, and screaming

out my baby's coming, my baby's coming,

and everybody thought I was crazy.

And then the phone rang and I was

called downstairs 'cause my sister was

there ready to go to the hospital.

- Sorry.

I always wanted to be a mom.

Always, from the time I was little,

and at one time I was told that

I might not be able to have children,

so I thought about becoming a nun

which makes everybody laugh,

but I was pretty serious about it at the time.

And so when I got pregnant with Jerick

I was so excited and just so,

I couldn't wait to see him.

And they put him in my arms and I'm

looking at him and I'm like

oh, little baby, and so excited,

and he looked up at me and he

looked so disappointed like oh God, you're my mom,

really, I'm stuck with you?

I think I've always had that feeling

that he's always been so much brighter

than me or so much more advanced,

he's just like an old soul.

- [Voiceover] I was 17 and his mother was

I think 22, 23.

It wasn't planned.

I was actually in a group home.

- His mom was in pregnancy for

I don't know how many hours, so long,

she started in the early afternoon

and then we were in the early morning

when he actually came, but the

doctors looked at my mom and I

standing to the side and said this

may be a choice between the

mother and the baby, who do

you want us to save?

And my mom said the mother

and I said the baby.

(laughs) 'Cause I had already committed

to him being mine, so I wasn't

gonna let him go.

♫ It's good, isn't it grand

♫ Isn't it great, isn't it swell, thank you,

♫ Isn't it fun, isn't it

♫ Nowadays

There's cocaine on this.

♫ You can like the life you're living

You see, there's a little boy in my throat.

♫ You can live the life you like

♫ You can even marry hurry

♫ But mess around with Ike

Oh wait, you can't see that on camera.

I poked his dick.

♫ And that's good, isn't it grand

♫ Isn't it great, isn't it swell, isn't it ♫

- [Voiceover] Jerick and I met our first

week at Cornish College of the Arts

and became fast friends.

He seemed pretty shy and reserved

and quiet at first, and so I went up

to hlm and we started talking and then

I realized what a weirdo crazy

person he was and we became

super fast friends.

- [Voiceover] I first met Jerick when

he was a freshman at Cornish.

I remember him 'cause he was a shy gay boy

with dyed hair and he stood out.

He had been performing drag for

awhile at that point which is

unusual at that age.

- [Voiceover] Jerick started taking the

fundamentals of what we were learning

at Cornish and applying it to his drag

and creating new characters and these

fully rounded female presences.

- I don't think I introduced him to

anyone yet because he was 18 years old

and I wanted to keep my job,

(laughs) so I wasn't going to be like

farming him out to bars and burlesque shows.

But I could recognize his talent.

- [Voiceover] Seeing how he's taken

his acting training towards Jinkx

and made her this wild creature

you see before you has been

incredible to watch.

- She's not a Christian!

(clapping)

It doesn't matter, she's (mumble.)

Yes, yes, she did!

♫ I love to love you, baby

♫ I love to love you, baby

- [Jerick] I was able to find Sylvia O'Stayformore

who does a monthly theme show Bacon Strip,

and this is where I developed, I think,

the most of my Jinkx persona and honed in

on the different things that

really excite me with drag.

- Well I had planned this whole

other (mumble) number on

roller skate right, I was gonna be like

(singing) I love to love ya baby.

When you're laying so close to me.

But I don't roller skate very well,

so it was gonna be something

like this, you know?

- [Jerick] And it really challenged me

to think of material that is relevant to me

and stuff within my wheelhouse

but accessible to a wide audience.

(cheering)

Excuse me, if you're sitting

in front, I apologize, I was gonna

do one of these...

(cheering)

- [Jerick] I spent a year doing every

one of her shows, I didn't miss

one for 12 months straight.

♫ I don't wanna show off no more

♫ I don't wanna sing tunes no more ♫

This really is the best costume

to wear for the (mumble.)

(cheering)

- [Jerick] That was some of the most

creative time for me because I was able

to think what does Jinkx do with

Studio 54 thing and how does Jinkx tackle

the question of doing a John Waters tribute night.

It had such a cult following that

it built up my notoriety in Seattle.

- Bacon Strip is built as a show

that is not like all the other regular drag shows.

The rule is they cannot do normal things

that you would see at another drag show.

♫ Listen up, y'all, 'cause this is it

♫ They can't strip in the shit

♫ Jink-a-licious, definition, make the strippers horny

♫ Everybody loves me 'cause I'm

♫ Cheesy and I'm corny, you can see me

♫ You can tease me, if you pay me

♫ You can squeeze me, it don't take

♫ A lot to please me 'cause you

♫ Know this bitch is easy, Jinkx-a-licious ♫

- [Voiceover] And it wasn't completely polished,

but that was the fun part about it.

And I was amazed 'cause she had said

that she had gone back home to

Portland and tried it for awhile and

they just didn't really embrace her as well.

And I said well I'm ready to embrace

you as long as you wanna stay.

(laughs) I figured I'd probably give

her about a year until she took off.

♫ Take another little piece of my heart now, baby

♫ Break another little piece of my heart, darling, yeah

♫ Have another little piece of my heart now, baby

♫ You know you've got it ♫

(screaming)

- [Voiceover] And so she won the first

Miss Bacon Strip title.

And she wore the crown with pride.

I think she actually even ate the,

'cause we make a big bouquet of roses

out of bacon, and I think she got

in a drunken mood and might

have even eaten one, which we don't

recommend 'cause they're not

completely cooked through, but

I believe she did, I think she ate one.

We ushered her into the drag scene

with our crazy show, and she went maintstream

with the regular show on weekends

so she could actually make money, so it was great.

(fast pace violin music)

(soft piano music)

- [Jerick] From the moment I started drag,

I was in drag every weekend

from age 16 to 19.

Julia's Le Faux, the number one

celebrity impersonation show in the Northwest.

They approached me to be their

host of their show, and that is when

my drag kicked up a notch, I went

from just being the kooky, obscure

cabaret queen to trying to be a

bit more of a showgirl.

- [Voiceover] Jerick is ridiculously talented

and myself and a couple other entertainers

got the director of our show to pay attention.

And unbeknownst to me, he offered her my job.

- This is working in Seattle!

- [Voiceover] I gave her my blessing,

I told her, I said you know, I know you

didn't come in here doing this on purpose,

you didn't come in here to

take anything from me.

So I'm not angry, I can't be angry,

but let me give you some advice so that

you can go into this situation educated

and with ammunition 'cause remember,

you have what they want.

- [Jerick] I spent a year working with

showgirls and glamour queens and

seeing what goes into being glamorous,

you know, and I started to understand it better.

'Cause before all I liked to do

was wear a simple black cocktail dress,

tease my hair into a bun, a little

black eyeliner, and call it good.

This is how to stay thin in Seattle,

you don't take cabs.

You just walk everywhere in stilettos.

This is my calisthenics for the day.

Me and my friend used to do

street performance for tips,

you know, we would go to farmer's markets

and perform for shekels on the street

as wind up doll mimes, and we met

Nick that night, somehow Nick and I

just started talking and we became

friends and we found out we had

identical senses of humor.

(rock music)

He started visiting me down in Portland

on my summer breaks and stuff, he came up

with this idea for us to film a day

in the life of the Monsoon family

and that became our little web series.

This is how you're making your money?!

Hank, bag!

I don't have time to punish you right now,

so just give me a fix!

How much do you charge?

- Well we have sacks of ganj for 20,

bags of blow for 40, and for $10

you get to pick one item out of the mystery bag!

Will it be a crack rock?

Will it be a poisonous scorpion?

The answer is yours to discover...

- [Jinkx] Oh shut up!

Ow!

I got pricked by something!

- [Nick] That'll be $10.

- All right, buster, that's enough

funny business, come on, we're going home!

- But mom, I'm finally being

self sufficient and industrious,

why can't you just let me be me?!

- [Jerick] It's about a mother and son

who live together and try to become rich

every episode, but they're socially inept

and they're both...

Intoxicated all the time, and that's

all there is to the show, it's like

kind of stupid actually.

It's this really rich, full on...

Multidimensional tapestry of interpersonal

relationship boiled down to the fact

that I'm a drag queen, he's a gay boy,

and we somehow work together

as mother and son.

If you could say two gay men,

about the same age, if you could find

a relationship between those two people,

we've had every form of relationship

that two gay men at about the

same age could have, we've been

best friend, we've been lovers,

we've been collaborators, we've

been artistic, we've feuded, we've fought,

we've loved, we've fucked,

we've done everything, and because

of that, there's nothing un...

There's nothing off limits between Nick and I.

Of all the relationships he and I have had

in our history together, co-comedians

seems like the most...

Apropos between one another.

- [Nick] I've learned from Jerick

that there's always gonna be a million people

who think that what you're doing

isn't the right thing to do, or is silly,

or isn't gonna go anywhere, but if you

work hard enough, you can get there,

and I think that's what Jerick showed me.

- [Jerick] I don't think I really

understood what my drag persona was

and who I wanted it to be until

I came to Seattle.

There was something going on in Seattle

that wasn't going on in Portland where

drag queens were being incorporated

into other areas of performance

that wasn't just drag.

(rock music)

- [Voiceover] Narc Magazine started when I

moved to Seattle out of an appreciation

for all the characters here.

People that were doing a lot of

crazy, fierce, amazing things that

nobody was really looking at or documenting.

It spiraled into doing a lot of parties, events,

concerts, drag, everything.

- [Jerick] What I really like about

Seattle's specific aesthetic is the fact that

we put the performance above everything else.

We will overlook...

A weird looking drag queen, we won't

really focus in on how they're

unfashionable or how their

aesthetic is gaudy or tacky or anything like that.

The people look past just the visual

of the drag and look into what

they're actually doing.

(rock music)

- Attention all glamazons, casting for

RuPaul's Drag Race is on!

I'm looking for America's next drag superstar.

- Hello RuPaul, welcome to sunny Seattle, Washington.

My name is Jerick Hoffer, and I'm also

known as Jinkx Monsoon, Seattle's

hardest working single mother.

I started doing drag when I was 15 years old

at an all ages gay night club.

So this is the extremely glamorous

life of a drag queen.

Hello!

My name is Jinkx Monsoon and

welcome to my underwear!

I was one of the hottest vaudeville singers

in the 1920s, it's true.

(singing) I'm just a Broadway baby!

You look absolutely terrific, honestly.

It's got sort of a (mumble.)

Mother wanted me to come out

(mumble.)

I don't think that' i'm the competitive type,

I like to compete with people, not against them.

And when it comes to working with

other drag queens, I always try to

treat other queens like my sister

until they give me a reason not to.

You know, RuPaul, you've been

around the block a few hundred times, I'm sure.

Are you stalking me?

- I knew he was gonna be famous.

I just knew something about him,

and I thought it was gonna be football,

so I gave him a really cool football name.

Jerick Roman Lamar Hoffer,

and I thought it'd be really cool,

J.R. Lamar sounds so football,

but as he started growing, I knew

that wasn't going to happen.

- [Jerick] I don't think I was ready to come out

until I saw the movie Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Anyway, it's lucky that I saw it right before

my mom outed me because I wasn't

ready to be outed before I saw that movie.

The material Hedwig and the Angry Inch

has always been really personal to me.

It was my senior thesis performance

at Cornish, so when Valligan approached

me about it I said yes immediately.

I didn't know though that I would be doing it...

While I was secretly waiting for the

announcement to be made that

I was on RuPaul's Drag Race.

Oh, now I do feel like Meryl Streep!

Now I am like Meryl Streep!

Wrinkled wrinkled little star.

Hope they never see the scars.

And then right before Hegwig opened,

the announcement was made that I was

gonna be season five of Drag Race,

and I was the first Seattle queen,

first Northwest queen ever to go on,

and it was really interesting performing...

For me, the ultimate show in my repertoire

while I was also being exposed

nationally on Drag Race, you know?

- He must have been 15 or 16 years old,

and she called me and...

She told me that Jerick had come out to her.

What are we gonna do?

And I just thought for a second, well,

are you gonna stop loving him?

And she's like no, and it's like,

well you're not gonna do anything.

Because he's the same person he was.

Nothing's changed.

So there's just a realization now that

he's come out and he's telling you

who he is which is still the same

person he was before he told you.

When I talk to my dad, I feel like

we just talk about the default type guy stuff,

we talk about cars and work and

it never gets very deep.

But my relationship with Jerick

is very much the same, we don't talk much,

I don't see him often.

When we do, the last time I saw him, I think...

The conversation is very, it's awkward,

it's strained, it's...

It's not...

It's not oriented.

I wasn't there a whole lot, so...

I probably wasn't the best father.

Jerick and Jamie were my father

growing up basically 'cause my father

wasn't really around my entire childhood

and so Jerick was definitely

always taking care of me when my mom wasn't

and there were times when it was

mostly Jerick and our nana and

our aunt Mimi definitely played a

big part in my parental field, but

Jerick was always around as

a father figure and big brother.

- When I was a little gay boy

I always felt like I...

Wasn't as cute as my friends,

but when I started doing drag I felt like

I don't have to be as cute as my friends

because I'm gorgeous as a woman.

(indistinct chatter)

(laughing)

I just feel like people should be

able to express themselves in

their day to day life.

Free of fear.

- What's better than one gold purse?

Two gold purse.

Gouchi.

Gouchi.

(playful singing)

- [Jerick] I definitely feel like I have

a second family here in Seattle

and I have a very strong relationship

with my blood family in Portland,

but I feel like my chosen family

in Seattle is, you know, comparably as strong

and we're very tight knit and close

to one another.

And it consists primarily of

some of my best friends from college

and some of my best friends

from childhood and then...

(mumble) performers.

It feels cliche to say we're all

very eccentric, zany people, but

I don't know, I think you could

make a sitcom about us.

(laughing)

(techno rap music)

- Jinkx, are you gonna add

that hair into that hair?

- Yeah, my grandma got me this

wig when I was 17.

- So your grandma was buying you wigs, girl?

- My mom wasn't really into it,

but my grandma and I would be getting

me in drag and then I'd go out to the club.

She'd let me be who I wanted to be, you know?

- When Jerick was on RuPaul,

my friends and I, every week we would

get together at my house and

watch it on TV, we'd have potluck dinners

and from the beginning they would show

this one clip of Jerick saying

I feel so guilty and crying and we

were all like God, what is that about?

But it was neat when we'd see that

we knew he was going further because

that episode hadn't aired yet,

so it was like oh my gosh,

they keep showing that clip,

so we know he's getting further in the show

because it didn't come up, and then

my friends would ask me what is

he so guilty about, I'm like I don't know,

and I would try to call him and ask him

what is that all about, what were

you feeling so bad about?

And then when that episode happened

it was horrible 'cause I was sitting

there with my friends and it got all quiet

and everybody was staring at me

like oh my gosh.

- My mom became an alcoholic when I was about

12, right after my youngest brother was born.

I'm the oldest, and when she would

be out every night doing her thing,

I was the one being the parent.

As soon as I became independent

from my mother, my life improved tenfold,

but I continually regret and second guess

the fact that I left my youngest brother

with a woman who wasn't ready to be a mom.

- It just took me by surprise and it

made me feel bad because I never

knew that he felt that way.

- And I worry about him all the time

because if I had it my way,

he would have come with me, and sometimes

when I'm doing (bleep) like this,

I feel so selfish.

- Don't, Jinkx, don't.

- [Jinkx] (sobbing) To have left my youngest brother.

- [Voiceover] Don't, not at all.

- Feels like right now like I've abandoned him.

- You haven't.

- Your parents are the people who

are supposed to protect you

and sometimes they're the people

putting you in most jeopardy.

- I thought I was doing a good job

and I know there was difficult times,

but I had no idea that I had

affected him so deeply.

- The second that it aired, my mom and I

were on the phone with each other.

- I guess I was being so selfish at the time

not even realizing what I was doing

or how it was affecting him, I thought

when I was drinking we were all

laughing and dancing and having fun,

so in my perspective we were all enjoying it.

And it's sad to find out that it was hurtful for him.

- We had a really good conversation that night

and she just said that she understood

that it's just a part of my story with my life.

That sharing it was just a...

It was just a given, and she didn't

hold any ill will towards me about it

and that was all I really needed to hear.

- When it did air, it brought things forward

where I had to accept how I had made him feel.

- I've just been so nervous about this

episode airing because I don't want

it to seem like I hate my mom.

My mom was, I mean my mom has been

a wonderful friend to me for the

last couple of years, we went through

a rough patch, but I really love her,

and there's ways to get over trauma

and live your life no matter what,

ladies and gentlemen.

(cheering)

You know, I did it all by myself

for so many years...

With very little outside help,

very little coaching, very little,

I did everything myself.

And let's face it, you can't

be good at everything.

You can be really really intelligent

and really talented and stuff, but you're

never gonna be good at every single

aspect of something.

I said maybe it's time to start asking

for a little bit of help with certain things.

I have someone who helps me

with (mumble) and someone helps

me with stying and costumes.

I feel a little bit more equipped

to do, to meet the demands

of being a nationally known drag queen.

The most valuable player in Monsoon Enterprises

right now is Kenneth Lee, my best friend

and assistant.

(soft piano music)

He's the only person right now

who I think knows what goes

into becoming Jinkx Monsoon

almost as well as I do.

Now that I have these giant nails...

It's really hard to put my lashes on myself.

So Kenny is now hands on assisting me.

Kenny pretty much immediately told me

he wanted to travel with me and

be my assistant.

My first instinct was I said no

and that we shouldn't do that because

I was worried it was gonna affect our friendship.

We call each other platonic soul mates

like we're the ying and yang to each other.

But we're not in a romantic relationship,

we're just best friends.

Well now we say we're more like brothers.

I was worried it was gonna make

a lot of tension arise between us.

And it has.

So we have times where we get

really sick of each other because

we pretty much are together every day,

and so it makes us tense at times

and sometimes we bicker needlessly.

That's the pros and cons to having

someone who you feel like is family to you

work with you on something like this,

it's like you accept that you're gonna get

tense with each other, but when things

are working well, they work so

amazingly, and it's so wonderful to

have your best friend and have someone

familiar with you when you're

traveling for seven months on end.

If I didn't have him, I probably would...

I don't know, I always say I'd either

go crazy or drink more.

(birds tweeting)

(alarm ringing)

I don't think much is gonna be

different if I lose, I think the only

difference between winning and losing

for me right now is the title.

We have to get up and get on a plane to L.A.

I get to play the drag queen

and Nick gets to play the girl in

the audiences who watches.

He's going with us to the reunion filming.

And he's gonna sit in the audience

next to my mom and my youngest brother.

(laughs) Good luck with that.

- I'll be fine.

- He'll be drunk.

My mom's like oh Nick is the kind

of guy I would have gone for when

I was your age, Jerick, oh he's so cute,

he's so charming, he's such a little rebel.

- Your mom's really into gay guys.

- No, she's just into little assholes.

(laughing)

I think of RuPaul's Drag Race...

It changed every aspect of my life,

every single aspect of my life.

My boy life, my drag life.

If I lose, I've already won so much

that the only thing I'd be

losing is the title.

But I wouldn't be losing myself.

So they're gonna film the winner,

but what they do to keep it a secret

for even longer is they take...

They film all three of the top three winning

and then the finale episode, with the reunion,

they air just the winner.

(yawns) so they film all three, but they

only air one, and the one that

gets aired is the winner, so even

the three of us don't know who

wins until America knows who wins.

- I don't even know who's in the top three.

(belly farting)

- The cab's outside.

- [Jerick] I think I auditioned saying

oh, I just wanna go into it for the experience

and who cares what happens.

But now that I've gotten this close to it,

I realize just how exceptionally

much I want this.

I think I've opened the right doors

through just getting as far as I got.

To do what I wanna do for the rest of my life.

- [Voiceover] Okay, so we just have

three ground rules.

One which you've already all

abided to which is putting your cell phones

in the bucket so that we don't want

any spoiler alerts, if you heard what

happened on the East coast, has anyone

heard what happened on the East coat?

- [Voiceover] No!

- Perfect, okay, so we wanna keep it...

We wanna keep it as a surprise for all of us.

Number two is if you...

- [Voiceover] If you have to go number two...

- If you aren't caught up on the season,

don't ask any questions.

(laughing)

Number three, number three is

there will be absolutely zero

talking during the show, and we can have

as much conversation as we

want during commercial.

We can gasp, we can laugh,

we can go, you know, you can do

a really quick oh no, she better don't,

but that is it, keep it to that.

If Jinkx wins, we're all gonna

do a champagne toast.

Of course.

- [Voiceover] Provided with the

champagne everyone else brought.

- If Jinkx loses, we're all gonna choose

one piece of garbage from the

garbage can and eat it.

(laughing)

So hope you're all on board.

I didn't put that in the Facebook invite,

but that's what you signed up for.

Absolutely no talking!

(televised cheering)

- Wow, so Jinkxy, how are you

feeling at this very moment?

- [Jinkx] I feel like a more fully

realized drag queen, I feel like a more

fully realized human being.

- [RuPaul] Well Jinkx you have continued

to surprise and delight your fans.

Best of all, I think you've even

surprised yourself.

The time has come to crown our queen.

America's next drag superstar is...

(suspenseful music)

Jinkx Monsoon.

(cheering)

- [Voiceover] That moment, I'm getting

goosebumps now, when they announced,

I just, I started crying and we

were screaming through the neighborhood,

it was just, it was an amazing moment

'cause I know how much it meant to him.

(coughing)

(soft guitar music)

- [Jerick] With both my parents

it was the best way to rebel was

to be a good kid.

They were expecting me to follow

in their footsteps and start drinking

and smoking weed and going to parties

and doing all that shit really early.

Because that's what they did, but for me,

I wasn't interested in anything like that

because I wanted to rebel against my parents

and I did that by being a straight A student

and doing after school theater!

But when I was 22 was the first time

that I smoked, it was with Kenny.

For a high strung, very self conscious,

very anal retentive and OCD virgo like me,

the first time that I smoked,

it was like this huge exhale where

everything that I'm constantly carrying around

on my shoulders just wasn't there anymore.

It opened up the ability to make fun of myself

in a way I never had dreamt of before.

(laughs) And now I make a lot of fun

of myself all the time.

I'll tell you this much, I wouldn't have known

I was so good at doing the (mumble)

impressions had I not started smoking.

(light synthesizer music)

In true Jinkx Monsoon fashion they

put the crown on my head and then

I walked into something, just

slammed it into the speaker.

And then immediately after that

they took the crown away me and told me

they'd ship it to me.

So this is my first time seeing it since New York.

- [Voiceover] He's always used humor

in a way to calm people down or to

mask how he's feeling and turn things around

to where he's not feeling so uptight

and uses humor to I think sometimes hide

some of the pain he might feel inside,

but he's always had this funny, quirky side.

He's always been so imaginative.

- Hi! - How's it going?

- How are you?

- [Jerick] I wanna say the Seattle drag scene

is less superficial than other

drag scenes I've seen, but In saying that

that sounds a little pretentious, but even

that is part of the Seattle drag scene.

It's just the right amount of pretentious, you know?

I feel people feel really free to do

what they wanna do with their specific style,

and you see that in the diversity

of drag that you have in Seattle.

So we have all my favorites

performing in the show tonight starting with

the hostess of the evening,

my sister Bindela Creme. - Hello.

- This is the Shanghai Pearl, my first

exposure to burlesque.

Of course we have my preferred

dressmaker and one of my favorite performers...

- (gasps) What?!

- [Jerick] Co-cast members in the daily

(mumble) that we do, Jamie Von Stratten,

and then over here we have Cherdonna, Lou,

and Kitten Larou, and back there

there's the Luminous Pariah.

Here we have Fuchsia Fox who's not

only a talented burlesque performer

but also a gorgeous belly dancer.

Sidney Devereux who gave me

and Richard our first spot in Seattle

on the burlesque stage at The Pink Door,

so we go way back, of course

Richard Andrews and my music partner

aka Doctor Von Dandy, aka Major Scales.

This is Gabriela Sanchez Samano.

And then of course we have

Kitty Kitty Bang Bang delivering Jessica Rabbit

tonight, one of my childhood fantasy characters.

And then Jackson Brown's dicking around

back there, he normally does Cher and Kesha

in her show because those two

people are so much alike.

- (laughs) Not.

- [Voiceover] Ladies and gentlemen,

you can stand up (mumble) this town.

- [Voiceover] I wanna say I knew

he was gonna win.

I mean...

He's my son.

Who else is gonna win?

- [Voiceover] Ms. Jinkx Monsoon!

(cheering)

- I'm so sorry, I'm not gonna wear this thing

because it's actually terribly uncomfortable,

but I wanted to show you guys,

look, it's a crown, can you believe it?

(cheering)

- (singing) Well that's right, that's right,

I'm sad and blue 'cause I can't

do the boogaloo, I'm lost, I'm lost,

can't do my thing, that's why I

sing, gimme gimme that ding!

What good's a metronome without a bell for ringing?

How fast can anybody ever tell she's swinging?

How can you tell the rhythm written on a bar?

- [Jerick] Where's the bar?!

- How can you ever hope to know

just where you are?

Gimme that.

- Gimme that!

- [Richard] Gimme that!

- Gimme that!

- [Richard] Gimme that! - That!

- [Richard] That! - That!

- Gimme gimme gimme gimme. - Gimme gimme gimme gimme.

Gimme that, gimme that, gimme gimme gimme that,

gimme that, gimme that, gimme gimme that,

gimme that ding, gimme that,

gimme gimme gimme that ding!

- Gimme that, gimme that, gimme gimme gimme that,

gimme that ding, gimme that, gimme gimme that,

gimme me that ding, gimme that,

gimme gimme that,

gimme gimme gimme that ding.

- [Richard] All right, kitten, now you

gonna show them what to do or...

- [Jerick] Richard and I met because

basically we were two of the only

three gay guys in our class, and we both

had really interesting hats that

we wore every day, and so we hit

on each other with our hats, like

I notice you wearing your duck hunter hat

while I'm wearing my Nepalese sherpa hat,

maybe we should get together and

our hats should get a drink sometime, who knows.

Like that, it was really dorky.

And then the first time we hung out

just one on one we knew right away

we didn't have any sexual or romantic chemistry.

(jazz music)

The end of our sophomore year we decided

to move in together, and once we lived together

we started really seeing all

the things we had in common.

That's how we developed The Vaudevillians

because only the two of us thought

it was funny for a long time.

We just found a way to make our

sense of humor accessible to normal people.

- Are you ready, Chuckster?!

- I'd say so, let's hit it.

- Meow.

Ya da da da da da da!

I never thought that i'd get to

tour the world and work on a show

that I wrote myself and that I conceived

in college and have been working

on since then, you know, so it's

very exciting that it now

has a life of its own and there's

potential for it to grow.

- Come on.

♫ Jinkx, come on

♫ No you come on and take it

♫ Have another little piece of my heart now baby

♫ Have another little piece of my heart now baby

♫ Have another little piece of my heart now baby

♫ You know you've got it

♫ If it makes you feel good ♫

(train horn)

So this is Battle of the Seasons Vancouver.

I really like doing these shows because

I've really really like performing

with the other drag race girls.

It's nice because it's like you've

got a support team and you've got

all these people who know what

you've been through and know

the experience and know what life

is like now after you go on reality TV.

Especially with people like Will Armen.

Pandora and Manilla and Carmen,

those girls that I used to watch on TV

and used to be so starstruck by,

and now I just got thrown into...

Their world, and they were so accepting,

you really do feel like these girls are your sisters

'cause they, they understand what

you're going through on the road

and they know the pressures of it all and stuff,

so it was surreal to go from

watching these people on TV and

being like oh, these are the coolest people ever,

to being their friend and then their

colleague like that.

That's the interesting part of it.

It's fun, but it's surreal sometimes

when you realize people you used to

watch on TV are now your co-stars, you know?

It's broken?

- [Richard] I guess so.

We could probably (mumble.)

- I know, can I see what (mumble)?

I'm not trying to yell (mumble.)

You know, I had never considered

putting myself in that competitive zone before

because I had interest in being

the best that I can be, but I didn't

have interest in competing, and it was

when I did drag race, I realized that

I don't have to change to be the best,

I just have to be the best at myself,

and Michelle, harsh as she may have been at times,

I still think back on the things she said to me

'cause from the beginning all she was wanting

was to see me do it 100%, you know?

- It's not about change your look,

change your look, I don't want that,

I don't want you to change your look,

I want the queen to be the best

version of themselves that they can be,

and I can see when you're not.

I can see when you're stopping yourself.

That's what I'm saying.

(dramatic music)

We're in Des Moine, Washington

for the Highline Community College

6th Annual Drag Show for the

Unity Through Diversity week.

Welcome to my community college campus.

(playful music)

I don't know what I'm gonna do.

90% of my material is gratuitous dick jokes.

What am I gonna do with all these children here?

What's a PG-13, what's a PG...

Oh my God, that's kid's like four.

What's a G rated way to say blowjob?

Should I just go...

When you're giving a man a...

I can't whistle well enough to do that.

When you're giving a man a...

(whistles)

No.

When two people like each other a lot,

occasionally they give each other kisses...

On their daddy rod.

There's literally babies screaming.

(baby crying)

I'm gonna have to tell Disney jokes.

I am so privileged to be MCing

the Sixth Annual Highline Drag Show

and I'm going to start the evening out

with a little number full of crass humor

that doesn't offend children.

♫ Mama, just killed a man

♫ Put a gun against his head

♫ Pulled my trigger, now he's dead

♫ Mama, life had just begun

♫ But now I've gone and thrown it all away

♫ Mama ♫

- [Jacob] I don't really think any...

Kids while I was growing up really

reacted to it in a negative way.

I mean there were definitely some people

who weren't accepting of it,

and there are still people who

aren't accepting of gay people and all that,

but for the most part I just,

nobody ever really cared, they just

thought he was my older brother and that was it.

It was always crazy, but in a good...

I don't know, it was always crazy at our house,

it was never normal, I think.

All three of us were really close

and then when Jerick moved to college

and started doing his own thing,

started expanding his options more

and what he was gonna do with his life,

it was kind of shitty because...

I was so close with him, and so it was

like me losing a best friend or, he's my brother,

but he's my best friend, but...

I don't want it to get so big and crazy

that he completely forgets about Jerick

and it's just Jinkx now 'cause

that's not good, and yeah...

- You know, sometimes...

Sometimes when you put on a full face of makeup

and a wig and everything, it's funny 'cause

it's like I'm looking in the mirror,

and I just don't see Jerick anymore, you know?

I know who I am, I know i'm just

playing a character right now, but sometimes

even I look in the mirror and I'm like

who the hell is that woman looking back at me?

When you do your makeup right,

even you can't recognize yourself.

Sometimes, like I don't even see

that goofy little redheaded boy right now.

I just see Jinkx Monsoon.

That's fun, I don't know.

It's fun.

(dramatic music)

- [Voiceover] He woke up in the middle

of the night crying and saying why

didn't God make me a girl, so I had

an idea of when he was, I think

he was about three years old, and so

we had a long talk about that.

And I said well if you feel like

you should be a female, they do

perform operations nowadays,

and we can look into that for you,

but that mean...

(laughs) Sorry, I said but that means

losing your penis, if you have the surgery,

and he's like nobody's taking

my penis away from me, so then we

never talk about it again, he had

pretty much decided he wanted to keep his penis,

but he liked dressing up.

- Put some base in your (mumble) head to toe.

- That was so brilliant.

- [Voiceover] Let's go in the doors.

(funk music)

- [Jerick] People don't ever tell you.

When a drag queen needs to go pee,

it's gonna take 20 minutes 'cause

we have to...

Oh my God, we have to essentially

take it all off, just pee for 20 seconds,

and then put it all back on.

Oh my goodness!

That's the thing is when a drag queen

has to pee, she's not kidding!

If she has to pee, you move out of the way, mama!

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.

Here's what I normally do.

Just keep everything in place

I think one, two, three, off.

Fourth pair keeps the fake hips in place.

And then I can, don't capture

this, Alex, thank you.

This pair...

(urinating)

Keeps the hip pads in place, but doesn't

unleash everything.

You're taking the stream?

I will not let you air the stream, Alex Berry!

The point is...

Every time a drag queen gets to pee

in the middle of the night...

A fairy gets its wings.

You're such a bastard.

I think that's it.

I went pee like a normal person would.

But I have to hide it from the

rest of the world 'cause it would

spoil their idea of...

The whole goddess illusion.

I don't wanna spoil that idea.

I want people to believe in miracles

I want people to believe in

fairy godmothers and drag queens and

wishes and witches and all that stuff.

I'm just a man, I'm just a man

dressed as a woman.

Then you have to readjust all the undergarments.

'Cause if you've got back rolls,

people will read you for it.

They'll show up in some photo blog

the next day.

(whispers) Back rolls.

Back rolls.

Yes, Ms. Huntie, she had back rolls!

Oooh, America's next drag superstar had back rolls?!

No, not on Tonight, Ms. Elissa.

Not on tonight!

I got this!

Look at me, I don't got it, I don't got it!

No, it's okay, you just need

to bunch it up like this, I'll show you.

I can do it on my own, it just drives me...

It just drives me to that crazy place.

I know I could exist without Kenny,

I just don't want to.

Drag is a family thing, it's a group effort,

it takes a village.

More than one time.

Let's just say many many times,

men have come up alongside me,

driving alongside me while I'm walking home.

And they slow the car down and they

roll down their window and they like...

Look through the window and they're like...

Hey, how are you getting home?

You want a ride?

I'm like no, I'm just...

'Cause the thing is you don't wanna

let them know right away that you're a man.

'Cause what if they get angry?

What if they think you're like

a female prostitute or something

and then they hear your man voice

and they get angry, so you don't

wanna be like no, I'm going home,

you don't wanna fuck with them because

if they angry, they're the one in the car

and you're the one walking home alone.

So I always do it in my femmy voice

'cause then if they're a tranny chaser,

then they're getting what they expect,

and they're not a tranny chaser, then

at least I'm under the radar, so I just go

no, I'm just walking home.

I'm okay, I don't need a ride.

I don't need a ride, I'm just a block that way.

And you don't, doesn't matter

how far away you are from home,

you always say you're just a block that way.

And they're like I'll give you a ride,

you wanna come in here, you wanna...

Hey, how much?

They say how much, and I look at you like this.

And all I wanna say then and there is...

I have a dick!

- When he did come out, I guess I didn't

have the typical macho father freakout

where that's not gonna fly in my

house kind of reaction.

I felt like I was already prepared for it

and as a result, I just was like...

Water off a duck's back, just rolled right off

it didn't have a strong effect on me.

And I think that was...

Positive for him.

Whether he thinks that or not I don't know, but...

Maybe that was something that he

used to know that it was okay and I'm

sure he already knew it was okay because...

You have to be okay with yourself first

before you can tell other people

where you are in your life.

I've always been of the opinion that

at the end of the day, the only opinion,

the only person's opinion that matters is your own.

It doesn't matter what other people think.

As long as you're comfortable with who you are.

Everybody else can just...

(laughs) Did you get that?

(cheering) (techno music)

(laughing)

- I'm America's next drag superstar!

For about 60 more seconds!

- [RuPaul] Yes.

- [Jerick] I feel like I'm supposed to have

a ton of feelings right now, and I feel numb and sad.

I feel like everyone wants me to be like...

(fake sobbing) I'm not the queen anymore,

but I don't feel that way.

I just feel excited.

I mean it's all a fantasy.

I feel like I have this responsibility

to always be staying true to

the message that I put forth

at the beginning of all of this.

(soft classical music)

To make the world a better place

than you found it and to not let

the little things get to you and, you know,

just remaining positive and trying to

always be the kind of person that

you want the world to perceive you to be

and don't get caught up in

negative drama that has nothing

to do with you, you know?

I just always wanna make sure

I practice what I preach.

- [RuPaul] What's life been like since

you snatched that crown?

- [Jinkx] Well mother darling, I got to do

my original show The Vaudevillians

all across the world this year.

(cheering)

- So Jinkxy, do you have any words

of advice for America's next drag superstar?

- Well I highly suggest you revel

in every single second of it.

Mind your Ps and Qs and when the

bitches come for you, let that

(bleep) be water off a mother (bleep) duck's back!

(cheering)

- Well Jinkx, your reign may be

ending tonight, but it will always

be forever Monsoon season.

Thank you very much!

All right, the time has come to crown our queen.

As always, I've consulted with

the judges, and the fans, but the final

decision is mine to make.

Adore Delano.

Bianca Del Rio.

Courtney Act.

- [Voiceover] Bianca!

- [RuPaul] The winner of RuPaul's Drag Race,

America's next drag superstar, is...

(suspenseful music)

Biana Del Rio!

(cheering)

- [Jerick] This is something I wanted my whole life.

And yet nothing...

Nothing feels exactly the way

I've always dreamt about it to be.

Nothing ever happens the way

it does in the movies.

A huge huge door is opened for me.

And you think that thing you've

been working for your whole life

finally just happened, and now...

And now everything is just gonna

be completely different, and you know what?

It's not, everything's exactly the same.

I think what I thought fame was before

doing all of this, I think I thought

it was gonna be like a band-aid.

If that makes sense, I think I convinced myself

if I do this, or I accomplish this goal,

or I make it here, or I make it this far,

then it's gonna fix all the

problems that I have going on.

But now I think what it really is

in this business is the chance to

keep taking your work further.

It's not a band-aid, it's just

an invitation to work harder.

- [Jerry] Now say I love you.

Wanna say it for daddy?

Say I love you.

- [Jerry] My dad wasn't around much

when we were kids.

I mean he was an active part

in our life, but not too much.

And I always longed for that

perfect family setting.

- There you go, yeah!

Now just work on that bite.

I'm not gonna take it away from ya!

(chuckles)

So I don't have any furs for you

to try on, why does she never

wear her wig when I visit?

She looks really good in mink.

We were very dispirit and disjointed as kids.

I feel like ever since we've started

to get to know each other as adults,

everything's been completely different.

- If you want some more burger,

give daddy a kiss!

Fine.

(knocking)

- [Jerick] Why do you have to

have that look on your face?

- [Jerry] I think it took us

some time apart and for us to realize

how different we are, but how smiliar

and how many struggles we've...

- [Jerick] Shared together.

- [Jerry] Exactly.

- This is how you know you have a cool family

'cause when your little brother

starts getting you drag gifts.

(laughs)

Well 'cause I never, I don't even think

we ever, we had, what, you can't touch anything.

- [Jerry] Wait, no, I know, but you have...

Oh, I thought it was a beard hair.

- I'm not gonna say that I wasn't

petrified when I found out he

was having a baby.

- But now...

- [Jerick] Just really nervous.

- What do you happen to be nervous about?

- [Jerick] I was nervous because, you know,

you're young and there's still

so much I know you wanna do,

and I didn't want you to miss out

on the things that you wanna do at this age.

- You know what I wanted to do?

- [Jerick] What?

- I wanted to have a baby.

- [Jerick] You wanted to have a baby

when you had a baby?

- I honestly did, I've, with me

it was, we never had that whole family.

We never had the mom and dad

and the family trips and all that stuff,

and so I feel like I jumped into it

'cause that's the role I always wanted to play.

- We had to grow up with so much,

you know, cutting corners,

some struggles, and figuring everything out

and I just didn't wanna raise a baby

in the same struggles we were raised in,

and that's what I was worried about for you

because you're still young and

figuring things out for yourself, but then

I watch you with your baby and I

just see a full grown adult all of a sudden.

The best thing, for me, is that you're

letting me be a part of it and that

I get to pour so much attention into

my little baby niece.

- [Jerry] I can't help but take...

Money from my Auntie Jinkx!

(laughing)

- [Jerick] People always warn you when

you come into money that your family's

gonna come asking for it all the time,

and Jerry really never ever asks it

until Chloe was born, he never really

asked for any help and stuff,

and I really told him right away

that I wanna do everything to make sure

that he has what he needs

to take care of Chloe.

- I love you, Jerick.

- I love you too.

(laughing)

Now you've got all this, now you

got all this powder on your face now.

- Ah, I feel like a superstar!

- You know, I am very proud of him.

He...

He did something...

He got himself out of where he was

and he decided early that he didn't

want to have that sort of life

that he was living with his mother

because I wasn't there,

and he pulled himself out of that situation.

(burps)

- Oh God, did you get that?

- You know who gave me this dress?

Sharon Needles.

On New Year's Eve.

It's sabotage though because the

sequins stick to themselves.

(laughs) I thought it was the sweetest thing

in the world, I wore it for five minutes,

and I was like that bitch, she put

me in a boobytrap dress, but I love it,

it's so gorgeous.

(dramatic music)

♫ Golden sequin, golden firelight

♫ Bends and breaks you

♫ Holds and takes you

♫ Pulled apart and reassembled

- [Jacob] I'm really glad that Jinkx

is something that Jerick can turn into

when everything's getting crazy

and that's just who he is.

I love Jinkx and I'm a big fan

of the whole Jinkx Monsoon persona

and everything, but I just am sick of it

'cause I want my brother to come home, you know?

(water running)

- [Voiceover] I've learned a lot of Jerick,

I mean Jerick is an inspiration to me.

Seeing where he's come from,

being there with him, and now seeing

where he is today just shows that

you can do anything you set your mind out to.

♫ Golden sequins ♫

- [Voiceover] I've learned so much from Jerick.

It feels like he's always been teaching me.

I'm just so proud of him.

- It's weird because my family

had become very dispirit and we were

all very separate and...

Drifting apart in the last year or so.

And now my family's like...

Reforming and doing really well.

My mom and I, our relationship is better

than it's been in a long time, and Jacob

is going to school proud every day

of his family and I'm giving him

something to brag about at school

and that's cute, so...

So there have been really unexpected

positive repercussions that have

nothing to do with drag and have nothing,

like who would have thought going

on a reality competition based

TV show for drag queens that my

family would have this second chance

to all be together again.

I think that's pretty, that's pretty special.

So tired.

All I can see is X's, O's, and my own handwriting.

(dramatic music)