October is a pretty exciting month for camp telly; not only is Big Brother back, but the ever-iconic Drag Race UK is, too. AND it’s Halloween time which means all that sexy seasonal content is readily available for us spooky queens, too. Autumnal bliss.
It’s also around October that the winner of the previous year’s Drag Race UK crown debuts their winner’s series on BBC iPlayer and WOW Presents Plus, and right on queue, series five winner Ginger Johnson has started releasing downright surreal and existential episodes of her new series, Ginger’s House.
Speaking of Ginger’s House, she told heatworld, ‘I’m trying to reveal what the life of Ginger Johnson is like when she’s off the stage. I’m primarily a live performer; up until now, that’s what I’ve done. People only really see me performing for a room full of people. Ginger’s House asks, “What does this very strange woman that does things for applause… what is she really like when she’s on her own in her house? And how do people interact with her?” It’s inspired by a lot of my favourite TV influences that I grew up on; things like Pee-wee’s Playhouse, The Mrs Merton Show, and a lot of British sitcoms – classic British sitcoms like Terry and June and The Good Life.’
Anyway, to celebrate the release of her winner’s series – which genuinely we’re oddly obsessed with, btw (even if the eps are only nine minutes long) – heat caught up with Ginger to discuss the new show, winning Drag Race UK, and of course, what RuPaul is REALLY like behind the scenes.
Naturally, Ginger expressed how much she looked up to Mama Ru, telling heat, ‘Her outlook on the world is amazing. Her outlook on drag is inspiring,’ and before we knew it, she was lifting the lid on RuPaul’s golden rule for absolutely slaying every photo; and as we’re speedily approaching Halloween costume posing season, stand by everyone and anyone with an Instagram account because the queens have the floor…
Ginger revealed, ‘[RuPaul] made a TikTok recently about how to pose for photographs and what to do with your hands, which is a really tricky thing. I used to laugh with my drag mum years ago about this because the hands are a very hard thing to do, especially when you’re starting in drag. You don’t know what to do with them, especially if you’ve got big meat plates like I have. [Ru] talks about “threading the needle” where you make like you’re holding a needle and a thread in your hand and you hold them together in front of you, and I always think about that.’
And we’ve tracked said TikTok down. You’re welcome.
@rupaulofficialCamera ready, picture perfect.
Ginger also shared another practical tidbit from MOTHER herself, which as a drag queen myself (hiya), I can tell you is actually a golden nugget.
She added, ‘There’s one very practical thing that I think about all the time for when I’m getting into drag. This might be quite boring to everyone else, but it’s really stuck with me. There was one week where I wearing a necklace and some very big earrings, and the earrings were just touching the top of the necklace, and she said, “You need to leave a space between the earrings and the necklace because it will elongate your neck and it’ll elongate the whole figure of you and she was so right”.’
That’s honestly changed everything for me.
Ginger’s House launches on BBC iPlayer from 6am on Thursday 17 October and airs after each episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK at 10:10pm on BBC Three.