The cast of Drag Race UK season 6 have revealed the most chaotic moments of their careers, including being hit on while dressed as Margaret Thatcher, a near-death skiing experience and a dramatic scene at a wedding.
There are very few scenarios in life more chaotic than a season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, but the 12 assembled glamazons have put up some stiff competition.
With a cast of 12 drag queens from around the UK, a dazzling bevy of guest judges, and, of course, RuPaul, Michelle Visage, Graham Norton and Alan Carr returning to hold court, season six of Drag Race UK is not one to be missed.
But before episode two of Drag Race UK season 6 airs (3 October), PinkNews has asked the cast what their most chaotic moments in drag are – and they didn’t disappoint.
Actavia
“I said this in my ‘Meet the Queens,’ and thankfully, they didn’t air it. When I have a drink, and I do often very much enjoy a drink, I turn into my mum, and I just cannot get into the toilet in time. So I often have a drink, and whenever I have nails on – this is actually really embarrassing – I will try to go to the toilet, and before I even get the chance to try and get my pads down, I just wet myself.”
Chanel O’Connor
“When I lived in Edinburgh, I used to finish shows really late at night. And sometimes I would get home, sometimes my flatmate would be out. So I would come home alone, and a lot of my garments require someone to unzip me.
“So I would get home and be like, ‘I cannot get out of drag.’ And I would have to go out into the street, at like 3am, and actually ask members of the public, ‘Can you unzip me please?’
“I was like, ‘This is not sexual. There’s nothing happening. Can you please just unzip me.’ There were people who were so gracious, so many people who said no. I’d be flagging down cars!
Charra Tea
“I lived in Leeds for five years and and my first gig, I did my makeup, I put on my drag body, which is obviously a lot of layers, and then I put some jeans on, and my bum is obviously bigger in drag, so my jeans wouldn’t close, and I just sort of pulled them up.
“And the bar I was working in was a bit of a weird one, it was quite sketchy. But I got in and I was like, ‘Why is everyone staring at me?’ I get that I’m in makeup. I get that I’m a drag queen. But this is horrendous, every single person was giving me the evils.
“So I walked through, upstairs to the gig room, looked in the mirror, and my trousers had been round my ankles the whole time.”
Dita Garbo
“Nothing’s really been chaotic, but I can tell you a moment that has stuck with me. So I’ve gone into schools, and I’ve done educational workshops on gender and stereotypes, and it wasn’t until I came out and I debriefed myself that I realised not just how powerful it was for the children, but how powerful it was for myself.
“Growing up in the 80s during section 28 homosexuality wasn’t spoken about. So to be able to go into a school and actually talk freely and educate kids on gender and stereotypes and break down boundaries, I didn’t realise how powerful that was for me personally until I’d done it.”
Kiki Snatch
“I shattered my ankle while performing! And I wish it was like, at the end of the number, but it was like, just after halfway. Shattered it.
“I knew something had gone wrong, I’m in these six and a half inch heels. This was during Pride as well. And then when I got home my ankle was pretty much the size of my head. Went to the hospital, and they were like: ‘If you didn’t come in when you did, you probably wouldn’t be able to use your ankle because of the way it was broken and shattered.’”
Kyran Thrax
“This story will go down in history; I was booked to do a wedding, and the the groom had had five previous marriages with five different people, and he had had a child with each of them. So they were getting married, and the bride and the registrar booked me, and were the only two people that knew about me being there.
“And the bride booked me to have a pregnancy bump and burst through the doors when they asked whether anyone objected! I barged in, shouted, ‘Stop!’ at him and then start lip syncing to “I Will Survive.”
“And that they told me, when they called me about the gig, 50% of the attendees were swingers, and 50% of the attendees are very traditional, like conservative people. And I was like, ‘I’ll do anything if you pay me.’”
La Voix
“Well, my bloody van got stolen! There I was on the first day of my tour. My van got stolen with everything in it, all my costumes, all the musical instruments, the band, the sound equipment, everything. And on the same day the van was found through the power of Facebook.
“Someone said, ‘Seen your Facebook post, your van is outside my house.’ So I said, ‘Well, you stole it!’ So she was arrested. She’s in prison.”
NB: No one was actually arrested.
Lill
“There was one time me and Banksie went skiing and we veered off the slope into a main road. With cars. That was quite chaotic.
“We were only on a little baby slope! We thought we’d be fine. And the next thing you know, we’re in the middle of a road with cars beeping at us. In full drag, by the way. We didn’t even need to be. We just wanted Instagram pictures.”
Marmalade
“So there’s a certain sub-section of men that, shall we say, enjoy the girls when they are dressed up. And I can’t say I have not gotten my fair share of that attention, but there was one night where I was getting all the attention from the older men in the room, and it would not stop, and it made me feel very uncomfortable because I was dressed as none other than Margaret Thatcher, full on aged makeup, conservative blue blazer, and my bump it wig.
“I had literally just gone on stage and done Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” and chugged a pint of milk. Came offstage and they were at my feet, I didn’t know whether to take the compliment or to be rather concerned.”
Rileasa Slaves
“I used to beat my face in a different way, way back at the start, when people used to see Rihanna more. And you’d be at a gig where someone is like, ‘Oh my God, you look like Rihanna!’ So they give you that crazy energy and like ‘Whoa, baby. I’m just a man in a little little wig, b*tch. Don’t get crazy up in here.’
“Like, just to clarify, I’m giving a man in a dress.”
Saki Yew
“I did this gig where I was hoisted up in the air by wires. And they were like: ‘Oh yeah, can you just spin in the air?’ Mind you, I’ve never done aerial work before this. I was like, ‘Okay, did it?’ But that was a rehearsal and in the actual performance, the wires all got tangled.
“So I was just hanging in the air horizontally, and then they’re like, ‘We can’t even lower you because all the cables are tangled.’ So I just had to stay there for ages until I could slowly be lowered to the ground the cables.”
Zahirah Zapanta
“I relate to Rileasa a lot, because I’ll be onstage and they’ll be welcoming Zahirah and the audience will shout out any other RuGirl’s name. I’ve had the Jujubees, I’ve had the Onginas, I’ve had the Manilas.
“And it’s chaotic but it’s not a fun comparison, and it’s one of the reasons I wanted to go on the show, to be my own person and queen. Because I am a star.”