With the holidays over and nothing but wintry weather on hand for months, it’s the perfect season for a visit from the reigning queen of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, Alaska. Later this month, Alaska brings her icy glamour to Edmonton, so we sat down with her after a recent Christmas show in New York City to discuss her crown, putting brands out of business, and the best way for fans to reach her.
Gay Calgary: You just wrapped up another season of your hilarious Christmas show, and lots of other queens did, too. Why is Christmas such a goldmine for drag queen?
Alaska: Commercialism. Capitalism. Drag goes so hand in hand with consumerism because we’re poster children for excess. We’ve got jewels and everything you can think of glued onto our eyes, our fingers, everywhere. We look like Christmas—we’re always donning our gay apparel. Everybody’s spending money at Christmastime and if they want to spend it on drag queens, drag queens will be there to take it.
GC: Speaking of donning apparel, American Apparel signed you as a rep this fall. Do you have big modeling plans for Alaska’s future?
A: Well immediately After American Apparel asked me, Courtney Act, and Willem to be spokesmodels, they filed for bankruptcy. I’m hoping that the two are not related. And I hope that other companies will see that drag queens are marketing machines. We’re built-in marketing monsters so other companies should catch on. I would love to see the Sears Girls. The Payless Girls. I would love to be a K-Mart girl, so K-mart, if you’re reading, call me.
GC: It’s true that drag queens never stop promoting, and probably interact with individual fans more than most entertainers. Do you spend a lot of time replying to fans on social media?
A: Not as much as I used to. I like Twitter a lot because it’s a direct line with kids who are fans and fanatical about Drag Race and about Alaska, so those are the people that I’m writing these albums for and I really love Twitter for that. That’s the best way to contact me—tweet at me.
GC: You’re obviously busier than ever coming off your All Stars win. I think it was fairly obvious to most that you it was your crown to lose from day one. Did you have any sense of that, too?
A: I wish I knew from the beginning. It would have been less scary and a lot easier. I felt like a lot of people were watching with the idea that I was going to win, but that also meant there was more pressure on me and the judges were looking a little harder at me because of that. But there’s no guarantees! I was putting a lot of pressure on myself, and that’s not healthy to do in any scenario. I wish I would have just smoked a joint and chilled out, and eased into a little more and had fun doing it, but that’s where I was at in my life then. I was really serious about it and I really fucking wanted to win. I was taking it seriously. And, I mean, I guess I won, so...
GC: You also won Snatch Game this season. Why did you choose Mae West?
A: I vaguely knew All Stars was coming awhile back so I started thinking of different things. I was thinking of Blanche Devereaux, but she’s a fictional character and they’re not allowed, and Rue McClanahan wouldn’t really translate. So basically Mae West is Blanche Devereaux with a different accent. Always mind in the gutter, always sex. Sex everything.
GC: It’s a little risky because if a lot of the younger Drag Race audience doesn’t even know who Mae West is anymore. On the other hand Jinkx Monsoon picked Little Edie and also won. Maybe it doesn’t matter.
A: If you’re out there trying to pick a Snatch Game character for Drag Race, there’s really only one person who has to know who the fuck it is and like it, and that’s RuPaul. And you. You have to know it inside and out, and live and breathe it. But only Ru’s opinion counts.
GC: You famously applied for Drag Race many times. Would you have won if you got on Drag Race the first time you applied?
A: No I would not have. The first time they brought me in for an interview they sat me in a tiny little room in front of a camera and I froze. I didn’t know how to just relax on camera and speak like I’m speaking to my friend, and that’s a huge thing. I see it happen with a lot of girls. They’re so stunning on stage, so gorgeous, fierce, and amazing, but then when they camera’s on they’re a different person. They’re trying to be what they think they’re supposed to be. Learning to relax into yourself and not really give a fuck about it is a really important key.
GC: That reminds me of Bro’laska, which I only recently discovered and binge watched. You and your brother are so relaxed together, even though you’re talking about all sorts of insane shit. How did that show come about?
A: The people at World of Wonder were like, so we have this idea where you and brother just sit and talk about topics and I was like "that is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard. No one’s ever going to watch that. It’s stupid. But sure. Fine." So we did it.
It really came from doing "Be$ties for Ca$h," where you sit with your bestie and answer questions about each other for cash. They did one called "Bro$ for Ca$h" with me and my brother and we had chemistry and they just thought it was fun so we started doing our show. And now I really like watching it, my mom likes watching it, my grandmother likes it... it’s fun for the whole family! It’s been a year or two now and I love it.
GC: What else do you want to do? What are Alaska’s goals?
A: Um. [Long pause.] You can put "long pause" there.
I like getting to be an artist and in the next year I want do projects that I’m really excited about. And I’m really secretive so I’m not gonna tell you what they are!
GC: Give me a general field, a genre, something!
A: Definitely music because I love doing music and it’s just fun. And, um . . . and other things, too!
GC: And what about for you not as Alaska?
A: I need to schedule time off from Alaska. For non-Alaska, I would like for him to have a day or a week off. I haven’t seen that in awhile and that’s challenging. Of course I’m really grateful that I get to work, but it’s also like, okay, I need to take a minute and grow a beard for a few days.
GC: You’re performing at Evolution Wonderlounge in late January. Any last words for your Alberta fans until you see them there?
A: I would like to say that my new album Poundcake is available on iTunes, and that anusthing is possible.
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Contributor Brandon Schultz |
Person Alaska |
Topic Celebrity Interview | Evolution Wonder Lounge | RuPaul’s Drag Race |
Photo Gallery Alaska Thunderfuck |
Performing at Evolution Wonderlounge
January 21st, 2017
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