You could almost hear the collective gasps of Alberta’s drag race fans on November 3rd when the bomb was dropped by Pure Pride and Union Events. For the first time ever in our province seven of RuPaul’s fiercest girls, along with Michelle Visage, will be together under one roof. RuPaul’s Drag Race – Battle of the Seasons: The 2015 Condragulations Tour will invade Flames Central in Calgary February 13th, and heat up Encore West Edmonton Mall on Valentines Day, February 14th.

GayCalgary will be presenting interviews with most of the queens that will grace the stage these evenings, and Ivy Winters was the first to call in despite fighting a cold. The whirlwind 30-plus date North American tour gives an idea of the whirlwind that is the life of one of the Drag Race stars post-show.

"My life has completely changed. Before Drag Race drag, for me, was more of a hobby. It really wasn’t a money maker at all. Since the show I get to travel and do it full-time, which I never in a million years thought I would be able to do. To share my talents around the world was a dream of mine and Drag Race made that happen."

For Drag Race fans it is torture watching the show unfold and waiting for the winner, especially when they often slate two-week breaks, including a recap show between the final three announcement and the finale. It is worse for the queens who have to agree to confidentiality and can’t tell anyone what happened. It can be almost a year between filming and the finale which makes it difficult, Winters said.

"Oh my god that was the hard part! I was gone for a month and it was hard because you had to completely forget about Drag Race during the time between filming and when it airs. You really have to keep quiet and can’t say anything to anybody, so I tried to forget about it until they announced who was on that season. I can’t even remember when we filmed it feels like ten years ago. From the time that we film it, we come back to our regular lives, and no one knows that we were on. You get thrown back into society after and are like what just happened? What did I just do? It is almost a year until it is done and you have this huge chunk of time to mentally prepare yourself for what is going to happen. You have to prepare yourself for gigs and traveling. I was lucky at that time – I had Manila and Zahara and Jiggly and Milan that were on past seasons on Drag Race that were helping me out in getting myself prepared. Waiting every episode – because we don’t know how they are going to edit us and how we are going to look in each episode – and you kind of forget what had happened. You are watching it with millions of people chewing your fingernails off. It was stressful, and the wait was hellish"

Ivy Winters is a unique performer. Her background in circus work and clowning has lead her to possess a different style from other queens. We got a glimpse of her talents on the season when she walked the runway on stilts. She also includes juggling and fire-eating in her stealthy talent repetoire.

"I have been doing it for 12 years now. I started when I was eight-years-old, learning different skills in different stages while I was young. I learned to stilt walk, juggle and eat fire. I used to do magic tricks and was a clown for eight and a half years. The circus and performing and theatrical stuff always inspired me. I had the worst grades in school because I was constantly practicing tricks and stunts. When I was 18 I started doing drag and I wanted to stand out. I wasn’t the best dancer, and wasn’t a comedy queen or a host. A friend said why don’t you do all your clown stuff in drag and stand out that way? and I was like that is the best idea! So it has clicked ever since."

It certainly garners a reaction when Winters eats fire on stage in drag.

"[The audience] loves it. Either they get really nervous and back away or have this blank look on their face like, what is happening?! It is fun, especially in drag. You don’t see a lot of drag queens doing it. There is a lot of danger with hairspray and wigs, and pretty much everything we wear being flammable. It is a big thrill to do."

As a boy, Dustin Winters had a great deal of support when he came out. He was the first of three siblings to do so.

"I am the middle child, but I came out first at 16 as a freshman in high school. About a year later my sister, who is two years younger, came out, and then a couple of years after that my oldest brother came out. My parents were like, whoah – we knew Dustin was, we didn’t know you two were! My parents were really cool with it. When I came out it was super late at night and I told my mom, and she pretty much knew, but we had this heart-to-heart conversation. She was crying and worried about me going through high school and being made fun of; she was just worried about me. It was completely fine – when I came out everyone was like duh! When all of us came out my parents were cool with it. My mom worked at a travel agency and two of her best friends were gay so they were fine with it. I was very lucky and blessed with my family."

While supportive of their gay children, when Winters began his drag career his parents were unaware of what drag entails and, initially, had reservations.

"When I came out to my parents as a drag queen they were really worried about it, and didn’t care for it because they didn’t know a lot about it. They didn’t know what it meant or if I was getting ready to have a sex change. They weren’t educated on what drag is, and what it meant to me. I told them it is just like clowning: I am putting on make up, a face and a costume, and am being paid to entertain people; I am just entertaining adults. Instead of being a funny character I am trying to convey a woman. It is very much the same thing. When they came to their first drag show to see me perform they completely understood why I wanted to do it and what an artistic outlet it was for me."

With gay siblings and accepting parents Winters had quite the cheering section.

"It was funny; my brother and his boyfriend, at the time, would watch Drag Race every week before my season. When they found out I was on they freaked out and had viewing parties every week."

Although eliminated from the show, Winters was crowned Miss Congeniality on the finale.

"It was an amazing feeling. There were a lot of really nice queens on my season so I was very honoured to get that – it was nice. I hate confrontation and am happy that people saw that in me. I don’t want to be recognized as a bitch. The drama was really hard to. We know the producers love drama and it is air time for the girls, so a lot were kind of making shit up and picking fights just to get air time. I was like you are going to go home and watch and realize how stupid you are going to look. That was hard for me to decipher: ... what was important for me to be a part of regarding confrontations, and knowing what was worth speaking up for."

Winters had a big tip for queens looking to achieve drag stardom in future seasons.

"The biggest thing for auditioning is to show as much personality as possible. You could be the most amazing, talented drag queen but, if you don’t have a personality to go with those talents, you won’t make it on. It is a reality show. They are not going to have someone who doesn’t have a personality, so make sure that is the first thing they notice... How do you survive the show itself? Pure luck. You can still be nice and have a personality, just not a negative one."

The Battle of the Seasons tour is playing large venues, allowing Winters to really bring her A-game.

"This is my fun time to really do what I like to do... We get to perform on these huge stages and I am able to bring my stilts and giant props, and a million costume changes... A lot of the time I am not able to bring my stilts to clubs so I go for the big extravagant numbers that I love to perform. A lot of people have asked me to sing live, but a lot of girls sing live and do comedy in the show and the girls are really good at what they do. So I stand out by doing my circusy tricks, so you will see a lot of that."