Drag Icon Jimbo Dishes on Life After Winning ‘Drag Race’ and Her Upcoming Tour
Drag fans rejoice: Jimbo is coming to town! Chances are you've heard of the Canadian drag-clown-turned-fashion-icon and current reigning “Drag Race” All-Star. The drag legend sat down with Georgia Voice to discuss her journey and upcoming tour, Jimbo's Drag Circus, which comes to Center Stage on March 16.
Read the full interview online at thegavoice.com.
You've toured everywhere, but this show — Jimbo's Drag Circus — is your first onewoman solo tour, right? I like to say it's like a one-queen show. It's a bit of an ensemble show in a way, because I'm touring with my musical partner Andrew Feels. He's playing Jeepers, my musical accompanist, and he'll be on stage with me. He's playing this clown character of this old carny that's toured with me and plays music for me, but we really did actually write the whole score ourselves for the show. And then I also have two backup dancers, Ander and DaRon, two sexy boys who are just incredible performers and movers. So, they'll be on stage with me as well, telling each of the different characters' stories.
Exciting! What has the preparation been like? Well, I started off working in theatre and then in film as a production designer, a costume designer, and a costume maker. So, prior to being on stage myself and prior to being on Drag Race and now an international drag queen, I did production design and I was a storyteller through being a maker. So, this is my opportunity to use all of those skills and to use all those connections to tell my own story. I've written this story, I've written the music with my friend Andrew, I collaborated with the set design with my friend Marshall McMahen and an artist, Cat Dirty, and I've got my clown teacher, Britt Small, directing.
It's sort of like I went back to my community
and just said, “Hey, let's put on an epic, awesome show, the weirdest show on Earth,” and people are going to laugh, they're going to be surprised. I've got some really cool looks. [There are] three people in the studio next door, sewing away, working on the looks right now. So there's awesome costumes, awesome music, and it's going to be a spectacle.
What would you say audiences should expect from the show? In general, I want people to laugh. When I'm thinking of these things, the intention behind it all is to really invite people in to just have a good time … I've written the script and I've also built in a lot of times for me to improv and break that fourth wall, which, you know, that's what clowning is all about
and that's what I love so much about live performance. The hope is to invite people in, to make them laugh, to show them some weird awesome drag, and for them to leave going, “What the fuck was that? I can't wait to see that again.”
I love the sound of that! You mentioned earlier that you'll be doing different characters in the show. I'll be doing six characters from my time on “Drag Race.” I'll be doing Eva Dents, my forensics sexy stripper investigator character. I'll be doing Joan Rivers and Shirley Temple and my Casper the baloney ghost from my talent performance. And I'll also be doing some video components where I do some Nancy Grace, which is another character I did on “Canada's Drag Race.” So, kind of calling back to some things I love to do and then also a new character, Alphabet Annie, which is something I've never done before.
It's going to be a combination of things I've done and things I'm trying new and kind of expanding on those stories. My Shirley Temple character is kind of an influencer now and she goes by Sweet Tea. She's rebranding and she's a hip-hop star. There's going to be some new angles to the characters [to give] people a new dimension of me.
You won Drag Race, you've had your own talk show, created music, you did the cruise, and now you're doing this tour. What is next? What are long-term goals for Jimbo? Well, I want my sketch comedy television show, House of Jimbo. That's a big goal of mine, to collaborate with other performers and entertainers to write original sketches and to kind of create a “Pee-wee's Playhouse”-style show using my aesthetic, to create sketches and explore other drag and clowning and character work with other friends or collaborators.
Awesome! I saw in an interview you discussed potentially doing a biography in the future. I was talking about that because there are facets to the story that I haven't necessarily shared that are relatable or dark and funny and kind of twisted. I would like to explore that and dramatize that. I think it would be funny.
Jimbo's Drag Circus comes to Atlanta on March 16 at Center Stage Theater. The show is 90 minutes long with a 20-minute intermission. General admission and meet and greet tickets can be purchased at centerstage-atlanta.com/events/jimbos-dragcircus. You can follow Jimbo on Instagram @jimbothedragclown, or check out her website at houseofjimbo.com.