I just got back home from the finale and had an AMAZING time. I was also really fortunate to meet a number of the queens in attendance tonight! It was extremely interesting being able to attend the finale and then see the TV version the following week because I will now be able to truly see the magic of editing in action. As a huge note I paid for the VIP experience, which meant a social/cocktail hour with the queens and other guests and first seating into the building. All I can say is pricey, but worth it if you like a fuller experience. I’m gonna kind of go over things in the order that they happened. I’m leaving out certain details partly because it’s like, a fucking 5 hour long taping and partly because I think you’ll enjoy it more by watching. The preshow had Katya and Trixie hosting with amazing performances by Kennedy and The Haus of Edwards with some great surprises I won’t spoil for y'all. Trixie and Katya were really funny and did well. You’ll enjoy their hosting. Trixie’s best read of the night was, “If I had Bob’s makeup I’d walk into the club purse first too” and proceded to cover her face with a mock purse. There are a number of pre-show things that the producers ask the audience to do, like record us laughing and reacting to different situations. They also “seal” the room during the filming process. No in/out, and going to the bathroom, and eating/drinking is not to practical when they literally set up one, after the other. I went to the bathroom only once (which was in the basement) and was literally done, and back in my seat in what felt like 90 seconds. All of the queens had really stunning outfits. Bob’s was especially glamourous and of course Kim Chi was amazing as well. The two other standouts in my mind were Robbie and Acid Betty. As for the past winners presentation Tyra, Jinkx were hands down my favourite. Violets stepdown outfit was absolutely stunning and I hope the beauty and severity of the look reads on TV as what I seen from my seat. After the intro, the recording went in mostly reverse order with Bob doing her lipsync performance and then interviewing with Ru. Bob was really damn solid and definitely had the best interview of the night. She was super charming and funny and you could see that quick fire wit. She gets a special surprise video that’s pretty gag worthy. The only unfortunate thing about Bob is that her lipsync outfit is very casual looking for a drag queen (although it does play into the story of her song). I won’t be surprised when people hate on it. Kim Chi has her lip sync performance next and it’s really smartly done in that she’s wearing a gigantic gown and won’t be expected to move much. The song features Korean in it and is overall fun. She performed it well. The answer to the biggest question of the night is no. Her mom wasn’t there and her mom doesn’t know about the drag. Kim Chi got one of the biggest applauses of the night when she was asked which pit crew member she’d lose her virginity to. Her answer, “Well, I don’t want to catch anything so…” People were dying. Naomi’s lipsync performance was good, but something felt a bit off about it. She did well overall and it was really sweet to see her family come up on stage and support her. After the top 3 performances and interviews Ru interviewed the remaining queens and I was surprised at how much shade she threw at Dax and Laila. She kind of shitted on them in regards to the double elimination and I felt embarassed for them, but it wasn’t overly harsh. Each of the queens got a solid amount of time during the interview portions with a few of them receiving video messages. One of the very surprising things that I realized was that the queens don’t get finale tickets for their families. They have to pay for them on their own. I sat in the VIP section, which was the main floor (and the priciest area). Some of Acid Betty’s crew were sitting on the second floor in the mezzanine and when Chi Chi interviewed, she pointed out her mom and the rest of the family and they were sitting in the orchestra section upstairs. I was like daaaamn, you know they paid that money on their own and went with what was affordable. It made me feel bad for the queens that their support groups had to pay just to watch them at the finale. Also, both of Bob’s assistants were there (I recognized them from Drag Con) and they were super nice and friendly. Kim Chi had overwhelmingly massive amount of support and cheers. She was clearly the fan favorite the entire night. Bob had good support as well but certainly not as much as Kim Chi and I felt bad for Naomi. I was surprised that Chi Chi didn’t receive as much cheer and applause as I was expecting. Out of the rest of the queens Thorgy received the most cheers, but not a single queen was boo’d (not even Derrick). The taping ends up being 4-ish hours, an additional hour if you include preshow. You’re doing a seismic fuck ton amount of clapping and cheering, some of it because the producers ask you to and some of it because you’re just really damn genuinely excited. I was holding a clutch so my clapping was limited at times. Similarly to what I’ve read about last year, Ru was a fucking professional the entire night. She runs the entire thing like a ring master and even got upset at the production crew for taking too long to do certain things. And to her credit, there were some breaks that felt really fucking long. There’s breaks to do fan question setups and fill gaps in seats to make the audience appear fuller when people move for the bathroom/bar breaks. She’s SUPER quick witted and really funny. Tons of people constantly shouting from the audience that they love her, but she just pretty much ignores the tomfoolery for the most part. Every now and then she’d respond to someone and it would be pretty damn funny. Seeing Ru in person, you can really understand how other queens revere her because she just has a fucking presence that no one else in the room carries. A personal moment for me was that as all the queens were setting up to ask fan questions, they were really interactive with the crowd. Also being able to wave at Robbie Turner and have her respond with acknowledgement. It was sweet. RE: MISS CONGENIALITY - It really is Cynthia Lee Fontaine! She was so shocked and cried. Acid Betty was her biggest supporter and stood up and cheered and hugged her. I got to meet her after the show and told her how excited I was for her that she won Miss Congeniality and she hugged me and told me that she remembered me from Drag Con and thanked me for supporting her. That was probably the most meaningful and sweet thing that happened to me the entire night. She was so fucking sweet and am glad that she received the recognition. I just said sweet like 17 times but yeah, she is diabetes in human form. As per usual, Bob, Kim Chi, and Naomi each taped “winnings” so that we couldn’t know who actually won. They’ll find out next week the same time we do. A really funny moment was Ru specifically looking at the audience and telling us that they were going to do it in alphabetical order, like basically, don’t fucking read into the order of it all like the shady apes that we can be. The interesting change from what I’ve read about last year was that each of them got to do the exact same thing. Last year, Violet was the only queen to be announced a winner, receive her crown/sceptre, walk the stage, and then have the queens come out for her at the end and do the closing segment. Ginger and Pearl did not get as much as Violet did. This year they were smart and it was all pretty much equal, HOWEVER, after the show ended, the queens began to disperse, aside from the Top 3. The super interesting thing was that one of the queens was recorded receiving a crown on her head. I did not see that happen with the other two, although it could potentially have happened after I left. Again, I’m not spoiling that because they probably don’t want that going out. Post show I got to meet Alyssa (she was mobbed by the fans), Lucian Piane, Miles Jai, Jiggly Caliente, and a few other queens in the main lobby as they were exiting. Everyone was very nice. Afterwards, I said goodbye to the past season queens as they were heading out. Everyone was really fucking sweet, and I was surprised at how nice everyone was. I went across the street to get some Mexican food, and saw a ton of the Queens heading out to get cars and head home. Overall, it was a really fun experience that I highly recommend. Even if you get the cheapest seats (orchestra), you still have a great view of the entire night, but definitely try to save for the VIP seats, you won’t Rugret it (hee hee)… It’ll be interesting to see if the crown goes to the person who did the best this season (and night), Bob, or if it’ll go to the fan favorite, Kim Chi.
