Drag Race star Baga Chipz shares her advice on how to break into the drag scene: “Be unique!”
Watch: Who Inspired RuPaul's Drag Race Queens Baga Chipz, Blu Hydrangea and Vinegar Strokes start drag?
They’ve dished out advice on confidence and beauty but this week’s topic on Reality Check is very close to the hearts of our agony queens – drag!
The fierce threesome share their advice on how to break into the scene, whether girls can be drag queens and who their drag idols are in the latest episode.
Baga Chipz, who’s been working on the drag scene for several years, believes if you want to become a drag queen, you’ve got to find your own unique selling point.
“You need a talent,” she stated. “Don't copy anyone. Develop your own character. With all the pretty girls it's always, ‘I'm a supermodel. I'm into fashion.’ And I'm like, ‘Oh my God, I've heard that a billion times’.
Listen: Our dragony queens share who their top drag inspiration is
She continued: “We don't want any recycled s***. We want something that's never been seen.”
Fellow RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star Blu Hydrangea’s advice to any would-be queens is to rehearse their act thoroughly.
“My biggest tip is just like practice, practice, practice!” she exclaimed. “Lip syncing, talking to a crowd… Then you have some respect going in because you know what you're doing.”
Read more: RuPaul’s Drag Race stars on why makeup is a confidence booster
Chipz agrees that practice makes perfect and that’s how you get better at working a room.
“The patter comes,” she said. “The more shows you do, you get more competent and you just start having a conversation with the room.
“The audience always wants to be acknowledged. They want to know, they want to be like, ‘Oh, I'm a part of it.’ That side of it definitely doesn't come naturally to everyone.”
Vinegar Strokes, who performed in the West End show Everybody's Talking About Jamie as drag queen Sandra Bollock, said that while rehearsals are important, so is failure.
“Don't be afraid to fail as well,” said Strokes, who in a previous episode of Reality Check talked about RuPaul criticising her outfits on Drag Race UK.
“If you fall flat on your arse, you forget your lyrics, forget your words or forget your jokes, your jokes aren't funny... Failure is a really good thing to evolve as a performer and an artist.”
Read more: Vinegar Strokes on how to turn a knock-back into something positive
All three agreed that one place you can learn from is other drag queens, whether they’re your peers or those that have been around for a little longer. Hydrangea advises all new queens to “respect your elder queens” as they have so much to teach newbies, while Chipz agreed saying without them, there wouldn’t be drag.
“If it wasn't for them older queens, you wouldn't have a wig on your head!” she claimed.
“They're the people who fought for our rights, who were working there before you were born. If it wasn't for them, you wouldn't have any drag gigs, because they were the queens that made the venue a drag venue, and made it successful.”
Final advice comes from Strokes, who has just two things she really wants to see from any future drag queens.
“I want you to be two things - entertaining and not a Tory!” she exclaimed!
Watch: Is it true that there are no friends in the Drag Business?