We caught up with Derrick at Dragworld and talked Drag race, her new show and all things Britney! enjoy!
Hey Derrick, how are you?
im good babe how are you?
im great thanks! Okay, so if you could re-do any of your runways from Season 8 which would you choose?
Every single one, All of them.
Is there a specific one where you look back and thing “Ooo I should’ve done this”?
Oh gosh. Well, the Christmas look, the first one. I think I would’ve made a gown and shocked everybody, but, of course, I was like “Ooo lets do a tear-away skirt and a bra and thats good…(and) Earmuffs” (laughs)
Now, You’re known for your Britney Spears illusion, as well of course as being an amazing queen yourself. But if you had to impersonate anyone else who would you be?
Oh Mariah Carey. I started doing Mariah the same year that drag race was on, and I actually met her on “Watch what happens, LIVE!” dressed in the ‘Heartbreaker’ look and I was like “This is the life”. She even said to me “I bet you do Britney don’t you?” and I was like “How does she know that?” and she told me “Well, you look like her”.
And what was Mariah’s reaction when she saw you?
She loved it, she really did because I went out and did all the little Mariah-ism’s, you know, the blinking and waves, and she was very sweet. I love her so I’ve actually incorporated Mariah into my act for this summer and when I tour I’m gonna do a Britney number and a Mariah number, just so that it switches it up and it gives the audience something that they haven’t really seen me do before.
On your season we saw you take quite the journey to break out of the “Britney box” people had put you into, What did you learn watching yourself back on TV?
Well, I learned that blocking my brows is NOT sexy (laughs), but then that was a journey you know? I learned how to do it my own way and then I just plucked my own brow and I like joked it more, because I don’t sweat it off, It’ll hold all day. I think Drag is so subjective that to boil it down to “Do you block your brows or not” is so trivial and I’m a part of the ‘Still drag’ movement which means It’s still drag even if you’re not wearing boobs, or hip pads, or a wig or whatever.
If you had the opportunity to return for an all star season what do you think your answer would be and what would you like to show fans that they haven’t seen from you yet?
I think I would like people to see that I don’t take things as seriously as it appeared I did on season 8, I’m a perfectionist, I definitely am a competitor but I forgot to have fun on season 8, so I think if I went back I would want to have fun, and I would want to be care free and if it doesn’t work then it doesn’t work right?
So what’s next for you now? do you have anything coming out soon that we can know about?
Yeah, so (I have) more music coming out, I have more music that Nebraska wrote and another song with Chris Cox is in the work, Chris cox who did my first single “Boom Boom” so just more…more more more you know? and a new illusions show so I can show more that just Britney and Mariah, like I want to show people that I do a lot of different voices, I do a lot of characters and I can sing these characters, I can talk like them, I can do improv, I can do comedy. Just show it all in m own 1-woman show and of course Britney is a part of it but she’s not the whole show.
And finally, As queer people a word we use with a lot of power is “Pride”, what does pride mean to you?
Pride to me means being self acceptant of exactly who you are, and being comfortable with exactly who you are. And that may change but thats okay too. We’re all on an evolution of who we are and I think that celebrating who you are is pride.
Photographer – Faye Maltby
DragHUH! 