Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
It was like I have always had big dreams for my drag aspirations, and I talked myself into doing 'Drag Race.' I'm like, take a chance.
I think the best way I've grown as an artist period, not just in relation to creating music, is having a lot more confidence in myself.
Well, I think 'Addams Family Values' is definitely a gay icon movie and definitely a drag queen icon movie that no one ever talks about.
I really like women who are able to be classy and poised and really well put together when the time is right, but also be complete clowns.
There's an old guard of drag, like the queens who got as big as they could possibly get before there was a TV show dedicated to drag queens.
I play a lot of video games, cook meals for my best friends and chosen family in Seattle, and find time to visit my family in Portland, Oregon.
I was so nervous competing against Lyneshia Sparx. She's so gorgeous, and she's hilarious. When you get to know her, she's the most lovely person.
A lot of people just feel really impacted and inspired by drag in ways that I don't think we, as self-absorbed drag queens, think about that often.
If one drag queen penetrates the mainstream and opens up a new avenue for us to take with our careers, that means all of us can potentially do that.
What I love about what I do is expanding people's minds on the topics of gender expression, gay rights, and most of all, entertaining them while I do it.
When you aimlessly shoot for lofty goals, with no personal connection to them, you loose sight of what really matters, and what will really make you content.
Gwyneth Paltrow -- she always looks like she's about to cry. I wish someone would just kick her and get it over with. But I loved her in The Royal Tenenbaums.
Nowadays, 'Drag Race' shows how fantastic and amazing drag queens can be, so audiences won't sit through a boring show anymore. You have to keep people entertained.
Growing up as a gay boy during the holidays, there's the things you want to ask for, and then the things you ask for because you're afraid of asking for what you really want.
With Jinkx Monsoon, I strive to make her pretty and likable and have this bubbly, lovely personality. But then she can also be the most crass, out of the blue, kooky character.
I started drag in Portland, Oregon, but I don't feel that I came to life as a drag queen until I started working in Seattle. That's what really lit the rocket fuel in my career.
In my world, everything has the potential to be funny. Joyful things, painful things... It's all about how you view it and if you're able to take an objective stance on the situation.
There was a time when I said I wouldn't do something like that but I've seen so many of my friends go on the 'All Stars' seasons and they seem to be having a lot of fun for the most part.
It used to be that I'd do drag, then get out of drag, and try and be as much of a boy as possible. That didn't feel entirely authentic for me, but it felt like what I had to do at the time.
I've always preferred drag roles, because typically I get better costumes and I've always felt more connected with the female characters in my favorite shows than most of the male characters.
That openness to experimentation in Seattle is how I learned a drag queen doesn't have to just be in her pageant gear and lip syncing to top 40. Drag can be off-the-wall, ridiculous, profound.
In the gay community there are not very many Jewish drag queens. I've always found that funny because there are a lot of Jewish gay people out there, so why aren't there more Jewish drag queens?
We like to take pop songs that have really cool, complex melodies or lyrics and strip away all that fluff and electronic noise, and put them back as if they were written for a singer and a piano.
What brings me the most joy is stories about progressive thinking. When a mother or father accepts their child for whoever they are... when goodness prevails... blah blah blah. I'm a cheese ball.
In any kind of performance field, there are always going to be 101 people doing the exact same thing as you. You always constantly have to be thinking of, 'What's going to shock my audience the most?'
No matter who you are in your day-to-day life, and no matter what you look like, and whatever insecurities you're dealing with, you can fully transform yourself. It's as easy as deciding to transform yourself.
I only do numbers/acts that excite me, or I connect to personally. I never phone it in. It's about finding the balance between what my audience wants and what I want to give them. That sweet spot in the vendiagram.
I like to write my shows coming up with the stupidest things I can think of then finding a way I can incorporate a running theme or an underlying message that takes a stupid idea and gives it something worth watching.
I went to 'The Nutcracker' every year with my grandma and aunt. Then, in my early teen years, I thought I wanted to be a ballet dancer. I went real gung-ho in that direction, and I started performing in 'The Nutcracker.'
It's not just putting on a little bit of makeup and putting on a dress. Some drag queens duct tape their heads, some drag queens are bound and strapped and pulled in every which direction. To be in drag is no small endeavor.
When I found the 'Human Nature' music video as a teenager - I've been a drag queen since 15 - I just loved that music video so much because it's such a celebration of her femininity and her sexuality. I thought it was so powerful.
I think this is a trait that runs throughout the queer community, the obsession with the hyper-feminine female villains. And we see it in Disney movies and in movies like 'Death Becomes Her,' and in characters like Poison Ivy and Catwoman.
Drag has come a long way and people are respecting it, and giving drag queens and other people who defy gender norms more chances than they've ever been given before, but it's thanks to people like RuPaul, especially, who set that momentum going.
The idea behind Jinkx is that she's a single mother and failed actress. One time she went out to a gay bar with her son, who's a gay adult, and started singing torch songs on the bar and became a hit. Now she's every gay boy's favorite cabaret act.
What motivates me is the chance to improve the world in my own special way; to contribute to the fight that all artists are fighting. I want to hold the mirror up to society and help them see themselves more clearly. I also love just making people laugh.
I very much treat my stage persona of Jinkx as a character I've created. Some drag artists do a look-based glamour act, and when they talk they're mostly just being themselves. In my case it's not Jinkx the drag queen, it's Jerrick Hoffer as Jinkx Monsoon.
Don't be afraid of wearing a lot of makeup. Like, a lot. Your eyes deserve to be showcased. I think it's important to just remember that whatever you think you hate about yourself, there's a way to counter that with makeup and make that part of you beautiful.
My first drag role was the character Widow Simone in the ballet 'La Fille Mal Gardee.' She's a crazy social climbing woman trying to marry off her daughter to the wealthy town idiot. And in the middle of the show, she gets to perform a clog dance. I loved it.
I was raised Catholic primarily by my mom's side of the family. But at 18, I found out there was an adoption in the family, and that I was of Russian Jewish descent on my mom's side. After that, I started to look more into the philosophies and culture of Judaism.
It's not enough to just be a good singer. You have to know where your roots come from. If you sing jazz, you should know all about jazz. You should look into, as much as you possibly can, the history of it, so that you're and educated and well-informed performer.
I prefer to be gender fluid or non-gendered and I dress in drag almost every day of my life even if I'm not in my full Jinkx Monsoon persona - I'm the kind of person who does not dress like my assigned gender and I wear makeup every day and sometimes wear wigs as a boy.
If you have to mask the things you're insecure about, go ahead. Wear four pairs of pantyhose, pad your hips, boost your boobs - whatever it takes to walk out of the house feeling like you own the world. Because there's no reason to waste your life hating something you can change.
First, it was a big deal for girls to dress more like guys. Then it was a big deal for straight men to be metereosexuals and care about their appearance in the way that a gay man would. Now we have to take it a step further - men should be able to not wear men's clothes if they don't want to.
I watched 'Drag Race Thailand' without any subtitles or voiceovers or anything; I don't speak Thai but I do speak drag, so I felt like I understood exactly what was going on, even though I couldn't speak Thai. I didn't understand anything they were saying but I knew exactly what was happening.
I think my favourite thing about doing conventions is the parents taking their kids to see their favourite drag idols, because open-minded, progressive parents are making such a change in the world right now. The more open-minded these kids are being raised, the more hope I have for the future.
When I'm doing an exaggerated character, I hope it's clear I don't think this is how women do, or should, act. There's aspects of Looney Tunes in drag. But there's something poignant about a man dressed as a woman, talking about gender. It can make you realize how similar the genders really are.
I hope people realize that drag queens and queer people, we're not just archetypes and stereotypes. We're human beings with a lot to share. And a drag queen doesn't have to just be a clown, she can also be like a cooking TV personality or like a DJ, or a talk-show host. We should be able to infiltrate TV everywhere.
Coming out as nonbinary was a response to a lot of criticism I got when it leaked that I'd be playing a nonbinary character on 'Steven Universe.' I never really had the words like nonbinary or gender fluid or gender nonconforming until after 'Drag Race' and that's when I first started identifying publicly as nonbinary.
Ever since I was a kid I just thought that women had the better outfits, women had the better hair, women got to wear makeup. I just got jealous of what women got to do onstage. You dress up a man and ultimately it's just a different variation on the same kind of suit. There's a whole wide world of what women wear onstage.
I can't speak for the Jewish population, but I attribute my sense of humor to the tragic moments of my life. The best way to overcome certain tragedies is to develop a thick skin and sense of humor about things. Of course, I am very politically conscious and careful about my comedy. But when I do push an envelope, it's with a purpose.