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"I've really embraced the straight bars and now the (mostly male) stand up comedy world in New York."īarbato says its been especially helpful for LGBTQ youth.
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That's opened up the comedy world for Chase. People now have a shorthand way to contextualize you - you're less 'weird.'" "Being a drag queen before 'Drag Race' really was an exotic and freakish thing.
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"People are a lot less afraid and much more responsive," Chase tells CNBC Make It. Glace Chase, a New York drag queen who sings, says "Ru Paul's Drag Race" and its spinoff industry have also brought drag and gender nonconformity to the mainstream. The development is long overdue." The queens are the secret sauce From Hollywood to Madison Avenue, drag is becoming a recognized medium that can reward its artists not only with the recognition they deserve but also compensation, which they also deserve. "Management companies, booking agents, music releases, product launches, commercial campaigns and brand tie-ins have all emerged as aspects of this new drag industry," says Bailey. This year, the tour, which runs through November, goes to major cities in the U.S., Canada, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Ticket prices to the 2019 "Drag Race" Werq the World tour sell in the $50 range, depending on the city. "We book them more because there's more interest," he says.Īs for the "Drag Race" brand, World of Wonder (the show's production company, founded by Bailey and Barbato) puts on world tours in which contestants perform at theaters or concert halls. Maisani says in 2018 there was a 25 percent increase in bar sales compared with regular Thursday nights, and he booked more drag queens due to the popularity of the show. They root for various contestants they're quite involved." "It becomes an event people come specifically to watch with other fans. "Every Thursday, regulars come together and watch the show," he says of "Drag Race," where new episodes air on VH1. "'Drag Race' viewing parties have definitely become a communal experience," says Maisani, co-owner of gay bar Club Cumming (with actor Alan Cumming) in the East Village and owner of Atlas Social Club in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York. To name a few, Club Cumming and Atlas Social Club in New York, Palace Bar in Miami, Hamburger Mary's in West Hollywood and Roscoe's in Chicago have all had "Drag Race" events. "The show and the queens' growing and deserved success has turbocharged an entire industry," says Bailey.Įven before DragCon, "Drag Race" created a boon for gay nightlife, especially in New York and LA, increasing sales at bars, lounges and clubs that offer "Drag Race" viewing parties when the show airs, as The Economist reported. In addition to Emmys, in 2010 the show won Outstanding Reality Program at the GLAAD Media Awards, for fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBTQ community and surrounding issues. The show features contestants outside of their drag clothes, talking about personal hardships like being unaccepted in society or their family. Last year, RuPaul Charles won his third Emmy for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program.Īs RuPaul writes in his 2010 book, "Workin' It! RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style," drag is "sarcastic spoof on culture, which allows us to laugh at ourselves, but in a way that is inclusive of everyone."īut in its decade on the air (the season 11 finale aired Thursday), it's not only entertained, it has also helped introduce much of America to drag and its community. In September 2017, it won its ninth Emmy, and the season 10 finale in June on VH1 had a record 527,000 viewers in the important 18-to-49-year-old demographic. The reality show has achieved both a mainstream and cult following. Each week, up to 14 drag queens compete with runway looks and performance in challenges (like acting and dancing) as well as a lip sync battle (to decide which of the two bottom contestants is eliminated), all to crown a winner who gets a $100,000 prize. When "RuPaul's Drag Race" debuted in 2009 on Logo, it was meant to be a fun way - loosely based on reality show "America's Next Top Model" - to "celebrate the art of drag," according to RuPaul, who hosts and is also now an executive producer.