Speaker 1: My dad. He is just an example of somebody that
Speaker 1: you can't understand how anybody could not love their child
Speaker 1: for who they are, Like, Yeah, my dad is definitely
Speaker 1: that person's he's a superhero. He really is.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to separate bathrooms.
Speaker 3: We would like to acknowledge the Gadigor people of the
Speaker 3: Eora nation, the traditional custodians of this land, and pay
Speaker 3: our respects to the elders.
Speaker 2: Both past and present. I'm Cam Daddo, I'm Ali Daddow.
Speaker 2: Are you ready for this?
Speaker 4: I am Yeah. Pnaconda Hanakonda and you heard it correct
Speaker 4: with a huh.
Speaker 3: Hannakonda has been dazzling audiences around the globe for over
Speaker 3: fifteen years.
Speaker 2: She was recently runner up on.
Speaker 3: The critically acclaimed BBC series RuPaul's Drag Race UK versus.
Speaker 2: Of the World. Hannah was representing Australia, that's.
Speaker 4: Right, on a global scale, competing against queens from across
Speaker 4: the world. This was all possible, of course, due to
Speaker 4: her impeccable showing on the stand original series RuPaul's Drag
Speaker 4: Race down Under season two, where Hannah was also a
Speaker 4: runner up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but she's a winner in our She absolutely is
Speaker 3: so a little about Hannah. After conquering the Perth drag scene,
Speaker 3: she took a leap of faith across the Nullybor to
Speaker 3: make her sparkly mark in the big Smoke of Sydney.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like a reverse.
Speaker 4: Priscilla. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. She's the only queen to
Speaker 4: ever win both the Rising Star and the Entertainer of
Speaker 4: the Year at the Drag Industry Variety Awards in the
Speaker 4: same year.
Speaker 3: Hannah has produced and performed shows at prominent venues all
Speaker 3: across Australia and now globally, of course, recently dazzling audiences.
Speaker 2: In the UK, the USA and the Philippines.
Speaker 4: She's got an undying love of the art of drag
Speaker 4: and she it's just seen her flourish into a starlet
Speaker 4: like no other. I love that there's no stopping this
Speaker 4: magical queen as she continues to extend her reign onto
Speaker 4: more stages and of course into more hearts, and I
Speaker 4: have a feeling she's going to step into your heart
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the bathroom, Hannah Conda.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the bathroom, Hannah Conder.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you for having that. I'm so excited to
Speaker 1: be in your bathroom. You like my legs, so they
Speaker 1: are sexy, sexy legs.
Speaker 4: His legs have been in heels before when you did
Speaker 4: the Rocky Horpe. It's a show.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: Yes, you have to wear in fact, I might actually
Speaker 3: repost that on my Instagram.
Speaker 2: Someone said, what do you do in your dressing room?
Speaker 1: And there as me in my high heels and fish nets,
Speaker 1: feeling but they're good. It's just like it's like a
Speaker 1: nice exercise as well for the legs, like you, you know,
Speaker 1: because you're like when I'm wearing heels, I'm in them
Speaker 1: sometimes fourteen hours, so you kind of get your calves
Speaker 1: going and it's all everything aches and hurts. You don't
Speaker 1: want to see the dogs, honestly, they are disgusting.
Speaker 4: You are probably more comfortable, and you could probably run
Speaker 4: in heels better than I could walk in heels. I
Speaker 4: wou'd imagine you're probably.
Speaker 1: In the more than I am. Yes, yeah I can.
Speaker 2: I can.
Speaker 1: I've had a lot of practice running in heels. Plus
Speaker 1: we also have to like we're dancing in them as well.
Speaker 1: And where when I, you know, started doing drag, I
Speaker 1: was always told we had to wear the big clear
Speaker 1: stripper heels and that's what we trained in for dancing.
Speaker 1: And they're like six or seven inches and they're with
Speaker 1: a mandatory shoe for drag dancing.
Speaker 4: Good god.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So they've got a platform at the front.
Speaker 1: Yeh, yeah, they've got a big platform at the front.
Speaker 1: And then then but they're all clear. They look awful
Speaker 1: and look like I called them the nutbag like peanut
Speaker 1: bag or nutbag shoes because your toes and stockings, like
Speaker 1: they look so gross hanging out at the end of
Speaker 1: a plastic class shoes like sort of dried stuff. Yeah, yeah, gross,
Speaker 1: And it's like I hate them, but they were what
Speaker 1: you had to wear, and I ate shit so many times.
Speaker 1: Oh can I swear by the way.
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, we're the toilet mate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, good Where all the fun things happen.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of shit that happened the beginning of
Speaker 4: your of your story and connection to drag. How did
Speaker 4: you get into it? Where did you discover it?
Speaker 1: So? I, well, was it? Actually? When I think about
Speaker 1: this quite often, because you know, I've been doing drag
Speaker 1: professionally now for about fifteen years, and I started in
Speaker 1: Perth and but then I but I actually probably dabbled
Speaker 1: when I was like a teenager in high school. I
Speaker 1: went to an all boys Catholic school and we did
Speaker 1: like a play. It was The Lord of the Rings
Speaker 1: in fifteen minutes, okay, and I played Gladriel.
Speaker 4: Thank God?
Speaker 1: So yeah, which hello? And I remember my mom and
Speaker 1: I we went to an op shop and we bought
Speaker 1: like this white nightgown and this like you know, blonde wig.
Speaker 1: And then I had these soccer balls that my dad
Speaker 1: got from a Rod Stewart concert, because you know how
Speaker 1: Rod Stewart kicks out soccer balls in the concert. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my dad's got like a ton. My dad's a Rod
Speaker 1: Stewart super fan, Like he used to write for the
Speaker 1: Smile of magazine and stuff like it's wild. My dad
Speaker 1: is camp. I love it. But anyway, I use these
Speaker 1: soccer balls as my boobs. And so I was fifteen
Speaker 1: and like I was, you know, dressing up and doing
Speaker 1: I did Gladriel starring role. We'll look into the mirror,
Speaker 1: what do you see? Like it was quite camp, you know.
Speaker 1: I was like I always wanted to eat Cate Blanchett.
Speaker 1: But then I dressed up with you know, a kid.
Speaker 1: I loved dressing up. I had a purple afro wig
Speaker 1: and like little clip clop you know, those plastic two
Speaker 1: dollars shop heels.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we called them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we called them the clip clup shoes.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I had them as a kid. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I've always dabbled in the art of dressing up, but
Speaker 1: I only just cemented it when I turned eighteen and
Speaker 1: I started going out and sort of became friends with
Speaker 1: a little gay that had just started doing drag. And
Speaker 1: then when you become friends with someone that starts doing drag,
Speaker 1: you become their bitch. And so I was carrying the
Speaker 1: bags around. Yeah, yeah, carrying the I was the drag bitch.
Speaker 1: So I was carrying their bags, and you know, coming
Speaker 1: to all the shows and standing at the front of
Speaker 1: any props come off, I'd be grabbing them and then
Speaker 1: and their name was Ruby, and they were like, you
Speaker 1: should give drag a go, and I was like, oh, nah,
Speaker 1: too gay for me, not for me. I don't really
Speaker 1: want to do that. And she's like, no, but you
Speaker 1: did theater and stuff like you would have fun. So
Speaker 1: I said one night, I'll do it one night only
Speaker 1: at the Court's Amateur Drag Night on a Wednesday night. Now,
Speaker 1: was this in w I wa at the court in Perth.
Speaker 1: So I was like, all right, I'll do it one night.
Speaker 1: So she put me into drag and went up there
Speaker 1: and I did my first number. I did wear My
Speaker 1: Kiss by the Sugar Babes. It's an album track from
Speaker 1: their Thing. But I did the number wear My Kiss
Speaker 1: because I wanted to tell a guy that I liked him.
Speaker 1: And he was front row of the show. So when
Speaker 1: it said where my Kiss, I went up and I
Speaker 1: kissed him on the cheek. Yeah. Yeah, And I was
Speaker 1: for him and he was like standing there like and
Speaker 1: I was like, it didn't work out. It didn't work out.
Speaker 1: You know, it did not work out. No, he was like, no,
Speaker 1: he was he was a he was a player, he
Speaker 1: was he was just a tease. He liked the attention
Speaker 1: and anyway, I just you know, that didn't work out.
Speaker 1: But the drag did. I just fell in love with
Speaker 1: it and was kind of like and it's like an addiction,
Speaker 1: to be honest. You know, you start like you buy
Speaker 1: one thing and then you're buying make up, and then
Speaker 1: you got two wigs and three wigs, and you know,
Speaker 1: it was all under my bed in a plastic tub.
Speaker 2: And then hiding there, or it.
Speaker 1: Was hiding there for a little bit. Yeah, just because
Speaker 1: I was like, I didn't like, I didn't really know
Speaker 1: how my parents would take it, and so they didn't care.
Speaker 1: I was a homo like that did not matter at all,
Speaker 1: but they I thought the dragon might be pushing it
Speaker 1: and anyway, kind of like the more I fell in
Speaker 1: love with it and I started realizing there was ways
Speaker 1: to make money out of it, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe I want to do this like and explore it.
Speaker 1: So I spoke to my parents about it, and you know,
Speaker 1: they said, we don't really understand it, but we'll give
Speaker 1: you a year. If you maintain your retail job and
Speaker 1: you're paying you know, paying your way, and you start
Speaker 1: earning money from it, you know, we will support you.
Speaker 1: And I did it. In six months. I was working
Speaker 1: and you know, started doing shows, and my mom and
Speaker 1: dad really sort of understood it when they came and
Speaker 1: soare a show, right, And so I invited them to
Speaker 1: come along and then they're like, oh wow, this is
Speaker 1: like we didn't get it, but now we at it
Speaker 1: and we love it. And now you know, fifteen years on,
Speaker 1: they will come to any show that they can. When
Speaker 1: they're here. They love it. Yeah, my grandparents come along.
Speaker 1: Yeah it's nice. I'm very very lucky, you know. I
Speaker 1: know I'm in a rare camp that I have a
Speaker 1: great supportive network. But yeah, I didn't tell my grandma
Speaker 1: for a while. My grandma and my pop. I didn't
Speaker 1: tell them because I didn't want to kill them, right,
Speaker 1: and my mom and dad weren't sure how it was
Speaker 1: going to go. And so just before I moved to Sydney,
Speaker 1: and I'd been doing Dragon about four years, five years
Speaker 1: by this point, and I was just about to move
Speaker 1: to Sydney, and I told my Nan and I did
Speaker 1: a little PowerPoint presentation on the computer with photos and
Speaker 1: you know, so they could see it. And my Nan
Speaker 1: the one thing she said that was negative was I
Speaker 1: looked fat in address. Thanks Nan. She wasn't lying, but
Speaker 1: it was that. And then she was just disappointed in
Speaker 1: me because she wanted to come to the shows. I
Speaker 1: deprived her of five years of being able to oh
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, so it really made me think as well, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, I always give people a chance, now, like
Speaker 1: you never know how someone is going to react, and
Speaker 1: the only way you can know that is if you
Speaker 1: give them the chance. It might be negative and it
Speaker 1: might not go the way you want it to, but
Speaker 1: I would rather them have the decision.
Speaker 3: You know, people often surprise you, don't they do They
Speaker 3: oft you make up your mind about what they're going
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 2: I like that that. I remember when we.
Speaker 3: Were living in the States, friends of ours would often
Speaker 3: say friends of mine would often not invite me out
Speaker 3: when they were going out to do.
Speaker 1: So, like, oh, you won't like it.
Speaker 2: One day I picked up one of them, I'll go,
Speaker 2: what's going on? Why don't you ask me? Oh, you
Speaker 2: wouldn't like it. We'll give me the chance.
Speaker 3: Yeah, get a chance to say no, at least tell me,
Speaker 3: you know, because I'm feeling like really excluded.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And it's that rejection feeling as well, because I
Speaker 1: feel like, oh, well, I'm not important enough to be
Speaker 1: in that, and that can hurt sometimes and maybe influence
Speaker 1: their decision of how they feel about something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a very interesting life lesson that moment
Speaker 1: that I told my grandparents.
Speaker 4: Did they help you? Did Mom and Dad help you
Speaker 4: come up with your stage name? Or was that all you?
Speaker 1: That was all me? So it was well, actually it
Speaker 1: was a drunk irish man. Have you been to Perth?
Speaker 4: Yes, Cam spent a lot more time. I've only been
Speaker 4: there briefly, but.
Speaker 2: You have been happened there?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so when So there's two gay bars in Perth.
Speaker 1: It's the Court and then there's Connections and they're in
Speaker 1: north Bridge.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so making a connection all the time, Pats.
Speaker 1: It's the best place to make connections. But there's the
Speaker 1: Arts Precinct that runs in between and you have to
Speaker 1: walk from the Court to Connections. It was the migration
Speaker 1: every Wednesday night. You'd start at the amateur Dragon Night
Speaker 1: and then you'd walk down to Connections for what was
Speaker 1: happening on a Wednesday night. Then was the lesbian mud wrestling.
Speaker 2: Right, it was there too.
Speaker 1: Ah, the most iconic of it. I'm so devastated it's gone.
Speaker 1: It was just all the incredible lesbians getting their kid
Speaker 1: off and wrestling in pools of mud for money. Wild.
Speaker 1: I loved it. So you got So that was the migration.
Speaker 1: And so before I did Drag, we were walking down
Speaker 1: doing our regular Wednesday night migration and this drunk Irish
Speaker 1: man just stumbled up to me. My friends, and he's
Speaker 1: just like, you're an anaconda and I was like, what,
Speaker 1: so confused, no context, just a very random comment, and
Speaker 1: we all, being a little bit drunken eighteen, thought it
Speaker 1: was really funny that night, so we just kept calling
Speaker 1: me that. I kept calling me that for the whole night.
Speaker 1: And then when the idea of drag came around, I
Speaker 1: was given the name Rosy Cheeks, but with an exit
Speaker 1: the end. It just didn't feel right. That's yeah, it
Speaker 1: is cute. And it came out the fact that I
Speaker 1: got when I got drunk, I used to get rosas
Speaker 1: in my cheeks, you know, so I'd have these big
Speaker 1: rosy cheeks, and I was like, it feels a little
Speaker 1: bit hurtful, to be honest. So I was like, why
Speaker 1: can't I be like at a conduct like the guy
Speaker 1: called me And they're like, oh, yeah, that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: There's no Anna, and I was like, actually, I don't
Speaker 1: want to be Anna. I want to be Hannah because
Speaker 1: I just I don't know, I just felt I don't know,
Speaker 1: I just felt right, and it just stuck. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I've been had a conda the whole time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And does Hannah does Hannah's well Hannah's costumes because
Speaker 3: clearly You're not in Hannah. Hannah's costumes.
Speaker 1: I'm a beautiful, glamorous woman on the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, is there snake skin part of this?
Speaker 1: But it was there was a lot of that because
Speaker 1: I was quite goffy drag queen when I started, Yeah,
Speaker 1: like dark hair, and I had I did have snake skin.
Speaker 1: I did a whole photo shit with snakes actually, you know,
Speaker 1: really playing into that snake sort of theme. But then
Speaker 1: as I got older, I just became this like blonde,
Speaker 1: fairy princess kind of looking thing. I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: the complete opposite. And snakes and darkness enter it every
Speaker 1: now and then, but now it's just very colorful and
Speaker 1: broad and bright and yeah, I don't want to ever
Speaker 1: box myself.
Speaker 4: You don't have to.
Speaker 2: I've heard you have a great asp.
Speaker 1: Oh you can't, did you know what? And look? Then
Speaker 1: another reason that I kind of chose Hannah conduct was
Speaker 1: that it's French. Yeah for Big Snake, don't google it.
Speaker 2: Just trust me.
Speaker 4: Your partner's not here today. Tell me what his name is?
Speaker 1: Jack, Jack Jack.
Speaker 4: We do want to talk a little bit about we
Speaker 4: got it.
Speaker 1: It's about several relationships.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've got to talk about and Hannah Jack Hannah,
Speaker 1: Jack Hannah. I know, I know, it's as wild talking
Speaker 1: and I.
Speaker 4: Meet him as Hannah or how when did you meet?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So he was. I met Jack in Sydney. He's
Speaker 1: from England, He's from Newcastles, a Jordie and we've been
Speaker 1: together now seven years. I believe it's bordering like Vergin
Speaker 1: on eight. And he was working at the midnight shift
Speaker 1: on Oxford Street. I was a bartender and I was
Speaker 1: doing shows and one of the glass years after the show,
Speaker 1: was like, oh, there's a British bartender downstairs and he's
Speaker 1: got a crush on you. And at the time there
Speaker 1: was three of them. And I was going through what
Speaker 1: I call my hoe face when I moved to Sydney.
Speaker 1: So I was, you know, sampling all the wares and
Speaker 1: so I went I was like, oh, right, well I'll
Speaker 1: go figure out which one has the crush on me.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so it was like a mystery. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's three of them, let's see. It's like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: which man behind the schooner will be revealed?
Speaker 4: And you're off to a little visit to Queensland results up, Oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for like a match, you know, like, so I
Speaker 1: went down and I saw him and he's tall, but oh,
Speaker 1: jack on, there's so many innuendows with the two of us,
Speaker 1: it's a bit naughty. I love then the bush. Thank god,
Speaker 1: this is obviously this is perfect potty conversation without potty mouths.
Speaker 1: But he, yeah, he was there at the bar and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh hey, and just started sort of
Speaker 1: briefly chatting and we you know, I asked him to
Speaker 1: come over to my house and watch a movie because
Speaker 1: he was a backpacker who was doing his working holiday visa.
Speaker 1: So it's like, oh, you mustn't have a DVD player.
Speaker 1: You should cut my over friend watch a movie with me.
Speaker 1: And he was like yeah, sure. So we met up
Speaker 1: and I found out that night. I was like, so,
Speaker 1: how long did you have the crush on me? And
Speaker 1: he's like, I didn't have a crush on you, and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, so it turned out it was
Speaker 1: one of the other ones. It wasn't Jack. I just
Speaker 1: you know, I was laid eyes on Jack and I
Speaker 1: was like, all right, you'll do the man, yeah, And
Speaker 1: I thought it was just going to be a little fling,
Speaker 1: and I tried to make the move on the first
Speaker 1: date and he's like, oh no, no, He's like, I
Speaker 1: don't really do any of that for like ten dates. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like ten dates. That's a very annoying amount
Speaker 1: of date, yes, specific number. And I just I was like,
Speaker 1: you're you're only here for like a couple of months,
Speaker 1: Like why are we waiting? Why are we messing around?
Speaker 3: Like is his definition of a date could be could
Speaker 3: you've just dropped over for a coffee and then that's
Speaker 3: a date?
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, well that's what I started counting because I
Speaker 1: was like every time, yeah, yeah, every time I saw him, yeah,
Speaker 1: all of it, tallying it all up. Yeah and yeah.
Speaker 1: So then he we sort of started hanging out a
Speaker 1: bit and again got to like thirteen or fourteen dates,
Speaker 1: and we just had the greatest time, like just enjoying
Speaker 1: each other's company. But we knew that was kind of
Speaker 1: a time limit because he was going to Thailand and
Speaker 1: he didn't know if he was going to come back
Speaker 1: or whatever. And got to the time that he was
Speaker 1: leaving for Thailand, and I was all emotional. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, you can't leave. I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: and he's like, well, we'll see what happens if it's
Speaker 1: meant to be. It's meant to be. He goes away
Speaker 1: to Thailand. He's meant to be there for a couple
Speaker 1: of months, and I we were chatting on the phone
Speaker 1: and then we'd schedule like a couple of face times
Speaker 1: and whatnot. It was one day that we were meant
Speaker 1: to do a FaceTime call and he wasn't replying to me,
Speaker 1: and it was maybe thirteen fourteen hours, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: he hates me. It's all over. It's done. He's run
Speaker 1: off with someone in Thailand and it's all over. And
Speaker 1: the next thing, I get a text message and it's
Speaker 1: a photo of his suitcases out the front of not
Speaker 1: my apartment, but the apartment building up the road that
Speaker 1: he just forgot my apartment was. But the sentiment was
Speaker 1: there and he'd come back close. Yeah, so close. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah. So I run downstairs. I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: you know, and he's there with his bags and he
Speaker 1: moved in. And that was kind of like three months
Speaker 1: into like the whole experience. Yeah, it was very quick,
Speaker 1: you know, moving of the relationship, because you know, we'd
Speaker 1: obviously both started that it was something we valued and
Speaker 1: wanted and you know, being him, him being from the UK.
Speaker 1: We had to work out like visas and all of that.
Speaker 1: So we yeah, with three months of sort of seeing
Speaker 1: each other with a couple of weeks of him being
Speaker 1: in Thailand, and then he came back and we registered
Speaker 1: as a de facto couple and got into like we
Speaker 1: moved in together. We just went gung ho into it because.
Speaker 4: It's what a great decision by Jack.
Speaker 2: Yeah, marriage something or is it you happy with the
Speaker 2: way things.
Speaker 1: We're pretty comfortable to be fair, like being de facto
Speaker 1: and like registering your relationship is kind very much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not like a massive fan of weddings and marriages
Speaker 1: just because I've been you know, we're doing drag. You
Speaker 1: do a lot of Hen's nights and you see the
Speaker 1: other side. Yeah, And I'm like, oh, I want to
Speaker 1: spend money on this, Like I don't want to, Like
Speaker 1: I would love to. I could have loped. But you know,
Speaker 1: we could do a wedding if we go down to
Speaker 1: the thing, down to the registry office and you know,
Speaker 1: do that. I'm not like gearing up for a big
Speaker 1: wedding or anything like that. But then Jack surprised me.
Speaker 1: He said, if we do get married, he wants to
Speaker 1: have a bit of a party, and I was like,
Speaker 1: that's weird. I don't want any of that at all.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's just not been something we've been urgently
Speaker 1: thinking about. We're pretty content with how it's all running.
Speaker 2: And is Jack content? Well? Is does he get into
Speaker 2: drag as well?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, absolutely not. I put him into there's
Speaker 1: only room for one of us.
Speaker 4: But he ever dressed him up?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I did it once. I put him in drag once. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he actually looked really beautiful, So that's kind of
Speaker 1: why I don't want it to happen. But in competition, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but he would be a terrible dancer. He's very tall
Speaker 1: and lanky, and I've taught him how to have a
Speaker 1: bit of rhythm now so he can clap along to
Speaker 1: a beat and whatnot. But I just don't think the
Speaker 1: performing will be the strongest.
Speaker 3: So that's that's part of it. Like, you can, but
Speaker 3: he can get dressed up, just don't perform.
Speaker 1: Jack, Yeah, but I don't want. But the only way
Speaker 1: he get dressed up is if I do it for him.
Speaker 1: And I barely like getting myself into drag anymore, let
Speaker 1: alone doing it for someone else. So why is that?
Speaker 1: You know, Like now it's just like for me, it's
Speaker 1: you know, work, and like like there used to be
Speaker 1: a time where I love getting into drag and going
Speaker 1: out for fun, but now I'm like, once i'm in,
Speaker 1: I consider myself in drag like a like a car
Speaker 1: park meter. You know, you put the money in and
Speaker 1: I will do the job, and once the meter's run out,
Speaker 1: I'm done and I'm out. Like and you know, and
Speaker 1: if they want to top it up, and they want to,
Speaker 1: you know, throw a few, you know, more bucks in
Speaker 1: the meter. I'll stay longer at your party and I'll
Speaker 1: do whatever you want. But if there's no money there anymore,
Speaker 1: I'm out.
Speaker 4: How big is your makeup kit?
Speaker 1: It's now desk, a desk, It's a full thing. And
Speaker 1: yeah big, yeah, I've got like tons of makeup and
Speaker 1: then half of that I don't even like touch you.
Speaker 1: Like we're creatures of habit drag queens and we use
Speaker 1: the same things over and over again, will buy everything
Speaker 1: because we love it. But then you end up sticking
Speaker 1: with the things that you know work.
Speaker 4: You know, women are the same.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fun, it's what we do.
Speaker 4: I know, the pretty right and then the latest and
Speaker 4: the greatest, and then you go, I think I really
Speaker 4: like that.
Speaker 2: I do the same with golf a tire.
Speaker 1: It's exactly the same.
Speaker 2: I'll buy, I'll get.
Speaker 3: It all, and then I'll only wear three different things.
Speaker 1: You know what golf tire is, Actually it's dragged, to
Speaker 1: be honest, it really is. You're doing drag every time
Speaker 1: you go out.
Speaker 2: And I get it ready the night before.
Speaker 1: You know what, You're better than drag now because we'll
Speaker 1: find whatever's on the floor and put it on.
Speaker 4: Came will go out for dinner and just like you know,
Speaker 4: tracky back, tracky decks and a T shirt, a pair
Speaker 4: of songs.
Speaker 1: But the golf we gotta dress up.
Speaker 4: It's matching. So it's everything is pristine.
Speaker 1: That's very I love that.
Speaker 2: I feel the better, you know, the better I feel,
Speaker 2: the better I'm going to play.
Speaker 1: Well, that's true. So I look the same drag, Yeah
Speaker 1: it is, and ru Paul said mother ru Paul. She
Speaker 1: said that she always wears suits because you dress the
Speaker 1: way that you want the world to see. Sure, and
Speaker 1: you know when you see someone in a suit, you go,
Speaker 1: oh there, She's like they want to give you money
Speaker 1: when you're in a suit, and I think there's something
Speaker 1: to it. I just looked terrible in a suit. So
Speaker 1: that's why no one wants to give you money. They're like,
Speaker 1: go away. But when I'm in drag though.
Speaker 4: So you had two runs on is that right?
Speaker 1: Two runs on Drag Race?
Speaker 4: What's that experience?
Speaker 1: Like? It is the weirdest, most intense, beautiful thing that
Speaker 1: I've ever done.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The first time we did it, we filmed in New Zealand.
Speaker 1: We're like in a tin shed, like a tiny little
Speaker 1: tin shed. But it was like my first time in
Speaker 1: the world of reality TV seeing how it's all made.
Speaker 1: And for me walking into that tin shed it felt
Speaker 1: huge and I was like, wow, this is amazing. And
Speaker 1: you know, you start learning about the secrets of television
Speaker 1: and you know you don't want to know, you don't
Speaker 1: want to once the once you go behind the curtain,
Speaker 1: it changes the way different it is. And I really
Speaker 1: struggle watching it now, yeah, because I know exactly what
Speaker 1: they're going through. You can see all the little bits
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, that's there's some fiddling and some
Speaker 1: you know, treachery, yeah, and stuff, and it's but it's
Speaker 1: fascinating and I loved every experience, and I realized in
Speaker 1: doing Down Under like it's not a competition. It is
Speaker 1: a TV show made to entertain people in the guys
Speaker 1: of being a competition. And if you do good TV
Speaker 1: and you work hard at making sure that you've got
Speaker 1: a moment, they're not going to get rid of you.
Speaker 1: You know, that's going to you know, because you make
Speaker 1: good TV. So that's what I learned. And then going back,
Speaker 1: we were in the BBC we at the what was it,
Speaker 1: what's the big studio in the UK, Pine Wood Pine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we were just across from the Double O seven studio. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was white and they were filming Snow White for
Speaker 1: Disney at the time. So we were out there in
Speaker 1: half drag, like having cities and chatting in like half
Speaker 1: drag while they're people walking around in renaissance costumes. Like
Speaker 1: it was like fabulous and it was in the middle
Speaker 1: of winter it was freezing, but like the UK, going
Speaker 1: to that studio, I realized that our tin shed in
Speaker 1: the in New Zealand compared not even close to it.
Speaker 1: It was like just humongous and it was it blew
Speaker 1: my mind. I nearly like died at how big it was.
Speaker 1: But the second time, I went in so much more
Speaker 1: prepared in terms of understanding what I was walking into.
Speaker 1: So you don't have that initial shock of you know,
Speaker 1: walking into a room and just having fifty cameras looking
Speaker 1: at you and going, oh my god, what do I
Speaker 1: do now?
Speaker 2: I could.
Speaker 1: I just knew what to do, and I felt more
Speaker 1: natural and I loved it, and yeah, it was so
Speaker 1: much fun. And there was drag from all over the world,
Speaker 1: so we had like the Philippines, France, Spain, the UK obviously, Australia, America.
Speaker 1: All this melting pot of all different types of drag
Speaker 1: and just learning about each other was just my favorite thing.
Speaker 1: I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: Can I ask you a question, are there are there
Speaker 2: any if you ever met a straight guy? There is?
Speaker 1: There's there are straight men that do drag. We've got
Speaker 1: a couple here in Sydney actually, But then there was
Speaker 1: one that was on drag Race in the US named
Speaker 1: Mattie Morphosis. And there are Mattie Morphosis and they're a
Speaker 1: straight man that does does drag. Yeah, it's a thing
Speaker 1: like a drag is for everyone. Like I hate that
Speaker 1: sometimes our community can get a little bit like gate
Speaker 1: keeping with it. I think the power of drag is
Speaker 1: for everyone to experience at least once, Like there is
Speaker 1: a level of just allowing yourself to just be free.
Speaker 1: That's so much fun and playing dressing up what you know,
Speaker 1: there's nothing you should be shamed about it.
Speaker 2: And this is the.
Speaker 3: Thing in today's day and age, with labeling and gender
Speaker 3: and everyone. I think people genuinely want to be respectful. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, people genuinely do so, then am I crossing lines?
Speaker 2: Is it okay?
Speaker 3: These sort of questions and get asked often before you
Speaker 3: have that that innate response you know that I just
Speaker 3: want to do it. Yeah, you can't do that because
Speaker 3: you're going to offend.
Speaker 2: But blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: So so that's why, that's why I asked you that
Speaker 3: why I'm tentative with it, because it's like, is this appropriate?
Speaker 1: I think, I'm I'm probably you know, this could be
Speaker 1: a controversial statement, but I hate the way and I
Speaker 1: use the word hate because I hate it. I hate
Speaker 1: that these structures that people are trying to put in
Speaker 1: place make us scared of each other and scared of
Speaker 1: experiencing someone else's existence, because that makes you more more
Speaker 1: empathetic to someone else and makes you, you know, like
Speaker 1: when you learn about someone's experience, it just grows you
Speaker 1: as a human because you can you can go, oh, no,
Speaker 1: you know, I understand that, and even if you didn't
Speaker 1: understand it before, now you do, and it's just an
Speaker 1: extra layer onto you. And I just hate that we
Speaker 1: are putting all these rules and restrictions on everyone that
Speaker 1: actually isolates us from each other. Yeah, whereas you know,
Speaker 1: you should be able to play with all these things
Speaker 1: and dabble and learn about each other. And you know,
Speaker 1: the same goes with like, you know, I don't feel
Speaker 1: like if you make fun of someone's culture, that's a
Speaker 1: different thing. But if you want to genuinely learn about
Speaker 1: someone's culture, you should be able to do that with
Speaker 1: someone so it enriches you as a person, you know.
Speaker 1: I just feel like that. Yeah, I just don't like
Speaker 1: the fear that it's puts in people and the fact
Speaker 1: that you know, you even said, oh, I don't want
Speaker 1: to say the wrong thing. We should say the wrong thing.
Speaker 1: We should be able to have the grace to say
Speaker 1: the wrong thing. And if someone goes, hey, that's not correct,
Speaker 1: then you go, oh cool, no worries. Yeah, thanks to
Speaker 1: letting me know, yeah, and then we move on. How
Speaker 1: do you learn if you don't make mistakes? And like
Speaker 1: it's so counterintuitive and I don't really understand how we
Speaker 1: got to that point, because you don't learn unless you
Speaker 1: make those errors in life, because then you can fix
Speaker 1: it and carry on beautifully. Shit, do you.
Speaker 4: Feel that mainstream media in Australia is to is partially
Speaker 4: to blame for that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think I think mainstream media is because it doesn't
Speaker 1: sometimes showcase a diverse palette of stories. I think they
Speaker 1: very sometimes streamline into certain things. And like, even from
Speaker 1: my experience, like after doing Drag Race, I thought we
Speaker 1: kind of get sold this idea that you get you know,
Speaker 1: pushed into the world of you know, mainstream media and
Speaker 1: whatever and you can go do other shows and you
Speaker 1: can be invited to these things and whatever. Honestly, it's
Speaker 1: sometimes it's like Diddley Squat, we get chat on and
Speaker 1: they would rather celebrate someone from maths then like us,
Speaker 1: who you know, can bring so many different talents and skills,
Speaker 1: Like we have so many facets to drag because we've
Speaker 1: had to produce ourselves for such a long time that
Speaker 1: we could bring all these wonderful things to a show
Speaker 1: or whatever, but we just never get invited. And then
Speaker 1: I was talking to an executive once that the actors
Speaker 1: and I was like, you know, I'd love to come
Speaker 1: on like I'm a celeb or do this or whatever,
Speaker 1: and Australia is not ready for that. But which I
Speaker 1: was like, are you joking? You know, because I was like,
Speaker 1: we grew up with Priscilla. You celebrate Priscilla all the time,
Speaker 1: you celebrated Dame Edna. Why why is it now we're
Speaker 1: all scared of drag? Yes, there could be controversy.
Speaker 2: It's his response.
Speaker 1: Oh, he was like just he just didn't care. It
Speaker 1: was he was like, on walk away from the crazy
Speaker 1: drag queen lady. But but like Australia is. I think
Speaker 1: Australia is ready. I just think they need to see it.
Speaker 1: If you're not going to see it, of course they're
Speaker 1: going to be a bit weird with it initially, but
Speaker 1: like once they humanize us and they see the person
Speaker 1: behind the drag, like they just realized we're people just
Speaker 1: getting on with life and trying to make you laugh
Speaker 1: and you know, make you happy.
Speaker 4: You'd be good on Google Box.
Speaker 1: I'd love to I don't have to do anything right now.
Speaker 1: To be honest, I'm separate bathrooms and live in my life.
Speaker 4: You've reached the pinnacle.
Speaker 1: It can only go down from here.
Speaker 3: I was just thinking, as you're talking about footy clubs, footy.
Speaker 2: Clubs, the community footy clubs.
Speaker 1: Have been doing and they have the men already like
Speaker 1: we've always it's so yeah, and it is and that's
Speaker 1: what it should be. That's what it should be. And
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it just becomes this whole big political thing
Speaker 1: and it doesn't need to be. And yeah, so it's
Speaker 1: been very very interesting. But I think also as well,
Speaker 1: like the second point of that is mainstream media, but
Speaker 1: also social media as well, like how social media now
Speaker 1: is a place where everybody has a place to put
Speaker 1: every single one of their thoughts, feelings and opinions. Yes,
Speaker 1: which yeah, I get it to a degree, but I
Speaker 1: think we also need to learn the restraint and sometimes
Speaker 1: all those things need to go out into the ether. Yes,
Speaker 1: And I don't know, I don't think we can put
Speaker 1: the lid back on that now container now that's out.
Speaker 1: But so now it's just going to be. We just
Speaker 1: got to manage it. And you realize, like honestly, the
Speaker 1: things that happen online don't really translate into real world
Speaker 1: to be honest, Like when I go to conventions like
Speaker 1: we do drag Con, which is big drag queen convention.
Speaker 1: You could be absolutely hated online, but you will have
Speaker 1: a line at your booth and people come and by
Speaker 1: your merch. So you just realize that translation. Yes, it's
Speaker 1: not that. It never it never really has real world effects.
Speaker 1: It's all just noise and avoid And I've really started
Speaker 1: to make sure I focus on that. If things go
Speaker 1: a little bit haywire online, it doesn't like that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean anything. This does not mean anything. This can get
Speaker 1: turned off. What happens the best. The only thing that
Speaker 1: matters is interactions like this. We're in a room together,
Speaker 1: we're talking to people, like that's the stuff that matters,
Speaker 1: you know, well said, well, thank you. I'm just a
Speaker 1: wise old hour.
Speaker 4: We have a quote here from your dad.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, and I love this and it.
Speaker 4: Was in a response to a really shitty article and
Speaker 4: hateful woman.
Speaker 1: I remember her.
Speaker 4: Do you want to read it, honey? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Oh my of it.
Speaker 4: It's so beautiful.
Speaker 3: Because this is going to I think because we have
Speaker 3: a son, River who's been dressing in Well, he hasn't,
Speaker 3: he hasn't kept up kept with her, but he certainly
Speaker 3: for all of his boyhood he dressed as princesses and
Speaker 3: loves and so I think this is going to hit me.
Speaker 2: So I don't know if I can read it, because
Speaker 2: I haven't ready it. No, I'm going to take a
Speaker 2: big deep Breathay, why not? Okay, Yeah, this is okay.
Speaker 3: My son is Hannahconda, a drag queen, and a very
Speaker 3: good one at that. He is a beautiful human being
Speaker 3: who has dedicated much of his life to his craft,
Speaker 3: his family, and above all, his community. I too, will
Speaker 3: do whatever it takes political posting mama to protect my children.
Speaker 3: But my job as a parent is to give them
Speaker 3: a good grounding in their life and to be supportive
Speaker 3: of their endeavors, to lead by example guide them to
Speaker 3: becoming good citizens in our wider community. I have seen
Speaker 3: firsthand and way too often, the terrible sadness that exists
Speaker 3: with young people who are not accepted by their own
Speaker 3: families because they are merely gay. If you really want
Speaker 3: to make a difference in the world we live in,
Speaker 3: start by being a nice person.
Speaker 1: Oh that's your dad, that's your dad. Dad. He is
Speaker 1: he is like he I have said it before. He's
Speaker 1: my like he is my my, my hero. Both my
Speaker 1: mum and my dad are very very called them new age.
Speaker 1: We we'd like when we grew up, we did like reiki,
Speaker 1: we did hands on healing as a family. You know,
Speaker 1: we've always been like like things were going wrong with
Speaker 1: like mental health or whatever, we'd be like therapy was
Speaker 1: a big thing too. We're a very open family. We
Speaker 1: talk about a lot of stuff. And I think that
Speaker 1: sometimes gets Jack a little bit because I'm a talker,
Speaker 1: I'm an open book and we and like our family
Speaker 1: is very very open and like Jack sometimes goes, oh
Speaker 1: my god, just you know, this is a lot of feelings.
Speaker 4: He's also British, it is also.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're very reserved and they don't really do that.
Speaker 1: But my dad, he he is just an example of
Speaker 1: somebody that you know, can't understand how anybody could not
Speaker 1: love their child for who they are. Like they take
Speaker 1: us where they guide us and that and that's the
Speaker 1: fundamental lesson he's always taught us is that we just
Speaker 1: we pay our taxes and we be good people. Like
Speaker 1: that is it?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 1: He said, you could have nothing, but as long as
Speaker 1: you smile and be a good person, that's all I
Speaker 1: want from my children. And I think that's a really
Speaker 1: important lesson and something.
Speaker 4: What else is there?
Speaker 1: You know, Like people want to work and be around
Speaker 1: nice people and that are easy to easy to be around.
Speaker 1: And my dad is definitely that person. He's Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: a superhero, he really is. When he wrote that as well,
Speaker 1: like it just I didn't know he was doing that,
Speaker 1: and oh just melted my heart because I was. I
Speaker 1: wasn't because in drag you over the years, there's been
Speaker 1: so many things staring us, but we get a thick skin,
Speaker 1: like we've very thick skin. So even though that, you know,
Speaker 1: because I was getting death threats, so I was getting
Speaker 1: all these horrible things sent to me, and I just
Speaker 1: didn't let it face me because you just carry on.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But my dad he was like, no, I'm not standing
Speaker 1: for this because he has seen when he's come to
Speaker 1: the bars, how many kids deserted by their family and
Speaker 1: they become like surrogate parents. Yeah, and they sit there
Speaker 1: and they talk and they have all these like you know,
Speaker 1: kids all around them, just sitting and enjoying and they
Speaker 1: love it. There's a photo of them that goes on
Speaker 1: their on their TV at home with them and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: there are leather daddy friends that they've met. There's just
Speaker 1: these old older couple that live in Sidney and there
Speaker 1: their the leather daddies. We love our leather daddy friends. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but they just you know nothing, And I feel like
Speaker 1: that's very similar to the two of you. It's like,
Speaker 1: I think your essence is very much the same as
Speaker 1: what my parents are, and you know, you just take
Speaker 1: people where they're at and just yeah, you know who's
Speaker 1: just being a good person. And you both do that
Speaker 1: and I feel like you'd get along with my mom.
Speaker 4: And I love that already.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: They're fun. They're real fun.
Speaker 4: I always I think I think the first time I
Speaker 4: saw this was in America. I think I'm sure it
Speaker 4: happens here too. But when they would do when they
Speaker 4: were there was some like gay run or something through
Speaker 4: West Hollywood. There was a gay marathon, and there was
Speaker 4: this mum who would she was like free.
Speaker 1: Free mom, hugs. Yes, I'm like I want to be
Speaker 1: there yet takes with you.
Speaker 4: It was so I'm like, come to me. I will absolutely,
Speaker 4: I just think it's such a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1: So it's just just such a kind gesture and it
Speaker 1: changes someone's day and experience, and like just so simple
Speaker 1: kindnesses that I think we sometimes forget just a smile
Speaker 1: at someone, you know, it's weird. Sometimes some people don't
Speaker 1: know how to take it and they go, oh my god,
Speaker 1: what are you why are you looking at me?
Speaker 4: But yeah, you know something about the drag community that
Speaker 4: people might not realize.
Speaker 1: I think that people like you know, because I think
Speaker 1: it gets politicized a lot. Now, yes, there's probably a
Speaker 1: lot of things, but this is the one that I
Speaker 1: feel like I want to focus on. I think it
Speaker 1: gets politicized a lot, you know, with the drag queens,
Speaker 1: story time and yeah, you know all of that, and they,
Speaker 1: like conservatives will look at that like we're trying to
Speaker 1: indoctrinate children into the gay gender and all that. I
Speaker 1: was like, I never got indoctrinated. I went to an
Speaker 1: all boys Catholic school. At me. Now, hey, come on,
Speaker 1: like that. There was no drag wuens around when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, But like I wish there was, because
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know, just so encourages that level
Speaker 1: of being able to play and dress up and use
Speaker 1: your imagination, which I do get scared for young kids
Speaker 1: these days, when they're so ingrained in like technology and everything.
Speaker 1: That idea of just being able to mold something out
Speaker 1: of the things in front of you and play how
Speaker 1: important that is. And I think drag keeps that alive
Speaker 1: a little bit. And the idea of exploring like different
Speaker 1: colors and shapes and textures and like it's it's it's
Speaker 1: a it's it's fabulous way to like expand your mind.
Speaker 1: So you know, we get this. You know, we're trying
Speaker 1: to groom kids and we're pedophiles and all of this.
Speaker 1: We get told this all the time by conservative media,
Speaker 1: whereas reality is it's never that we're very much dressed appropriately.
Speaker 1: If we're doing a drag story time, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to go in pair of hooker boots and whatever. I'm
Speaker 1: going in a big princess gown and looking like Elsa,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like we know what we're doing,
Speaker 1: but I just forge. I think people forget that while
Speaker 1: it's political, sometimes the most political thing you can do
Speaker 1: is to laugh and ensure yourself, because that is a
Speaker 1: reprieve from the madness of the world. And that recharges
Speaker 1: your batteries to then go out and do the hard stuff,
Speaker 1: because you can't be stuck in that all the time
Speaker 1: in the like you know, the activism and the wallowing
Speaker 1: and realizing the world is not the greatest at the moment,
Speaker 1: but you know, but there are pockets of fun and
Speaker 1: that's what like. Even like, I was watching a documentary
Speaker 1: on like, uh it was baking the in World War
Speaker 1: Two and yeah, yeah, but my like it was about
Speaker 1: how they would cook and do baking in like in
Speaker 1: the bunkers and at Christmas, and they did a big
Speaker 1: Christmas dinner in like it was a modern show, but
Speaker 1: they went back to show you how they would do it.
Speaker 1: So they took a whole family down into a World
Speaker 1: War two bunker in England and they will cooked this
Speaker 1: Christmas dinner and they put made decorations and they made
Speaker 1: little presents and it was an it was an experience
Speaker 1: for everyone that was there. And they said that the
Speaker 1: most important thing was that even though the war was
Speaker 1: raging above them, here it's Christmas and we're having a
Speaker 1: break to celebrate each other and just be fun. And
Speaker 1: that just sticks with me. I was like, well, it's true,
Speaker 1: you know, even in the darkest of times, those reprieves
Speaker 1: are what keeps us going absolutely, you know, and I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: we forget that that's sometimes a bit important. So the
Speaker 1: fun part of drag, you know, and that reprieve from
Speaker 1: the noise and laughing and just you know, making fun
Speaker 1: of the world. I suppose it's quite powerful.
Speaker 4: I have a dear friend who is she's the CEO
Speaker 4: of a domestic violence charity, Rise Up, and she deals in,
Speaker 4: you know, in victims and survivor stories day in and
Speaker 4: day out. Here's the most horrific stories. She is the funniest,
Speaker 4: most joyful person.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 4: That's how she keeps going because if you weren't. I
Speaker 4: feel like if she wasn't, it would be she would
Speaker 4: be so depressed and like how would she get out
Speaker 4: of bed? But she's absolutely hysterically funny and just got
Speaker 4: a smile on her face and so joyful, and it's like, see,
Speaker 4: only I can get through baby.
Speaker 1: She calls me back, babe. But you know it's plus
Speaker 1: also probably helps the people that she's seeing to go, oh,
Speaker 1: this is the nice how you can feel the energy,
Speaker 1: so you know, it's yeah, I think there's just power
Speaker 1: in that sometimes we.
Speaker 2: All need balance. Oh you do you need balance. It's
Speaker 2: good to be serious.
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's good to be earnest and passionate about things,
Speaker 3: and yeah, at the same time, it really helps to
Speaker 3: be frivolous or the antithesis of that.
Speaker 2: And just go go out and just be silly.
Speaker 1: You can take you can take what you do seriously,
Speaker 1: but you don't need to take yourself seriously. There you go,
Speaker 1: look at you.
Speaker 4: We're going to start making bumper stickers from the stuff.
Speaker 1: I felt like I want to do like a little
Speaker 1: book of just saying I'm gonna have to go back
Speaker 1: and be like, listen to what I've said, beautif.
Speaker 2: Do you make goals?
Speaker 3: Do you do you set yourself out like time goals
Speaker 3: and things that you want to achieve?
Speaker 1: Yeah? No, I do, like I have Like I yeah,
Speaker 1: I do have goals of certain things that I want
Speaker 1: to achieve. But then I like to just see sometimes
Speaker 1: where it takes me. I enjoy sometimes and sometimes maybe
Speaker 1: not to my benefit, and I end up going, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I've got to work this week. What am
Speaker 1: I kill me? But you know, I do have the
Speaker 1: big goals, but the in between stuff. I like to
Speaker 1: see what happens because it's you know, it creates a
Speaker 1: spicy life that you never know. You know, you never
Speaker 1: know what's around the corner. And some of the best
Speaker 1: things that I've ever experienced have been you know, surprises,
Speaker 1: they're just pupped up, you know. But I'm very much
Speaker 1: a believer and like trust the process, and I trust
Speaker 1: that I'm on the path, you know, And I and
Speaker 1: I a good gut, so I know when I actually
Speaker 1: don't have a good girl got ibs, but I've got
Speaker 1: a good gut. I've got a good.
Speaker 2: Chemist, right that'll help you.
Speaker 1: But I've got Yeah, I trust, I trust it and
Speaker 1: if I know, like I know when something's right, and
Speaker 1: I know when something's a bit off. If you just think,
Speaker 1: if i'd like meet someone and I don't really trust
Speaker 1: what they're saying, it's weird. My shoulder goes, isn't that interesting?
Speaker 1: It just like pops up. And so like when I've
Speaker 1: been around people that I'm like, oh, you're telling stories,
Speaker 1: it just goes like that.
Speaker 4: And then I myself like this, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh.
Speaker 1: I don't like you.
Speaker 2: It's got to be careful you because you're protecting your heart.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're actually creating a barrier. Yeah, because you did
Speaker 3: your other hand over your heart.
Speaker 2: Yes, the body never lies.
Speaker 1: No it doesn't. Yeah, trust it. Yeah, trust it.
Speaker 2: So five years down the track.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well my goal I would really love to move
Speaker 1: to the UK really, Yeah, Like after doing the UK
Speaker 1: Drag Race, I fell in love with it. And Jack's
Speaker 1: got his family there. Yeah, they're in Newcastle. I don't
Speaker 1: want to live in Newcastle. I love Newcastle. I couldn't
Speaker 1: live there. I'd like to live around like, you know,
Speaker 1: not even in London, but on the outskirts of London.
Speaker 1: I could go a little bit like regional. But I
Speaker 1: just love it. It just melts my heart in the
Speaker 1: UK and I would love to live there. I'd love
Speaker 1: to do more sort of TV stuff and panel shows
Speaker 1: and comedy and you know, I like to dip my
Speaker 1: finger in every part that I can. I'm not one
Speaker 1: to say no to something. I'll try anything. So yeah,
Speaker 1: my goal is just to keep working away and sort
Speaker 1: of building the profile of what Hannah is and just
Speaker 1: making people laugh and have a good time and smile.
Speaker 1: You know, that's my goal. That's my job, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think I've really invested too deeply into this,
Speaker 1: so I can't really go back, you know, don't put
Speaker 1: too much into it. Now, I'm like, what else can
Speaker 1: I do?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Mecca and Sophora have benefited greatly.
Speaker 1: Oh they really have. You know, when you realize you're
Speaker 1: committed too hard to something, you're like, oh god, yeah,
Speaker 1: well put all the eggs in this basket.
Speaker 2: Great? Would that be putting up on a vision board?
Speaker 2: There you are advertising for Mecca?
Speaker 1: Oh that was great, right, looks too Yeah, Mecca. If
Speaker 1: you're listening for you're listening, I don't know. I'm an
Speaker 1: equal opportunities make up by studio to yours. Yeah.
Speaker 4: What's been the most empowering part of your drag journey?
Speaker 1: I do think it is when you, like, when I've
Speaker 1: been able to start traveling more with with drag post
Speaker 1: Drag Race, you realize, like sometimes it's a bit trauma dumpy.
Speaker 1: The people that you come to meet, they like, go,
Speaker 1: oh my god, You've saved my life, and it can
Speaker 1: get it can get a lot. But then at the
Speaker 1: same time that is incredibly special, like knowing that I've
Speaker 1: been able to go into somebody's house on TV for
Speaker 1: you know, an hour each week and that's made such
Speaker 1: an impact as someone that they've decided to make changes
Speaker 1: to their life and live a better life or whatever,
Speaker 1: or just even the fact that I just brought them
Speaker 1: a bit of joy. That's really special because you don't
Speaker 1: you don't sometimes realize the impact you have. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: even with smaller platforms, even when I was just the
Speaker 1: local entertainer and Sydney working on Oxford Street, like the
Speaker 1: same thing would happen, someone go, I love that show.
Speaker 1: That number that you did really made me happy. And
Speaker 1: that's when you realize the effects we have on other
Speaker 1: people around us. And sometimes we may not know it
Speaker 1: because not everyone will come up and tell you, but
Speaker 1: the ones that do showcase that we are doing that,
Speaker 1: And I think that's the most profound, you know impact.
Speaker 1: And it was also actually sorry to I've just had
Speaker 1: another brain way. There was one time and there was
Speaker 1: I was doing a I think it was a birthday
Speaker 1: or a Christmas party just in the city, and I
Speaker 1: walked in and there was this gentleman. I've told the
Speaker 1: story before, but it's always gets me that I walked
Speaker 1: in there was this guy. He was probably like fifty,
Speaker 1: maybe like late mid to late fifties, and I walked
Speaker 1: up and he was like, oh, don't talk to me.
Speaker 1: Don't talk to me, and I was like, no worries.
Speaker 1: It's like I used to bash fags like you in
Speaker 1: the eighties. And I was like, Okay, all good, no worries.
Speaker 1: I'm going to leave you to it. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: I'm not that person to push someone like that. I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't like what you've said. I think
Speaker 1: that's really horrible and you probably should be, you know,
Speaker 1: investigated for this, but fundamentally, I'm just going to leave
Speaker 1: you be. So I go around do my job. I'm
Speaker 1: entertaining people, like I was on the mic, did a
Speaker 1: couple of numbers and he comes up to me at
Speaker 1: the end and I get a tap on the shoulder
Speaker 1: and I turn around it's him, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh God, what's going to happen now? And he's like
Speaker 1: I just want to say. I say I'm sorry for
Speaker 1: what I said before, and he's like, I can't take
Speaker 1: back what I've done. But just seeing you today just
Speaker 1: made me realize that you're just like us and his
Speaker 1: and like I was like, wow, Like you've just recognized
Speaker 1: in space of an hour or two hours that we're
Speaker 1: just fellow human beings trying to get on with it,
Speaker 1: and you know, you've probably realized, you know, thirty years
Speaker 1: of hate that you've harbored in your heart for a
Speaker 1: group that you have no idea about, was just wasting
Speaker 1: away your time. That's exactly right. And you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: obviously very problematic what he said and what he did,
Speaker 1: but I don't know that lesson that he learned on
Speaker 1: that day. I'm hoping he's carried forward and continued on,
Speaker 1: but just knowing that you can change someone's minds by
Speaker 1: just being around, yeah, and just doing your doing you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool.
Speaker 4: And that's and that's to your point. Like the more
Speaker 4: we see in mainstream media, it just takes away this
Speaker 4: idea it's us and them. It's like we're all wanted together.
Speaker 1: And some of us in our community I get weirded
Speaker 1: out by I'm like, I don't get you, but not
Speaker 1: for me, Like, you know, I'm not going to poop
Speaker 1: on your braid. Weird exactly the people that all the time,
Speaker 1: but we just you know, I just I don't want to,
Speaker 1: you know, I just again live life as a good
Speaker 1: person and you don't need to go and you know,
Speaker 1: poop on someone's doormat just because you don't like it. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: there's another one for the book.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for the time today. It's wonderful
Speaker 2: to have.
Speaker 1: You right back at you, and it's been so nice
Speaker 1: and like I said, like you give me the aree
Speaker 1: of my parents. It's been just like I think you'd
Speaker 1: get along with them so well. And I wish they
Speaker 1: I wish you could meet my mom and dad because
Speaker 1: I think I think we'd all have a very gay time.
Speaker 1: I love it. Yeah, we'll get there.
Speaker 4: Who are the leather dudes.
Speaker 1: The leather daddies, Yeah, yeah, I can find them. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we have We'll have our own little Mardi growing here.
Speaker 2: We'll do a little heart to your mom and dad.
Speaker 2: I'm sure they're listening.
Speaker 1: Hi, mom and dad and everyone else who's listening to
Speaker 1: my brother Tim, This is Amy High. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for angels. Thanks for having me in your bathroom.
Speaker 1: You are welcome. Can I can I flush now?
Speaker 2: Wish?
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, what and wonderful human. I love love him.
Speaker 3: As he was leaving just then, I forgot to ask
Speaker 3: you how many wigs you have?
Speaker 2: Over two hundred hundred wigs?
Speaker 3: Yeah, wow, Yeah, do you have two hundred of anything?
Speaker 2: A books?
Speaker 4: I know that two hundred books. That's the only thing
Speaker 4: I held to two hundred of yeah, over two hundred. Yeah,
Speaker 4: nothing else, nothing else.
Speaker 3: His desire to pass along joy and fun.
Speaker 2: Is so significant. Yeah, I just love how he just
Speaker 2: that's it. You give you a respite from all the
Speaker 2: absolute gloom.
Speaker 4: You know, we need more, We need more Hannah's in
Speaker 4: the world. Yeah, we really do. I'm sure Jack is
Speaker 4: just as delightful as well. I don't want him to
Speaker 4: move to the UK. I want him to stay in
Speaker 4: Australia and keep bringing joy to people in this country.
Speaker 3: Actual, we would come back for tours and lucky, lucky,
Speaker 3: the Internet has flattened the world out, so you.
Speaker 2: Can really do that and you'd still think he was here.
Speaker 4: He was still here, that's right. Anyway. Look, we so
Speaker 4: hope you enjoyed Hannah Conder and that conversation we think
Speaker 4: he was is just a delight. Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 2: Until next time. Bye,