Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast last week. They're right. Hey guys,
Speaker 1: welcome back to TV Reload. I want to thank you
Speaker 1: for clicking and downloading on today's episode with Brenda Brest,
Speaker 1: who was the fourth eliminated queen from Rupaul'sdrag Raced down
Speaker 1: Under season four. This week, I had no idea who
Speaker 1: was going to be going home. I thought everyone in
Speaker 1: this episode was great, and Brenda had been doing really
Speaker 1: well in the competition so far, winning the snatch game
Speaker 1: and having.
Speaker 2: Natural banter with the other girls.
Speaker 1: But I guess this is a sign of how good
Speaker 1: the talent is at this point of the competition.
Speaker 2: Brenda will share what it.
Speaker 1: Takes to read and what her mantra is with getting
Speaker 1: that right. We will unpack the ability to do confessionals
Speaker 1: and match that with what you're bringing to the workroom.
Speaker 1: I ask about the makeover challenge and what on God's
Speaker 1: Earth had she given her librarian. You will get everything
Speaker 1: from who might go home next, considering Max was in
Speaker 1: the lip sync, how long they had with their makeover partner,
Speaker 1: and what they think of not being called a rue girl.
Speaker 1: There is so much to talk about with so many
Speaker 1: inside revelations. So guys sit back and relax as we
Speaker 1: unpacked the wonderful world of RuPaul's drag Race down Under
Speaker 1: season four. Well, I just think it's hilarious because you've
Speaker 1: been in Barrick and Reservoir. It's like you're rimming Melbourne
Speaker 1: because you're on the outside of it.
Speaker 3: Look for me, Reservoir compared to Berck Reservoir is a lot.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm in the inner city right now.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm on Collins Street. It's so close
Speaker 3: to everything. I tell some people like, yeah, live near
Speaker 3: the city now, and I say reservoir and they're like, babe,
Speaker 3: what I'm like, Okay, for me, it's close.
Speaker 2: I didn't want much.
Speaker 1: I supported Melbourne Queens being that I'm from Melbourne until
Speaker 1: this season and I was like, finally we get a
Speaker 1: lot more Melbourne Queens. I think this might be the
Speaker 1: season that has the most. I don't know if I'm
Speaker 1: right by saying that, but I have been you right
Speaker 1: from the start because you're Melbourne based, and I didn't
Speaker 1: think that was going to be something that would happen
Speaker 1: to me.
Speaker 3: Ah, you've got the home, like where the hometown heroes.
Speaker 3: You know, you've got to root for us.
Speaker 1: Do you think that there's other queens in Melbourne that
Speaker 1: deserve to be on the show, Like if you've got
Speaker 1: friends that are are current in the scene, Because for me,
Speaker 1: I'm forty five, so I'm like, where's Paris drag Queen,
Speaker 1: Where's Millie Minogue?
Speaker 2: Where's all of these queens that I can righth?
Speaker 3: Look, I've spoken to a lot of them and because
Speaker 3: they've asked me about being on Drag Race and things,
Speaker 3: and I've said, like, why would you do it? And
Speaker 3: I think a lot of them don't want to do it.
Speaker 3: It's hard, it's really hard. But also I can't speak
Speaker 3: for them, but I think what I am putting it
Speaker 3: down to is they don't want what might happen on
Speaker 3: the show to ruin any kind of reputation that they
Speaker 3: already have, you know.
Speaker 2: Because ruined their careers. What do you mean?
Speaker 3: They're drag queens that's already the lowest of the lower
Speaker 3: How much worse can you get the friend of their careers?
Speaker 1: Like Paris drag Queen, Come on, like, you know this
Speaker 1: could be a responseng for you think do it?
Speaker 3: I really don't think she would.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, well you've helped me out with that,
Speaker 1: but like, yeah.
Speaker 3: I think well because I like Missy. I asked me,
Speaker 3: I was like, did you audition? And she said no,
Speaker 3: I'll never auditioned for the show, And now she doesn't
Speaker 3: do drag anymore.
Speaker 1: Sir, do you think they lie about it? Do you
Speaker 1: think that they've auditioned before and now they lie about it?
Speaker 3: If I spent all my time thinking about whether people
Speaker 3: are lying to me, I'd never fucking rest.
Speaker 1: You know, thinking about the character journeys on this show,
Speaker 1: can you manufacture that because in this particular episode, we
Speaker 1: hear a lot about people saying Michelle talking about some
Speaker 1: of these drag performers taking us on a journey this season,
Speaker 1: and I was thinking about it. That does help with
Speaker 1: reality TV shows. Could you try and stage something like
Speaker 1: start at this particular point, go to here, drop it
Speaker 1: down to there. Can you try and manufacture some of
Speaker 1: that to make sure that these judges talk about your
Speaker 1: journey and the viewers feel like they've gone on a
Speaker 1: journey with.
Speaker 2: You, or do you just have to let it go?
Speaker 3: That's a really interesting question. Talking from my experience, I
Speaker 3: just went into the show with the intention to just
Speaker 3: have fun. You know, I really did not know how
Speaker 3: well or how good or bout it I was going
Speaker 3: to do. And I think if you start off really
Speaker 3: really strong, like say lazy Susan, that sort of set
Speaker 3: her apart from the start, and then she sort of
Speaker 3: moved to the middle of the pack a little bit
Speaker 3: towards like where we are in the competition now. So
Speaker 3: I guess there could be something to say about bringing
Speaker 3: people on a journey to see how you come out
Speaker 3: the other side. But I really think you got to
Speaker 3: just go or it from the start because you don't
Speaker 3: know what's going to happen. It's such an underpredictable environment
Speaker 3: and an unpredictable show. You never know what's going to
Speaker 3: happen next. And I thought there's any chance, Like the
Speaker 3: first thing that I said to myself when I got
Speaker 3: there was like, there's any chance that I could be
Speaker 3: the first one to go home, And so if that's
Speaker 3: the case, I have to make my mark from the
Speaker 3: very first episode, and so any opportunity that I had
Speaker 3: on camera, any opportunity that sat down in confessional, I
Speaker 3: was I just was on you know, I was like,
Speaker 3: I need to have a moment I need to be
Speaker 3: bringing something to the competition so that I stick around.
Speaker 3: Because I'm not sure if some of the other queens
Speaker 3: realized or other people watching the show, but any time
Speaker 3: that the camera is on, that is the challenge. You know,
Speaker 3: the challenge itself on drag Race is not just the
Speaker 3: main challenge that it's been set. The challenge is to
Speaker 3: make yourself lackable and make yourself interesting to watch on
Speaker 3: a TV show that so that people keep you around.
Speaker 3: You know, in confessional, if you're not giving anything to
Speaker 3: the camera, where when the cameras are panting to you
Speaker 3: in the workroom, and you're not doing something to make
Speaker 3: yourself interesting to look at or interesting to watch, you're
Speaker 3: not gonna You're not going to do well. So that
Speaker 3: was what I went into it with.
Speaker 1: Were you happy to watch the way in which it
Speaker 1: was all put together? Because you've just mentioned something that
Speaker 1: I think is quite fascinating, and that is that you're
Speaker 1: actually mirroring these confessionals with how you are day to day,
Speaker 1: and so that must be really kind of a little bipolar,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, like because I mean, these
Speaker 1: two but easily drift quite far apart. And then retrospectively
Speaker 1: looking back at it, what did you think? Did you go, Oh,
Speaker 1: I've nailed that.
Speaker 3: Look, it's it's a really I'm loving watching the show
Speaker 3: back and I think it's really great. And I think
Speaker 3: as much as some people want to blame editing and
Speaker 3: things like that, yes, to an extent, editing is there.
Speaker 3: But you can't make someone or have you can't make
Speaker 3: someone look a certain way without them doing something to
Speaker 3: make that possible.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Sometimes the confessionals were really interesting because sometimes we were
Speaker 3: talking about things that had happened three or four days ago,
Speaker 3: and you're just going based off what you can remember.
Speaker 3: And there were so many times when the producers would
Speaker 3: ask me a question and I'd say, I'm sorry, connection
Speaker 3: remind me what happened, because every day kind of blurred
Speaker 3: into each other when we're there. It's such an unnatural environment.
Speaker 3: I really just wanted to I just wanted to enjoy
Speaker 3: my time, and I really did, and I just wanted
Speaker 3: to bring something that was enjoyable to watch and make
Speaker 3: people smile, make people laugh.
Speaker 2: I loved you.
Speaker 1: I thought you put your breast foot forward or whatever
Speaker 1: you want to say. I thought you were fantastic right
Speaker 1: from the start. I think you resonated. I think you
Speaker 1: clicked with audiences, and you've made it to the middle
Speaker 1: of the competition, which is still very good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. And like after I'd won snatch game, I
Speaker 3: was just like, you know what, I've done what I
Speaker 3: came to do. I've proven myself and I'll leave the
Speaker 3: people wanting more. You know, as much as you know
Speaker 3: it was the judge's decision to send me home. I
Speaker 3: think I manifested that I was ready to go. I
Speaker 3: was tired, you know. I was like, I'm done. I've
Speaker 3: done what I came to do. I'm pretty tired. We've
Speaker 3: been here for two weeks and I need a drink.
Speaker 3: Because those vodka cranberries that they were giving us in
Speaker 3: untapped were I think they were measuring the vodka with
Speaker 3: one of those eye droppers. You know. It was wasn't
Speaker 3: doing it for me. So I was like, that's it.
Speaker 3: I've done. You can send me home. I'll throw the
Speaker 3: towel and with Max and I'm going to go to
Speaker 3: the bar at the airports.
Speaker 1: Aboutage, which I thought was really interesting as well, because
Speaker 1: there was a part in this episode where you mentioned
Speaker 1: that do you think that sabotage works in this competition
Speaker 1: because the reason why I'm asking that is that I
Speaker 1: wonder whether or not we've ever had a winner before
Speaker 1: whose gameplay has been sabotage.
Speaker 3: Oh as much as I wanted it to look like
Speaker 3: I was sabotaging Nikita last episode, I was just I
Speaker 3: really had no idea what I was doing. I just
Speaker 3: got these three fabrics, and I said, I don't know
Speaker 3: what to do with any of these. And I could
Speaker 3: have just blindly closed my eyes and just handed them
Speaker 3: to Nikita and Demandy say pick whatever you want. I
Speaker 3: don't care. I just don't want either of them. But
Speaker 3: I think sabotage. Look, you don't have to sabotage people,
Speaker 3: and you're confident in your abilities. And I was, I'm
Speaker 3: playing up to the camera, you know, that's what you
Speaker 3: do on a TV show. And I'm not a malevolent person,
Speaker 3: and I don't feel the need to tear others down
Speaker 3: to bring myself up. A lot of other people feel that.
Speaker 3: A lot of queens I've noticed on the scene feel
Speaker 3: the need to tear others down to boost themselves higher.
Speaker 3: But when you're talented, you don't need to do that.
Speaker 2: This is the thing.
Speaker 1: That's so funny about you saying that can reading people
Speaker 1: ruin relationships? Because I mean, this episode starts with the
Speaker 1: reading challenge, and I'm always so nervous about this. I've
Speaker 1: already discussed it in this series of podcasts that I've
Speaker 1: done on these debriefs, and I would be so scared
Speaker 1: because I'd be worried whether or not you're reading in
Speaker 1: a reading challenge could ruin your relationship in the show,
Speaker 1: which therefore could end your time on the show.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: But reading is such a writer passage with drag, and
Speaker 3: I think any seasoned drag performer knows that reading is fundamental.
Speaker 3: But it is really part of the culture of drag,
Speaker 3: and so you get used to that quite quickly. So
Speaker 3: anytime you work with any other queens, I always we're
Speaker 3: always throwing shade, always reading each other. You know, it
Speaker 3: comes with the territory. So I think, no matter how
Speaker 3: sort of cutthroat they are, it's all part of the fun,
Speaker 3: you know, it's all part of the fun.
Speaker 1: There's one drag queen in Melbourne that's been around forever,
Speaker 1: probably one of the queen of means of drag queens.
Speaker 1: I've not mentioned this person, But whenever I'm in their company,
Speaker 1: they will say really outrageous things that hurts my feelings,
Speaker 1: and I'll walk away and say to like Dina Curry
Speaker 1: or who's Frock Hudson, I will say that person really
Speaker 1: offended me. And Dean will be like, no, no, no, they're
Speaker 1: just dragging you. And I'm like, no, no, it was
Speaker 1: truly offensive and I felt like it came from a
Speaker 1: bad place. And He's like, you know what, you might
Speaker 1: be right. And so that's where dragging, I think, can
Speaker 1: be really dangerous.
Speaker 3: But there is a fine line. There's a fine line
Speaker 3: between you know, reading someone and just being offensive, and
Speaker 3: I think that's what divides and sets apart talented performers
Speaker 3: and people who are just trying to be outrageous. Yeah,
Speaker 3: some people will say things for the shock of the
Speaker 3: shock value of what they've said, whereas I think what
Speaker 3: I really respect is when a read is really cut
Speaker 3: through it but it's clever, because that's what that's what
Speaker 3: says to me is that if it's clever, if you've
Speaker 3: delivered in a clever way of you've said, like a
Speaker 3: really clever what's the word a really clever? I know
Speaker 3: what you mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what that's what
Speaker 3: I respect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's just a hard thing to do.
Speaker 1: The challenge this week was to do this makeover, and
Speaker 1: you got these librarians, and some of those librarianes look
Speaker 1: like they would be easier to meld or mold in
Speaker 1: a way, and some of them looked less likely to
Speaker 1: be able to do it. Did you think that how
Speaker 1: well everyone did this challenge had to do with how
Speaker 1: easy it was to work with those people?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: And no. I mean I remember Freyer being particularly quiet
Speaker 3: the first day when we were when we were paired
Speaker 3: up with our partners for the design challenge, and I
Speaker 3: could see that she was getting into her head about
Speaker 3: what she was going to do with her partner because
Speaker 3: they're quite different. And then when it came to the
Speaker 3: runway and the next day, it was sort of just
Speaker 3: like a switch had flicked and she was all of
Speaker 3: a sudden fine with it. So it was really interesting.
Speaker 3: But I got along so well with Hannah. We had
Speaker 3: just the best time, and I think that's what made
Speaker 3: the whole challenge just enjoyable for me, even though I
Speaker 3: didn't do well. That's why I still have no bad
Speaker 3: memories or feelings towards the episode because I just had
Speaker 3: so much fun and it's really just about you know,
Speaker 3: you've got to take every opportunity that you're given. And
Speaker 3: one thing about drag that I love is improv you know,
Speaker 3: you thrown into a situation where you've got to deal
Speaker 3: with things on the fly. And if you can make
Speaker 3: the best of any situation that you're put into and
Speaker 3: make the best of it is with anything Like if
Speaker 3: I'm given a category to dress up for, you've got
Speaker 3: to I love just making do with what I've got,
Speaker 3: you know, I love that aspect of drag. If you
Speaker 3: go into things with the right attitude, then there's nowhere
Speaker 3: that you can fail.
Speaker 2: I think that's the best way to look at it.
Speaker 2: I think that's a really good mantra.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a really funny moment I can't wait
Speaker 1: for you to watch it where you see Hannah has
Speaker 1: this verbal diarrhea on stage when talking. Well, the critiques
Speaker 1: are happening so hilarious. I was like, did you get that?
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you that. Did you put something
Speaker 1: in her coffee? Like?
Speaker 2: Nattering like that all the time.
Speaker 3: Oh, she loves a chat. She absolutely loves a chat,
Speaker 3: and we've stayed in contact ever since we got back.
Speaker 3: And let me tell you, she's just just chatty online
Speaker 3: as she is in person. She is absolutely beautiful, But yeah,
Speaker 3: she loves a chat.
Speaker 2: He put a respont.
Speaker 3: It was so funny seeing the judge's reactions to like
Speaker 3: how much she just blurted everything out. But it's the
Speaker 3: same thing. I was like, I'm not going to see
Speaker 3: this as a bad thing. I'm not gonna I wasn't
Speaker 3: gonna use. I wasn't gonna get that in my head.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, like we need I
Speaker 3: need to rain her in. I'm like, no, she's having
Speaker 3: the best time of her life. And I was like,
Speaker 3: let's run with that, because when you just let people
Speaker 3: be themselves and have fun, then everyone else around you
Speaker 3: will have fun.
Speaker 1: Well, everyone was so good in this challenge, Like I
Speaker 1: feel like there was a bit of a read of
Speaker 1: some of the queens that have gone home up to
Speaker 1: this point, but it really did feel like for this episode,
Speaker 1: like Gloves her Off, there's no one who is. I
Speaker 1: felt like it's almost like an even playing field to
Speaker 1: a certain pess with everyone and you're matching up with
Speaker 1: your character and your story I thought was I didn't
Speaker 1: notice anything wrong with it. I thought that you matched
Speaker 1: yourself quite well. So it just goes to show you
Speaker 1: sort of what level of the competition we're at and
Speaker 1: what sort of queens we've got left. Do you think
Speaker 1: Max being in that final dance, you know, with the
Speaker 1: lip sync with you, is that indicative of the fact
Speaker 1: that Max could go home soon.
Speaker 3: Look, it's the kind of challenge where you don't know
Speaker 3: which way it's going to go. After watching the show
Speaker 3: for so many years, it's the one challenge that really
Speaker 3: you have no idea what they're going to say. Sometimes
Speaker 3: they'll say the judges will say, oh, we didn't ask
Speaker 3: for twins, we asked for family resemblance. Sometimes they'll say, oh,
Speaker 3: you look identical. We love that. Sometimes it'll be they'll
Speaker 3: look nothing alike, but the judges will say, oh, I
Speaker 3: can see the family resemblance and you look at ego what.
Speaker 3: So it's a very interesting challenge. And I remember while
Speaker 3: we were getting out of critiques, Max and I were
Speaker 3: standing at the back of the stage and we had
Speaker 3: gone through almost everyone, and everyone was getting really good critiques.
Speaker 3: Just they were picking at the tinest little things of everyone.
Speaker 3: And I remember Max and I looked at each other
Speaker 3: and we were like, are we in the bottom? What
Speaker 3: what's happening?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: Are we in the bottom? So yeah, it was it
Speaker 3: probably was fair that Max and I were in the bottom,
Speaker 3: even though that even though we did really well, everyone
Speaker 3: did really well. It was just a hard one to
Speaker 3: pick this time. It's a hard one to pick.
Speaker 1: You know. Spanky Jackson's one of my favorite drag queens
Speaker 1: of all time from around the world, and Spanky was
Speaker 1: in this episode with you, which was great, but we
Speaker 1: didn't see a lot from Spanky. I was just curious,
Speaker 1: did you hear what her critiques were when you were
Speaker 1: walking along the runway?
Speaker 3: Oh? Like her little little bits.
Speaker 1: And pieces, Like I've spoken to drag queens they say
Speaker 1: they can hear the comments, like you cannot, And we
Speaker 1: don't see really anything that Spanky says. So I was
Speaker 1: just curious, like was she too crass? Like was it
Speaker 1: two outrageous? Did she was she even talking?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Was there room for that?
Speaker 1: I just was surprised at a bit of a lacklust
Speaker 1: of Spanky Jackson in this episode.
Speaker 3: I actually honestly can't remember the BRender breast. I really
Speaker 3: cut it was so long ago, but Spanky was like,
Speaker 3: she was so much fun. I'm a Spanky Jackson Stan
Speaker 3: I absolutely love her. So I was just excited that
Speaker 3: she was there because I hadn't met her yet and
Speaker 3: so I was just thrilled that she was there. I
Speaker 3: just think the only thing that I can remember the
Speaker 3: judge just saying when we were going down from Brenda
Speaker 3: was just where's the bus? Is the bus still running it?
Speaker 3: Where's the bus? That's like, can remember.
Speaker 1: Well, it was a good gag. I mean, I thought
Speaker 1: it was funny with the whole bubble. I have to
Speaker 1: wrap up because I only get twenty minutes with you
Speaker 1: and I'm overtime, but I just wanted to say how
Speaker 1: amazing I think you are and how great I.
Speaker 2: Think you did on this show.
Speaker 1: And I finished the podcast with asking her behind the
Speaker 1: scene secret and I'm asking everyone how much money they
Speaker 1: spent on their drag? Pretty much everyone said ten thousand dollars?
Speaker 1: Is that the going rate? Is that how much money
Speaker 1: people spend or did you spend on average?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's pretty much what I spent as well. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's it's yeah, I think that because we sort of
Speaker 3: needed nine nine at nine costumes for the categories and
Speaker 3: roughly they're all about one to one point five each. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that kind of it's not cheap. It's not cheap, but
Speaker 3: it's that one thing where it's like you get that
Speaker 3: call once and this is the one time that you
Speaker 3: spend money to.
Speaker 2: Drop the car.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you drop the platinum A mix on it, and
Speaker 3: you see that. My husband will pay that check when
Speaker 3: I'm away.
Speaker 2: K amazing, Brenda. I'm in your audience.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see what you do with this
Speaker 1: whole drag experience and now being a rude girl. Thank
Speaker 1: you for representing Melbourne. I'm very proud of what you've
Speaker 1: been able to achieve and good luck with the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I've just got to correct you on one thing.
Speaker 3: We're not Route Girls. We're Mitch's Bitches, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Right you know what?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I said that in the podcast last
Speaker 1: week and someone critiques me on that and I didn't
Speaker 1: put it together.
Speaker 2: But that's right. Rue's not there, so.
Speaker 3: It's not their babe. So we're not Route Girls. We're
Speaker 3: the very first past of Mitch's Bitches.
Speaker 1: Which is doing a great job. Sess with Michelle and
Speaker 1: It's so weird to say this, but I am not
Speaker 1: noticing RuPaul not being there, which is so weird to me,
Speaker 1: so weird.
Speaker 3: I only just think it was the fresh take that
Speaker 3: down underneaded and it was perfect.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and some great casting.
Speaker 1: Anyway, look after yourself, enjoy chatting to the media, I'm sure.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Hey, your babe,