This year, RuPaul’s Drag Race is showcasing a number of stunning queens from the state of Connecticut, and the effortlessly regal Robin Fierce is one of those fantastically talented queens. While her run on Drag Race might have ended, Fierce is ready to utilize the platinum she has and take on the world. We sat down for a chat about her Drag Race experience, the stark differences between “doing drag & doing Drag Race”.
Michael Cook: Looking back now, how do you look at your RuPaul’s Drag Race experience?
Robin Fierce: It was honestly like a little drag bootcamp. I learned more about myself and I got to do things that I don’t normally do which I was excited for. Overall, I think that the experience was needed and I am thankful for it. It was stressful in the moment but when I look back now, it was fun.
MC: During the challenge this past episode, do you think that you got into your head during the girl group challenge?
RF: No, but I think that I was concerned with getting everything done and making it as good as possible. You don’t get a lot of time to do these things. Music is something that is important to me and if I am going to do anything with music, I wanted to make sure that I was going to make it as good as I could make it, even if it is supposed to be funny and campy. Also, I might be a dancer in my shows, but all of that is impromptu and in the moment, none of that is planned. So when it comes to choreography and things like that, its a whole different ballgame for me. So what looked like me getting in my head was really me focusing and getting it right.
MC: With that said, do you think that consistently striving for such perfection has worked for you or worked against you in your career?
RF: I think that in my everyday drag career it has been something that has been to my benefit; but Drag Race is not my everyday career. So on Drag Race, it might have hindered me a little bit because everything does not have to be perfect. I think that is where some of my hangups were; me trying to make it perfect, but it doing that. I didn’t get to show who I was through the perfection, I just got to show the perfection.
MC: Did you find it challenging to fit your personal drag style into the challenges that Drag Race presents?
RF: I think so. Obviously it’s not for everybody because people do make it work. I would like to think that I am a very good drag queen who is still growing, I have only been doing this for six years. But being good at drag and being good at Drag Race are two different things. Drag Race requires a lot of the different, although a lot of the same things. Everything that I have learned performing wise has been from the six years of doing drag, except for singing since I have been singing my whole life. Stage presence came from drag, dancing came from drag. Allowing myself to do something that I am uncomfortable with came from drag. I don’t have a background in theater or dance, and I definitely don’t have a background in comedy, background or improv. I like to say that I am situationally funny, I am not funny on purpose. So all of these things that you have to do for Drag Race, it can throw you for a loop.
I was talking to someone else and a place that I can grow is that things are not always going to go how they go in your head. When I am out in the world doing a drag show, I know how a drag show works. I know how to organize a drag show, I know how to get everything together so it is perfect. In a setting like Drag Race though, I can’t control anything. Things aren’t going to be the way that they go in my head. Even with people who have been on the show who could give advice, it is never going to go how even they say that it will.
MC: This season is truly the season of the Connecticut drag revolution that Drag Race showcased this year. What was it like seeing your home state get so much shine this season?
RF: For me, I did not realize how important it was until after the fact. I knew that it was important, but not until I got back and stuff started coming out did I see how important it was to the Connecticut queens. Connecticut has had drag for a very long time, one of my home bars, Chez, has been open for forty years! Drag has always been in Connecticut, it might have been a little bit smaller, but it is something that we have always had. Some people from Connecticut who might not have known where the drag was, there may not have always been resources to find it. Literally now, I close my eyes and there are new drag queens arriving in CT every day.
When we were getting back and it started coming out that we were on, I noticed the shift in our drag community. We were good, but people are striving now even more to be even better than they already were. We’ve always talked about being “the first Connecticut girls on Drag Race” but now they see through us that it’s possible. The eyes of the world can also be on Connecticut just like the other places.
MC: Were you surprised that your personal life, specifically your relationship with Amethyst, would become so much of a focal point when you both were in the competition?
RF: I think that anyone who goes into Drag Race and thinks that there personal life won’t come up isn’t thinking about the show; it is going to be a big part of it. I didn’t think that it would be this whole conversation about it on international television in the way that it has been. It’s reality tv, the point is to talk about our lives though.
MC: You have the Drag Race platform and the entire world at your feet; wants next?
RF: To be determined. For a long time my goal was always to be a full-time drag queen that can sustain my life with nothing else or to get on Drag Race and travel the world and perform. Now that that is happening, it is time for new goals. I do want to do music, I do sing and have been singing my whole life. I want to do whole drag concerts, kind of like they do in the UK. It is me singing, the “Beyonce of drag” singing with dancers, not necessarily performing Beyonce music, but the works!
I want to put on productions one day. Also, I am open to the possibilities of what might come my way that I can’t see for myself right now. Growing up, did I ever think that I would be a full time drag queen one day? Absolutely not. I am leaving the door open while still having some goals.
MC: Who is Robin Fierce.
RF: Robin Fierce is Robin Fierce. I do what I want, I say what I want, I perform what I want. I am this regal queen that you see on tv, but I love to have fun and have a good tine, and I love to eat. Robin Fierce is forever growing. There are parts of Robin Fierce that Robin Fierce doesn’t even know yet….
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