Canada’s Drag Race has been chock full of twists, turns and drama this season, and one of the biggest shocks of the season was seeing two beloved queens eliminated in one episode, courtesy of the first ever Canada’s Drag Race ‘Lip Sync Slay-Off’! While both Kitten Kaboodle and Aimee Yoncé Shennel have left the competition, they still had plenty to say about the season along with the copious twists that occurred this season. I sat down with both of these stunning performers to dish on their Canada’s Drag Race experience, the Untucked moments this season, and that brand new Golden Beaver twist!
Michael Cook: How do you both look back on your Canada’s Drag Race experience?
Kitten Kaboodle: Absolutely positive. It was life changing and the experience of a lifetime really. I will always be able to look back on that and say “Hey, I did that”! It was harder than I thought that it would be, but nothing but positive things for me. I loved it.
Aimee Yoncé Shennel: Everything is positive. It was an amazing experience and my life has changed since then. I would do it three thousand times if I had to. I had a lot of fun, the way that they treat us on the set, at the studio, everyone that works for Canada’s Drag Race, they really treat you like a superstar. They really mean it, you have everything that you need.
MC: This season, Canada’s Drag Race was full of twists and Untucked was truly emotionally charged each and every episode. What do you attribute that to?
Aimee Yoncé Shennel I think that this cast as you can see, is very diverse. The diversity is really there, everybody is different and acts different. I think that helps us make good tv, but everything was just flowing. No one told us to go fight with anyone, it just happened. You may not have vibed with that girl at the moment, and you just started fighting and going back and forth. The casting team for this season did an amazing job because everyone on my season has personality and that is so important for this show. When you have personalities like these, you just roll the camera, put up the mic and you have a show.
Kitten Kaboodle: I think that we have definitely distinct strong personalities. When you have people who are sure of who they are, it makes for some dynamics; they’re going to play off of each other. You have to be a drag queen with a certain ego to be on Drag Race, so you have to have some belief in yourself. When you get those strong personalities together, that is when you get the best tv I think.
MC: If you each had to choose, what twist did you prefer this season; The Golden Beaver or the mid-season Lip Sync Slay-Off?
KK: I thought that The Golden Beaver was fabulous. The nice thing about the Beaver was that it kind of opened up the competition to have more strategy. We have alliances happening, and you can get saved; it’s no longer every queen for themselves. You better to watch out because they may have the Beaver next week and they may be able to save you, so think about that. The Lip Sync in the middle, now I could have lived without that (laughs)!
AYS: For me, I preferred the Beaver too, it’s more strategic. That was a big surprise for us, we didn’t know anything about it and it was brand new to Canada’s Drag Race. We didn’t have time to think about feelings, when you are filming it’s very “Boom Boom” and when you make a mistake you don’t get to go back and fix it. Now I can see what I can do different so if they call me for All Stars or Vs The World; I am going to win that crown!
MC: What do you each think your rose and thorn was of your Canada’s Drag Race experience was?
KK: I think the best part of my experience was probably meeting all of the girls and challenging myself. To be honest, I was challenging myself to be constantly better and that is what I loved about the show in general. It challenges you and it elevates you. The thorn was probably that I didn’t really how stressful it could be and how the stress could affect you physically without you realizing. After I came home, I was researching what the effects of stress are and how they can manifest. You learn a lot about yourself that is for sure. I do everything with my partner Jim and not being able to have him there, talk to him and bounce anything off of him was difficult.
AYC: For me, the best part of the experience was learning more about myself. Learning how to love myself, how not to be hard on myself. I was telling myself “You should do this this way”without giving myself a break and just pushing. That is the best gift that I took from the competition; now I can see the superstar that I am. I can make good tv, I can see that I’m funny and all of the things that I showed on tv. That was even a surprise to me, I didn’t know that I was funny. It was like “Really”?! I am starting to believe in myself and using those things in the best way possible.
The thorn for me, other than getting eliminated, would be the hate from social media, the comments. They send DM’s and comments and everyone will say “Aimee ignore it”, but it is almost impossible, we all want to know what people think. I know that I have a lot of love and support, but I have a problem that I take things personally. If you come for me, I take that personally. What I have learned though, is that you don’t have to fight all the time. You have to take a break, you don’t have to always defend yourself. It’s fine for people to have their opinion, there are things we all like and don’t like. I don’t care about what people think about me anymore, about my outfit or my makeup. Whatever opinion you have, I respect it.
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