A renowned name in the Montreal drag scene, Uma Gahd joined Canada’s Drag Race Season 5 with the intention to bring the artistic side of drag back to the forefront. With a madcap energy and a consistently unique perspective, Gahd made a lasting impression on both the judges and fans. Post-season, I sat down to dish with this Montreal maven about her Canada’s Drag Race experience, what it was like bringing her unique vision to life on the Drag Race runway, and why the artistic origins of drag are crucial for us all to remember right now.
Michael Cook: Watching you this season on Canada’s Drag Race was a complete joy! Tell me about your experience…
Uma Gahd: I am thrilled! Yes, I am disappointed that I didn’t take the crown, but I went in saying that was there to celebrate drag, show the diversity of drag and the diversity of my drag; and that is what I did every single episode. I couldn’t be prouder.
MC: Snatch Game is always a completely chaotic challenge, and anything can happen. What made you choose the character of Dee Grewnig because she was someone some viewers were not familiar with.
UG: I chose Dee because I spend too much time on the internet. She is a meme queen and let’s be real, I spend all of my time playing Uma the character, and I have not invested a lot of time playing Cher or Mariah Carey. I thought about who I could do that I would have some flexibility with, that I would have some really silly jokes with, so Dee was really there for me.
MC: You were there for the competition and the fun of Drag Race, but there is also a regal-ness to you that shows you take the art of drag extremely seriously.
UG: Absolutely. I started drag in a theater production during a Fringe Festival. We did a play called “Laureen Queen of the Tundra”, it was all about drag, Canadian politics and gender identity. I had always seen my drag as art and I have celebrated my ten year anniversary this year. The more drag that I do and the more that I am exposed to Drag Race, the more I see that people see drag as a commodity, a competition, and something that is made to be critiqued. There are millions of upsides, but that is one of the downsides of Drag Race is this mentality that comes up. I said “No we are doing art, I want you to see me as an artists creating art and something that I stand by”.
MC: Was it difficult dealing with egos from the other performers who maybe didn’t have the same artistic perspective that you do?
UG: I think that for the most part it didn’t really bother me because I have done every local drag competition that has existed in our city except the one for drag kings; and I lost them all! To me, losing a challenge or being safe is not the end of the world because I already have a decade of experience to prove that you can keep going after this. It is what you do after this that will show people who you are as an artist, a performer and a professional. For me, when somebody else won I was so happy for them. If they wanted to make a big stink about it, great I’m over here working (laughs)!
MC: You bring up an interesting point when you mentioned that Drag Race has made drag so critiqued by everyone now. How do you do your part to bring it back to the art?
UG: I think that the only thing that I can do is for instance, when I do a viewing party, we don’t know everything that is going on in these episodes. There is so much that we don’t get to see and so many feelings that are inside their hearts and thoughts inside their heads. We don’t know what’s going on, but can we look at what they did? Can we look at them as humans and not as tv characters? Humanizing them kind of brings the art back into focus, it’s about the drag and not about the critiques; it’s not just about the judging.
I’ve been to drag shows where I can hear people sitting in the audience where I can hear people saying “I can’t believe she would wear that, it would be so much more elevated if she did this”. I want to say “You’re an audience member, sit back, relax and let me do the work and you do the clapping”, let’s try that out.
MC: What do you think your rose and thorn of your Canada’s Drag Race experience is?
UT: Obviously, getting to work the runway with Michelle was the top of the top. It was a doubly important moment for me, that ostrich has been poking out of a hockey bag in my closet for five years, she’s been ready! Getting to finally do that has been important for me just in a “I’ve finally made it here” moment.
That costume was actually made by a drag queen named Mr. Michel and she created that ostrich twenty five years ago. We managed to zhush it up a little bit, but that costume is twenty five years old. It is part of the memories of so many years of drag here in Montreal, so bringing it onto that stage was really important for me and my community. To say “Montreal drag is so special and it’s here, we’re all here right now”; that is the top of my top.
MC: It’s impressive that the ostrich was twenty five years old; she really looked no worse for the wear!
UT: Well she had a little work done before the show, she had that All Stars glow up before All Stars (laughs)!
MC: What’s next for you post Canada’s Drag Race?
UT: Basically, I have done Canada’s Drag Race now so I am basically Canadian royalty. Next step is taking over the UK. A couple years ago I got to bring my one woman play Are You There Margaret? It’s Me, Gahd to the Edinburgh Festival, the biggest art, the biggest fringe festival in the world. I had three sold out nights so I know that the UK appreciates my drag, they appreciate the camp, the comedy and the goofiness. So now, I am going to be bringing my play back to the fringe this summer , but I am now manifesting, we are putting it out there, I would love to be on UK vs The World. I want to be one of them!
MC: Manifestation is so important and I always love when people manifest particular goals during our chats and then seeing them come to fruition is just that much sweeter.
UT: Well you helped me manifest Canada’s Drag Race because I think I am the current reigning of Canada for WERRRK.com. I think I have the longest reign for anyone that got that award!
MC: Montreal’s perspective on drag is so wonderfully unique. Is there one moment that you were doing drag and it suddenly dawned on you and you said “Okay this is what I am going do be doing now”?
UT: The moment that it really crystalized for me, here in Montreal we have drag cabarets, people come in to sit down and watch a show. It is why our drag is so conceptual and theatrical and there is a lot of comedy, people are paying attention and we can make a joke. We were putting on a hour monthly cabaret show with my drag family and I was hosting with my drag sister Anaconda LaSabrosa and she said something so funny and so ridiculous…I am wearing a vintage beaded gown and I still could not stop myself from literally collapsing to my knees with laughter. That was the moment that I said “This is where I am happiest, where I feel everyone sees me for who I am and what I do”. Which is crazy because how do you see me for who I am under sixty pounds of makeup (laughs)?! But that is the moment that I said that this is what I want to keep doing, I want to keep finding these moments of joy, these moments of theatricality and community where we all come together and just be super fucking queer.
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