SPECIAL THANKS TO AOIFE KILBANE FROM BBC

Cockroaches can die, who knew? This week, Etcetera Etcetera became the fourth queen to get the chop on the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under after leaving the judges with a case of the gags (and not in the good way) with Piss – her own brand of yeast spread. 

In her commercial, the self-described “glamour bug bitch” had the Pit Crew on their hands and knees (thank you Etcetera!), used her yeast to black out her teeth and pissed into a cup – which was deemed “too on the nose” by RuPaul. Following a riveting lip-sync battle against Maxi Shield to Vanessa Amorosi’s dance-pop classic Absolutely Everybody, Etcetera’s time was cut short and she was told to sashay away.

“If you cut the head off, a cockroach does stay alive for a long time. Even though they killed me, I’ve got a bit of time left!” Etcetera jokes to GAY TIMES over Zoom, before addressing her critiques on the runway. “Ru praised Kita [Mean] for referencing Divine and Pink Flamingos. They said, ‘Good on you for doing that!’ but apparently, pissing into a cup is too much? If Divine was on Drag Race, I’m sure she’d do more than piss into a cup.” 

Following her elimination, GAY TIMES caught up with Etcetera to talk about her journey on the tumultuous first season of Drag Race Down Under, how opening up about her trans and non-binary identity has impacted viewers, and the controversy over Scarlet Adams’ racist past. We also tried  – emphasis on the word ‘tried’ – to get the T on why Untucked was mysteriously missing from this week’s episode…

Condragulations on making the first season of Drag Race Down Under! How does it feel to be a Ru Girl?
It feels really great. It’s something that we weren’t even sure would ever happen, you know? There was all of these stories about, ‘Drag Race is coming Down Under!’ and we all said, ‘Yeah, bullshit! RuPaul is not gonna make the journey all the way down here!’ Then when he finally did, and I got the call saying, ‘Oh, you’re gonna be auditioning,’ I was like, ‘Jesus Christ. It’s actually happening?’ It took me off guard and I thought it was a prank call at first. Then I realised it wasn’t one of my friends just making fun of me. I was like, ‘Okay, this is serious.’ Walking onto the show I was like, ‘Alright, I guess it’s showtime.’ It’s a really surreal experience.

It’s the same here in the UK. We never thought a Drag Race UK would ever happen, and now we’re waiting for our third season…
I know! It’s surprising when things actually come through. I suppose places like Australia, especially, we’re always the last place to get something, it feels like. We just got Taco Bell! Now all my friends in America are like, ‘What do you mean you just got Taco Bell?’ It’s an exciting thing for us here. So RuPaul’s Drag Race is like the TV equivalent of Taco Bell. It’s something that a lot of other places have. We finally got it and we can’t wait to dig in!

I enjoyed watching you so much this season, but I can’t believe the cockroach has been killed…
Yes, well if you cut the head off, a cockroach does stay living for a long time. Even though they killed me, I’ve got a bit of time left – a bit left to go!

How did you feel when RuPaul told you to sashay away?
At that point it actually felt, I’m not gonna say it felt right because of course, I wasn’t pleased to go, but there was a point where I was like, ‘Actually, I think this makes sense.’ It felt right with the universe. I had been really homesick. I was really tired. Obviously, we just came out of a COVID lockdown so I’d spent so much of my time just sitting at home and being around my partner, not having to be in a room full of insane drag queens all of the time. Then all of a sudden, stepping into that environment, it was very overwhelming, very tiring. At that point, I just wanted to go home for a nap to be honest. There was a lot of social interaction. I didn’t think it would be that much. I thought it would be more competition, less so talking to people. But y’know, good fun, good fun.