Drag Race UK star Pasty on finding pride after the Pork Chop

As the self-proclaimed “Sausage Roll Queen” of Cornwall (by way of East London), Pasty piqued the interest of Drag Race UK viewers with her brand of character comedy, culinary glamour and devotion to Bette Midler’s iconic bucktoothed witch in Hocus Pocus.

Although her heartfelt openness about living with bilateral coloboma was one of the premiere’s most memorable moments — particularly thanks to RuPaul’s confuddled reaction and Marina Summers’ hilariously deadpan response, “wow… werk” — Pasty ultimately landed in the bottom and was eliminated by Nyongbella.

While the introduction of the new “Lucky Cow” twist gave her a brief reprieve, her second chance at becoming the UK’s Next Drag Superstar was short-lived: in the staple design challenge, her green concoction resulted in another bottom and she was Pork Chop’d for good.

Here, Pasty speaks with Gay Times about her experience on the seventh season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK — from the judges’ decision that left her “gagged”, to the bumbling oddball she had in mind for Snatch Game, and why representing queer people from her hometown still means everything.

Pasty, I’m sorry to be speaking with you so soon! How are you?

I’m good. Obviously we filmed a while ago, so to see it all come together and come out, everything that I was worried about… I was very much like, ‘Oh, I’m going to look awful in that green jumpsuit.’ But you know what? I kind of stand by it, considering I don’t sew! I made a fully fledged jumpsuit. I didn’t just stick stuff to a corset. But yeah, I feel good. I’m happy.

A for effort. I’m actually unsure on your bottom two placement. But also, Chai T Grande should’ve been in the top?

I was also gagged that Chai wasn’t in the top! A lot of us were. She doesn’t sew either. And she made the base of it, I think, from bin bags. She used a material that wasn’t, like, tulle. She really jumped into the challenge.

Take me back to the challenge. As a non-seamstress, how did you cope with the sewing challenge on top of the werkroom drama, as well as trying to prove yourself after getting The Lucky Cow?

Bad at the start, but then I definitely took on too big of a challenge with the flair jumpsuit. Even Ru said it to me, and I was like, ‘I really want to push myself’. I just got really stressed. Then I think by the time I got it on before the runway, I looked at myself and I was like, ‘Oh my god, it actually doesn’t look as bad as I thought it would?’ – considering it was a flared jumpsuit! That’s why I had a lot of fun on the stage. I was like, ‘I’m definitely going to be in the bottom because it’s not as good as it could be’, but that’s why I was just like… You know what they said about the wonky knees? I just wanted to enjoy the moment and show a bit more personality. I thought that it came across.

It definitely did. And again, concocting that when you’re not a seamstress?!

I’ve sewn a skirt before, so I know my way around a machine, but I’ve never in my life made anything to that level. That’s what I think also stressed me out. Sewing was the challenge that I was like, ‘Oh…’ I wanted to do a comedy challenge. My whole thing is camp comedy.

Yeah, in your Meet the Queens and bio you said that you’re really inspired by Bette Midler in Hocus Pocus, so I was really excited to see your comedy.

I live for camp characters and sketch shows. Very my vibe.

Back to the main stage: like many viewers, I was absolutely cackling at Michelle de Swarte’s comments during deliberations…

She was actually at my viewing party last night! She came, and obviously, I’m quite comfortable with having people kind of laugh with me. If someone’s laughing at me, it’s very much like I’m in on the joke. So when she did it, I was screaming and losing my mind. I was selling merch and I was like, ‘Babe, I’m going to give you a print.’ So I wrote to “MICHELLE THE LIAR” – capital letters – “LOTS OF LOVE PASTY”. I was like, ‘There you go!’ But no, she’s lovely. I think she’s iconic.

That was truly one of the best deliberations I’ve ever seen on Drag Race. She made that.

When she said about Viola, ‘The worst day of your life was yesterday, but you wore that today.’

Although you’re this season’s Pork Chop, you were involved in two very memorable moments: Michelle de Swarte’s unhinged deliberations, and “wow… werk” with Marina Summers…

‘Wow… werk.’ She followed me on Instagram and everything. I live for Marina Summers. She posts about it all the time, so it’s nice we have that connection.

I saw a post where a woman said, ‘My daughter’s got bilateral coloboma and I’ve never seen it spoken about on television before.’ How did that make you feel?

It was nice. Extremely rare. It’s an extremely rare condition. It’s a bit boring, but basically, imagine your pupil as the yolk of an egg, the coloured part as the white of a fried egg, and the rest of your eye as the plate. If the yolk pops — which is what happened in my case… I can show you. Can you see my eye? I’ve got two pupils. If the pupil moves off the white onto the white of the eye, it kills the pupil — it kills your eye. You go blind. So, if I had been born just two weeks later, I’d be blind. It’s a very, very rare thing, and honestly… it’s kind of cool to have. I’m blind from here up, though. I can’t see my hand when I raise it. It’s crazy.