If you did not get enough of drag performers Carmen Carrera and Manila Luzon during their recent Drag Race Tour stop in Philadelphia, you can tune in to the new season of “Drag U,” which finds them and “Drag Race” alums from all three seasons (Bebe Zahara Benet, Jujubee, Mariah, Morgan McMichaels, Ongina, Pandora Boxx, Raven, Shannel and Tyra Sanchez) giving beauty and fierceness tips to women lacking in the confidence department. All of this under the watchful eye of drag icons RuPaul and Lady Bunny.
By the way, in case you were worried, they loved Philly.
“I love going to Philly,” Carrera gushed. “I’ve performed in Philly before. I had a little fan base there before ‘Drag Race.’ It’s so close to New Jersey. I only live like an hour and a half from there. I love Philly. It’s a mixed crowd. You have your urban crowd and your crowd that likes dance music. It’s a good mix. It was unexpected: I thought Philly was going to be boring. When I think of Philly, I think of history, the cracked bell and cheesesteaks. But it was fun. I love Philly.”
Currently, the two queens are basking in the glory and racking up frequent-flier miles for the numerous personal appearances and performances that come after one is seen strutting one’s stuff on the popular reality competition.
Luzon said the show opened doors for her into the very competitive New York City drag scene.
“I really never performed very much in New York City,” she said. “There’s not that many opportunities for drag queens to come up unless they really want to hustle themselves. It opened up this audience to me that had never seen me before. We’re doing commercials, we’re traveling around the country. I’ve done photo shoots with amazing, talented people. It’s been fun.”
Carrera said the show has earned her recognition as a performer far and wide.
“It’s given me that exposure,” she said. “It’s nationwide right now and pretty soon it’s going to be international. It’s been amazing. Everywhere I go they recognize me. It’s been pretty rewarding too. A lot of people say that I inspire them and they see a lot of themselves in me. They’re young and they’re part of the club scene and they see no hope for the future for anything to really strive for except being able to party and being openly gay. Because I’m younger and I’ve done a lot of things in my life, people kind of get inspired. They want to get out there and find love and be whoever they want to be. And they’re all in my age range. So that’s cool.”
According to Luzon, there are some drawbacks to that level of fame.
“Now I’m under the microscope,” she said. “People are looking at me now. I can’t pick my nose in public anymore. That’s a big responsibility. No boogers, honey.”
She seemed genuinely sad about that.
Anyway, when it comes to the reality-show victory lap that is “Drag U,” Carrera said the show doesn’t come with as much pressure on the queens as “Drag Race” does.
“‘Drag Race’ is extremely intimidating,” she said. “You have all these amazing queens and then you have RuPaul and you’re being judged. It’s hard. You know that everyone at home is going to be watching you and people that you don’t know are going to be judging you. It’s a lot more pressure. ‘Drag U’ is a lot more fun because it’s someone else who gets judged. Everyone that’s been on ‘Drag Race’ knows what it is to have to lip-sync for your life and being judged by people who don’t even know you. We give them that little bit of comfort. We can say this is going to work. So they’re prepared.”
Just because some of the pressure is off, doesn’t mean the queens don’t get their claws all sharp and shiny for each other on “Drag U.”
“We are trying to help these biological women win some money and a trip and be the best drag queen,” Luzon said. “So it’s a little competition for us as well. We want the girl that we’re making over in drag to win and be the best, which is good. Competition is healthy. You want to have something to fight for and that makes it feel even better. So yes, there is some tension between the queens. I don’t know where it comes from. It just runs through our glittery blood.”
“It’s still a competition at the end of the day,” Carrera added. “There’s always that little bit of competitiveness, but everyone gets along pretty well. I didn’t experience any crazy cattiness on my episodes. Everyone was pretty cool, but with that competitive nature and wanting to win.”
Carrera said that when it comes to the makeovers, trying to bring out the inner diva in women isn’t as easy as it seems.
“A lot of women aren’t even comfortable with being women,” she said. “To have them become these beautiful confident queens, it’s hard. It’s a big change for them. I have my challenges but I’m very persuasive and I have this nature in me. People tend to do what I tell them to do — in a good way. But women are fun. I love women. Women love drag queens. Women want to be drag queens a little bit. It’s my pleasure to go through the tough part.”
Luzon added that giving women a drag makeover isn’t as tough as doing the same for men, something they both had to do on “Drag Race.”
“It’s much easier turning a woman into a beautiful looking woman than a man [into a woman],” she said. “It’s interesting to meet these women that we, as drag queens, try to emulate and celebrate — and to have them be completely clueless about how to be feminine. We have to smack it into them.”
Once “Drag U” wraps and their “Drag Race” tour commitments are done, both Luzon and Carrera are looking forward to putting their newfound popularity to good use.
“I’m working with some producers on some music,” Luzon said. “That’s the next step for a reality-television personality, to put out a song. If Kim Kolciak from ‘Real Housewives’ can put out ‘Tardy for the Party,’ then why can’t I put out a song? I’m living my life and I’m enjoying how things are going right now.”
“For now, I have a lot of bookings out of state,” Carrera said. “I’m going to be focused on that. Besides that, I’m working on some little projects, more television definitely. I want to start doing some charity stuff. I want to protest something. I want to be out there with a sign yelling something. I want to be an activist whether it’s gay marriage or — it doesn’t even have to have anything to do with gay people. It can be whatever. I really want to be out there now that I have this platform and attention. I want to be a good influence. I feel like a lot of my peers in my age group don’t really care for things that are going on in the world. I want to wake them up a little bit. We’re adults. We can’t wait until we’re in our mid-30s and say, ‘Well, damn, I want to get married,’ or ‘I want the same rights as other people.’ We have to do it now. That’s what I want to do.”
“Drag U” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on Logo. For more information, visit logotv.com, carmencarrera.com or manilaluzon.com.