‘Drag has become a little 2D’: Drag Race’s refreshing winner on refusing to compromise (2024)

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By Jared Richards

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When Spankie Jackzon entered this year’s RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under in a flat, blonde wig and short, purple dress that accentuated her shoulders and showcased her bare legs and bum, it was easy to count her out.

Self-described as “all the wrong things at the same time”, the 37-year-old Kiwi queen from Palmerston North – a small city without a gay bar – was undeniably charming (and crude, with an entrance line referencing the classic Kiwi sheep joke), but had immediately committed too many Drag Race cardinal sins.

‘Drag has become a little 2D’: Drag Race’s refreshing winner on refusing to compromise (1)

“I am a girl that wears off the rack,” says Jackzon, whose real name is Blair Macbeth. “I’m not all about the showy costumes. Spankie is relatable, we’ve all met her before. She’s your drunk auntie at the party, she’s the good-time girl … I was always gonna have no pants, no stockings. That’s very much who I am.

“[But now, drag] is all about the look, especially with the younger queens. They look fantastic, but there’s no substance. For me, the look’s not there, but I’ve got shitloads of substance. Drag is about entertainment. If you can’t entertain the crowd, then you’ve got nothing. All you’ve got is nice clothes and good make-up.”

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It’s a philosophy that worked: Jackzon was announced the winner of the second season of the Down Under version of Drag Race this past weekend.

Jackzon is a veteran entertainer, with 19 years of drag under her belt and a crown already, after in 2020 winning the second season of House of Drag, a New Zealand Drag Race bootleg hosted by Down Under’s first winner, Kita Mean, and fellow contestant Anita Wigl’it.

A self-described flamboyant kid, Jackzon found an outlet in theatre. She moved to Melbourne at 18 for a dance contract that “went tits up”, and started performing regularly in drag – at one point in her 12 years there, she held residencies at eight clubs at the same time. “I used to have this blue wig that was from The Warehouse or Kmart, and this piece of fabric I used to pin to me,” she laughs. “We haven’t gone too much further from there, babes.”

On Saturday afternoon, Jackzon found out she had won Down Under at a live screening at Sydney’s Universal, hand-in-hand with her fellow finalists, Adelaide’s Kween Kong and Sydney’s Hannah Conda. With three crownings taped back when the show was filmed in February, the trio didn’t know who would win the title of Down Unders latest drag superstar, alongside $50,000.

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“Even up until the last minute watching the show, [I thought] it’s not mine,” she says. “When my name was called, it was honestly such a shock. I just had my mouth open – and normally that’s for other reasons.”

Down Under’s second season, co-produced by Stan*, TVNZ and Drag Race production company World of Wonder, arrived with something to prove. Its predecessor, from 2021, is often referred to by fans as among the franchise’s worst – and considering there have been more than 40 seasons across 10-plus international franchises since it premiered in 2009, that’s impressively bad.

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A snap lockdown in Sydney resulted in a last-minute production move to Auckland, but there were far bigger obstacles. Between our humour being largely lost on US hosts RuPaul and Michelle Visage, leading to some odd judging decisions (Australian comedian Rhys Nicholson, who rounds out the judging panel, connected more readily with the queens), and the decision to gloss over a contestant’s repeat history with blackface and other offensive drag performances, it was a frustrating watch.

While season two may still have had a small budget, it found a groove as Ru and Visage understood our drag scene more. As she crushed the challenges week after week, Jackzon’s main feedback was around a “lack of polish” in her looks, which she expected but found frustrating.

“Watching it back and hearing their actual critiques, it did hurt my feelings a little bit,” she says. “I’d like to be more polished but who cares. Is that what it’s all about?

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“I took out a loan, I spent $10,000 [getting prepared]. That was all I was willing to spend. I know some of the girls spent upwards of $40,000.”

In recent years, Drag Race has been criticised for celebrating money or connections to designers, rather than talent. Jackzon’s win is refreshing, though the weight of expectations almost got to her.

“I had a lot of issues with getting things made because of where I live and the short time constraint. I nearly pulled out, like a week and a half before – I nearly rang them and said that I can’t do this because I was just gonna embarrass myself. But I was like, ‘This may never happen for me again’.”

Jackzon is among the older winners of Drag Race, at a time when the show skews towards 20-something queens. Sydney drag legend Minnie Cooper, 55, was also on this season of Down Under, where she butted heads with several of her younger competitors, who grew up knowing drag through Drag Race. Both fan favourites of the season, Cooper and Jackzon don’t fit neatly into a Drag Race mould, and neither cared to compromise for it.

“There is a brilliance that comes with age and I’m not even bloody old, but I just come from a different time of drag,” says Jackzon. “There are great [younger] queens, I’m not denying that, but I do feel that drag has become a little 2D … We’re missing out by not having the older queens on.”

As for the future, Jackzon will leave Palmerston North to return to Melbourne, with plans to travel worldwide, meet her new fans and showcase New Zealand drag, baggy latex and all.

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“We don’t have everything in New Zealand,” she says, “but the one thing that we do is we have the most incredibly kind, loving, welcoming people. And I think that’s what screams through our drag.”

*Stan is owned by Nine, the owner of this masthead.

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