Feb 8
Jonny McGovern Returns to Ru's Mothership with 'Hey Qween' on WOW
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 8 MIN.
Source: WOW
EDGE: What are you hoping for when you ask the queens to spill the tea? What would be the ideal story for you to hear?
Jonny McGovern Sometimes people get the idea that the show – or any show where you're interviewing the girls on "Drag Race" about their experiences – is all about trying to get them to say something scandalous or something mean. Now, look, we all love a little spice, but what I'm looking for when I'm asking them to spill the tea is information we don't know – how they felt, what caused them to act a certain way, how they felt when they got attacked about the hairline in their wig, or how it felt when they saw RuPaul for the very first time – the kind of stuff that I think people want to know.
They want to go beyond what they've seen on the TV. They want to they want to really get inside their head and their creativity. Only the people who have been on "Drag Race" will understand the pressure of hitting that runway on the main stage and seeing RuPaul fully done up, right in front of them, with all those cameras. What I try to tap into with them is what the feeling was. The tea is things we don't know, things that are interesting about that experience. That's what makes the most delicious tea. Now, it doesn't hurt if they have a deep message for one of the girls, but they gotta get it out there because everybody likes that kind of spice – but it's really the stuff we don't know that's going to open up that world to the audience. That is the tea for me.
EDGE: Have you had a chance to interview RuPaul himself? Would you want to?
Jonny McGovern Well, now, let me tell you! The very first episode of "Hey Qween!," back in the YouTube days, was RuPaul. I had spoken with RuPaul occasionally via social media because he enjoyed some of my work, and, obviously, I was a huge fan of his. At that time I was able to send RuPaul an email saying, "I'm doing the show about gay people and their stories called "Hey Qween!" Do you want to come on?" – and I got an email back from RuPaul that had one word: "Yep!"
RuPaul was the first guest of "Hey Qween!," and I think it was really because RuPaul was on the show that we got the eyes of so many of the "Drag Race" contestants on us and made them all want to be on the show. So, would I love to interview RuPaul again? Yes, honey! Yes, I would! Any moment in the sunshine is a good one. I've been a fan of RuPaul since I was a teenager, since you had to order RuPaul underground albums off of catalogs – paper catalogs! Nobody under the age of 30 knows what I'm talking about. But I've been RuPaul fan forever, so any chance to talk to him would be good.
Source: Twitter
EDGE: Let me ask about your podcast, "Gay As Fuck." Out of everything going on out there, how do you decide what you're going to talk about?
Jonny McGovern I want to talk about pop culture that everybody's talking about, but always through a distinctly gay lens; the kind of stuff I would talk about to my homo homies. It's like you and me having a one-on-one gossip dish session about what we thought was hot, what we thought was scandalous or shady. It's stuff that makes me laugh or that I think is just bananas, and there's so much stuff that's bananas in the world! There's never a lack of something to talk about.
EDGE: How dirty are you willing to get when it come to the "dirty gay stuff?"
Jonny McGovern It's called "Gay As Fuck" for a reason: I'm not censoring myself. I'm a sex-positive person. I don't think we should be ashamed of talking about gay sex, or sexy gay issues, or gay desire. It's very matter of fact, I'm very upfront, and I talk to you just like I would my "girlfriend," in quotes, you know what I mean? I tell it like it is, and there's really no off limits when it comes to "Gay As Fuck."
EDGE: How do you find the time for all these projects?
Jonny McGovern I'm working 24/7, and luckily my creative projects are my life. I can record a podcast, walk the dog, pick up the outfits for JCRT, go do tapings of "Hey, Qween!," and work on new things. It's really the pleasure of my life to be able to do this many projects.
"Hey, Qween" can be streamed at the World of Wonder Presents Plus website. Click here for more information.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
