One personality is usually enough for most performers, but Drag Race’s new champion JIMBO is hustling together six.
“It’s gonna be awesome,” the fan favorite winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars (2023) hypes. “I have been working with a choreographer and two dancers, we have some back up dancers, and I’m really excited to do this. I like to always be next level and different.”
The show, titled Jimbo’s Drag Circus, is novel for sheer tenacity: a two hour (essentially) solo show featuring six fully costumed characters in a world tour hitting 57-odd cities in a little more than three months. “Yeah, it's gonna be a lot,” Jimbo concedes. “I will play six characters, a lot of dancing and moving around and being crazy. I’ll be out in the audience. Quick changes, which are not my strong suit – I am known for taking a little bit longer. That will be interesting. We’re working on it.”
“I have done tours of this length, but never this from my energy in performance,” Jimbo continues. “Usually, you perform inside an ensemble and there is someone else to take the reins while you change and cool down. It's not gonna be the case with this show, where I am gonna have to run around and be on stage as much as possible.”
While the title billing is solo, the drag star will have a couple of helpers in surprising forms for the night. “Luckily I have really amazing dancers,” Jimbo says. “Who are so funny and awesome during the show. I also have my really good friend Andrew Taylor, who is playing the character of Jeepers, my clown sidekick: a kind of clown handy man and musical accompanist that does the show with me. They also carry some of the weight of the show.”
The 41-year-old performer has broken big in the drag world since making their debut on the debut season of the spin-off series Canada’s Drag Race in 2020, before returning for two RuPaul hosted seasons, ultimately winning the 8th season of the All Stars franchise.
“I would say it is really fun to compete, and it’s the best when you win,” Jimbo states playfully. “But I also had competed two times before and didn’t win, and still won in many ways. I left Canada’s Drag Race with a huge amount of support. People loved my art form and loved my point of view, and many of them felt as I did from that first season, that I wish it had gone a different way. But they really wanted to see more from my story.”
“Coming back again in UK vs The World was a really fun, quick little visit where I got to show a lot and do a lot within those few episodes I was in. And again, it really made people want to see more of my story.
“So when I went back for All Stars and won, I really got to show I had done a lot of growing and a lot of work to really level up for my All Stars package. It was a dream to be able to show it to RuPaul, and the world and have it be received so well. I had so much support and so much love, it really felt like a collective win.”
While the experience was transformative, Jimbo craves more face time with a few idols. “Oh for sure, there are tons and tons,” the performer says. “I’m just getting started! I would love more interactions with Mama Ru. I’d love to do a song with her or something, that would be so cool. I would love to do something with Elvira or Pamela Anderson, just have a good time.”
Building Jimbo’s Drag Circus took more than merely adapting the material featured on Drag Race, it required the multi-hyphenate to draw on their extensive training in the world of theater and design. “I’ve been working in film and theater for over ten years, and I was a production designer before becoming a drag performer. I get to combine all my loves of set design, costume design, music and performance.
"I’ve been working with my friend Andrew writing all the music for the show, I’ve been working with my friend Marshall and another artist Cadbury to create an amazing and impressive set. I’ve been working with another really awesome company called Sigma One and their lighting designer to create dynamic light show to go along with the show. So I really want to draw on my theater background, really draw on my community of artists to create a next level show.”
As stated, Jimbo will play six different characters – and so many be very familiar to long time followers. “I’m going to be playing all the characters, and its set in the framework of an old timey circus, because I love the nostalgia of the circus. I love that aesthetic and that vibe of freak shows and peep shows. We are inviting people to come in, have a laugh and go on this magical funny story ride with me as I play some characters I played on Drag Race, like Joan Rivers and Shirley Temple along with some new characters.”
While drag has become well known in the mainstream, Jimbo’s unique bailiwick of specifically ‘drag clowning’ might need some introductions for the uninitiated. “I am a clown,” Jimbo explains, “and the clown is all about the audience. It’s a feedback loop with the audience, where it is all about listening to what the audience wants and going with that. The audience is a really big part of the show. It’s set within the framework of a circus, and in the circus the fourth wall is broken. There is even going to be a sing-a-long!”
While fans of Jimbo may have sense of what to anticipate, the clown is relishing those who take the plunge to see the Circus a bit more in the dark. “I really love the element of surprise,” the comic says with zeal. “I like people to go in with an open mind who are ready to... have a good time. This show is about inviting people into drag, to have a magical night and forget about real life to tune into a wacky time. People like Pee Wee of Pee Wee’s Playhouse and the kind of sensibility of Saturday Night Live or Monty Python, those kind of influences are important to me. Come ready to laugh, and leave saying ‘What the fuck what that?’”
