The Kiki of Queens: The Bald And The Beautiful with Trixie and Katya

Despite not having seen either of their seasons of Ru Paul’s Drag Race, YouTube decided I’d like Trixie Mattel and Katya reacting to Netflix shows. YouTube has never been more right. It started as Shorts (that’s how they get you) and then the full videos of them binging entire seasons of shows. I briefly engaged very heavily with Drag Race, I think as a way of embracing “my culture”, but I’ve fallen off it hard. I don’t think I’ve seen an episode since the third UK season in 2021. To be fair, I haven’t watched much TV at all since then.

The pair each have a slightly existential wit to them, and their chemistry is undeniable

Sometimes it feels like drag queens just get in costume and think that’s enough. “I’m a drag queen, I’m in drag, my job is done”, but these two perform. Arguably two of the US’s most successful and well-known drag queens, the pair each have a slightly existential wit to them, and their chemistry is undeniable. The videos made me want to go back and at least watch the US seasons these two Queens are in but, devastatingly, they’ve been taken off Netflix. If only the pair made content of a medium that wasn’t so beholden to licensing agreements. Enter: The Bald and the Beautiful.

Because of how mainstream certain drag queens are, it’s dangerously easy to forget that there are so many people who hate them

To my dismay, the podcast is initially pitched as being about the fashion and beauty industry. This is something I am peripherally interested in, but not looking to invest dozens of hours hearing about. The first episode, ‘Nosferatu Vibes’, managed to dispel some of my fears however, maintaining the light and random feeling captured by everything I’d seen of them on YouTube Shorts. They talk about health and make-up a fair bit, which I didn’t mind, but then mention that they’ll have guests on, which immediately repulsed me. I should maybe listen to one of those episodes before passing judgement, because chances are it’ll be a delightful and educational listen, but when you’re attracted to a show solely because of the charisma of two individuals, an episode without that is less than appealing.  

I want a podcast where they rant and ramble about anything that comes up and, a few episodes in, I’m still tentative about whether that’s what this is. But I’m growing to appreciate it for a different reason. In 2022 I challenged myself to engage in queer culture in some way every day of July. After that month however, I still consume tragically little explicitly LGBTQIA+ content. In an early episode of The Bald and the Beautiful, the pair talk about how, because of how mainstream certain drag queens are, it’s dangerously easy to forget that there are so many people who hate them, some who even want to kill them, just for doing this. It’s something I don’t love to be reminded of but can appreciate the importance of occasionally and solemnly considering. We can enjoy progress and drag without getting complacent or pretending everything is okay when homosexual activity is illegal in 64 countries, including being punishable by death in at least 12, six of which are in the United Nations.  

Trixie and Katya don’t often get political on the show, they explain, because they’re self-aware that they’re preaching to the choir, but I enjoyed this tangent and I’m glad they don’t shy away from it or stick their head in the sand. 

While I listen the podcast audio-only (as nature intended), from clips of the video I know that the pair record the podcast out of-drag, in all their bald and beautiful splendour. This makes it unique in the plethora of content they create, and serves as a nice metaphor for the behind-the-scenes and casual nature of the show. Trixie has recently taken a leave of absence from a lot of her work, but the podcast has continued with a rotating cast of co-hosts/guests, and there’s a deep 170+ episode back catalogue if you can’t bring yourself to listen to the show without her. I know I can’t.