Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/World of Wonder
Over the last 15 years, RuPaul’s Drag Race has transformed from a modest, underground competition show with a virtually nonexistent production budget, to an undeniable cultural juggernaut. Its contestants, all multitalented drag performers, come into the show as entertainers and leave as superstars, maybe breaking a nail or 20 in the process. The stresses of Drag Race are known to be monumental. But hey, it takes a lot of heat and pressure to make a diamond.
All of the blood, sweat, tears, breastplates, and duct tape are documented in the new book, And Don’t F&%k It Up!: An Oral History of RuPaul’s Drag Race (The First Ten Years), out this week. In the tome, author Maria Elena Fernandez aggregates a massive series of interviews with Drag Race cst alumni, producers, judges, and of course, the show’s esteemed host. For fans of the show, the book’s juicy specifics from cast and crew will provide a wealth of new background about their favorite unforgettable moments, as well as details about things left on the cutting room floor.
One such revelation comes in the book’s second chapter—each numbered chapter breaks down a different season of the show—when Season 2 contestant Jujubee admits to being blackout drunk during a famous “Lip Sync for Your Life” performance. Jujubee and the other queens on set started imbibing while cameras were rolling earlier in the day, asking for “a little liquid courage” before their episode’s main challenge: a live performance of a rock cover of one of RuPaul’s songs. To save her from embarrassment, the final episode cleverly cut around Jujubee’s excessively inebriated state, but the Drag Race fan-favorite is no longer shying away from talking about it.