âª I am American âª
- We are the largest and fiercest
tour starring drag queens in the world.
âª My, my, my, my country tis of thee âª
âª These are all my friends, we are a family âª
[gasps, screams]
âª This is who I am and who I want to be âª
[cheers and applause]
[indistinct conversations]
- A what? - A cocktail.
- What is supposed to be in it?
- Uh, the good liquor...
- Okay. Let me see.
Oh, this is lovely, whatever that is.
[music]
[cheers and applause]
- âª Good God, get a grip, girl, sit on down âª
âª I'm chunky yet funky and I'm snatching crowns âª
Madrid, make some noise!
- The show is about to begin.
- I'm the large and in charge,
chunky and funky, bold and beautiful
Latrice motherfucking Royale.
[music]
âª Ho, excuse the beauty âª
âª Excuse the beauty âª
âª Sorry, those fries don't go with this shake âª
âª If you're the Big Mac, then I must be a steak âª
âª Excuse the beauty âª
[light music]
[indistinct conversations]
- Oh, that's luxury.
- Ain't it? - [laughs]
- You better-- - Oh.
[laughter]
I'm auntie and mama.
You know, I'm both, you know, I'm Auntie Latrice,
because I don't really have a lot of children, you know.
I had my tubes tied at a very young age.
[laughs]
- Ain't nobody got time for that.
- All right. - Everybody loves Latrice.
She's always fair. She's always kind.
Never complains. She's always thankful,
and she's always grateful for, you know,
it would be nice if other people were more like her.
[laughs]
- Latrice is amazing.
Her laugh is like infectious.
[laughter]
- And I also live for that business woman,
like, don't fuck with me, fellas.
- Just me?
Ain't nothing to say? You got no questions?
You're just gonna stare at me like that?
Make me feel awkward?
[laughs]
- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you don't get nervous, then, I mean,
at some point, still in your career,
then you're too full of yourself.
[laughs]
Yeah, no, I really, really do.
Because it's a new city every time, you know.
You're kind of like oo, I hope they like me.
But....
They're going to love me.
What's not to love?
I dealt with a lot of things
that a little kid should never have to deal with.
Just with, like, knowing that you're different
and people sensing that, and taking advantage of it.
You know, older people that you trusted,
family members that you trusted.
Friends of my brothers who we thought we trusted.
It was traumatic.
- They were touching me, and feeling me,
and making me do things that I shouldn't--
no kid should have to do.
And it went on for several years.
I kept a lot of secrets, because, you know,
I didn't want anybody to get hurt
because I knew that if the word got out,
my brothers would do some serious damage to people.
And people would die, and hurt, get killed.
It would have been a mess.
It would have been a mess, because that's the scene.
I have brothers in gangs,
you know, that did killing for a living.
It was like breathing for them.
It was hard,
but now I know the importance of speaking it,
you know, of speaking out.
[singing]
[laughter]
- Latrice is just chill.
She's like, "Baby what, where y'all need me?"
"When y'all need me?"
"What's going on? Come on. Yeah, mmhmm. Anytime."
[laughing, chatter]
Where's my water? Who took the one that I wrote my name on?
- Right, it should say Latrice on it.
- Latrice drank all my water.
- No, you drank all my water.
- She does not respect personal property.
- Talking about, oh, I'll put my name on mine.
- Give me that fucking marker.
I'm going to write it on every goddamn--
I ain't even know circle had sides.
Circle gets a square.
Latrice is our matronly mother of the tour.
She's the Oprah of drag.
- Latrice Royale, my good old buddy.
We kiki...
- Ohh! - Whitney Hou!
- Latrice is kind of like... the home girl, you know?
Me and Latrice have gotten really close on this tour.
We both share a very similar sense of humor.
We always laugh. I can always cuddle with her.
And we bond.
- Well, girl.
Oh, you look like you got your nails done.
- No, they look good in certain light, right.
- Oh, but yeah. - Yeah.
In certain light, like, in the light be in,
they look fabulous.
But in the daylight, fluorescent light, baby you don't want it.
- This is what nails end up looking like on tour.
We are hanging off the damn cliff, girl for dear life.
Never let me go.
- Okay, so, most unlikely friendship, I think,
was me and Valentina, I think.
You know, before preconceived notions,
heard horrible things, horrible things about her.
[laughter]
- Oh, my God! Oh, my God.
Oh... You are a screamer, Valentina.
- We're over here trying to tell private stories,
and then once the camera comes around, we go.
- Very that.
Completely a sweetheart.
She really cares,
and I am so proud of her.
Like she's--she's my new little niece. Yeah.
- But I don't have any great moves.
- This is her good moves.
[laughter]
- It's actually been really lovely.
And we are stomping it out,
breaking ground, breaking into new territory,
and making them eat it.
- Ladies and gentlemen, get on your knees
and welcome Epiphany.
- Hello, it's me.
- âª Bitch, you ain't got no W2's âª
âª Miss Latrice Royale, hold the line, my friend âª
âª You're the gatekeeper?
âª Well, let a bad bitch in âª
âª I hear mumbles all around, bitch, let it out...âª
- This is the one, the only, the legendary...
- Oh? - ...to be.
[laughter]
Epiphany Mattel.
Yeah.
- Hello. It's me.
- She's part talent and part assistant.
Oh, that was so heavy.
âª Like Remy scalped Nicki, I'm a savage for mine âª
âª It's the living doll and the Latrice Royal... âª
- Epiphany, I'm so, like, so excited for her.
And we don't have a lot of trans rap artists
that are, you know, out there, trying to do what they do.
And, uh, she definitely represents that,
and the trans community and I'm so excited she's on this tour.
- They live for Epiphany, too.
She got her rah-rahs tonight.
- Yeah.
- I was hung over as fuck.
- You, who, and who?
- Me, Shangela, and Valentina.
- Uh-huh, were out until what?
- Like 5:30.
- You were babysitting Shangela's what? Drunk ass?
- Well, yeah. - Yes.
God, see, everything I say. - She knows how to party.
- She does know how to party.
- Until she fall over. - Well, baby.
- And can't stand up. - And can't make her interview.
How about that?
- Girl, I heard you were the handful.
- Last night? - Yes.
- I had so much fun. - And you didn't want to leave.
- I did not want to leave last night.
Did we stay? - No, bitch.
- [laughs] Did we stay?
- I was like, "No, let's go, Shangela."
You was like, "Epiphany, take me to the bathroom."
So me and Valentina took you to the bathroom.
And then you was like, "Okay, y'all we about to go.
"I'm full. I can't do this.
Come on, let's go, let's go to the hotel."
And we was like okay.
Girl, as soon as we came through the hallway, hit that corner,
the dance floor was right here, the door to leave--
- There was a dance floor? - Yes.
- I don't remember any of this. - Girl.
The dance floor was right here.
The door to leave was right here.
Your ass took a beeline and was like, yes.
And I was like, no.
I had to grab you and say come on, Shangela, let's go.
- Oh, well, that was fun.
- Well, you wanna know why?
I think it's the air. I think it's the altitude.
- No... - The drinks, the drinks--
- No. It's the amount that you have drank is--
- Well, it was my friend-- it was Violet's birthday, and--
[laughter]
- I'm out. Love y'all.
- Can't be using that excuse, mama.
Unh-unh.
- I'm not the scapegoat for your alcoholism.
[laughter] - Oh, my God.
- Yeah.
- It's a very eclectic bunch of girls,
so like, generally there's a love fest, you know what I mean?
But with family, you always have your little
quarrels and spats and bitchiness.
And you know, things like that.
But I generally try to like,
you know, I'm the level head,
I try to stay level.
Like, if I pop off, then it's for a reason,
and you have to understand that,
like, okay, so now we have crossed some lines,
you know what I mean? And I'm a team player,
and I'mma go with the flow, until I'm not.
- One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight...
- It's so important because we're all traveling together
for such a long amount of time,
that we all respect each other, respect each other's time,
because we're all accustomed to working solo.
We do a lovely job solo.
We get pampered and treated. We know that.
But when we're on a team, it's about working on a team.
So yes, the other girls will get it,
because we're gonna drill it into them,
and they're going to respect everybody's time
who was here today.
But thank y'all for being here and being on time,
and being prepared.
- Shit is just late sometimes.
I mean, I had something important to do,
and I was there the whole day before
for like eight hours rehearsing, learning these numbers.
Why is no one ready?
- Violet, shut up.
- Dear God, Lord,
with all the things that had to get done,
we had to do rehearsals,
full days of rehearsal during DragCon.
I let Brandon know I'm not going to be able
to make the second rehearsal,
but he didn't take it lightly.
- Things came up. I had a doctor's appointment.
It was the last opportunity to go to this doctor's.
Well, honey, apparently,
three other girls didn't show up.
Well, this text came out.
If we weren't there by 2:00 PM, we were going to be fired.
It was a big, big scandal. Big thing.
- We were threatened. Threatened.
I've never in my life been threatened
on the first day of a job.
- Can you believe that? Fire us!
- It got nasty. It got nasty.
- Yeah. Girls were late, and Brandon Voss popped off.
- I asked for two days of rehearsal. Two days.
But already on Day Two, we can't get to rehearsal on time.
How the fuck are we gonna get to meet and greet on time?
It stops, like, right now, for real, you guys.
I really can't do this anymore. I am tired.
Other end of my business to run,
besides babysitting drag queens coming to rehearsal.
Like it's absurd.
You're not just drag queens from a bar.
You're professionals. You're the biggest stars.
Like, from one of the biggest franchises.
I mean, it's like really, really, like, ridiculous.
I roll through, I said ok, here I'm at this rehearsal
- It was a drama. I had my glasses on.
I was not bothered. I did the rehearsal.
Oop-boop-ba-doo. Call it a day. We're here. Whatever.
You know, you get through things.
Oh, well. But, roll the cameras.
He best to back up. He best to back up.
You would want to back up.
If I have to say it one more time,
I'm gonna back ya up.
I'm on both sides of this.
I manage a business, too, dawg.
So I have to take care of that, as well.
My last opportunity to see a doctor
before I leave out of the country on your tour was today.
And I communicated that to Chance,
because Chance was here, you were not.
- I'll stand by it. I think she was wrong
for making a doctor's appointment
on our two days of rehearsal.
But, I mean, I kind of lumped her in
with Violet, and Valentina, and Alyssa,
who are probably the three problem children.
She took it personally.
- I'm not that person. - I know you're not.
- And I've never disrespected your time.
I cherish your time. I value your time,
because I know how much and how hard you all work.
So, this is my first offense.
I'm sorry that it's happening right now,
but please forgive me.
And don't give me shit, because I do not do this.
This is not my character.
So don't get out of character with me.
My feelings were hurt.
We talked about it. We hugged and made out later.
And all is well.
But there's an understanding that had to be received.
- So, work, work, work is now different? Okay.
- We're all queens of our own kingdom.
You know, our own queendom.
We get heated, we're tired, we disagree, but we get over it
Because we're all professionals. That's why we're all here.
We all love each other.
We all fucking hate each other, too.
It's like sisters. It's like family.
- We sisters, and we can disagree
and cuss each other out,
and child, we be fine.
- It takes too much energy to stay mad at somebody
you have to see every day. We got 22... 24 cities to do.
Like, I need to talk it out, and we'll be fine.
- One, two, three. - WERQ the World!
[music]
- Okay. It's coming together.
- 7:00.
- Yes, they did. - 16.
- They had ships.
[laughter]
- They had European sizes.
- European size ships.
[laughter]
- With me and Latrice we kind of have the same business ethic.
And this is our job. This is what we do.
This is what we have been doing longer
than a lot of the girls that's on the tour.
- This is some good, too. - Of course.
- We come from pageant background.
And you always need to be early, to be on time, you know.
That's the old saying.
To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late.
And to be late, is to be left.
And we don't ever want to be left.
I can get ready in an hour and 15 minutes.
Head to toe ready to go.
And you should know that about yourself.
You have to take shortcuts, don't be all extra,
examining every step.
Girl, you ain't got time for that.
Put that shit on and let's go.
I'm just saying.
Yeah, I'm always ready.
What'd Miss Thing say? I don't get ready, I stay ready, bitch?
- Right. - That's it. It's true.
Give me how long? I got 10 minutes?
All right, I'll be ready. - Yes.
- I might not have on no, um-- - Something.
- Something, but we're gonna make it work, bitch.
- Drag by back then was so under the radar, and so--
such a, like, underground kind of situation.
It was a struggle, because, you know, you would do two,
three gigs a day just to make decent money
so you could pay your rent and your bills, you know.
And you had to, like, piggyback the gigs
so you could stack your coins.
It was the only way it was going to work.
But it was hard. It was a struggle.
- Oo, we first, sis. Yes.
- Oh this is nice.
- These meet and greets. Who is always late for these?
- Valentina, Violet. - Valentina, Shangela.
- Shangela and Violet. - And Violet.
Violet usually be on time, but she be taking her time.
She usually done and ready,
but she still takes her time. Yeah.
- Those are the ones. - Those are the ones.
- Mm-hmm. - Let it be known who was first.
- Always. - Always.
- Backwards. - No it's not.
Oh, fuck. - You have to learn.
- I was trying to be smart and shit.
- They're coming with a cocktail.
- âª Cocktail, cocktail, cocktail âª
[laughter]
- Let me see.
- Hi. [cheers]
- Are you excited? - Yes!
- Well, don't freeze.
Are you guys here for the meet and greet?
- Yes, the meet and greet. - Meet and greet.
- Well, I'll get up and close on you then.
Have fun.
- Latrice! Of course.
She's amazing. She's like the biggest heart.
- Breathe.
Hi. - Hi, beautiful.
You look gorgeous. - Thank you.
- This is like...
so far past
anything that I could have
conjured up in my brain.
Drag is everywhere. It's everywhere, literally.
And you know, it's becoming a part of our,
not just culture, but of our lives, you know.
Like, something even bigger.
And I'm going to be part of that movement.
- I've always admired my mother's strength, you know.
She was strong.
And my dad was abusive, and on drugs,
and all that kind of stuff.
I've watched him toss my mom around the house,
and you know, I would watch the abuse,
hear the abuse, and it was just ridiculous.
When she had enough, she did what she needed to do.
- I was a witness to how it all went down.
That physical altercation, that last one,
that calculated move that my mother made
to break free of him.
And it was like something out of a movie.
- It was really something out of a movie.
She really calculated a moment
where she was expecting him home,
making dinner, the whole nine yards.
And he went to go take a shower,
and for some reason, we were having spaghetti that night.
Baby, she boiled them noodles,
a big pot, you know.
Boiled those noodles up, got her little mittens,
took that pot of noodles to the shower
and dumped it over his head.
Boiling, scalding noodles, hot water,
stuck into his body.
Third, fourth, fifth degree burns all over.
Sent him to the hospital. That was the last time.
- To be that young, I was only like five,
but I have a vivid, vivid memory of it,
like, vivid.
Like you don't forget something like that.
Don't mess with a black woman scorned.
Don't do it. You don't want it.
Don't do it.
- Oh, there's the-- oh, oh, now, now
- Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute.
- It's like taffy candy. - Yeah.
- Now this I would try and eat.
Oh, let me see what the orange tastes like.
It's all right.
You got your own.
- So?
It's all color coordinated in this thing.
Is this apple, you think? Pineapple.
Ooh, here. - What the fuck is this?
Now, you know I don't eat this other shit.
- Is it chocolate. - Let me see.
- Noucat. Or "Noucut".
N-o-u-c-a-t. How do you say it?
It's "no-cut?"
- Then you know. - Why is it not nougat?
- Should we do a backup number, or?
- What--what--what?
- Exactly. I don't know.
- There is no backup number.
- I mean, she's 45 minutes away.
- Mm-hmm. - Which is great.
And we have to hope that the flag poles
are on that bus as well.
So if the dancers don't have the flag poles, what are we--
- Oh, baby you can send me around the air.
I'll hold one of these skirts. - What's happening, Latrice?
- Um, well, the bus had broke down.
And part of the talent,
she's part talent and part assistant,
but the talent part should outrank the assistant part.
And she's not on-- she's not here.
She was on the bus. And the bus broke down.
That's half of my act.
The other part of the act is that we spin flags.
And those are not here.
And that's the whole number.
So, basically, I might not perform tonight. So.
- Are you concerned? Or how you feeling?
- You know what? You know what really?
I have a--I have come
to embrace the shenanigans
and buffoonery that is tour life.
So I'm not really concerned, because we go--
the show will go on one way or another.
But in a different order.
We gotta figure out the lineup though.
- Where they find this at?
- I don't know where they dug that up.
- Where did they find that, bitch? That's old as fuck.
That's hanging up in the Parliament though.
- Baby! Like that's old antique old--
that's my first promo shoot ever that I ever shot.
- And you still got the hair on, look.
- Oh, shut up. [laughter]
- So as of right now,
Miss Latrice Royale's good dear friend, performer,
and assistant, "Miss Eperphany,"
has been eperphinated on the bus.
That popped a tire-- - Popped a tire.
- That was driving it's merry way all the way from Belgium
all the way to up in here,
and the flags are on the bus for your number.
- She's on the bus. - She's on the bus.
And now you are a professional
and you are kicking in and doing what?
- Doing it well.
So we're going to do "Here's to Life" live.
- "Here's to Life?"
- You've got this, girl.
- Yeah, we're gonna make it work.
- No, that's what you gotta do. When you're a professional--
- The show must, and will, go on.
- It will, girl.
- Let me get my look, because you're dressed.
Look, I'm not dressed, and you're dressed.
How did that work out? - Always be on time.
I don't know about you.
It's supposedly professionals, allegedly.
Y'all is professionals.
She can't even get in her opening number.
- We make it work. It's a make it work situation.
It's what we do.
[music]
- But you made it. You made it.
- I made it. I'm here.
And I'm gonna slay the stage.
- So everything worked out.
- It--it did. I mean, like,
down to the wire, the show was starting
and they were walking in the door.
So Epiphany has made it, as you can see.
And they found the flags.
And so we're going to go back to the original plan
and do the production.
High energy.
- Girl, she's just saying that because she got
a new high energy song out.
- Ha. You know, it's gotta build up to something.
[music]
âª Excuse the beauty, excuse the beauty âª
- Somehow Latrice just gets them going,
Like, they're always standing up...
- They love Latrice.
I have never seen an audience so receptive.
Like, before she even walks out and they see her shadow,
when it's a blackout on the stage,
like, they freak the fuck out.
And as soon as they see the words Latrice Royale
on the screen, the roar that slaps you in the face
immediately is ridiculous.
Damn, Gina, she like, yeah the crowd loves her.
- I have three suitcases, and two carryons.
I'm sickening when it comes to packing.
[laughter] - Hey, Latrice.
Voss Events, girl, I'm about to get them
with these overweight fees.
- Oh, I don't know.
But none of mine are that heavy.
- On Flight 914, landing at 3:40.
So I sent someone to the baggage office to pick up that bag.
And now you are telling me the bag is not there.
I'm ready to get in the car and come down there
and strangle somebody from Fin Air if I don't find this bag.
- Hi, uh, I'm looking for a lost bag.
I need to know where this bag is,
because I need it tonight for a show.
[beeping]
- Is that the hang up tone?
- Any word yet?
- Oh, no.
[yawning]
But, why now, bitch?
It's like the last show. So that's just that.
- Yeah. - Boop-boop-de-doop.
So, there might be a situation where I'm sitting out tonight,
which is very disappointing to the fans
and disappointing to me because I don't like to let anyone down.
And, um, it makes me a little angry,
especially when they charge you for overage fees.
They charge you, take your money,
and then your bag doesn't come.
That's when it gets real shysty.
- I talked to Brandon, and he's almost here.
He wanted to see.
They still don't have an update on where the bag itself is.
Um, but we're hoping it may arrive on the 7:30 flight.
But if it doesn't, there's no way that--
there's no other option for you to be in drag and do the show.
- We don't have any clothes that'll fit her.
We don't have no shoes that'll fit Latrice.
Like, nobody in the cast does, or else we would be like,
sister, come on, let's get you ready.
- I mean, we're in Finland. You know.
It's like land of white people.
Like, first of all, it's going to be hard for Latrice to find,
like, tights in her color.
- Oh, girl. - It's true.
- Damn, the tights, bitch. Ain't nobody her size.
- Kennedy, tell us how is she handling it?
- The best way you know how.
I mean, you can't do nothing about it.
So it's like crying over spoiled milk, honey.
- And what use is that?
- And always remember, no refunds.
Lineup subject to change.
- There's nothing I can do about it.
So there's no need for me to get upset.
Remain calm. But it's disappointing.
You know, this happened-- this is not the first,
second time this has happened before.
- No, that's what you gotta do. When you're a professional,
- The show must, and will, go on.
- You got this, girl. - Walk to me, walk the beat.
Go two, three, four, there you go.
- Latrice is usually the line leader to here, right?
- No. - Where's Latrice usually?
- Kennedy is the line leader here.
[cheers and applause]
- Well, ladies and gentlemen,
tonight I have a very special announcement.
You see, in the show tonight,
you saw that we had some of your favorite divas here.
But you may have noticed that one person was missing.
- Yes!
- We flew here this morning after finishing last night's
show at midnight, and then jumping on a 7:00 AM flight
over here on Finnish Airways, okay.
Now, Finnish is fabulous, I'm sure.
But they didn't finish the job, okay?
They got all of our luggage except for one diva's items.
No, she showed up, and still to this moment,
we don't know where her wigs, pads,
dresses, shoes, makeup.
So if you go to Finnish airlines and a bitch is over there
in a chunky yet funky tee shirt, bitch, you know.
But, this diva loves her fans so much
and wants to celebrate with you tonight in Helsinki.
She said, "You know what?
"Shangela," she said, "Shangela."
I said, "What?"
She said, "Oh, I'm not missing Helsinki tonight."
I said, "Why, mama?"
She said because "I am Latrice motherfucking Royale."
[cheers and applause]
- Latrice!
- Oh, my God.
Oh.
And I wanted our first time to be so special.
And I don't have any panties.
[laughter]
How are you?
Oh, my God.
Well, so, look, it's like, shit happens, right?
You know? And I was like,
all I could do is control my reaction to this bullshit.
Now, I can either come out the box and be all mad,
but that takes too much energy, and I'm too tired.
So I was like, let me smoke some weed
and just chill the fuck out.
You know? Chill the fuck out.
And so I did.
And I feel better about myself.
- I thought it would be great that I come out,
if I can't perform, I might as well host.
And play a little game with you guys.
Is that okay?
- Yeah?
Are you game for it?
We're gonna play this little game called
"Wig in a Box."
[music]
- We are Werq the World.
- You did it. - That was so much fun.
It was so much fun. That was total fun.
They lived, that was fun.
I would tell younger Latrice to keep practicing,
keep steady fast in your goals,
and your dreams, and it's all coming.
It's all coming.
- Good job. - You feel good?
You wanna go out for a bottle-- - I will.
- Yay. Okay.
- Li'l Timmy, your life is going to be amazing
and all that you went through is not for nothing.
You have a testimony.
And, you can help people with your testimony.
And so, stay strong.