Down Under Has A New Drag SuperStar. Kiwi Queen Spankie Jackzon, who spent her formative years and honed her Drag skills in some of Melbourne’s best bars, was crowned the winner of season 2 of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under in September 2022.
“I think it’s kind of starting to sink in,” Spankie tells Star Observer in a zoom interview from her home in New Zealand, “It’s insane. Who would’ve thought that somebody from Palmerston North with no pants on and flat hair would end up winning?”
In an age where Drag Race queens are known to spend thousands of dollars on their designer dresses on the show, Spankie’s win has been heralded as the triumph of pure talent.
A Nice Refresh Button
Hannah Conda, Spankie Jackzon, Kween Kong
Her fellow finalist, the incredible Kween Kong, describes Spankie as the “epitome of Down Under Drag” that we should be championing.
“Spankie has been a nice refresh button (in the Drag Race franchise),” Kween had told Star Observer in another interview last month. “It’s not about how much you spend on dresses to be on the show. You should lead with talent, with your craft and you should have charisma. It’s not for nothing that they say – charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent. Spankie encompasses all that is excellent about drag here.”
Spankie, who admittedly spent just around $10,000 to prepare for the season and almost pulled out before filming started, readily agrees sewing and turning looks were not her strong points.
When she walked into the ‘werk room’ in a short, one-shoulder, purple dress, and a flat blonde wig, not many would have been willing to place their bets on her winning the crown.
But, with close to two decades of drag on her resume and a win in another drag reality competition – season two of the House of Drag – under her belt, as her fellow contestants realised, you could ignore Spankie at your own peril.
Sewing Challenge Sends Her To The Bottom
Spankie Jackzon
Spankie says sewing and turning looks were not what she was known for in the season. The sewing challenge in the very first episode sent her straight to the bottom, where she had to lip sync for her life to stay on in the competition and from there she went on to decimate the competition.
“If you go back to the early seasons of Drag Race, something happened after season six. It became about clothes, and I don’t necessarily think that it was the judges who asked for that. It was the drag queens who were like I need this in order to win. And that was never my philosophy about Drag,” says Spankie.
“I could go out there in a paper and still be able to entertain and bring the roof down. There are plenty of other talented drag queens out there, they look rough and they’re not always going to be polished, but they have so much to offer. The same can be said for Jinkx (Jinkx Monsoon, season five winner and the winner of the All Stars 7 All Winners crown). It is refreshing that (Drag Race) is about talent.”
First Drag
Spankie first donned Drag at the age of 14, in a local production of Full Monty in her hometown, with her dad, who was one of the lead characters. She moved to Melbourne when she was 18, and the rest, as the cliche goes, is history.
“I lived there in my 20s, so I was loose. I loved it, breathed it, ate it and lapped it up,” recalls Spankie.
“Melbourne is where I found who I was and where I got to be myself and fully realise the human and the adult that I actually am. If it wasn’t for my time in Melbourne I wouldn’t be half the drag queen I am today. I was so inspired by so many of the drag performances in Melbourne and there are some incredible Queens there.”
At one point Spankie held residencies in eight Melbourne bars, and was known for her ‘Nurse Betty presents’ parties. “One of my favourite outfits was literally a longline boob tube from (Melbourne’s iconic fetish shop) Eagle leather,” she laughs.
Melbourne Made Me Who I am Today
Spankie Jackzon
“Some of the older Melbourne queens were legends. Ms Candy, who we lost recently and is a Melbourne icon, was somebody who was such a champion of my drag as well. All of these people taught me so much and I learned so much in my time in Melbourne and I wouldn’t change it for the world, because it just made me who I am today.”
After 12 years in Melbourne, Spankie bid farewell to the city and moved back home to take care of her ailing dad. An eight-year career in child care followed before she got her call for season two of Drag Race Down Under.
The first season of Drag Race Down Under, when it came out in 2021, was panned by critics and fans alike and has the ignominy of being one of the lowest-rated seasons in the franchise, with an average 5.75 rating per episode on IMDB.
Though RuPaul dubbed the queens a “ratchet”, the second season proved to be a breakout sophomore hit, averaging 8.68 per episode on IMDB. According to Spankie, there was a lot of “love and care” between the queens this season and showcased the best of Down Under Drag.
The crown is safe and back in New Zealand for the second year running (the winner of the first season was another Kiwi queen Kita Mean), and Spankie is raring to take over the Drag scene, with plans for Melbourne, UK, and the US.
With “nothing to prove, the only reason she says would go back for a Drag Race All-Winners season would be to “test my skills and rework the fashion a little bit.” Her fans need not worry though. Spankie promises she will still be that queen “with no pants on.”
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