Blah blah blah: This is the part where I put some text here so that if you don't want spoilers but your eye accidentally fell on this post, you can see that this is not for you and that you shouldn't keep reading. You should go watch the first episode. Especially if you're a BenDeLaCreme fan.
Remember? Remember when DeLa said she had no interest in being on RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars? I asked her about it when Drag Race All Stars 2 aired.
At the time: DeLa was performing an amazingly funny show she wrote riffing on Dante's Inferno. Talking about the producers of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, she said, "I've already been through hell in my new showâI don't need to go through it on theirs."
She also said: "Those TV producers are willing to ruin friendships, professional relationships, feelings of self-worthâall for some cheap entertainment. You won't remember the details of that episode in a week. Those queens may have to work through that experience for years."
Anyway, DeLaCreme projected that article onto a screen at a viewing party in Seattle last night: And then she sang a song about her decision to go on All Stars 3.
Okay, are all the spoiler fanatics gone? Hope so, because she KILLED IT last night!
Holy Trinity on a Triscuit: DeLa won the mini-challenge (reading the other queens), she won the main challenge (the talent show), she won the lip-sync (hilariously giving Aja the middle finger as Nikki Minaj sang "Fuck the skinny bitches! Fuck the skinny bitches in the club!"), and she got to send someone home. She also dominated the political gamesmanship of the elimination process (in a way that was slightly control-freaky and a risk, but definitely worked out for her... for now at least).
More to the point: She established herself as a front-runner, as a person to beat, as a likely top-three contender, a fierce competitorâmultitalented, unpredictable, great on her feet, and funny. Shades of Jinkx Monsoon, except... no learning curve on the makeup like what Jinkx went through. (No disrespect. All hail Jinkx Monsoon.)
Here is DeLa during her variety-show act. She did a burlesque involving boobies and pasties and tasselsâsomething she's gotten very good at, performing burlesque in Seattle in shows like Homo for the Holidays and Freedom Fantasia every year.
When your friends say donât be extra and you show up like this. @bendelacreme @rupaul @michellevisage @CarsonKressley @helloross @VanessaHudgens @vh1 @rupaulsdragrace #AllStars3 pic.twitter.com/iyvOUpmkx5
â World of Wonder (@WorldOfWonder) January 26, 2018
After shaking those boobies: She took off that set to reveal another set below them, although this time the pasties and tassels were on the back instead the front. RuPaul laughed and laughed.
It does seem like it would be a big bummer: To be on the show and find out the queens were sending each other home, rather than RuPaul making the call. Ben being a strong contender for the crown means Ben is a big target, and other queens might want to eliminate her sooner rather than later. But as a viewer, I am not of the camp that believes the queens should vote how they think the judges would vote; after all, if the judges wanted to make the call, they could just make the call, but they decided they didn't want to make the call for this season.
Also, it's boring listening to the queens process their feelings about the process: And there was a lot of that last night. What's exciting is watching the queens compete, not watching them worry about elimination politics and virtue-signal about how the rules should be and talk about the ethics of the elimination systemzzzzz. All that stuff bored me during All Stars 2, and last night it had me going...
But that's just me! Whatever it takes to win, Ben, do it! Win this fucker!
Will Ben end up in the top three? If the judges made the elimination decisions, I would say yes, for sure. After such an astounding first impression? Winning everything she could possibly win in that first episode? But with this All Stars system of queens sending each other home, who the hell knows? A recapper for Billboard thinks Ben will be in the top three. After last night's performance, I agree. She certainly has enough charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent to deserve it.