PRIDE: First of all, congratulations for making such a huge impression on Canada’s Drag Race season four. I feel like it’s just all starting for you now. I’m curious though: now that you’ve had some space to process it all, how do you feel about your time on the show?

SISI SUPERSTAR: I’ve had a long time to do my nine stages of grief. So it was cool to rewatch it with a different perspective. I did a viewing party in Toronto for it and just being with the community and watching it with the people I care about, it’s overall a positive experience.

How has your community responded to your time on Drag Race, was there a lot of excitement and support?

Absolutely. When I did the premiere, I did it in Montreal, where I’m from, and everyone who knows me and knows my drag and my sense of humor got what I was trying to do there. For me, having the validation of people who understand my drag was very validating.

That’s great! I know I enjoyed you on the show, you had me cracking up! Like that moment with the couch tipping over. How much of that was planned?

What was not intentional was my corset falling down. Every designer is being sued right now — I’m joking.

But the boobs popping out that was not planned. The horns getting in the lamp was not planned as well. I was like, ‘What the hell this lamp is doing there? She’s not doing anything, get out!’ So that was not planned. But the couch fall was 100% planned.

We had some instructions before entering the challenge that basically if we were putting our weight on the chair, the chair would flip. [So I thought] none of the girls are going to do that. It’s going to be my way to be absolutely unhinged and chaotic. which I already talked about, this is my [kind of] drag. I’m a messy girl. I love to do really shocking stuff in my performance just to create a reaction. So for me, it was very planned. You know, you can see from the back that I’m absolutely looking in the judge’s eyes right before pushing it.

Brooke Lynn said ... that when she went back to her hotel room, she could not stop thinking about it and laughing about it. So if you actually think about the performances, I think I’m the one who kind of stood out the most. In a competition setting maybe it was not the best idea. But in a ‘being myself’ and ‘making good TV,’ I think it was a good idea.

Right! While you also may not have won the QV-She challenge, you make killer TV. I’m curious though, as it was happening, and it was not going as planned. what you were thinking and feeling at that moment?

When I watch Drag Race what I think is the funniest is when people do really unhinged stuff that people are like, ‘What the hell is she doing?’ So [I was trying] to kind of emulate this kind of like humor. So when we were doing the challenge, the girls started forgetting their lines and you can see me looking at them and being like, ‘Well, daddle-do,’ I was going on ... I stepped forward of the counter and started improvising. I was like, I need to pick the up ball, I need to do something. Sadly, I took the bullet for it, I guess.

When it comes down to it, you were one of the most memorable parts of the challenge, and you got a catchphrase!

I kind of had that feeling of just being tossed on the side a little bit in the competition. And I was like, ‘You know what? I am not gonna go home without something for myself.’ We’ve seen so many contestants going on the show and going away with their heads down, so bummed out. Seeing them stopping drag, being so depressed. Nothing is going to come between me and my love for drag.

So I was like, ‘You wanted in a TV show, I’m gonna give you a hell of a TV show.’ Also, I kind of acted out on purpose, just because I knew my time was coming. And I was like, I’m not going away without people talking about me or being memorable.

I love that! If you think you’re going out, go out in a blaze of glory! So let’s talk about you acting out, specifically going barefoot on the runway, which honestly is kinda genius. Tell me about that and what you thought about Brad calling you out about it on the runway.

I had a malfunction with my dress. My dress kept getting caught in the back. I actually reshot it, I pulled it up and I was fine to walk with it. And when I did the lip sync, I put some shoes on. In the moment I kind of freaked out. And I was like, I cannot have my dress [catching] on my heels the whole time that I’m walking. I thought, ‘I’m wearing a mermaid tail. They’re never going to know, how could they know?’ I said it on the mic. I said them a couple of times, like, ‘Oh my god, I’m kind of stressed. I’m going on without shoes.’ We were laughing about it.

If I can give one bit of advice to the queens, don’t say stuff that they can pick up on your mic. Because even in the little clip that they show me doing the runway you cannot see it that much. I think details could have been swept under the rug, but I think anything they could have got on me was like an opportunity to get it. At the end of the day, it is what it is. Maybe this was the punk energy they were saying I didn’t bring. How about that?

I did think it was super punk.

If people are gonna talk about it, it’s a good way to keep my name in people’s mouths. I thought it was so funny and that’s the kind of stuff I pull off. This is very representative of my drag. If I had to redo it, of course, I would have way more fittings, I would make sure everything goes perfectly but I cannot go into the past and just like beat myself up for mistakes that I did on the show.

That’s actually how I remember people when I watch Drag Race. Like LaLa Ri’s really busted outfit, that’s strikes me. Not a queen that is just smiling the whole time and being perfect and being boring. We don’t remember them. We just watch the next season and there’s gonna be another one.

Right! You have to stand out from the pack and your aesthetic does. Did you find it challenging to take what it is that you do and put it through the Drag Race lens?

It was definitely a challenge. I’ve never stoned anything in my life. Before going, I became a stoning queen. I stoned everything myself. My spiderweb entrance look, I stoned it. My shimmering showgirl horns and everything I stoned it myself. The gemstone look I stoned everything, as well. I had to compromise and just jump into it. I think a lot of the girls probably already had stuff in that category. But I had to start everything from scratch because in my drag I go thrifting, I love to mix and match and wear stuff that you cannot put in a box necessarily. But all the categories were like shimmering showgirls and gemstones. So I needed to adapt my drag into these categories that don’t really fit me. I think I did a fabulous job when I look at what I did.

Absolutely. So when watched the show back, were you surprised at all by anything you saw?

I was surprised a little bit by how stuff is chopped and glued. Sometimes I was like, ‘I didn’t say that. They’re kind of putting phrases together. They still did a really good job editing the whole show. I think it was representative.

Is there anything you learned about yourself seeing yourself in a mirror like Drag Race?

I wish I wouldn’t let everything affect me so much in the moment. But at the end of the day, I know what actually happened there. All the other girls were coming to me. And they were like, ‘Are you okay, Sisi?’ Because that was really rough, you know? Obviously, not everything is on the episode, but it was brutal when I was there. What has been said and stuff, I was gagged. Obviously, they didn’t put it [in] for a reason, because it wouldn’t have been a good look. I wish I would have like, been less affected. But at the same time, we’re working in conditions that you have to wake up so early, you’re in drag all day. We’re so tired and so I can see myself just like being like, kind of like, worn down a little bit.

That’s hard, I hope you also saw how different and unique you are even among a pack of really incredible queens.