S07: Trixie Mattel

[radishcake]

Here's a link to Trixie's Instagram! Milwaukee WI

[roamyn]

What a mess this one is. I don't care if you're a comedy queen...LEARN TO DO MAKEUP!

[blaase]

I actually don't mind her makeup because her aesthictic is to look like a crazy doll, which she does. I am sure if she wanted to beat her face and make it  look pretty she could, she's very cute out of drag.

[Dirtybubble]

Her mug reminds me of Bianca. Both know how to paint themselves they just choose to do it this way

[Rai]

She may be one of the younger girls, but I think she's got something in her to go the distance.  I'm into her whole shtick, and she seems genuinely talented. 

[Dirtybubble]

ITA!  A character like hers could become sooo friggin' annoying and just so tiresome but IDK she seems to know how to be funny & silly without being an obnoxious ass.  Good job for someone so young =D

[dolphincorn]

Her bearded runway look was fascinating. She reminded me of a Pierre et Gilles photo from the early 90s.

[Dandesun]

Her look was gorgeous. And her makeup was as well. As far as runway looks it was a toss up for me last night between Trixie and Max.

[Rai]

Well...guess I was wrong.  But wtf.  That was one BS elimination.

[JakeyJokes]

I hope they bring her back. I doubt it, because I think they filmed this a long time ago (remember it got pushed back from January to March), but her elimination really broke the Internet. Pandora Boxx -- who is working for Logo/World of Wonder -- was adamant in her recap as to how stupid it was, and Alaska has been Tweeting about it as well ("JUSTICE FOR TRIXIE"). Kennedy also reached out to her. This kind of stuff just doesn't happen in the fourth week, y'know?

 

The sad part is I doubt Ru gives a shit about any of it.

[SistaLadybug]

That was a BULLSHIT elimination.  My mouth dropped open.  No way in the world Ru looked at that lip sync battle and thought Pearl did better.  No way.

[Rai]

Confidence restored!  I was hoping it'd be either her or Max.  Yay!

[roamyn]

I didn't really care for her before, but Monday night I teally warmed up to Trixie.

Her makeup wasn't hideously overdone, her back story was so empowering, and she finally showed those acting/humor chops.

[CorgiNarnia]

Trixie intended to do Anne Frank for Snatch Game (but Ru shut that down entirely, understandably). I really couldn't figure out what Anne Frank would even look like and if it would be as offensive as it sounded. Well, Trixie posted her audition Snatch Game clip of her Anne Frank (1 minute in) and I think I understand a little better where she was going with that. She played Anne Frank as a typical, giggly, selfie-taking (though very fearful of being heard) tween. I can see where people would say that's offensive, period, but I can also see the dark humor in Joan Rivers nothing-is-off-limits type of way. 

[Pallida]

I'll have to watch the video later, but I think the fact that Snatch Game is interactive should make something like this off limits. Trixie may have had time to prepare the dark humor in a thoughtful manner, but I wouldn't trust all the queens to engage with her appropriately, especially in an improv scenario.

[Zuleikha]

I wasn't offended by Trixie's Anne Frank (I'm Jewish, FWIW) but it seemed pretty one note. I didn't think it was funny or clever either. The schneide... (sp?) joke was funny because that felt based in how Anne Frank actually comes across in her diary, but the dreidel and hava nagila cell phone were just stereotypical Jewish references that didn't make a lot of sense for Anne Frank. I don't think it would have worked on the actual Snatch Game at all. I feel like something like that should only be done if the result is really clever and funny.

[MrHufflepuff]

I watched the Anne Frank clip and talk about not being able to read a room.  I don't really see how Trixie thought that was going to fly on Logo.  Trixie is essentially playing a 15-year-old girl cracking penis jokes.  I don't think 15 year-olds are nuns, but come on.  And then there's the fact that Anne Frank is a Holocaust victim.   And on top of that, there's all the grief Logo and WOW took last season over that mini-challenge stuff/you've got mail stuff.  I don't want to rehash that, but my point is that it's such dicey territory to operate in, and given what happened last season, it's extremely obtuse of Trixie to even think that an Anne Frank impression would make it on the show.  

 

On top of that, I agree that it wasn't funny and very one-note.  I don't really see the joke.  It's not like the shushing is some personality quirk (like that episode of "Friends" where Ross went around shushing everyone).

[Cosmic Muffin]

I think it will forever be "too soon" for Anne Frank humor.

[JakeyJokes]

I can see where people would say that's offensive, period, but I can also see the dark humor in Joan Rivers nothing-is-off-limits type of way.

 

At first I was going to say that Joan Rivers was Jewish and therefore it was different when she made Anne Fank jokes because, yes, they were distasteful, but that also came from using humor as a way to heal from anger about atrocities done to her people. You could argue that Trixie has that right as well because gay people were killed in the Holocaust, but I don't know how high that flies.

 

But in the interest of fairness, Trixie's real last name is Firkus, which could imply Jewish heritage (its roots are Lithuanian). 

 

​I think edgy humor is great if it's done well, but there's also no way LOGO would allow that to air.

 

Her story about the origins of Trixie broke my heart. I read an interview with Toni Morrison later that night and I was surprised by how much it related to Trixie:

 

 

There's a whole history, I think, in naming. In the beginning of black people being in this country, they lost their names. They were given names by their masters and so they didn't have names and they began to call one another, decades later, by nicknames.

I don't think I knew any of my father's friends, male friends, by their real name. I remember them only by their nicknames. Also there was an honesty sometimes — the names were humiliating, deliberately so. Somebody would pick out your flaw. If you were little, they would call you "Shorty," and if you were angry they would call you "The Devil." I remember a man in the neighborhood who was called "Jim the Devil." Always those three words. "Have you seen Jim the Devil?" ...

It's a very personal identification; trying to move away maybe from the history of having no name, and then personalizing it. On one hand, to give you a name that's embarrassing in order to make you confront it, deal with it now, and then later on [to give you] more charming names, moving away from humiliating names.

 

Edited April 25, 2015 by JakeyJokes

[Cosmic Muffin]

I think Trixie sharing the story of her name was very touching, and I hope she's overcome her abusive childhood as much as possible. 

 

Not especially directed at her, but more generally, they know that there will be a Snatch Game. Each contestant should be hoping to last long enough to be in the Snatch Game, and to do well. They have a chance to prepare ahead of time. How come so many arrive with no idea of who to be, or with one terrible idea that they haven't practiced and can't execute? I would prepare two impersonations, in case someone else had the same idea, and I would have tried to rehearse with friends and family and asked for feedback. And none of my ideas would be as controversial as Anne Frank.

 

I just don't get it. 

 

Oh, and I would learn how to sew if I was even trying out for Drag Race! But that's another rant for another day...

[roamyn]

Wouldn't it be great if someone came on as Gilda Radner & all her characters?

I think Trixie or MKD couldve handled that.

[Rai]

Hah, wouldn't it be funny if Trixie was eliminated just to avoid having her at all suggest Anne Frank for the Snatch Game, but always with the intent to bring her back afterward?  I generally don't buy into conspiracy theories around reality tv because I generally don't care, but it's a funny thought to imagine she basically was given a time-out just to avoid controversary. 

 

(Please note -- I don't actually believe this was the case, although I suspect her return was most likely pre-destined.)

 

I will admit one time I did see a drag revue that had a hysterical Anne Frank reference in one of the performances -- a queen lipsynched Bjork's "It's oh so quiet" dressed kinda like Frank, with very obvious Jewish props and sneaking around like she had to be super-quiet.  DId I feel guilty for laughing at the concept?  Of course.  Did I laugh anyway?  Sorry to say, yes, totally.  To me, it's like the episode of Seinfeld where Jerry and his date keep going to Schlinder's List to make out.  Sometimes, that dark edge is acceptable.  It's probably best Trixie wasn't able to do it, but I can't help admiring the Nerve.  Because it do take nerve.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Rai

[Mattipoo]

Glad she is back, but she really isn't all that. Her makeup bugs and I don't think she is quite as funny as she thinks she is.