S06: Ben DeLaCreme

[David T. Cole]

From Mark's pre-season snap judgements: She's from Seattle, just like my beloved Jinkx, and she seems to share Jinkx's winking, old-Hollywood appreciation for camp and tragedy. Everything she says has giant quotation marks around it, but that's fine by me.

[MrMattyMatt]

Loving Ben...   I hope she's in the top three at least.  I'm done with all the snarky queens even though they add good entertainment.

[glittermeow]

I didn't like Michelle coming after Dela for the "old lady schtick" when she was given the old lady role in the Scream Queens ep by Adore. If she channels "old lady" for the rap challenge though...that could be hilarious!

[Xazeal]

I'm sort of thinking Michelle has it in for DeLa because she's a drag queen who looks like a better Michelle Visage than Michelle herself.

I adore Ben as Ben, I adored DeLa as Maggie Smith, but so far I'm not loving DeLa. She hasn't floored me with any of her looks, and that would be fine if I found her character to be endlessly entertaining, but it sort of doesn't really work by itself. She needs to be interacting with another queen who balances it out (like Adore in the first episode) to really make me laugh.

[evilandproud]

 

I'm sort of thinking Michelle has it in for DeLa because she's a drag queen who looks like a better Michelle Visage than Michelle herself.

*This*

I have a huge crush on out of drag Ben. He and Joslyn are easily the only two Miss Congeniality conteders at this point. 

[Nerdlove]

Ben would be my pick for a winner if it weren't for Jinkx winning last year. Just like last year, when Alaska didn't have a chance because of Sharon... RuPaul doesn't like to give the win to two similar queens two years in a row. (Unless maybe you count Bebe and Tyra, as both of them are glamorous dark-skinned queens -- but Bebe was so dignified and elegant, and Tyra was so.... Tyra. Sigh.) In any case, he's going top-three, for sure.

I can't believe how different he looks in drag. My brain keeps telling me that he's two different people, that there's a Ben and a Bendela. Male Ben is a cute, quirky sort of nerd, completely adorable in that way. And female Bendela is beautiful and more than a little sexy. The illusion is so complete, especially because when he's in drag, he... or she, I guess... changes her voice and then stays in that character until the makeup comes off again, even behind the scenes.

I have a theory that he deliberately scared Ru during the werkroom walkthrough before Snatch Game so that his amazing performance would seem all the better. Someone who is as campy as Ben, who comes from a theatre background, who is friends with Jinxk, and who already showed his chops in the other acting challenges, would seem to be a lock for Snatch Game. I was surprised as heck when he said that it was the challenge he was most worried about. I wonder if that was sincere? I would have guessed that someone as put-together as Ben would have prepared thoroughly for the Snatch Game.

(Though if he had pulled back just a little on his Alyssa Edwards that could have been funny too.)

[hatchetgirl]

 

My brain keeps telling me that he's two different people,

Yep.  He and Joslyn (sp?) both do it to me each time.  

I loved his Snatch Game and I hate to think he did it on purpose, but your explanation makes total sense.  I can't imagine how he didn't have any idea about Maggie Smith turned it around and werked it so hard!  Dang - she got me! 

I'd be happy with her and Bianca as final 2.

[MrMattyMatt]

I thought Ben's rap was going to be horrific, but actually was not bad at all.... 

[eli]

This chat/recap from Chad Sell and TinTim explains a lot of what I feel about the whole "real DeLa" thing from Michelle. Frankly, I think she's asking for the wrong thing. I've only seen this season and last, and don't have any history past that with the drag community, but I haven't seen any other queen who puts on such a fully realized character along with the drag every time. Like, at this point it's more jarring for me when Ben speaks as himself while in drag (the few times it's happened in Untucked) than seeing him in the workroom. DeLa is essentially a different person than Ben. So Michelle asking to see more of "the real DeLa" is not going to get her the performer behind the drag; it's going to get her exactly what she got on that last stage, with Ben giving them the most signature DeLa outfit ever.

Is the actor/performer-type drag that BenDeLa and Jinkx do so uncommon?

Edited April 9, 2014 by eli

[Xazeal]

Is the actor/performer-type drag that BenDeLa and Jinkx do so uncommon?

 

Not really. The show has had a few. The one that immediately comes to my mind is Willam, who wasn't just playing a character on stage, but during literally every second of filming. He also got the critique that they didn't see any real "vulnerability" from him though, so they're at least fairly consistent with this. 

The show is doing a fairly good job of convincing me that DeLa is being surpassed by the rest of the competition, but while I can't say I'm her biggest fan, I fully expect her to go right back to the top within a week or two. 

[Nerdlove]

I've been thinking about Bendala Versus Darienne. Let's see how they stack up if we give them +3 points for a win, +2 for being in the top, +1 for being safe, 0 for being bottom three and not lipsynching, and -1 for lipsyncing.

 

First challenge (eps 1 and 2)

Ben: won his first challenge (D not there): +3 points

Darienne: bottom two first challenge (B not there):-1

 

third ep (the horror movie):

Ben: on the losing team, but the judges said he would have won if he'd been on the winning team: +2 points

Darienne: won +3

 

fourth ep (the rusical)

Ben: praised overall. +2

Darienne: bottom three. +0

 

fifth ep (snatch game)

Ben: won. +3

Darienne: safe +1

 

sixth ep: (oh no she betta don't)

Ben: safe. +1 (my personal opinion was that he did ok in this, maybe should have been top 3)

Darienne: bottom 3 +0 (again, my opinion is that Darienne should have been bottom 2 here. Her rap was awful)

 

seventh ep: Glamazon by Color Revolution

they were together on this one, a tie overall, -1 each. Though I think their commercial was funny and Courtney and Joslyn should have been bottom 2. Anyway.

 

eighth: comedy challenge

Ben: bottom three. +0

Darienne: top three +2

 

ninth: talk show challenge

Ben: did great, top three +2 (probably would have won if Chaz hadn't developed a crush on Courtney)

Darienne: uncomfortable to watch, bottom three, +0

 

tenth: wedding makeover

Ben: high +2

Darienne: bottom three, +0

 

So, going into the 11th ep, Ben was outscoring Darienne 14 to 4, even by Ru's own occasionally arbitrary system of judging. I'm not going to pretend that Ben's LSFYL was better than Darienne's, because, as much as I love my Dela, I couldn't even watch that. But... really, Ru?

 

Incidentally, I ran the same point analysis on Bianca and she was at 19 points going into the 11th ep. Adore was at 9 going into the 11th ep. Courtney was at 13. So at the moment that Ben was eliminated, only Bianca was ahead of Ben, at least according to this point system. Oh, and Trinity KB ended with 7 points. Yes, that's right ... with two fewer point scoring opportunities than Darienne, TKB had three more points.

Edited May 2, 2014 by Nerdlove

[eli]

Well, nice to see that I wasn't just feeling like BenDeLa had done better than Darienne overall.

 

Sigh.