Tonight’s ‘Drag Race’ Eliminee Is First to Admit She Has No Talent

This post contains spoilers for Friday, May 12th’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Those of us who’ve been watching this season of RuPaul’s Drag Race know that Farrah Moan hasn’t done much of anything so far, other than whine, wear a floppy grey beanie near-constantly, and get criticized by the judges for wearing too much highlighter. By her own admission, this Las Vegas show girl can’t sew, she can’t act, she can’t dance, and she certainly wasn’t very funny. When the queens were tasked with roasting judge Michelle Visage on tonight’s episode, Farrah’s jokes weren’t funny reads—they were just cruel observations, delivered in Farrah’s signature chuckling coo.

She and Alexis Michelle faced off in the final lip sync, and, honestly, neither performed very well to Dolly Parton’s “Baby I’m Burning.” But it was ultimately Farrah’s string of lukewarm performances that sent her packing.

She defended her legacy and clarified what was behind her edit in this post-elimination interview.

VICE: Hey Farrah, how’s it going?
Farrah Moan: Oh you know, just basking in the glory of my elimination.

How does it feel?
It’s actually kind of freeing—you know, everyone just wants to pick apart everything you do every week, and it’s like, they can finally just do that to everyone else now.

Speaking of, why do you think none of your jokes landed?
I think it was the way I delivered them. I got really nervous when I was actually up there, looking into the eyes of Michelle Visage and RuPaul, and it was really hard for me to push those jokes out. It felt like I was trying to squeeze out the last bit of toothpaste from a toothpaste container—but with my jokes. I think that when you’re not feeling it, the audience can sense it. It creates an awkward atmosphere that was uncomfortable to sit through, and that’s ultimately what happened to me.

Do you think it’s too much of the show to ask its contestants to look good and dress well, on top of acting and lip syncing and being funny and everything else?
No! Not at all. I think it’s all actually really fun. At the end of the day, we get to do stuff as our drag personas that we would never get to do at home or in our day-to-day nightclub jobs, and it’s fun how they push the envelope and come up with all these new ways for us to challenge ourselves. That’s what makes Drag Race so fun to watch, too—you’re seeing these drag queens having to do all this shit. I don’t think they’re asking too much at all. That’s how the winner wins! She has to be able to do everything, you know?

We saw in an earlier challenge that you can’t sew, either. What is Farrah Moan’s specialty?
I joke about this all the time—I don’t have any talent. That’s actually really funny though, in my audition they asked me, “Do you have any special talents?” and I was like “Well… I can swallow a banana whole, I can wiggle my ears, oh, who am I kidding? I don’t have any talent!” I feel like my specialty is that I feel a lot more comfortable acting and memorizing lines and playing a character. I definitely feel like modeling is a thing that I really love to do, and performing. I can sew, like, a straight line; I can’t sew a gown. But I don’t think you have to be able to sew to be a drag queen. And that’s okay! If anyone’s reading this interview and they can’t sew, it’s okay.

We did see a fair bit of you whining, and Sasha Velour did an impersonation of you whining. Do you think you whine too much?
No! I think it’s a personality quirk that I have. Some people might take it the wrong way by watching it on TV, but everyone who knows me knows it’s like a cute personality trait that I have, and it’s incorporated into the way that I communicate. I think it’s cute and so does everyone else, so I don’t want to hate on my whining. But they definitely did put a lot of emphasis on it.

Do you think it was an unfair amount?
Not at all. I think it’s kind of funny. It’s funny watching this show because it’s weird seeing yourself.

We also saw a ton of that slouchy grey hat! Girl, what is up with that slouchy grey hat?
Oh, my beanie? Well, okay. I feel very attacked. Obviously I’m not, like, a fashionista, and I have a lot of hair. I felt like a lot of the time I’d wear a beanie to have it all contained, if you will. But yeah, looking back on the show, I do wear that thing quite a bit. It even has its own Twitter account.

For the general public, can you explain what highlighter is and why you wear too much of it?
Highlighter is a shimmery makeup product that you put on certain parts of your face to give them a more 3D, lifted effect. Compared to the average person, I guess I wear too much, but I personally believe that there’s no such thing as too much. I say keep highlighting.

Something I’ve been wondering about—every week in the workroom this season, we’ve seen people talking about, like, losing their parents, or their friends dying of AIDS, or body image issues. Why is everyone getting so serious when you’re trying to put your makeup on?
I think we’re a really close-knit group of girls this season, and I ultimately feel like it was just every time we got rushed for a challenging experience. I think that we all felt comfortable enough to open up about our lives to each other and I actually think it’s really beautiful that everyone opened up about that kind of stuff with each other.

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