Culture

Exclusive: BenDeLaCreme says Drag Race fans will have their “itches scratched” by new tour

By Conor Clark

11th March 2022

Eric Paguio

BenDeLaCreme spoke to GAY TIMES about how her Ready to Be Committed tour will leave Drag Race fans feeling very satisfied.

It is set to be DeLa’s biggest solo tour to date, with the star also serving as its lead producer.

It will follow her as she navigates life as “a queen looking for love,” shown to audiences “through a high-camp lens.”

“DeLa meets a character that is one of those bachelorette novelty penis cups, but it comes to life and it teaches her all about the evils of the origins of the wedding industrial complex,” she explains to GAY TIMES. “It’s fun!”

Audiences can expect to see DeLa meet an array of other characters along the way, including Cupid and “a whole group of gay men on an artificial reality TV show, who their sole purpose in life is to help straight women dress themselves for their wedding.”

“Everything I do is very influenced by personal things in my life, but I abstract them very hard and that’s the beauty of a character like DeLa, is that she’s so over-the-top and cartoony that I can take my personal experiences and make them into something larger than life and fanciful in a way that then, I think, allows many people to relate to it,” she continues.

DeLa says that those who enjoyed her on season six or All Stars 3 will have their “itches scratched in the live experience.”

Liz Nicol

The queen explains that she was “very intentional on Drag Race” in terms of giving viewers a taste of “what they’ll see when they come to a live show.”

She adds: “So, for instance, on season six, Michelle [Visage] was like, ‘We don’t know who you are. You’re showing us all this character.’

“And I was like, ‘Yeah, because when people come to see a show, they’re going to see my character so they have to meet her now, you know?’

“And then also with All Stars, by that point, I just started doing solo shows where I play a lot of other characters. So that was one intention I had with All Stars. I was like, ‘I’m going to play as wide a range of characters as I can so that people know that’s something I do in my shows.’”

Despite the show initially premiering to sold-out crowds in 2019, the delays have given her the opportunity to expand it in size and bring “even more production value to it.”

Although she has been teasing fans with what they can expect, including the aforementioned penis cup, DeLa is keeping some tricks up her sleeve which those who attend the shows will be treated to.

“You know, there are a lot of things that I have not mentioned yet about this show that I am keeping for surprises,” she reveals to GAY TIMES. “So, you know, I am not going to cap the limits of your imagination about what possibly could happen because actually, the stuff that does happen – you might think what I’ve already described is strange – but it is weirder…What you don’t know about yet will shock and surprise you.”

BenDeLaCreme’s upcoming Ready to Be Committed tour will run from April to July 2022, with UK dates taking place throughout June.

Tickets are available here.