When a lot of bookers and club owners were looking to fill that spot with the high energy girl, I became the go-to pretty quickly. There are some high energy performers in Chicago, but I think I made a statement being from the performance world and being able to be that high energy girl. In Chicago, there is a lot of SAIC Arts students in drag, a big comedy scene that has turned to drag, but there had not been an athlete turned performance artist in drag quite yet like I had. I also think that is what helped me carve out my space in the Chicago scene. My drag was designed for high-energy club performances. By the time I got on the show, I had only been doing it for about two and a half years, I was very much a baby queen. How did you not just find a way to carve out a name for yourself in Chicago, but elevate yourself enough to land a spot on RuPaul’s Drag Race this season?ĭ: What is kind of crazy about my ride is that I have not been doing drag for a long time. AdvertisementĪ post shared by Denali Chicago is known as an extremely tough drag scene and the competition is very tough there. I am really proud of myself for being able to apply it in areas like the challenges. Challenges that I was afraid of like Snatch Game, it was like you have a goal, you have to accomplish it, here you go. I definitely think that my training helped me and benefit me as well. Yes it is intense and it is a completion, but chill girl”. At the same time, it was definitely a feeling of “Denali relax, have fun. It set a precedence that you could really be out of here in a second. In part, that might have been due to the structure of our season and that really intense first day, and things like that. I thought that I was being overlooked because I didn’t really have a chance to showcase my personality to the judges in a lot of ways. I think that that is a little bit as to why that attitude was to be detrimental at times. In a television environment, sometimes it is better to have that one track mind and be focused, but also to have fun. When I get into a competition zone, I kind of put up blinders, I have a one track mind, I see one goal and I have to accomplish it. In a sense it was almost what held me back. Ice skating and the martial arts are both areas that require a great deal of discipline was that discipline helpful to you coming into Drag Race?ĭ: One hundred percent. AdvertisementĪ post shared by Denali You have made herstory as the first queen to ever enter the RuPaul’s Drag Race workroom in ice skates, and you have lip synced in them. Regardless as to whether she did better or worse than me, I understood why we were both in the bottom. Olivia got the harshest runway critiques, but I understood that both of us were the weakest in that challenge. We did our very best in that challenge, we had to adapt to a lot of changes in everything going on with COVID and with that specific challenge it was really hard. What was it like ending up in the bottom against someone who moments before, you had been on a team with?ĭ: I take full responsibility for my performance in that challenge as well, I won’t fully blame It on Olivia in any way. Your final challenge was a team challenge with Olivia Lux and you ended up having to lip sync against her after a difficult challenge. MC: Team challenges are always challenging. I am so proud of the lip syncs, the memes, the viral moments, everything I am very happy. Yes I would have liked to have made it to the Top Four, but I look back on the whole experience and I am so proud of everything that I was able to show. I was on ten competitive episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race I am so incredibly grateful and so blessed. I was a part time drag queen of two and a half years that made it onto the show and my whole life has been changed from it. Now that this part of the journey has ended, what is it like to look back? 1105ĭenali: I am utterly proud of myself. Michael Cook: You have had an amazing and very strong showing on this season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
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