- Life can be very, very hard for me.
Thank you for always creating a space
that I feel comfortable in.
- Hi, I am Bob the Drag Queen,
Here on "Drag My Dad,"
we take your typical, macho, goofy dads,
and help them transform into the ultimate drag fantasy.
(all squealing)
This is "Drag My Dad."
Hi.
- [Both] Hi.
- What's up, baby?
How are you?
- Oh, it's a girl party.
- I love girl parties. - Slumber party.
Can I paint your nails?
- Yes. - Sure.
- Let's get our ears pierced.
- Yes, son. - Are your ears not pierced?
- Oh, yeah, they're like Swiss cheese.
Um, so actually, this is really exciting.
You're both in today because we are doing
a double makeover.
We're doing both the dad and the son.
Brendan is queer, he's the son.
And he's also like super not crazy into the labels.
He's finding out who he is,
and Andy, the dad, lives back in Connecticut.
I'm really excited about the opportunity
to get to explore their dynamic a little bit more.
- Today, I sit before you as a proud queer man.
This is my first time saying it
on any sort of public platform.
- I would describe myself as a lifelong learner
and I participate in a lot of things
that Brendan gets me involved in.
- When you're not straight,
there's the whole coming-out narrative.
My dad, when I first told him,
immediately came to the table from a place of love
and fearlessness.
- We're very supportive.
I don't believe sexuality is something
that should get in the way of relationships
between parents and children.
- This is an opportunity for both of us
to try a queer experience.
- When he said we are gonna get in drag together,
I was like, okay.
- What an exciting story.
If only mine had been the same.
- Right, exactly.
- I'm gonna go get get our family today.
You two girls just, like, you know.
Be cool. - Be cool with each other.
- Sounds great.
(energetic techno music)
- Hi, how are we?
- Hello.
Great, never been better.
- Nice to have you. - Hello.
When I asked my dad to do drag, he said...
- Why would I want to do that?
But he's a good salesman.
By the end of our conversation, he had me convinced,
like, sure, this'll be a great thing.
Let's go for it.
- So, I'll give you a basic rundown
on how it's gonna work.
We brought on two makeup experts today.
We're gonna go over your look,
decide how you want to become
the queen you'd like to be.
We have a designer coming in
to help you two look like you're both from the same cloth,
and then, of course,
we're going to parade you in front of your friends
and your family.
- Burn. - So, can I take you inside?
- Let's do it.
- Follow me.
- [Brendan] Thank you.
- [Bob] I'm trunk.
Hi, we have company.
- Oh. - Hi.
- Hello. - Hello.
- This is Andy.
- Hi, Andy.
- [Bob] Andy is the father of Brendan.
- Brendan, nice to meet you.
- This is Lagoona Bloo,
and Lagoona Bloo is one of our makeup artists today
and a very popular drag queen here in New York City.
And then we have Iris Spectre,
who is also a popular Philadelphia-based
and also New York City-performing drag queen.
- You're gonna be a hot mom when I'm done with you.
- Oh!
- I want to take a moment to talk about your aesthetics
with your makeup experts here.
We're gonna start with you
because you are a very hairy lady.
So, are you comfortable with shaving the beard?
- Uh.
(suspenseful music)
Consider it gone.
(bright music) (queens applauding)
- See, look, we're applauding.
- Yes. - Thank you.
- I'm so brave.
I am so brave.
- You're pretty clean.
Are you hairy-chested?
- No, I don't know where he gets it from, actually.
- You raised like a little beaver.
So, why don't you talk to Lagoona
about how you want to look.
- Elegant,
stately.
Okay. - And how 'bout
over here.
What do you all have in mind?
- I'm saying... - Full commitment.
- Make it sexy.
- I think today our theme will be class
and a little bit of ass.
- Oh.
- There we go.
So, it's time to partner you off, all right?
Lagoona, you're gonna be with Andy,
and Iris, you're going to be with Brendan,
so go 'head and get that taken care of.
(upbeat techno music)
Andy, thanks for coming to "Drag My Dad."
We're gonna make Andy look very elegant,
very refined, and very classy.
Makeup-wise, we're gonna go a little bit more calm
and muted with Andy.
He won't let us use glitter,
but Lagoona did convince him to let her do
a little bit of shimmer.
Tell me a little bit about Brendan's coming-out story.
- Well, he told us at college on the way,
we were walking to a restaurant,
so it's kind of like, oh.
Oh, okay.
- Very by-the-way.
- Yeah, right, sort of by-the-way.
So, we're learning more about that,
and about how he feels,
and about how he pictures himself.
In fact, I think even now,
he may be still dealing with exactly how does he feel.
Does it shock me?
Did I fall down on the street and say like,
oh my God, I can't believe this?
- Is this guy, what?
(speaks French)
- It wasn't like that at all.
- I feel like this is kind of how people want to come out.
Honestly, Andy, you handle this really well.
To see like a straight dad to a queer son being like,
the idea of being macho or being masculine
does not define who you are.
It's really more about who you are internally
than it is about if you cross your legs
or if you sit like, you know, Lebron James.
Is he a famous bowler?
I don't know.
(Andy laughs)
It's the buzzword I hear my straight brothers say, so.
Listen, it takes a village to make a queen,
so I'm gonna let you all work on building up Her Majesty
and I'm gonna go check on your son.
(energetic music)
Look at you without any beard.
- I know.
I'm a mole rat.
- You look very nice.
I gotta introduce you to my son.
In terms of makeup, Brendan's like give me glitter,
give me shimmer,
give me color.
Turn Ms. Thing out, and we said all right, honey.
You want to be turned out,
you 'bout to get turned out today.
So, tell me a little bit about growing up.
- Well, I was different, you know?
You're seeing a new me.
I was just like, I'm straight.
For some reason, people think I'm not,
so I should start acting more like a straight person.
- You know, a lot of times,
people will code switch as a coping mechanism
or as a survival technique.
Code switching is when maybe you always sit like this,
but then you're around a bunch of straight people,
so instead of doing this, 'cause, you know,
that's a little gay-looking, you do this.
So, what do think that fear came from?
Like, that fear you had in high school
of feeling the need to present more butch or whatever.
- Gay was just synonymous with bad, right?
So, that was the tool that people were using against me
that just built a picture within myself
that the worst thing that could happen to me
would be being gay.
- How did you feel when you realized to yourself
that it wasn't the worst thing?
- I had a panic attack.
I'm living my straight life.
I'm at school.
This guy's into me, and he asked to kiss me,
and he kissed me, and then I started shaking
and couldn't breathe.
Like, this is the manifestation
and me crossing a certain threshold
of everything that I never wanted in my life.
The only reason I learned to not be scared of it
was by being surrounded by people who weren't scared of it.
- What do you hope to get out of today?
- I am really excited to share this experience with my dad
as well as this story that has been largely kept to myself.
(energetic electronic music)
- Brendan and Andy have their makeup partially done
and they haven't seen each other yet,
so I'm gonna bring them out one by one
and then reveal.
On the count of three...
- [Brendan] Yes.
- We're all gonna turn around.
One, two, three. (claps)
- Ah.
(Brendan laughs) - There you have it.
- Okay.
I am shocked by my dad's look.
- I can't believe I'm doing this.
- So, I'm gonna introduce you all
to another little activity.
Now, as you'll see, I have very large hands,
so in order to make my hands look
a little bit more feminine,
sometimes I will don a nail,
and we are gonna be doing that today on this table.
- Yes.
- You just put a dot of glue and then you place it on top,
hold it,
and then you want to make sure it's on
by giving yourself one of these.
And once you have a nail on,
you become a whole new woman.
So, go ahead and put your nails on.
- [Brendan] Here it goes.
- This is already a great evil pinky nail.
We are learning today.
- We are learning buddies today.
- Can we do an ASMR?
(beep)
- Today will be you doing a lot
of ASMR videos.
Today we're gonna be eating pickles.
(beep)
Putting on the nails is actually a little bit difficult,
but it's not the hardest part of wearing nails.
The hardest part of wearing nails
is actually functioning like a normal human being.
So, we have these designer bags here.
So, I have both your phones,
and I'm gonna just put them in there.
So what you guys are both gonna reach into these bags,
find your phone,
and whoever gets their phone first has to text your mom
I love you.
I put them on the floor.
All right. - My God.
- Here we go.
And go!
(suspenseful music)
Look at the pinkies up.
He's already standing.
- I'm just gonna remove things.
I think that's it. - Oh, wow,
the technique that we're using here.
- Oh my God, I lost a nail.
- Have you already lost a nail?
- Oh my God.
These are really gonna break.
- Oh, loss number two.
- Oh my God.
Oh.
I'm texting my mom.
- What am I supposed to say? - I love you.
- I love you. - Oh my God, oh my God.
Mine says I love you and it's sending,
and his says "Where I'm I,"
new line, "supposed to say I,"
new line, "love you."
That's nonsense. - Don't start making up rules.
- This text says I love you.
- When I'm I,
new line, supposed to say I, new line, love you.
I don't know who won that round.
What I do know is I will let you decide amongst yourselves.
In the meantime,
I'm gonna go get the designers,
and I'll be right back with your outfits all right?
- Okay, deal.
- Oh, my nails, oh, I lost another one.
(energetic techno music)
- Well, thank you for doing this.
Getting to share this experience with you is very special.
Thank you for always creating a space
that I feel comfortable in.
Sometimes, life can be very, very hard for me,
but I don't want that to scare you.
- All I can say is this.
If you were feeling these things,
tell us.
I want nothing more than my son to be happy,
to be in a loving relationship,
to enjoy life.
- Thank you, thank you, thank you,
and this is but the beginning of the journey.
I know.
Ooh, you thought it was over.
- What's next? - I don't know what's next,
but that's part of the fun is I don't know what's next,
and I do know that you will continue to love me
and support me as we figure out what that is.
- Absolutely, absolutely.
- Thank you.
(laughing)
(energetic techno music)
- Make sure no one gets stabbed with the nails.
- [Brendan] I know.
- So, stand up and join me here.
So, I want you to see your garments.
- One of them has much more material than the other.
- I'm gonna introduce you to Pinwheel Pinwheel
who is a Brooklyn-based designer
who's designed for some really amazing people.
So Pinwheel, tell us a little bit about
what we have here.
- So, today we have a mother-daughter ensemble
(Andy and Brendan laugh)
that lets you walk into the club and own the room
and then run your Fortune 500 company,
because you own what?
100%.
(Bob laughs) - 100%.
I can't wait to see my dad.
- I'm exploring a totally different side of myself.
- All right, so we have a lot to do.
Yes, there's still more hair,
there's still lips,
there's still glitter, only for you.
We'll not cover you in gitter.
All right, so , here, you take this one's for you.
You take this, and that's a lot more Carol
and this is a lot more Christina Aguilera circa "Dirrty."
(bright music)
So, it is time for the reveal.
- This is what we've been waiting for.
- It all comes down to this.
- I think this experience is gonna get me out of my head
and I'm hoping that that teaches me another lesson
that that's something I can do in my everyday life.
- I don't want to come off foolish, of course.
Maybe I will.
I'm not sure.
- [Brendan] Oh my gosh.
- [Andy] Oh!
(laughs) - Yes, there she is.
(upbeat music)
(group cheering)
Thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Listen, we've had a very busy day
making over not just one, but two people.
Now, we have a father-son duo who's bringing you two things.
Half of it will be very class,
and the other half will be ass.
(group cheering)
Oh, yes.
So, of course you know someone named Brendan and Andy,
but I'm ready to introduce you to Ida Baby and Desma Baby.
(ladies laughing)
So, put your hands together for Ida Baby!
(ladies cheering) (energetic music)
- I feel incredible.
I'm exploring my queerness.
I kept my chest hair.
You can do you with drag, so I did me.
- Oh, oh, a turn.
Oh, yes.
Oh wow, oh wow. (group cheering)
- [Brendan] Thank you, thank you, uh.
- Oh wow, oh.
Oh my, it's getting warm in here.
Ida Baby looks good.
- We are only in the first act.
It is now time for a mature presence in the room.
Please put your hands together for Desma Baby!
(ladies cheering) - Oh my God, Dad!
What?
Oh my God. - Look at the glow.
The classiest lady in the room.
Oh my.
- I'm on the runway now.
Everybody's cheering, and I feel beautiful.
I'll be here all week.
- Seeing my dad, it makes almost a spooky amount of sense.
It really looks good.
- If you went to a club and saw these queens there,
would you even think twice?
- I would never in a million years know it's you.
I had to look at you like three or four times, both of you.
Like, I see it now but wow.
- The whole time, my dad has been beside me,
and now as I'm continuing to figure out
what queer means to me,
here he is.
This means a tremendous amount
that I get to share this experience with him,
and I'm sure we'll spend a long time reflecting on it.
- We could do this more often.
(all laughing)
(energetic electronic music)