T Lo interviews Pandora Boxx

Finally!

We might as well get right into it, how do you feel about your elimination? What are your thoughts on that?
I was pissed [laughs]. On the show I was and then when I watched the episode I was a little more mad too because I felt that I definitely did everything they wanted me to do and I didn’t feel that I really deserved to be in the bottom two. But you know what? I think I’m getting a lot more attention getting kicked off than I might have if I won, so I think I’m happy now [laughs].

That’s great because the online reaction seems to be overwhelmingly negative. Nobody wanted to see you go.
I know, I’m a little surprised how much of a negative reaction there was. I certainly hope that people like me. All the emails I have gotten have been all positive. I wasn't prepared for as big as it has been, it’s a good feeling, so in a way I’m happy that I got kicked off.

Well, our readers were very excited when we announced that we were going to interview you.
That’s cool because I know you guys haven’t always been kind about my wardrobe [laughs].

[Laughs] Yes, but we loved YOU. We didn’t necessarily love your dresses but we loved you.
That’s alright. Because I see some of them now and I think, ‘What the hell was I thinking?’

So, how was growing up gay for you?
I didn’t realize I was gay until I was about 18-19. I always knew that I was different. I just thought that something was wrong with me. We never talked about gay in my house and I never really saw anything gay on TV or anything I did see was making fun of it. I didn’t think it was something you could be. I was picked on a lot and called names and I just really didn’t get it. I was really naïve about it, specially the sexual aspect of it.

When I realized that I was gay and had my first sexual experience with a boy right before high school graduation, a switch went on and I said, ‘Hey, I get it now. I wish I had gotten it a few years earlier. I’m glad I got it now [laughs].’

And what led you into the drag world? What made you want to be a drag queen?
I was walking on the street one time and this car pulled over and Liza Minelli and Barbara Streisand, and I think it was Barbara Bush who jumped out, and they kidnapped me and forced me into drag and I never looked back.

[Laughs] Alrighty. Let’s move on to the show. Did you guys live together?
Argh, good God, can you imagine if we lived together?

They would all be fighting for the bathroom every morning.
No, I don’t even know if I would’ve done it if we lived together. I auditioned for the first season and, you know, I didn’t know anything about it, so I kind of imagined that everybody lived together and I thought how much fun it could be, I’m just going to be wacky and nutty. That’s why I wanted to do this show, to get my kind of drag out there, my sense of humor.

I watched the first season and was a little disappointed that they didn’t live together, but then I thought about it, and I didn’t know if I wanted to live in a house with all these drag queens, I think I would go insane. So we all had our separate hotel rooms.

Especially the first couple days everybody is in hyper drag queen mode, so there’s a lot of “Girl!” snap, snap and all that and that drives me insane. I can do it, I can totally go in drag queen mode too, but I need a break every now and then, I need reality, and for the first couple of days it was very draining, it was also very busy and I kind of ignored it, but then it calmed down and everybody was acting more like themselves.

How long was the shooting schedule?
It was a month.

What about the wardrobe? Didn’t you pack a lot of stuff? How many suitcases did you bring?
We were allowed to bring five suitcases.

Was that enough?
Well, I didn’t know what to bring, we weren’t really told exactly what to bring. I just brought as many things as I could, so when someone says, ‘I don’t like your style’ what the hell are you going to do? [laughs] You’re screwed. It’s like, ‘I don’t know if I can wear anything I brought then, thanks.’

Do you make your own costumes?
I do. I don’t make all of them, but I make a lot of them, yes.

Just to switch gears a little bit here, what was like to meet Kathy Griffin? That must’ve been both intimidating and exhilarating.
It really was. I actually have met Kathy Griffin once before, but I wasn’t in drag, it was a meet-and-greet at one of her shows, it was very quickly, but this time was really cool because so many people tell me that I look like her if I wear red hair. Sometimes I’m happy about that, sometimes that’s not the look I’m going for [laughs].

I think she’s a great comedian and on the show I felt that it was a lifetime opportunity to walk the runway in front of Kathy Griffin and it was a little intimidating and maybe that’s why my walk wasn’t so strong, plus it was the first one.

You know, my first time going out looking like Kathy Griffin in front of RuPaul, Mike Ruiz, Merle and what’s that other judge’s name? Whatever his name is [laughs]. It’s intimidating. We didn’t really get to meet all the judges, but I met her for a picture and that was really cool and she was a lot of fun.

Speaking of feeling intimidating, how was meeting RuPaul for the first time?
It was very surreal because on the first day they kept us sequestered, we were not allowed to see the room and then they brought us to the set separately and took us to another small room. So I was in a small white room with no windows and no air-conditioning for about two hours before I went on the set. Then they take you, you go to the set, they say, ‘make a big entry, hit this mark, stand there for a few seconds, take it all in and walk into the room.’

And that’s what I did and walking into that room you think, ‘Oh, I’m on TV right now.’ And you see all these women. I thought they were just women when I first walked in. I said to myself, ‘I’m on the wrong show.’ I was one of the last people to walk in and we’re all just chit-chatting, then the she-mail thing comes on, we do that, and RuPaul walks out. It’s so bizarre. There’s someone who I idolize, who changed the face of drag and ‘Oh, I’m on the show. That’s right, I’m on a TV show.’

We think that’s part of the reason why people responded well to you because the best reality show contestants are the ones who don’t act like they’re on television.
Yeah, and I’m happy. They portrayed me as the nice girl, which is always good, and that’s who I am, but I was also aware that it was a TV show and that everything that I said was being recorded. There were a few times that I definitely bit my tongue [laughs].

We think one of your greatest moments was when you did the "Disco" commercial.
When they said that was what we were going to do I was so excited. I thought it would be so much fun to do a commercial and I’m glad I got the part I did. At first I was like, ‘She doesn’t have many lines.’ And then I said, ‘Oh, wait, she’s kind of funny.’ I’ve done characters like that before.

We have these trailer trash shows in Rochester and we’ve done a few different ones and I’ve played that character in those shows, you know, being pregnant and stuff. It was cool to be able to play that kind of character on TV, which I love.

With the Disco commercial and the Carol Channing inpression you came across as a very polished comedian. Where did you get your comedy skills from?
I’ve always enjoyed comedy and have watched many great comedians on stage like Lily Tomlin and Madeline Kahn. I was an obsessive movie watcher when I was young. Movies like “Nine to Five,” for example. There are so many great comedians, even modern ones like Cameron Diaz and Jennifer McCarthy. I’ve always liked the women that were really beautiful but also could be really kind of goofy.

And the more time I spend with my mother – we live very close – when I go home she’ll do something and I go, ‘Oh my God, that’s where I got that from.’

Your Carol Channing was definitely one of the best things this season so far. You were robbed, girl. Were you pissed you didn’t win?
I think you can tell by my face at least at one point because I’m not really good at hiding facial expressions, and yes, at one point I was really mad and I think you can see it on TV. I though Tatianna did an amazing job and I was kind of blown away by it because I wasn’t expecting it from her.

I’m friends with her and I was friends with her on the show and she was really nervous because she had never done a character before and her answers were hysterical. Even when Tyra tried to make some lame joke, Tatianna came in there and turned it around and actually made it funny and that to me is great comedy. The only thing is that her runway wasn’t that great and they didn’t like it.

The week prior they basically said I didn’t win the country challenge because of my runway but they liked me in the commercial, so when she won for that and they didn’t like her runway but they liked me and my runway; I really thought it was hypocritical.

And what about the final challenge? We have no clue how you even wound up in the bottom let alone how you were eliminated. You guys should’ve been in the top.
Yeah, I don’t know either and I have to say the most bizarre thing is that that was the challenge I felt really good at, they liked everything, at least they told me they liked everything. There were a couple of other challenges I wasn’t sure like when I wore that green dress that everyone hated [laughs.]

You both looked adorable, you did a great job on the costumes, and the whole comedy bit on the runway was flawless. We don’t get it.
Yup, and I was a little mad when they said that she outperformed me. When RuPaul said that I thought they were talking about the queens, and then when I did the interview I realized they were talking about the drag mother, and I got really mad because I planned the whole thing, I planned everything that my drag mother did, so I don’t see how she could have outperformed me. I watched it and I don’t get it either.

Throughout the show most of the time I agreed with most of the things and with most of the people that were in the bottom, but I definitely didn’t agree with this at all.

How did you feel about the judges? We interviewed Merle and she said she really loved you and that you were hysterically funny.
I think that Merle is a great judge. There were a couple of times I felt that I couldn’t impress anybody, I felt the judges didn’t really like me, but Merle usually had my back most of the time. I think she got what I was doing, even if she had something negative to say, I understood it. It wasn’t just to be negative like another judge [laughs]. She actually defended me on one of the episodes by saying, ‘She’s a drag queen.’ To hear that, it was really wonderful. I love Merle.

We love her too. What about Santino? What did you think of his assessment of you?
Now, who are we talking about? [laughs] I really don’t know what to say about Santino. He said he didn’t like my style from day one or day two, whatever. So, I didn’t know what to do because you clearly aren’t going to like anything that I do. Maybe he feels he has to have a target every season, he pretty much did the same thing to Shannel from season 1. Who knows? The only time I was really super offended and I felt he crossed the line was when he said I looked like a coke whore. I didn’t even know what to say. I was like, ‘Did you really just say that to me?’

We felt that the judges put way too much of a premium on things like glamor and realness, which isn’t to say that you are not a pretty and glamorous girl, your focus is more on comedy and I don’t think they got that.
Thank you for saying that I’m not pretty [laughs].

No, that’s not what we said! You ARE pretty, Pandora!
I can do glamor, but I think there’s always a wink, wink to my glamor kind of thing. You know, I think so much emphasis is placed on the runway, and I’m sorry, but how many times do drag queens do the runway? Not very often.

That’s one of the things that we hope the show doesn’t do, just emphasize glamor and miss out on the fun and camp, which is so much part of the drag world.
I felt that sometimes it was more of a real girl beauty pageant than it was a drag queen one. I was a little confused and didn’t know exactly what they wanted. Sometimes I felt they just wanted you to come out like a girl, and I guess that’s understandable, RuPaul looks like a woman and does the runway really well, so a lot of the show is based on his life. So, I get it in that aspect, but to me drag encompasses a lot of different things. I think that was lacking a little.

We don’t want to see the same type of drag winning every season.
Yeah, when I first walked in I thought everyone was beautiful and I thought, ‘Oh, good lord, am I in the wrong room?' I was a little disappointed that there weren’t various types of drag because there are so many different types out there, although everyone had their own unique style, unique brand of drag, but we all had a girly kind of look.

Speaking of the girls, were they as bitchy as they were shown on TV?
YES! [laughs] I would say not all the time but I think they came across very similar to how they acted, although Tatianna is a little bitchier in her interviews then she was in person. I was a little surprised at that, but I sort of understood because some of the girls ganged up on her. It was very much a mean girls’ club sometimes, they kind of ganged up on Mystique too.

Some of them felt Tatianna didn’t deserve to be there because she hadn’t done a lot of shows, she didn’t have much experience. I think if you’re talented, you’re talented and Tatianna is clearly talented and beautiful. She had every right to be there as any of the other queens did.

On the internet in general we were surprised to see how much people dislike Raven.
Raven is another one that wasn’t as bitchy around everybody else as she was in the interviews. I was shocked by a lot of the things she was saying and certainly not thrilled with some of the things she said about me. She was very nice to my face, but very NOT nice to me in the interviews. In person, and I’ve talked to Raven, I really like her, but on the show it was quite surprising. I think it’s going to be a very interesting reunion special.

Have you guys shot the reunion special yet?
We’re shooting it next week.

What about Jujubee? We love her. You two are our favorites.
I hate her.

We know you don’t. You just had lunch with her. We read that on your Twitter.
I was friends with Jujubee on the show and I’m friends with her now. I adore her, she’s funny, she’s exactly like she was on the show. The only thing that’s different about Jujubee in real life is that she is a dirty girl. If you heard some of the filthy things that come out of her mouth, you’d both be shocked.

We saw a little bit of that on Untucked. Did you guys know there was going to be a behind-the-scenes feature after the show? Were you guys aware of that while they were shooting it?
We weren’t aware that it was going to be a whole extra show, but last season they had something similar online. We thought it was just going to be an online thing.

So, what have you been doing lately? We know you have a show on YouTube.
Yes, it’s called Pandora Boxx’s Gay (means happy) Show. It’s a comedy show that I have done for a couple of years. I have more stuff to do, I just haven’t had the time to put it all together. I really like sketch comedy and creating characters. I’ve only done Carol Channing a few times, that was actually the fourth time I did her and I guess I’ll probably be doing more. I’m also going to start doing Kathy Griffin, I think. I’d love to do Ellen too. I kind of look like her in drag sometimes [laughs].

I also have a play that I wrote called “The Lipstick Massacre.” We had four sold-out shows back in November and right after that they announced I was on RuPaul’s Drag Race, so I couldn’t do it anymore, but now that people are aware of me, we're bringing it back for thirteen performances in Rochester at the end of May. We talk about maybe taking it to another city. I’m really excited about that possibility.

I’m in LA right now working on another project that I can’t talk about but very soon you will find out.

You’re so talented and we’re totally 100% Pandora Boxx fans. We want you to know that.
Well, thank you, I did read your last post about the show and how upset you were that I was kicked off, so I was very flattered. Thank you so much, guys.

Thank YOU, darling.


[Photo Credit: pandoraboxx.com/rochestercitynewspaper.com]

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Labels: RuPaul's Drag Race, RuPaul's Drag Race Season 2, T Lo Interviews