Drag Was The Best Career Path For Me, Says Kita Mean

Contributor
June 21, 2021

The world has a new Drag Race Super Star and she is Auckland’s very own Kita Mean who made herstory as the winner of Season One of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.

It sure has been a wild ride over the last eight weeks for the queen from Auckland, but in the end there could only have been one winner and Kita Mean was a deserving winner, stealing the show week after week.

“I have always been theatrical, have always been a dickhead and I have always had a wild imagination, all of those things create a Drag queen. Everything about me is suited to being a Drag queen, that’s what drew me to it. It was the best career path for a weirdo like me.” Kita Mean told Star Observer on the Monday after she was crowned the winner.

The moment @KitaMean found out she had won #DragRaceDownUnder #TeamKitaMean pic.twitter.com/8wa1u215QV

— Miss Geena (@MissGeenaX) June 20, 2021

Kita Mean admits that that the reality TV format threw her off for a while, but given a chance she would do it all over again in a heartbeat. “I learnt that I don’t handle reality TV pressure very well, that’s probably not something I would actively pursue, though in saying that it was a lot of fun so I probably would do it all over again,” said Kita Mean.

A Drag Sisterhood

For Kita Mean the best part of the Drag Race Down Under competition was meeting some of her idols.

“The highlight for me was of course meeting RuPaul and Michelle (Visage), the energy that they just emit, you can’t even put into words, it feels supernatural,” said Kita.

“That was definitely the highlight and of course getting to meet and after the whole thing hang out with Rhys Nicholson. I mean he is a fucking icon isn’t he, total stud muffin too…,” gushed Kita.

Category is… Best Drag 👑

Serving coronation couture: @kitamean! #DragRaceDownUnder @wowpresentsplus https://t.co/CeJvz8yjyM pic.twitter.com/8KSuuZHvd7

— World of Wonder (@WorldOfWonder) June 19, 2021

Of course, Kita went into the competition with two of her fellow New Zealand Drag sisters – Anita Wigl’it, her business partner, with whom she co-owns Auckland’s Caluzzi Cabaret and Elektra Shock.

But as Kita told us, “The coolest thing I got from the competition was growing my little drag sisterhood.”

“I’ve been very privileged to do the Broken Heel Festival in the past, but just to be able to meet more of my Aussie sisters and form that bond, that was special. I’ve worked with JoJo (Zaho) before, so it was so hard to see her go first, I was like “oh my god I get to hang out with JoJo for the next few weeks” and then she went, that was hard.”

https://twitter.com/WorldOfWonder/status/1406232836139540484

“Hanging out with Coco (Jumbo) and Maxi (Shield) was amazing, I had met Etcetera before but being able to connect with her, that was the best part of the whole thing.” Kita added of season one’s Sydney queens.

‘We just shoot from the hip’

But what of Season one’s shade, which was certainly cranked up a notch, even enough to make fellow New Zealander Elektra Shock ‘have a bit of cry in her hotel room’.

Well as Kita told us, “Everything that was there in the season happened, it wasn’t doctored. But there are also probably elements of only seeing one side of the situation. All the shade is real, it definitely all happened but probably wasn’t as heavy as people would think it was.”

“In New Zealand, and I imagine in Australia too, we are quite brash, and we just shoot from the hip, it’s probably more from the rest of the worlds perspective they might see it as intense, but for us it’s just flippant.”

https://twitter.com/WorldOfWonder/status/1406243309790576644

With Kita being somewhat of a veteran performer who has been treading the boards for a number of years, the best advice she said she was ever given was by one of her Drag aunties when she was just starting out.

“She told me when you go into Drag it’s so easy to get lost in things that are self-indulgent. You get so many compliments when you’re in Drag. You get told you’re beautiful, you get told you’re funny, people want to give to you constantly.”

“That’s the advice I got given and that I try and echo. It’s very dangerous to have your focus on all that. If your focus is on wanting to look beautiful and get compliments, that’s never going to serve you. Put the focus onto giving love, go out there, get in drag so you can go make someone’s night so much better, if you are doing that, the love will still come back to you.”

The World At Her Feet

With the world now at her feet, Kita is excited to see what life has in store for her next.

“RuPaul’s Drag Race is such a respected cultural phenomenon. RuPaul giving me the honour of being the first winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under that’s a huge honour, people will listen to that, they will want to keep an eye on me to see what I do next,” said Kita.

“I’m very grateful that I have been given this opportunity, and now I’m just going to hit the ground running, keep laughing and keep encouraging others to laugh. But…,” Kita adds with a rueful chuckle “I’m still going to be that stupid little weird clown from Auckland New Zealand, I’m just going to be doing it on a bigger stage.”