Lazy Susan Talks Being Weird and Wonderful on Drag Race Down Under

From episode one of Drag Race Down Under season four Melbourne queen Lazy Susan made an impact that would see her propel her way through the competition.

After eight weeks and three main challenge wins that saw her never fall into the bottom three, Lazy Susan entered the final four as the clear front runner.

After being crowned the winner in a joyous grand finale on Friday night she is preparing for her next projects and reflecting on her amazing run on the show. She sat down to chat with Michael James about the weird and wonderful ideas inside her head and love of the work that she does.  

Welcome and congratulations to our incredibly weird winner, Lazy Susan! 

Hello. Thank you for that, I like incredibly weird. I’ll take that. 

I think that’s my favourite thing about you is that part of Australian drag that you represent, It’s just that fucking weird and wonderful energy that that we do so well down under. 

Absolutely. Like I think Australia does have some of the oddest contribution to popular culture, like we are the country of The Castle and Muriel’s Wedding and Priscilla and like, these are all deeply strange things to put out into the world. And so I’m glad to be just a small part of that tradition of odd people from this, weird upside down place. 

Now we’ll add you to the list!

Yes. Wait, someone needs to add me to the list of notable people from Upwey (Victoria)I’ve been trying to get on that list on Wikipedia for a thousand years! I was born and raised in Upwey, but currently there’s a guy that went to my primary school, Rory Sloan, who is like the most notable person. He’s an AFL guy and all I’ve ever desired is to be on my Wikipedia for my hometown for notable people.

So when it comes to your drag what is your inspiration for this kind of whacked out fucking weirdness that you bring?Is there a particular place or person that inspires you or is it just thrown together from the universe? 

I think a lot of my drag is inspired by my love of film. Like I really love kind of embodying a character or scenario and so I think, you know, even the way that I’ve done my entire season of Drag Race was I had to kind of justify each of the the looks as a different character and as a different world that she might inhabit.

So I really take a lot of inspiration from like obviously John Waters and Pedro Almodóvar like these icons of queer cinema who make these really interesting and beautiful and distinct looks. Each one of the looks kind of takes something from film and kind of invents a scenario that I could live in. 

Are they ideas or concepts or things you kind of already had stored away in your Lazy Susan workshop sitting there waiting for you to put together or are they the characters and ideas that hit you and then you start pulling all the pieces together?

Yeah, normally like it kind of just comes, like each thing will just be born of a single little seed and then slowly all the other pieces will be added on. So for example, like the hologram fan, I just assumed when I saw it in the wild somewhere I was like, I assume that that’s relatively cheap and also like you could program it with your own custom imagery and so I was like, ‘I wonder if you could battery power it? and then I’m like, I wonder what woman would be wearing this?’ Because then it’s like it reminded me of that kind of “schlocky” Like “Total recall”, kind of campy versions of science fiction from the future. And so I was like, I wonder if I could do a look that’s a woman like that inhabits in this kind of campy science fiction future that you might see in the background of one of those films. And so that was it, I started with just the tech. And then from there, the storyline kind of spun out from that moment. 

Now you’ve talked about film and you’ve talked about theatre as well. Did you go to university and study the arts in some capacity?  

Yeah, I studied. I did a Bachelor of Film and Television at VCA and I really was on the path to become a writer and director of film, which is still in the blueprint for what I’d like for my life, but at a certain point after film school, I was like, I just don’t think that I have the story that I want to tell or I am not yet the person that is ready to be  the author of a whole film. And so I went away and kind of started doing drag because it felt like this really satisfactory version of creativity that was super immediate and super low stakes. And it became this addiction, because you had this craft that you could just invent an idea on Monday and have it out by Thursday and have it forgotten by the Thursday after and I love that. I love this idea that creativity is something you are just constantly practicing. 

And your parents, I remember you said were in theatre as well. They were also in your audition video, one of your early ones? That must have been back in season one?

Oh God, it was for an American season because, I’m an American citizen as well. So I had seen the American seasons and then I did three seasons auditioning for the American season and didn’t get anywhere. Then, when the Australian one came out, I was like. I’m going to really put my focus on getting onto the Australian one and so that’s how I ended up auditioning 6 times for this show. But yes, that was back, back, back in like 2017 I think was the first time I auditioned. I think that might have been like season 9 or something of Drag Race America. 

It was very beautiful seeing your parents being a part of your video and then obviously hearing that your Mum is no longer with us. Do you think she would have loved what she saw on the show?

No, absolutely hated [Laughs]. She’s much more of a Vybe girl though haha.

No, I think. I think the the experience of growing up with creative people. Is a really unusual thing, I think, for queer people to hear. Because they were super supportive of what I wanted to do, like of who I wanted to be, but they also had very high standards. So, you know, I think people think that it just ends with like, this binary idea of like whether your parents support you or not. But it actually begins once they support your art and then start holding you to standards of like ‘Well, then it should be like this’ And like, ‘how can you make it as good as possible and how can you really flesh out your ideas and have them be fully realized?’ and I think that definitely comes from my mum and dad and I think that that’s the thing I’m most proud of is that people look at the things that I delivered and they say, ‘wow, that seems like you really are someone who’s able to take something from conception all the way to execution’ and that is a trait that was given to me by having creative parents. 

My dad has said it many times ‘Honey, I don’t care what you do, but audience is not your therapist they don’t give a shit and they don’t want to see you just jerk off on stage, so be funny.

I love it. Did he go over all of those outfits with you before you went away?

Oh, I’m never asking my father for fashion advice. Absolutely not. No, he’s more about the comedy side of things.

Yeah, my my family is like… I’d never experienced like makeup or anything as a kid because my mom was like as a staunch feminist and she would just be like fuck that bullshit like she was like a classic 70s feminist who was like ‘I’m not putting on any. I’m not like doing my hair or worrying about any of that bullshit.’ And that’s really, there’s so much of that in Lazy Susan, because the woman that I aspire to be and think is fabulous, she is a woman who looking like she’s worked a long day in the office and is a bit burnt out. To me, that is elevated, chic, fierce femininity. 

Now part of what we loved was we never knew what we were going to expect with you. My first thing when the season is announced and they give us all the list of the Queens, I if I don’t know you, I don’t look you up. And I do that for a reason because I want to be surprised, so I’m not going to go and scroll through your Instagram and look through YouTube videos. I want it to be fresh and that was always so refreshing about watching you. I was like what the fuck is this?! My favourite thing, obviously waswhat Michelle said to you too when she said “What the fuck is wrong with you?“

That is, high praise indeed. 

Well, that particular comment was in the Snatch Game episode. And that was because you were going to be Pharlap, I think we got like only 10 seconds of it but I was dead. I thought ‘she’s going to do this and she’s going to win it.’ 

Yeah, in retrospect I’ve made some terrible choices, but no, it’s really funny that the weirdness of that kind of idea of weirdness is so interesting when you’re already in drag. I’m like, we’re all cross dressers. Do you know what I mean?

There’s no such thing as weird in drag. Like it just doesn’t exist, Like, it’s kind of weird to be like ‘I’m the most glamorous lady in the world.’ Like, OK, dear…

But thank you like I appreciate that, I love the compliment of it, but I I think at the same time I’m like, I just don’t know. I think it’s all pretty fucking weird when you get down to it.

We’re strange people. There’s no there’s no normal drag queen, I’m afraid. 

Now in the end you didn’t go with Pharlap you went with Drunk Irish Lindsay Lohan?

Well, I think I don’t know where you’re getting drunk Irish from because she’s an American woman and I did a dead on impression of her!

I am a petulant artist creative person and it is my right to do the thing that I think is the stupidest and the funniest. And I have always dreamed of doing my incredible Lindsay Lohan impression and the fact that I got to do it on national television is a dream come true.

And I would sacrifice even a crown for the right to be Lindsay Lohan. So authentically. 

Before we wrap up, let’s chat money, you have money now! They just gave you $50,000, which I’m anticipating will be a while before you get it. Do you have plans for your $50,000? 

Absolute well, yes, thankfully not taxed, which is amazing. I’m absolutely going to buy some nice wine to start and then I’m gonna put some of it into the the nest or the seed of a film project that I’m working on. Which is hopefully gonna be combining my love of film and drag. So watch that space and then I think they’re gonna use it to fund a bunch of stupid drag projects.  

Are you taking yourself to any of the upcoming Drag Cons?

I will be at Dragon UK, I will be there the whole weekend, I’ve got a booth like a window at a booth and then the rest of the time I’ll just be sipping House of Love cocktails and rolling around on the carpeted floor. 

You can watch the full interview with Lazy Susan and Michael James below.

Lazy Susan’s win caps off what is arguably the best season of Drag Race Down Under the franchise has experienced so far.

With fresh life breathed into the show and Michelle Visage at the helm it seems like season five must certainly be on the cards for the new year.

In the mean time Lazy Susan and the cast of season four will kick off their tour in 2025 around Australia.