Our Canada’s Drag Race Week coverage continues – if you missed our previous posts, please visit the Drag Race main page for profiles of Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman and Stacey McKenzie. Today we focus on our third judge, Brooke Lynn Hytes.
The very same club where Stacey went to her first drag show was also the first one where Brooke Lynn performed in drag. Nineteen years old and living in the Village, she was dressed in her friend’s baby blue hoodie, low rise jeans, heels, and caked on “boy make-up” she had from her ballet performances. It was complete with some mascara, no wig, a brown-hair pixie cut, and a little bit of extra eyeliner. “OH MAMA! It was horrible. But you couldn't tell me I wasn’t just gorgeous,” Brooke laughs.
Aside from the look, she also remembers what those first moments in drag felt like. “I was so absolutely terrified, but it was also the most thrilling feeling I've ever felt in my entire life,” she says. “I can't even describe the feeling that I felt that night and I have so much respect for anybody who ever does drag for the first time.”
For Brooke Lynn, drag was intimately close to her when she grew up, even though she didn’t know it. “When I was a little kid, I was constantly dressing up in my mom’s clothes, putting towels on my head, pretending they were wigs.” Brooke was 15 when she saw her first drag queen in real life. She was attending the National Ballet School of Canada which, conveniently, was located on Toronto’s Church Street. “I couldn’t believe it. It was so shocking to me. I grew up a very good Christian boy!” But at that moment, it clicked, and Brooke knew that this was what she wanted to do.
From that very first day, stepping out in drag, Brooke’s drag career jumped leaps and bounds. She originally pursued her ballet career, working in South Africa and New York, but she began to fall out of love with it. “My body was sore. I was getting injured a lot, and I just didn’t like it anymore.” What she did love though was drag. So in 2012, Brooke decided to commit to being a drag queen full-time and she hasn’t looked back since.
Brooke’s appearance on Drag Race Season 11 was legendary. With an unbeatable 2nd place scorecard, 3 challenge wins, and 9 placements in the Top, Brooke Lynn showed us that she could serve looks, walk the runway, and still be funny and memorable in acting challenges. There wasn’t anything she couldn’t do! (Except maybe Celine Dion…) Also, honey, that wig reveal down the runway was everything.
Brooke also turned up the heat in the competition with her romance with Vanjie. #Branjie was one of the most interesting storylines that season, even though it sadly ended a few months after the show finished filming.
With numerous pageant titles under her belt, a stunning performance on RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 11, and now a permanent judging spot on Canada’s Drag Race, Brooke describes drag as the thing that changed her life. “It allowed me the freedom and the independence to work for myself. To be my own boss. My own creative director. To be my own everything really.”
And while drag may have opened up certain opportunities for her, it was definitely Brooke who seized them. The concept of Canada’s Drag Race actually came from a half-joking casual conversation she had with the employees at World of Wonder. In that not-really-a-pitch pitch, she shared her dream of having a Canadian version of the show that she hosted. Pretty soon, she was screen-testing for show, a fact she subtly hinted at during an interview with EW. “I have a couple of irons in the fire that I can’t talk about right now because of contractual obligations.”
Brooke Lynn will make history as the first drag race contestant to sit at the judge’s panel. It’s uncharted territory, and one that maybe makes the judging process a little different. Does having the experience of being on the show make it easier or harder to judge the queens?
“I think it’s made it both,” Brooke explains. “It’s easier because I understand the emotions the queens are feeling and what it’s like to be standing up on the stage being criticized. At the same time, it kind of makes it harder because I get what they’re going through so I really empathize with them.”
But also, Brooke is also the closest one to drag, and her tenure on the show provides her with a perspective that maybe even RuPaul might not have. “I’m a drag queen who’s done the show before. So I’m able to give really constructive criticism and helpful advice on how to kind of break out of their shells and stuff like that.” She can also provide experienced advice on what fashion and decisions work well on the show and what doesn’t.
“We’re all just really rooting for the girls and we’re out there to judge per se, but we’re there to mentor and encourage and help make them better.”
Thankfully, Brooke doesn’t have to do it alone. Canada’s Drag Race is judged in the most Canadian way possible. “Everything was a discussion. Everything was a group effort. None of us had any more power than the others,” Brooke tells me.
But teamwork is challenging. And even though the American franchise makes it look easy, it’s because Ross, Michelle, RuPaul, and Carson have been working together for years. That kind of ease and chemistry doesn’t come immediately, does it?
“When we met, it was just like we’ve known each other for years,” Stacey tells me. “Everybody kept on asking, ‘oh you guys have been friends forever right?’” Jeffrey and Brooke first met at Emmys with RuPaul, and the spark was immediate. “We just had this like, wonderful rapport, and I just felt safe in her presence,” Jeffrey shares. “And then meeting Stacey for the first time a couple of months later, she was just like the missing piece. She turned our couple into a throuple!”
Interestingly, the three had little time to get to know each other before filming. After one run-through of the show the day before, the judges were just thrown into it. And while that may have been scary for some, it was exciting for Jeffrey. “It was just so magical as each moment went on seeing how each of us were bringing everything that we’ve learned in our life experience leading up to that point.” What might have been a trainwreck for any other trio became a perfectly balanced dance. Each judge filled a unique and necessary role on the panel.
“Stacey is definitely the Paula Abdul,” Brooke jokes.
“Brooke-Lynn’s Paula,” Jeffrey chimes in.
“Jeffrey’s…. Visage?” adds Stacey.
Jeffrey agrees, and he attributes this to his education as a guest judge. “I think it’s because my judging style was literally learned from Michelle Visage,” he recollects. “I soaked up how she does it and how she can give the queen tough love in a way that is very constructive and very to the point.”
Obviously, there are times when three cooks in the kitchen means disagreement. “There were weeks where we would all kind of be in agreement and then there were weeks where we definitely were not,” says Brooke. But sticking to their Canadian roots, they would sort it out with a lot of talking. “We literally had a chalkboard, and we had the pros and the cons. And each person argued their case and tried to explain why they thought this person should stay and this person should go.”
On the American version, RuPaul gets to clap and say, “silence!”, and make the decision. But on Canada’s Drag Race, it’s an incredible effort to get a unanimous decision on the panel. And it’s because it’s so important to get it right. Each judge takes their job very seriously because they understand what’s at stake. “The first week after elimination,” says Brooke, “I cried. I just couldn’t believe how hard it was. It was heartbreaking having to send somebody home.” It also didn’t help that the talent in this season was off the charts. “There was not a weak link in the season of queens,” says Jeffrey.
What’s apparent while I talk to Brooke, Stacey, and Jeffrey, is that their connection is genuine. I can barely get a word in edgewise when it comes time to sing the praises of the other judges. “I feel so blessed to be working with these two,” starts Jeffrey. “I just think the three of us together, we’re all very different personalities, but when you put it together, it just works so well,” adds Brooke-Lynn. “It makes the work better. It makes the work easier, when you work with people that you know all get along with each other” says Stacey, “but that’s very rare!”
Each compliments the skills and talents of the others. Brooke can deftly switch between goofiness and professionalism. Jeffrey brings his experience and knowledge to guide the other two. Stacey is hilarious and a ray of sunshine. The list is endless, as are the compliments. And while this kind of chemistry can make the long gruelling of filming better, it also translates on screen. That’s an exciting prospect for the premiere this Thursday. As excited as I am to see the talent of Canada’s finest queens, I’m equally excited to see the buzzing chemistry of the judges. It’s infectious even over the phone:
“Who would you do for Snatch Game,” Brooke asks Stacey.
“You know what, I would actually want to do a guy. Because I’m always being mistaken for a MAN,” she exclaims.
“I would do Stacey McKenzie for Snatch Game,” adds Jeffrey, laughing.
“You need to do that and send me that video!” Stacey says, laughing too.
“I will girl. We can do each other, how about that?”
“Okay yes, perfect!” finishes Stacey.
You can watch the premiere of Canada’s Drag Race on Crave TV this Thursday.
