Glue Dots, Press-On Nails, and Other Things Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 Refuses to Travel Without
The "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" Season 2 winner and "Drag: The Musical!" co-creator shares her best travel tips for drag and beyond.
Mutli-hyphenate artist and drag queen Alaska Thunderfuck 5000, or simply Alaska, is best known for being a runner up on season five of RuPaul’s Drag Race and winning RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season two. Throughout the twelve years since she first appeared on the show, Alaska has gone on to have an incredibly successful career across media. In 2015 she released her debut album Anus featuring the hit song “Your Makeup is Terrible” and has dropped three more albums since. In 2018, she began co-hosting the Queerty Award-winning podcast Race Chaser alongside fellow Drag Race alum Willam Belli. Last year, Alaska made her off-Broadway debut in the original musical Drag: The Musical! which she co-created with Tomas Costanza and Ashley Gordon.
Alaska talked to associate editor Annie Harrigan about her love of tour buses, her favorite travel memory, and being recognized by her voice in the airport. She is still starring as Kitty Galloway in Drag: The Musical! which will run through April 27.
Annie Harrigan: Do you enjoy traveling?
Alaska Thunderfuck 5000: I love doing drag. I love being on stage. I love singing. And I love being with an audience. But when you're out and touring, that is only about five percent of what you're doing. The other 95 percent is waking up early, going to airports, packing the suitcase, waiting at the hotel for check in, and sitting in the car after you've just been on a plane and your back hurts. But you know what? I love drag so much. I'm willing to do all of that to do drag.
AH: Are you a window, aisle, or middle seat person?
AT5000: I must have a middle seat and I cannot have it reclined because that is just too comfortable. Haha. I'm a window person. I recently sat in an aisle for reasons out of my control and I was like, “who does this constantly?” Everyone is banging you with their bags, their bodies. They're walking past you. The cart comes by and slaps you. It's a constant barrage. I guess if you like that, get the aisle.
AH: What's your favorite way to pass time when you're on a plane?
AT5000: In Japan they have sleep competitions. Have you heard of that? I think I could take the gold because I really have the ability to drop into rest and sleep for short periods. I can do it anywhere. I can sleep on a plane. The perfect sleep is when you fall asleep as everyone is still getting on the plane and then you wake up for the initial descent.
AH: Is it the same when you’re on a tour bus?
AT5000: I love a tour bus because I have airport trauma from so many years of just doing the airport thing. Then getting to do a bus tour was so lovely because you get to just go and hang out with your friends and your crew in the bus and just drive through the night and go to sleep and you wake up in the next place. It's like magic. It's wonderful.
AH: Do you have a favorite travel memory?
AT5000: I went to Japan not too long ago and it was so culturally different from America. I love the respect that people had for the common areas there. I didn’t see any trash on the street. It's just a social thing. It's like “no, we just respect the street and so we don't want to put trash there.” There’s just this culture of being respectful of the places you’re in.
AH: Do you get recognized a lot in airports?
AT5000: I do get recognized. Usually, it's when I open my mouth. I can kind of disguise myself but once I start speaking it really is the dead giveaway. That's really the confirmation that people need to know it’s me. So yes, I do get recognized, and when I do, I will stop for a photo because it takes two minutes out of my day and why not?
AH: What are some things you absolutely will not travel without?
AT5000: Things that bring me comfort when traveling are things like socks and underwear. I have specific underwear that are for drag, I have specific underwear that are for going out, and I have certain underwear for traveling. My socks are all just black Hanes socks because I find them very comforting since there's a lot of them and I always pack too many of them.
I have a uniform for the airport—it’s basically a sweatsuit. I like to wear all black there. I like to not draw attention to myself. I have my black backpack. I have one pair of shoes that I always wear to the airport. And then I have my AirPods listening to podcasts while I'm walking.
As far as drag, I mean, it's a whole woman in there. She's got clothes and she's got shoes and she's got jewelry and hair, nails. I need all of these things. For example, I don't glue my nails on because it hurts to do so. Instead, I use these glue dots that are for scrapbooking. Because I can’t just go out and buy those anywhere, I need to make sure I have them on me.
