Drag Race Down Under’s Coco Jumbo says eliminating Art Simone was a ‘proud moment’
Exclusive: Jumbo was eliminated in episode three after beating fellow fan-fave Simone a week earlier.
Words by Alastair James; pictures: BBC Pictures
Coco Jumbo says beating Art Simone in a lip-sync for her life (Coco’s line afterward “soz bitch” is iconic) was something of a career highlight, following her own exit from RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under a week later.
“Apart from getting on Drag Race, that’s been one of my most proud moments of my career!” joked the 30-year-old queen from Fiji in her exit interview with Attitude.
“Art’s so beautiful. She’s stunning. She’s a very polished queen. And for someone like me to just come along and absolutely destroy her dream felt… amazing.”
“…we’re all still very close”
Savagery aside, the queen, who was eliminated in episode three, says all the queens are close and have stayed in touch since filming ended.
“We have group chats and we just like sharing stories. I remember a couple of weeks ago, Anita [Wigl’it] got her first fan stop her in the street and take a photo. Then she took one on her phone and she was like: ‘guys, I just got stopped in the street!’”
“It was so funny! Yeah, we’re all still very close.”
Episode three saw the queens put into two girl groups to perform the new song Queens Down Under.
While some queens hit all the right notes, Coco fell slightly flat. Literally. Laughing it off, she says she has no plans of singing again anytime soon.
“Absolutely not. I’ve always said I’ll try anything at least twice. I don’t think singing or recording a song will be one of those things.”
Coco was also at the centre of some drama prior to her exit, after a mysterious note appeared at her make-up station warning her to ‘watch out’. No one has yet come forward, with some speculating Art Simone could have been responsible…
Coco, however, seems unfazed by it all.
“I’m hoping more comes from it, but I completely forgot about the whole thing until last Saturday when I saw the episode so, yeah… Actually, I didn’t think to ask Maxi [Shield] if she knows about it… ”
“Have fun. Make the best of it!”
The self-described “Black soul diva” certainly earned a lot of love while being on the show, and beforehand. In 2017 she and two other drag queens defended a man from a homophobic attack in Sydney in full drag!
She says being on Drag Race showed her what she can do.
“I can rely on myself to get things done. I am fully capable of going across the Pacific Ocean, going to a different country and competing in like a very stressful competition.”
And she has this advice for future contestants…
“Have fun with it. Don’t try and turn something on just for the cameras. Just be yourself. Have fun. Make the best of it!”
Coco says she hopes to make it over to the UK as soon as she can.
“It’s been announced that the Down Under girls are going on tour, which I’m very excited for. Hopefully, when all the borders open back up, we get to come over to the UK and go to America and back to Fiji [for me]. Have a good time, have an adventure all over the world and perform while doing it.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under is on BBC iPlayer every Sunday.