Here's the Legendary Origin of the Creative Partnership with RuPaul and World of Wonder

Great relationships often become the stuff of legend. RuPaul‘s long creative collaboration with the minds behind World of Wonder is no exception. LAMag has the Rashomon-style tale of how a drag empire was built, as told by WOW Co-Founders Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. Bailey recalls seeing Ru wheatpasting posters of herself in Atlanta, and Barbato recalls first seeing Ru in Times Square in New York. After that they both agree:

“We fell in love instantly. We were fans from day one,” Barbato told LAMag.
Charles, Bailey, and Barbato then started The Rupaul Show in 1996, airing 100 episodes and striking gold.
“[The show] was pretty popular and successful in a time when there weren’t a lot of Black drag queens on TV,” Barbato said. “That were also hosting talk shows,” Bailey chimes in.
In the 2000s, Bailey and Barbato started floating pitches to Ru for a new show series. But Ru made it clear from the beginning that “the one thing [he] didn’t want was a competitive reality show.”
“So we pushed him a whole bunch of different ideas, and then he said, ‘I think we should do a competitive elimination reality show,” Bailey told LAMag.
And many of the people who were there during the show’s inception, like the head of development, Tom Campbell, still work on the show today.

And the rest, they say, is herstory!

If you missed DragCon 2022, the best way to experience how drag has become a worldwide phenomenon is to join us in person at DragCon UK 2023, January 6-8 at London ExCeL!