With September in the rear view, we’re now in the time affectionately referred to as Spooky Season / Halloween time. The month started with a bang for those with a Hulu subscription, as the streaming service released a special on October 1st starring Drag Queens and Kings called Huluween Dragstravaganza. The fun project is co-hosted by RuPaul’s Drag Race icon Ginger Minj, who compared filming the Hulu special to last year’s made-for-TV movie The Bitch Who Stole Christmas.
Ginger Minj is the reason for the season this Halloween, as she’s got a role opposite Bette Midler in Hocus Pocus 2, in addition to starring in the Huluween Dragstravaganza. As you can see in the video above, I had the privilege of speaking with Ginger ahead of the special’s release, where I asked her to compare the experience of filming that to VH1’s The Bitch Who Stole Christmas. She opened up about these two different Holiday projects, telling me:
The movie that we did for Christmas last year we had a great time, but we didn’t really get to have a lot of input into who our characters were, what we said, or how we dressed. Because those were characters that were very specifically written. But with something like this, they cast all of us first. And then they wrote it with our input so that it felt a little more genuine, a little more authentic for who we were. We got a lot of say in what we wore and how we danced, and all these kinds of things. It felt like a very collaborative experience.
Well, there you have it. It looks like the process of filming Huluween Dragstravaganza was a unique experience to filming her previous holiday special for Ginger Minj. The distinctions became clear as early as the casting process, and the way the Hulu original was crafted around the cast of Drag performers. Luckily Minj has a killer role in both of these projects, which are great for re-watching during their respective holidays.
While The Bitch Who Stole Christmas was a classic made-for-TV movie that aired on VH1 last winter, the Huluween Dragstravaganza is a very different streaming project. In it we see Ginger Minj and RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Monét X Change serve as our hosts, singing and dancing their way through the various chapters of the streaming special. Ginger is playing herself this time around, which no doubt helped it feel “organic” as she described.
Later in our same conversation, Ginger Minj clarified how much fun she had while filming The Bitch Who Stole Christmas, which saw her sharing scenes with the one and only RuPaul. She also explained the biggest difference between these two holiday specials, sharing:
Not that I didn’t love doing How The Bitch Who Stole Christmas. It was so fun. But it was apples to oranges on this. And this I feel like just fully encompasses what a real drag show is. I always tell people ‘It’s not what you think it is.’ It’s more like a Carol Burnett Variety Hour, where you’ve got stand-up comedy, and songs, and dances, and jokes, and all these sketches. This kind of really encapsulates all of that.
Points were made. Huluween Dragstravaganza does feel like a classic TV variety show from the past with a drag twist, as it’s not a plot-driven movie, but a series of musical numbers and sketches. And through it all Ginger Minj is there to guide the audience through their journey, and bring her many talents to the stage.
As previously mentioned, RuPaul’s Drag Race fans were delighted to see Ginger Minj also have a role in Anne Fletcher’s acclaimed sequel Hocus Pocus 2, dressing up as Winnifred Sanderson and getting some fun moments with Bette Midler herself. Meanwhile, Huluween Dragstavaganza sees Ginger collaborate with Drag icons like Manila Luzon, Lady Bunny, JujuBee, Jackie Beat, and Mo Heart (among others).
Huluween Dragstravaganza is streaming now on Hulu. Be sure to check out the 2022 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
