Discord Addams is a groundbreaking queen — and not just because she's the first RuPaul's Drag Race contestant to earn her own weekly spotlight feature, the Discord Cam. Discord breaks new ground just by being her authentic self — a tattooed, pierced, spikey-haired, couture, punk rock diva whose aesthetic is crystal clear and razor sharp. And like the punks of yore, Discord is politically minded and not afraid to speak out against a rigged system.
Enter: F**K This!, Addams' very own WOW Presents Plus series. Finally, the informed thoughts and passionate feelings of Season 18's rock and roll queen are no longer limited to fleeting confessional moments. Here, Addams takes the spotlight and rails against the injustices that she clocks in the world around us: A.I., Millennial Gray, social media, fast fashion — if you're annoyed by it, odds are Discord's gonna drag it. Below, Discord Addams talks about her new series (which, yes, does feature her signature runway walk!) and its unlikely inspiration.
Brett White: What was the genesis for this show?
Discord Addams: I was thinking like, we need like a very gay version of Jon Stewart or John Oliver, kind of a Daily Show that's a little bit campier and a little bit more abrasive, things we can't do on Comedy Central and on CBS. We can't obviously do it every single day, the news moves too quick, but we can choose overarching general topics that we can dive into, educate a little bit, but also make people laugh at the same time.
Is this something you were known for doing? Did you go on rants in the Werk Room?
Yeah, if you start me out on a tangent, it's definitely an avalanche. And I just go, go, go, go, go. If I get something I'm passionate about, it's hard to get me to shut the fuck up.
You kind of got a light Sasha Velour edit where anytime anything serious was discussed, it would always cut to a Discord talking head. So how did you go about choosing this first batch of topics? I mean, A.I. as episode one makes a lot of sense because fuck that.
I just like sat down and I was like, "What are the things that I know for a fact, because we have to film this quickly, that I can just rattle off in one day." So I chose six topics and we filmed it all in like three hours. Like we got it all fast.
How long does each rant go on set? How much gets cut out? The rants are very concise, but they don't seem planned.
That's actually a good question. I was, I would say I was down there for like two and a half hours and we filmed every single episode within that time. So I'm sure I was probably talking for about maybe 10 to 12 minutes straight. I don't think they cut that much, honestly.
You really have these thought out.
I had a couple of bullet points that were in front of me. Other than that, it was just like one stream of consciousness.
I like that you mentioned The Daily Show because it gives me vibes of watching cable TV in the '90s. Like MTV News, 120 Minutes, that kind of stuff.
Yeah, I pulled inspiration from Wayne's World.
I was going to say Wayne's World!
It's one of my favorite movies, and I even wrote the theme song for [F**K This] so it could even have like its own Wayne's World-esque kind of theme. Those were definitely all the inspirations for this.
If you're Wayne, who would be your Garth?
I would like it to be Darlene. I would choose Darlene.
That is perfect. And then who is the one queen that rides in the middle of the back seat and then has to spew into the little cup? Who's the sick one in the back?
It would be Briar, obviously. Over the pandemic when we were just filming digital drag, the best we could, I pulled down a green screen and I filmed the entire "Bohemian Rhapsody" scene as Wayne and as Garth, but in drag — and it's so stupid. But it was the most fun I had the entire pandemic.
I love that. Let's get that Season 2 with you and Darlene.
Now that you have the reputation for being a thoughtful, outspoken, politically minded queen, do you now feel like your drag has a serious side that you have to kind of perform towards?
I would say the only annoying part of it now is that people look at me as like a moral beacon — and I'm like, please don't do that. Just because you agree with my opinions, thank you, but I'm still, you know, a drag queen. I still want to have fun. If I'm going to have a hot take real quick, let me have a hot take. I'm not Jesus. I'm not God. Don't look to drag queens for moral compasses. It's so weird that a lot of these teenagers online, if we have even like one little misstep, it's like suddenly the gun is there and they want us dead. And it's like, calm down. We're all human beings. YUou're just as problematic as I am. We've all had moments where we've fucked up or we've made people upset. You can't hold people to these insane moral standards, just because I am more outspoken against the government and against fascism and against A.I.
There is a fun side to the rants, and that's the call-ins. Some of them come from your Season 18 sisters. How did you rope all the girls into leaving you questions?
We left the voicemail up for 24 hours and I texted our group chat and I said, "Whoever wants to say some shit, say some shit." And Mia just kept calling in and calling. Mia did not stop calling. I think we still have more to get through from her.
She's angling for her own spinoff. You also incorporated your now iconic walk into the show.
Well, it's just what the people want to see. And everyone on the internet is like, "There's no more Discord Cam on Fridays!" So I was like ... but there can be.
What was your reaction the very first time you saw Discord Cam? Because that's never happened before.
I think it's safe to say I was the most iconic part of Season 18. Honestly, it was so cool. I knew they were going to do something with it. I didn't know quite what, but for it to be the Discord Cam — I thought, this is fun. The kids on the internet were like, "They're making fun of her!" And it's like, no, they're not. They're setting me up for pure branding success. Calm down. Take it down a notch, children.
Going along with your aesthetic, have you gotten any Drag Race tattoos?
Oh, I have a Season 18 tattoo that I gave myself before.
That's right, you are also a tattoo artist.
Yeah.
What are the odds of you going on Ink Master?
I don't want to. I can already charge Ink Master prices after being on Drag Race.
I talked to Jane Don't about drag's relationship to rock and roll. A lot of the time on Drag Race, the way they present rock and roll feels disingenuous. Like, if the song isn't a cunty pop song, the show doesn't know what to do with it. As a drag queen, how do you marry your love of rock and roll with an art form that tends to steer more towards pop and dance?
I just do what I want. I just don't think about it. I play by guitar live a lot. Sometimes I'll take pop songs and I'll turn them into my own punk cover. It makes me more interesting, right? Like if everybody's doing Ariana Grande and I come out there and do the Sex Pistols, you know, people are going to remember what I did. And I sing live a lot now. I wouldn't say I'm a good singer, but like, I'm singing like Blink-182 and shit like that so I don't have to sing well anyways. It's fascinating to see the shift in the way the audience reacts when there's a live microphone in your hand than when you're lip syncing. You can see them actually acting like it's a rock concert. And it's just inspiring. I want to release an album, so I'm ushering them into accepting the fact that we can steer drag into a live music route. Because what's the difference between what I'm doing and then like what David Bowie was doing or, you know, the Sex Pistols or the New York Dolls or Motley Crue, Alice Cooper? They're all drag queens.
F**K This with Discord Addams is now streaming on WOW Presents Plus.
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