Jimbo’s Guide to Life
Make it stand out
Who among us would really choose a wad of cash over being the most liked person in the room? Hear me out: when Aja switched the script on crowning a Miss Congeniality for RuPaul’s Drag Race by declaring it instead as a “fan favourite” award in the cast reunion episode of series nine, the role of winning Drag Race changed forever. As much as we would all like to take home the crown, the one hundred thousand dollars, and a place in the Drag Race hall of fame, the lasting infamousy of being the show’s standout will do more not just for an alumni’s career, but assumedly their self worth too. Enter JIMBO, the charismatic clown who stole the entire show for season one of Canada’s Drag Race, the spin off of the American series.
1. Keep Up with Your Community
The pandemic this year saw many of us miss out on seeing our queer peers on the regular, but JIMBO impresses the importance of staying in touch. “During lockdown, my partner and I and some friends started a mask making business where we made masks, and for every mask that we sold we donated one to a person on the streets or a person in a compromised position that couldn't afford a mask of their own.” JIMBO describes her lockdown, “We made and distributed somewhere between five and six thousand masks. It was a really intense, busy time, sewing and sewing and sewing seventeen, eighteen hours a day just to keep up with demand.”
As well as contributing to your community IRL, JIMBO explains the need to stay in touch URL too - especially during lockdown. “Then in the summer with the launch of Drag Race, we shifted away from making so many masks and into doing what we could for the viewing parties and events for the show. Keeping in touch with the community was a really big part of my year: Finding ways to still have a sense of community, whether it was on social media or online drag shows. It’s so important right now to find ways to connect, without actually having to be in the same room together.”
2. Dress to Feel Your Best
“Everyone needs a good pair of sunglasses. I wear sunglasses all the time, I wear them even at night when I'm working sometimes, I just love that it allows you to hide in plain sight and you have an extra layer against the world. Everyone also needs a leather jacket, I'm usually always wearing a leather jacket of some kind. I have a bunch of them, I just love the feeling of being in a leather jacket. I also love a good pair of Chuck Taylors” - Converse to the UK crowd - “That's what I wear everyday sunglasses, a leather jacket and a pair of Chuck Taylors with a different shirt or a different pair of pants. Those are the three things that I really love, but mostly it's like, just wear clothes that make you smile.”
“Whenever I have a party, I always tell people to dress to feel best and I think there's a lot of people like, 'I don't know what to wear. Should we dress up?' and I'm like, dress to feel best, dress in your best self, whatever that is you.” JIMBO enthuses, “Like Ru Paul says 'we're all born naked and the rest is drag' and we all put on drag in different ways to navigate the world: To be seen and to be treated the way we want to be seen and treated.”
She continues, “I wore my normal clothes on the show and my confessionals, the stuff I wore in the show is the same thing I'm actually wearing right now, the same pair of glasses and the same jacket, and not the same shoes, but close to that. Some of the other girls on the show, they kind of put on a bit of a costume for their day look - which was fun - but I thought it was more fun to be as true to my day to day self in the workroom to show who I actually am. I think that's important to not put too many expectations on who should be (in clothes and without them) and just stick with who you actually are.”
3. Trust Your Point of View
“When I was on stage, and when I was on Drag Race, and everyone was judging you and critiquing the looks... Knowing my point of view, and knowing my story, and being able to stand behind my decisions was really important.” JIMBO remembers, “That comes from just self love and not judging myself too much on what everyone else was judging me on. I knew that I had a place in that competition, and that I had a valid point of view that comes from love and self expression. I wanted to be really confident in what got me there: That was a huge part of it, knowing that I was good enough to be there, and that I had a valid point of view.”
4. Be Honest with Yourself and Your Journey
“Always come from a place of personal truth. When you're communicating and acting from a place of personal truth, then there isn't a lot of room for anyone else to tell you what you say or feel is not valid.” JIMBO advises, “Everyone has their own idea of sexuality and self expression and everyone's idea is valid. Everyone wants to put labels on people and on sexuality and on identity, and at the end of the day, it's a huge, huge spectrum. People need to be patient with themselves and with each other, and give everyone the space to just realise who they are and what their message in this world is, and that doesn't always come out perfectly and sometimes it takes everybody their own timeline.”
“Be patient with yourself and be truthful with yourself and your community about where you're at,” JIMBO continues, “Don't put too many expectations on yourself or anyone else beyond love and acceptance.”
5. Seek Out Joy
As a professional drag clown, finding the funny side of life is integral to JIMBO’s work. Finding it, however, is not always that simple. “You can't expect that someone's just gonna deliver joy to you, so you have to find your own ways and be conscious of all sides of it because it's easy to be down and sad, it's a little bit harder to be happy and to find joy when it's not so easy to find.” She explains, “I've had a lot of trauma and a lot of pain and a lot of things kind of go differently than I expected, but at the end of the day, I think it's an optimistic outlook that carries you through life and it allows you to see both the positive and the negative sides of everything.”
“There's so many things that happen in life and in the news and the global picture - like the pandemic, for example - that can really bring you down” JIMBO relates, “But at the same time, there's so many things that can lift you up and can give you hope. These times are about resiliency in the face of it all and finding joy and happiness. It comes in all different kinds of ways: It can just be through simple connection, it can just be through taking time to meditate and self reflect, or to be creative and to create something, or to do something for yourself or your community during a really hard time. It's all about just trying to keep a positive outlook and to consciously look for joy and to seek joy.”
6. Push Yourself
“The element of surprise is a really huge part of clowning, so the essence of clowning is in shared surprise. As much as you are surprising your audience, you need to surprise yourself at the same time, and then you're laughing together in the moment.” JIMBO outlines, “That stems from personal truth and just being present in yourself. I'm always looking inward and outward at the same time to surprise myself and surprise my audience and to see what feelings I can invoke in myself and in my presentation that are different.”
With her different take on drag securing her the fan favourite spot on Canada’s Drag Race, pushing herself from staying the same is definitely what makes JIMBO a star. “I continually try to change my art and try to change my perspective, but it's always grounded in making myself laugh and pushing my own ideas of drag and art, so that everyone is surprised and no one gets too comfortable in what they are expecting.” She spells out, “Performance is such an opportunity, it is where you can really be anyone or anything. I really like to take advantage of that and to really push myself and to create strange silhouettes and strange characters and to spread joy and laughter through surprise.”
Going into my conversation with JIMBO, I expected jokes, carnage and tongue in cheek takes on hard hitting topics. Instead, I received an earnest sincerity that is hard to find in the cynical landscape of 2020. JIMBO’s guide to life is so much more than advising on what shoes to wear or the best way to take to the stage. It’s a handbook on how to inspire confidence and self love in yourself and in others.
Words: Gina Tonic | Photos: Hélène Cyr
