Drag queens are everywhere and some even find that they take up too much space in the television landscape or at story time.
These detractors likely won’t watch the new documentary The Agency of ME AND CIE, but too bad for them, because all the others will be delighted to have access behind the scenes of this grandiloquent universe, where glitter, wigs and make-up go hand in hand.
In the first two episodes watched on Monday, Michel Dorion introduces us to the “family” with whom he evolves on the scene of the bar Le Cocktail, in the Village, in Montreal, but also everywhere in the Belle Province.
Dorion has been drag racing for 35 years and last year founded the Midor agency – the first drag agency in Quebec – with his partner Jean-Sébastien Boudreault. In the spotlight since 1988, he made a name for himself by personifying our national Celine. With The Agencyhe wants to shine “people who work hard and invest a lot in a passion they love and which is excessively expensive,” he said at the round table.
The band that we follow in the series directed by Simon Sachel also includes the short story Crystal Starz (Guillaume Lamothe); Ciatha Night (Hugo Simard), who works during the day in construction; Velma Jones / Johnny Jones (Ariane Laguë-Barrette), who is a hairdresser and the only girl in the group, as well as Miss Butterfly (Johnny Naoufal), the exuberant queen.
The latter is unequivocally the most flamboyant and entertaining of the lot. In the first episodes, Miss Butterfly returns from Mexico where she presented her show for four months, far from the Quebec polar cold. Here is a whole character who reveals himself so much on stage and even without a wig. Miss Butterfly, who calls herself “international”, confided after a remarkable performance in the skin of the late Tina Turner that she was not used to appearing without her wigs.
miss butterfly
PHOTO BY BERTRAND EXERTIER PROVIDED BY THE TVA GROUP
“It’s rare that I show myself as a boy, except recently on TikTok. But when there is a camera, I am there and when there is even more budget, I am even more there!” he said laughing.
Michel Dorion, who traveled all regions from the end of the 1980s, says “never to have had bad experiences”. His expert eye quickly spots people who are on their “first experience”. “There is a little stress in their face, but after 35 years, easily, I will defuse.”
“You have to let people find out,” he continued. At the moment, we are polarizing a lot on hypersexualization, the exaggeration of certain drag artists whose character is excessively sexualized. It may shock, but there is humor that also shocks. Shop [le type de drag] that suits what you want to see.”
Friendship and rivalry
Miss Butterfly, Velma Jones/Johnny Jones, Michel Dorion, Crystal Starz and Ciatha Night star in “The Agency” docuseries. They were reunited on Monday, June 19 for the press screening at Le Cocktail bar, in the Village, in Montreal.
GUILLAUME PICARD / QMI AGENCY
All is not always well between these heiresses of Guilda and Rupaul. “There is always a friendship between us which develops, there is always a rivalry also because we challenge each other. That’s why it’s the fun, even if it may seem negative, but it’s always positive that will come out in the end. We support each other and we throw bitches because that’s kind of what we do. But it’s just love,” said Miss Butterfly.
We are also promised touching moments in the docureality and as for the bun creping, motus and sewn mouth, you will have to watch to find out what it is. For the rest, it’s funny and authentic, in addition to being very entertaining.
Some comrades have been slow to make room for the only girl in the group, Velma Jones/Johnny Jones, who alternates between drag queen and drag king. “I had a lot fewer contracts than my colleagues […]. The injustice was there before. I always say: “the door was ajar, now it is moving”.
Produced by Productions Déferlantes, the docureality The Agency settles in the grid of MOI ET CIE every Monday, at 9 p.m., starting June 26.