Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme tackle Christmas the only way they know how in the highly entertainting The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Special
“Jinkx please, not in front of the baby Jesus”
Clearly knowing they’re onto a good thing, Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme have reunited for their third holiday special The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Special, a show which sees DeLa producing and directing for the first time as well as co-creating and co-writing with DeLa. And though much of the special electricity that characterises the best drag comes from a live environment, the take-off of a TV holiday special here means streaming feels like the show’s ideal home.
The plot, insofar as it matters, sees DeLa trying to convince Jinkx of the merits of a traditional Christmas but finding her convictions shaken as the spirit of her grandma speaks to her from a glass of eggnog. But even as you may scoff at how OTT the whole thing seems, there’s the kernel of something genuine underscoring the messaging that builds to something more substantial than candy canes and colourful costumes, a hard-won emotional truths that many LGBT+ folk will recognise all too well at this time of year.
And lest things get too serious, there’s a magnificent amount of festive filth and frolics here. Original songs (‘Everyone is Traumatized by Christmas’, ‘New and Gay’) composed by Major Scales and Keth Harrison rub shoulders with rewrites of more familiar music (‘A Gay in a Stranger’ may ruin ‘Away in a Manger’ for you for life!) and the shifts in genre are brilliantly worked – you may not expect the sleazy rap of ‘Santa Fa-La-La’ but how else would you soundtrack DeLa dry-humping Santa?!
Most of all, its the utter strength of character that makes the show fly. The pair of them are clearly so comfortable in themselves and with each other that everything fits together like turkey and bread sauce. Jinkx’s hard-drinking and shagging sardonic demeanour (“we’re talking poppers not popcorn”) melted by divine intervention, the effervescence of DeLa’s American Dream struggling in the face of reality unti the joyous finale. And throughout, a surfeit of real wit that dares just enough – I mean, who hasn’t wondered what if ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ was sung from the perspective of Mary and the Angel Gabriel…
