Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S10 Ep 7: Shea Coulee

Episode Date: October 28, 2020

"Her name is Shea Couleé, and she didn't come to play, she came to slay!” & THAT THEY DID!!! We were lucky enough to get RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Winner on Table Manners this week and what a dream it was. I've been a HUGE fan of Drag Race (Mama Ru please can I be a guest judge) so it was a pleasure to have the generous, kind and BEYOND fabulous reigning champ Shea tell us about the creation of Ms Couleé, learning to do makeup & who’s their best drag queen friend. Currently living in Chicago, Shea tells us the go-to hot spots on where to eat in the city, their speciality of whipping up a good ramen, Froyo lusting, adding vodka to a blueberry pie (we need this recipe!) & eating oysters – to chew or not to chew?! Shantay, you stay Ms Coulée x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to, oh I was going to say drag race, hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware and I'm here with my mum over Zoom and we're about to talk to a drag race all-star winner, Shea Coulee. I'm not going to lie, I haven't put makeup on for a while and I've put a really bad red lip on very quickly because I felt like I needed to make a bit of an effort for Shea Coulee. I'm regretting that decision now because the line is bad. It's a little underwhelming yet slightly enthusiastic. I feel embarrassed for myself and I should have washed my hair. Hey ho. Shea Coulee is one of the most amazing drag stars from Drag Race I watched them in season nine where they famously lost to Sasha Fallour but we don't need to talk about that tonight

but they did just win the all-stars season five Shea was amazing Shea is one of the best dancers I've ever seen in my life Shea is a music artist and just a beautiful drag queen with so much generosity and sweetness, which for this series, if you did watch it, it got a little catty and Shay managed to reign it all in with kindness and love. I love RuPaul's Drag Race. It makes me so happy. I've introduced it to my mum. Hey, bitch. Hi, mum. Hey, bitch. Yeah, no, there was a lot of hey, bitch. But I don't know, it's kind of more endearing

when they say it's kind of really nice. I didn't, I thought it was a little catty. I thought, what was the one that I didn't think was very good, Jessie?

Miss Cracker. Miss Cracker was mean. Mum, one of our Jewish sisters. One of our Jewish sisters was quite mean. Well, it's a competition

and they came here to win. As Shea Coulee says, I'm Shea Coulee and I came to slay. Shea Coulee coming up on Table Manners. Shea Coulee, we are chatting to you on Zoom. You're in California. You've got glowy skin. Mum's a bit disappointed you haven't got a wig on. A little disappointed. Oh, I'm so sorry, Mum.

I need to know more about the whole look. Oh, yeah. You know, we can go into detail. It's so much fun. Look, look. Looks, yeah. How are you, Shay? I'm doing well.

I'm doing well. You know it's um nice and early here in LA just like got up got some coffee and you know just like prepared myself for the fact that I was going to be chatting with you today I just have to say that I am such a huge fan. Your music has soundtracked so many significant moments in my life. I just love you so much. And I am so glad to be here with you today. So thank you so much for having me. Honestly, Shay, coming from you, a winner, not only just a winner, fantastic artist, inspiring.

Thank you so much much that means so much to me and I've been so excited about this chat and it was in the diary and they said do you want do you want uh the winner of all stars drag race and I was like yes I fucking do and then yeah I'm just honestly I'm so touched thank you so so much do you like the new album? Oh, okay. Like, so let's just like jump in and talk about that because that seriously has also soundtracked so much of my summer. I just have such a love for like disco, funk, dance music. And you just like nailed it on such a level

and just, I could go on. I could go on. It was so, I love it. This is supposed to be about you go on i could go on it was so i love it this is supposed to be about you actually okay hang on a minute which one is your favorite okay jewish mother jesus i like the last one that like literally was like we i surprised my boyfriend with a trip for his birthday in july he's a cancer his name is dan he's also he me to tell you hello. Did you just say he's born in July? He's a Cancer? Yes.

Are you really into star signs? Yes, I am. What are you? I'm an Aquarius. Oh, it's our best star sign. We're Libras. I get on well with Aquarius. Yeah.

Oh, my goodness. Yes, I love a Libra. So back to Cancer Dan. Oh, yeah. So we took him on a little surprise trip uh to P-Town and uh it was like me and him and some close friends who we had been like quarantining with for so long so we took this like little trip like out to Provincetown on the Cape and we listened to your album like all the the entire trip but like as it was like coming to a close we

were really listening to remember where you are so often you know just like looking at each other you know when you're really sentimental and you have a group trip and it's like over it just like i love that song i just it's everything thank you see just saying oh my god stop just stop this is about Shea Coulee I love it I love it because my mom is the same I love it I just want to ask about P-Town because I watched a TV series called High Town that was set in P-Town did you see it no I have not seen it how would you define P-Town. Did you see it? No, I have not seen it. How would you define P-Town for Jessie, who's not seen the series? Is it where Splash is done? Yeah.

Is it Cape Cod? Yeah, it's very Cape Cod, you know? So just like lovely, like boating communities, all these. And it's where a lot of like drag queens go and do like residencies and shows, you know? They have like a really huge lgbtq presence and it's just like yeah because p-town is like right at the very very end of like the cape so you know it's um it's a really cute area and i have a friend who has a house out there and we you know

normally visit every summer and due to quarantine my boyfriend was just kind of sad that he was going to miss it so we were like okay we'll we'll surprise him we'll take him what's it like because i mean that sounds like i mean you're based in chicago are you based in chicago that much anymore are you in la a lot now um this is actually my first time really being away from home for a significant amount of time since like March was when I stopped touring and went into uh quarantine which has honestly been low-key lovely because um I've been able to like work and plant in my garden for like the first time in like years so that's been really nice being able to just like get my hands in the earth and get all dirty and like grow things and harvest them so you're based

you're based in chicago so i swear my favorite queens are in in chicago it's a good city and you have the best food and there's this warmth and realness about Chicago, the Chicago lot. Is it quite an amazing place to do drag? And because are you from Chicago? Yeah, so well, I was born in Indiana, my family moved to like the southwest suburbs of Chicago when I was like six, and then I moved to the city to go to college. And that's where I started studying like art and drama and got into like theater. But Chicago is really great because I feel like there's just like a sense of community. I feel like if you have like a point of view, people support you and want to see you succeed and do well. And as long as you're nice and kind kind to other people they will rally behind you

and help you succeed and it's nice to belong in a community where you feel a lot of support but that's what's quite what what I really loved about you on Drag Race you were always kind and supportive and I think you know there can be look they're doing an entertainment show there needs to be jeopardy I thought Cracker was very mean Cracker isn't the meanest she wasn't the meanest but I thought she was a bit mean it's entertainment it's so wild because like the competition is something that is like really challenging and it brings out so many different sides of people and I feel like there are some people who are become like really open books because I feel like sometimes we all think things that we would like never say out loud and then sometimes people get into that competition they say things and you're like did that really just happen but I

honestly have even before the show and after the show have so much love for Miss Cracker I know that she has said that she's like learned a lot through watching herself in that process and i think that it uh served as like a really good like lesson for her to just like grow and like you know understand how impactful words can be it's a very intense situation that show because they ask for us to be so varied in all of like the artistic things that they want us to do that it really, it's such an experience, but I just always, in my mind,

like turned it into like a theater summer camp. Like that's where I was in my head, you know? For some girls, it's like jail. For some girls, it's like bootcamp. And in my mind, I'm like, I'm just like at musical theater summer camp and it's like boot camp. And in my mind, I'm like, I'm just at musical theatre, summer camp, and it's just being filmed. That's where I am.

That sounds like my idea of heaven. Where is it shot? In LA? Yeah, it's shot in LA. So we're out here in the studios just making magic. It's wild because it's out in the middle of nowhere you know and we're just out there filming like from 9 a.m to like 10 p.m and then you know you go out and you see you're like okay well I see the hills and they are dark and you know go back to your hotel and it's a brand new day you won season five all-stars and I think actually all-stars is even harder than

well of course it's harder because people have learned people have come back the competition was insane but also I just kind of I still am in awe of the fact that you will make your outfits and you have to yeah like you were saying you have to be so all-round you have to be funny you have to do your makeup right you have to do everything you have to dance yeah, like you were saying, you have to be so all-rounder. You have to be funny. You have to do your makeup right. You have to do everything. You have to dance. I mean, your dancing was phenomenal. You gave me so much Beyonce.

It was insane. You must have come out dancing when you were born because you are the best dancer. Phenomenal. Oh, thank you. Yeah, when I was like two years old, I won a dance contest at my family reunion. And I think that ego boost just sent me on a trajectory to just like loving dancing. Take me back to the family reunion where you're doing dance contests at the age of two, because I really love the idea of competition being like in your veins and your families, obviously, that you're doing dance-offs at the age of two at a family reunion.

This is, I want to know what the food was like, who was there, you know, whether there's any other fantastic dancers in your family. I'm, okay, so I'm sure this family reunion was either in Mississippi or New Orleans, because that's like where most of my dad's family is. And I still have this memory. It was MC Hammer's Can't Touch This. And it was just a family dance. We were in this hall.

It was a buffet. We had the fried chicken and the greens and the black-eyed peas, just all like, or the cornbread, all of of it and I just remember they like flipped on the song and they said that this one was like you know mostly for like the kids you know probably like ages 12 and under to like come and do like the MC Hammer running man and I remember like sitting on the table next to my mom and like looking at my brother Robert doing it and being like I can do that and I just like ran out there and started doing the

running man and of course like all the family was just all like oh look at the little baby out there doing that that like I won from pure cuteness and like not from technique I know that for sure but you know that really was just like a really good ego boost you know so so growing up who was doing the cooking in your family? Honestly, everybody had to contribute. Like everybody, like probably by the time I was like eight or nine, I was also contributing. Like it was just something that we did. We were always like in the kitchen as a family, like cooking, preparing meals, like sitting down at the table. I just remember, you you know so many just like

conversations and like teachable moments that happened around that dinner table and it's definitely carried over into like my love for cooking now because I love to throw down in the kitchen like so what's the shea kool-aid throw down okay so okay um I make real good ramen oh yeah because my dad he was um stationed in Japan when he was a marine in the 70s and like in that time he just like really developed like a love for like Japanese food so he also learned how to cook Japanese food and like same like growing up so it's like it's a real like oh Japanese Chinese Vietnamese like they're all like those are honestly some of my biggest comfort foods give me like a big old bowl of noodles like so good so I make some great ramen tell me how do you make your ramen do you do it with like a pork broth? Is that quite the traditional way to do it?

Is it with a pork broth? Yes, like a pork broth. Okay, so I normally like to plan my ramen two days ahead of time because I like to do the, I know, I know. I do the soy egg. So like where you marinate. So I'll like get my Instapot

and I'll soft boil like six eggs. And then like I'll have a bag where I put a mixture of soy sauce, shoyu sauce, a little bit of miso paste, some garlic, salt, pepper. And then I put them in there in that little Ziploc bag and let them marinate for about 48 hours. Because then, like, it soaks up all that soy into the yolk and it tastes, like, very, like, cheesy almost. Do you take the shell off first? Yes. Yes. You take the shell off first. Yes.

And then you just put the egg in there to let it, like, all soak up. And then when I'm basically, like, making my broth, I'll just do, do like a pork broth that I get from the store. But then I'll go and like saute some really nice little like pork loin, like some really slim cut like pork loins. And then normally it's just like a bunch of veggies. I like green onions, garlic, ginger, and yeah, some more miso paste with some water and uh yeah you let those noodles soak in there and like a nice like steamy instapot and then you put it all together with the egg oh it's beautiful i'm gonna make those eggs they sound fantastic they are everything i'll send you the recipe they're everything i love them

it's the best part it's the best part so so your dad introduced you to that kind of and and did he teach you about how to do the eggs no the eggs i learned on my on my own but uh yeah because that's like that's like a he he would just like use like a regular egg but i once I like tasted like a soy like marinated egg I was like I'm obsessed with this I was like I need to learn how to do this so how many brothers and sisters like were around the dinner table and was it a kind of madhouse or like I love the idea that you were all getting stuck in and my mum would never let me near the kitchen because she knew that I was just gonna like sneak bits of food there would be no dinner left to serve up but she was very much like didn't want to like you know the romantic idea of you know making cakes and breads with your mother and father and it's all it was none of that

it was my mom like batting my hand away so I would yeah I I want to know what's like a memorable meal that your mom or your dad made. Okay. So, brothers and sisters, I'm the baby of five total. So, I have two older sisters and two older brothers. And so, it was really a lot of us. Like, my role when it was, because they're so much older. So, when it was all of us, my role was like mostly setting the table. But when it was just like me and my two sisters, because my brothers so much older so when it was all of us my role was like mostly setting the table but when it was just like me and my two sisters because my brothers were much older like sorry that was like a really loud motorcycle but it was like uh it was like downtown LA um when it was like me and my two sisters we're that's when I would be, you know, in charge of, like, boiling the water for the pasta, making the salad.

Oh, I made such a good salad. And then also, like, breakfast was the one thing that I was really good at. But for my mom's meals, especially the ones I remember the most, like, where she grew up, she had, like, this Italian family that lived behind her. And she worked at their grocery store so she made really good like chicken cacciatore like oh my gosh like oh so good or her chicken parmesan also really really really good um and then like for my dad i would have to say it would probably be a like a ramen or a stir or a fried rice like a pork fried rice like he was really he had like this big wok too that he would like be making fried rice in and it was so good oh wow and I

wanted to know I mean how long have you been doing drag I have been doing drag I'm 31 now so I have been doing it for nine years it It was nine years in July. What made you do drag? And also, who is Shea Coulee? Who is that woman that you've created? What was she about? Where does she come from? I love that question because it's worded in a way that I feel like I've never really been asked before and I think one thing that um

really helped to make me want to try drag was a seeing RuPaul's Drag Race for the first time and being like wow that's really really cool but also leading up to that moment I felt like felt like there are many artists who have like a muse and uh I was a performer and I also studied costume design and a lot of times I would be like doing sketches and designs of costumes for shows and my professors would be like I don't know like who would wear that and I would always be like I would wear that like I'm like that looks fabulous what do, like who would wear that? And I would always be like, I would wear that. I'm like, that looks fabulous. What do you mean? I would wear that.

And it became, it got to this point where I wasn't having the opportunities to like create these like looks and these visions on this like beautiful black glam muse that I like saw in my head. And it just like, it was like, I saw Drag Race, and I felt like I had this like need to express myself and this vision. And I was just all like, I guess I'll just be my own muse. And I'll, I'll take on that persona. And I will build that creature, that beautiful woman, that goddess, like, like within myself and the great kind of like psychological change that happened through those experiences of me embracing femininity

taught me so much about the power of femininity the power of feminine energy and how unifying it is and how just like I just could go on and it led me on the journey to understanding my you know gender non-binary identity just through expressing myself through drag it opened up so many different avenues of my personality and my identity that I didn't even know were there it's just such a beautiful a artistic expression but like be a social examination of one's own understanding of gender roles so Shea Coulee is non-binary as a person. So is Shay, were you born with the name Shay? Okay, so Shay is actually my middle name. Okay.

So my name is Jaron on my birth certificate. Good old Jaron Shay. But it's spelled, it's actually Swahili and it's spelled K-Y-E-I. So I just changed the spelling so that when I was like doing amateur drag shows at the bars the like you know drag queen could have an easier time reading what it was but Shay is like what my family called me like in my house you know like to the outside world I was like Jaron but like at home kind of in my safe space I was Shay you know like to the outside world I was like Jaron but like at home kind of in my safe space

I was Shay you know that's you know what they called me and so when I was like thinking about doing drag I was like okay well I just want something that I'm already familiar with and I was just like I feel like Shay is just a and it means beautiful boy so I thought I was just like it's a really great great name to use so um I went with that and how you know you said you finished touring in March yes was that for your music um so that was actually I was just on tour um doing mostly just appearances promoting the like upcoming season and things like that so that's where we were before things went into lockdown but I was hoping that this spring actually that I would be out touring more music but that hasn't happened so I'm hoping that in 2021 I can get out there

but thank you for at least giving us a beautiful album during this time of lockdown because we needed it well that's really sweet but it is such a frustration isn't it you're like you know you're the winner of also you you have this kind of momentum and all of this and you can and then it's like oh i'm not allowed to go anywhere i'm not allowed to get sweaty with anybody yeah it's all it's very grounding, both literally and figuratively. So, OK, so tell me about Chicago has such a good food scene and you seem like you're a bit of a foodie. That Kobe beef. Well, you can get yeah, you can get that other places, too. Yeah, but I my daughter did a TV series, the other daughter in Chicago.

So I went there and it was the weirdest night so she took me to eat and it was a nude cycle race oh my god you were in protest and everyone was naked on bicycles they do it every year they do it every year it's such a thing in chicago the naked bike ride yeah oh my god i nearly died she was sitting there and I've never seen anything like it in my life probably weren't the only one best meat I've ever eaten in my whole life that's what she said wonderful sorry yeah best meat I've ever seen and eaten do you do the naked bike ride no um I don't I'm much more a bike with my clothes on kind of person, but I do cheer them on when I see them. So where do you eat in Chicago? Where is the place that I should go on a date with you in Chicago?

Oh, my gosh. OK, so this place is like I love it because it's so small and intimate it's called Vincent it's in um Andersonville which is just like you know kind of like north of downtown and like north of like kind of like the gold coast kind of like fussy areas but they have all these really nice little restaurants and bistros and I absolutely love the menu at Vincent they just like nail it they have just like the the cocktails are amazing the ambience is wonderful the staff is really really sweet and it's perfect date night candles everywhere it's so cute i love that place what's what's your cocktail of choice okay so i'm i really like a cocktail with like an egg white oh like i love like a nice yeah like a pisco sour or um gosh I mean they they have one there that's like um I want to say it's actually like a gin drink that has like

orange bitters and something else in there and they put like a nice little frothy egg white on there I just like giving myself a little frothy mustache when I have a drink you love an egg don't you Shay I do I love an egg like I'm just like honestly I really do like when I think about it when there's like a burger and there's an option for an egg on it I'll be like yeah throw an egg on it I'm like have a cocktail I'm like yeah put an egg on it I'm just like everything i'm like put an egg on it but it's it's funny because i've seen the fried egg on an on a burger before but i've never really taken to the idea of it but i do love eggs maybe i'll try it just because i love you so much and i want to know what your kind of mom and i disagree on how we word this your desert island meal if you were going somewhere for a very long time

and you were not going to eat your favorite food for a very very long time you've got starter a main and a pudding of choice with a drink of choice um i'm going you know what i'm going to i'm going to go with um oysters as my starter any particular place you've had fantastic oysters and how do you do yours? And please, can you tell me, because I'm still learning the etiquette of how to eat and enjoy an oyster the best way. I will have them raw. And I like to just like take the little fork and put just like, you know, a little bit of like Worcestershire on there and a little horseradish. And like if they have like the nice little like vinegar kind of topping i'll like dab a little bit of that in there and then yes and then just

right down do you do you chew yours i do chew mine and i know that like the proper etiquette apparently is that you're just supposed to swallow it but i enjoy i i i'm a texture person where like some people are sensitive and like don't like textures I actually enjoy the textures of food so I want to experience that for a while before I swallow it I you know what but my really good friend Liz she's Australian and she grew up um just shucking oysters she'd eat so many she'd get a bad tummy but she always chews them so i went out for dinner with her the other day and i was like how do we do this because i like i like everything but oysters have always been something that i feel like i need to learn and understand

and appreciate and she was like you chew it like you've got to chew it and actually it was far more pleasant chewing it my mum is very not into oysters i totally get you on that one okay so that's your starter yes what's your main my main would be oh yes i'm gonna do like a half chicken with like some polenta and like roasted vegetables, like carrots, shallot, some like asparagus. Yeah. Yeah, probably that as like my main. Do you like wet polenta? Uh-huh.

Like some cheese in there too. Okay, so that's like, that's where you, is there any particular place that you have your chicken from that you absolutely love? Kind of like a half chicken. I would say that place Vincent I was telling you about, they have a really good half chicken. They also have a really good pork chop too. Oh, that was really nice. So yeah, probably like a little half chicken moment. And then for dessert, I would probably do fro-yo ah with all the toppings which flavor okay so I would

probably do a combination of euro tart and cheesecake because I love how tart the euro tart is I love how um nice and rich the cheesecake is. And, like, combined, they're, like, together. With, like, strawberries, blueberries, dark chocolate, coconut. And then, like, ooh, maybe a little bit of, like, pretzel. Or, like, a little bit of salt. Wow. You know what?

The only thing that frustrates me about fro-yo toppings is that you get past the top and then you need a whole load more of toppings again. Yeah, it's a bit like parmesan on your bolognese. A bit like parmesan. Yeah. So it's slightly stressful. It's kind of like, it's so brilliant, but you know you're only going to really, really enjoy the top layer. Jessie, I don't think we'd have good fro-yo in England, do you? No, we don't. That's our problem. Whereas I would have that every dessert, I don't think we'd have good fro-yo in England, do you? No, we don't.

That's our problem. Whereas I would have that every dessert, I think. It's just like so... It's so good and it's a better than ice cream for me because it's not as gloopy, is it? Heavy dairy, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love it.

Where do you get yours from though? Which ones do you like? Which one's the best to get? There's this place that's like um probably like a 10 minute walk from um my apartment called forever yogurt so shout out to forever yogurt okay fine so we'll okay forever yogurt will constantly now give you forever more free pro yogurt yes and what's your drink of choice? You know what? Honestly, like after a nice meal like that

I would probably just have an espresso. An espresso? What are you having with the wine? Are you having wine with your meal? Oh, you know what? Okay, so during the meal, like during that meal I would probably enjoy like a nice like sauvignon

blanc i want to know did you all socialize when you weren't working would you all have dinner together after or were you just like I've had enough of you I've had bloody 13 14 hours of you I need some space and would you just be having room service I just kind of want to understand because you've seen such a unit yeah we um after filming we would just go back to our hotel rooms and then they would just give us menus of like where we would be ordering from and they actually don't really allow us to socialize because they want all of our interactions on camera to be organic and if we're having like interactions and building relationships outside of that things can like change that they can't like explain on camera people can become close or people can like you know have a fight

and then like the next time you see them in the workroom there's like things that have like transpired that they can't like explain in the story so we're not really allowed to like hang out we just like see each other in the hallways and we're all like all right good night girls we go into our hotel room that's it and like and and that was okay like you kind of accept that because you're like this is a competition and this is entertainment well on the weekends like on the weekends like in between like episodes like because like we would we would like pretty much film like two to three a week and then like on the weekends we would get time where we would be allowed to like socialize like by the pool in the hot tub for like an hour or two hours and then we would like kiki but like the thing that was

important is that we just weren't allowed to talk about the show we just had to like talk about our real lives which was actually great because it was an opportunity for us to just like, you know, think about the outside world and, and talk about what's going on at home and stuff like that. So it was those, those times were cute hanging out all of us at the pool in the hot tub at the hotel on the weekends. Have you got a best friend, best queen friend?

Oh my gosh. It's so hard because I really do love so many girls but i would say like um oh gosh i just oh i love so many i love um my season nine sisters i love sasha i love trinity and i love peppermint and uh pheromone and i love latrice royale like like it's actually pheromone's birthday today so i'm going to go in and and try and say hi to her and wish her a happy birthday um but i i really do i love so many of these girls how has it changed i mean your life obviously has changed since doing drag race and also winning it i I mean, has your fame, has it been quite a change and scary or is it kind of it's manageable? I'm such a true like Aquarius.

So like I'm like an air sign and we tend to be like really it has this really weird effect of allowing me to like rise above like what is like all this attention and still like focus on um smaller things at home like I really I really am a person who still loves the little things like gardening and planting and I don't the the quote-unquote fame is more so I feel like how other people feel versus how I feel nothing I feel like inside of me has like changed I'm still the same person that I always have been and um I'm just really grateful and glad that now a lot of people like love and respect and appreciate my work because, you know, it's always hard putting yourself out there. It's like really vulnerable sharing, you know, your work and your art with

people because it is being judged. But just knowing that there is a lot of support out there is like really lovely and makes me feel just over the moon have you used your voice your fame as a platform for more equality gender equality black lives absolutely yeah yeah it's it and and the thing is like I've always been um really politically vocal about just things that I want to advocate for, you know, and it's, it's nice now that people listen to me because I used to just be out there on Facebook and Twitter shouting about it when no one really cared about what my opinion was. So it's nice now that I have a platform to be able to speak openly and candidly about what I feel is important, you know, especially now in American politics, where we have an election that is coming up so

soon. My God, what's gonna happen? I who knows, you know, this year has proven to be one of the most unprecedented ones that we have ever seen. And I am hoping that we can create some positive change by electing a president who cares about the American people, about all of us. And we all know that's not Trump. All of us. And we all know that's not Trump. So we really need to rally in hopes that we can elect Biden into office to help reverse some of the crazy damages that have been done. It's shocking because we thought that he couldn't do that much damage in four years and let alone look at the damage that he's done to the American people

since March. You know, we have like 190,000 people gone and counting. It's scary and we need, we need a major change because I, it's, it's so, it's such an intense moment in time to be an American right now and I'm glad that I now have a platform to be able to speak on what I find really important Don't worry we've got our own shit show here

Right yeah exactly Have you been to England? I love England I am a huge Anglophile. Like, I love London. Could you bring your show here? Oh, yes. Absolutely.

So where would you perform? Oh, my gosh. Well. We'll be on the front row, of course. You know what? Let's just book the Roxy Girls and we'll see you there. You could come on tour with me, Shay. Let's do it.

Warm up the fucking sound. Yes. Let's do it. Warm up the fucking sound. Let's do it. That would be iconic. That would be the most iconic, legendary, just... Well, you could definitely make some guest appearances.

Oh, hell yeah. You could help me with my contour, babe. My stage makeup. Oh, hell yeah. We can have a full my contour, babe. My stage makeup. Oh, hell yeah. Oh, we can have like a full on kiki. Let's go, Jessie. Let's go. Can I ask, how long did it take you to get amazing at your makeup?

Because it's so phenomenal. And I do my makeup on tour. I mean, I'm not doing the makeup that you're doing, but like, I don't seem to improve that much, but you are phenomenal. Like who taught you and who did you like, who were your kind of faces that you were inspired by? Um,

so for me, it really just started because like, I had some knowledge of like what they consider called like corrective makeup, um, from, uh, some knowledge of like what they consider called like corrective makeup um from uh doing theater costuming because I took theater makeup as well and so I I knew a few techniques from there and then I like used those and then started to like look up tutorials on YouTube and seeing how people were doing like glam makeup so I was uh kind of figuring out like how to combine those techniques and then just like watching other drag queens when I would be able to like see them and be like okay what are they doing that's that's one thing that I love about being like a working drag queen and being in these dressing rooms because everybody

you know like makeup it applies so many different techniques there's so many different ways you can go about painting this canvas so seeing so many different people and how they do it like sparks ideas for yourself and I feel like um one of my one of my favorite books was um Kevin Aquan's like glam makeup book from the 90s because my cousin Jessica had it and so um I always just kind of tried to like reference that and then just like as I got comfortable with just like a nice kind of like glam face is when I started to like play around with like different colors and like glitter and like those types of things. Because that's because it can go scary really fast, you know. Do you have makeup every day?

No, I wear makeup only when I feel like I want to like put some makeup on. Normally, I just like to like just slather on some like luxury skincare and let that be that. Someone said to me one time, they're all like good skincare is good makeup. And I was like, say no more. But see, that's what Jessie likes, a natural look. And I absolutely love the drag queen look. I love the big hair and I like very red lips lots of eye makeup yeah and I would that would be my normal look I have to tone it down a little well like also you know it really depends on my mood and like where I'm going because like

if I'm around the house just like chilling it's just gonna be like tons of skincare but like if I'm like gonna go out for some dinner and drinks, you know, I'm going to throw a little bead on, you know, carve a little eyebrow, throw just like some like mascara and like a little bit of liner and a nice little like nude lip gloss, like little dewy bronzer

and like highlighter on the cheeks just to look. Nothing better than a bit of dew. Yes. You've got a lot of dew at the moment. Yeah. You're like, you're looking at the moment yeah i love it is your boyfriend in the business as well um so my boyfriend and i actually like he's like my co-manager he like helps me with like all like my bookings and everything like that but then he's also like

my artistic director because like we um we met just like in the nightclub but like once we started hanging out and we were like friends at first um it was just like I feel like our attraction was almost because of like our creative ideas and just like we would just like express things and like have these like deep artistic conversations and we were just like wow like I was like this boy is just like he's major and like I don't know it just really burst into this beautiful relationship and romantic relationship and we've been together for it'll be four years in January and I just I adore him he's just so wonderful do you live together we live together with our little Pomeranian baby. Oh.

What's she called? What's he called? Oh, her name is Baby. I know it's obnoxious. No, no one puts Baby in the corner. Yes, she's such a little sweetheart. She's such a little ham. She's so cute.

I just love her to pieces i want to know well i've got two questions i want to know how the fuck does my song get to be lip sync on drag race that's i really feel like it would be a fantastic moment um hello second rupaul yeah yes this is shane hey girl how are you doing um really quickly can you get get Jessie Ware to be a lip-sync song this season? Oh, absolutely. Oh, that was easy. Thank you so much. Love you too.

Bye. Done. Oh, God, thank you. Done. Thank you, Shay. And then secondly, what is your karaoke song? Ooh. Well, I feel like you've had to do so many lip-sync songs,

but karaoke different. Karaoke, I like to do Missy Elliott's One Minute Man or Independent Woman by Destiny's Child. Both very excellent, strong attitude. I love them. No one's ever said those ones either. I like it. Shay, do you have dinner parties? Oh, yes. Like love, love, love, love having people over for dinner and cooking, especially this past year was doing them a lot more before we went into quarantine because we moved into a place with like a really huge, gorgeous kitchen. And I was like, I have never really been good at baking. And I was like, I'm going to start to bake. And I learned how to make an all butter vodka crust blueberry pie with a lattice top that will knock your socks off.

It will knock your socks off. Oh, my God. Yes. your socks off oh my gosh yes because the vodka the vodka it like it evaporates out because you replace the water in the crust recipe with it so then when you bake it just gets really flaky it's really beautiful i've never whose recipes i got it just like offline i think it was like yeah i don't know where i found oh but you know what i because? Because I was looking at the butter, the all butter recipe, and it was like on like the New York Times. And then I saw like people in the comments,

someone was just like, oh, if you ever want to flake your crust, try vodka. And I just saw that comment. I was like, that sounds cool. I'm definitely going to try that. Oh yeah, it's a thing I've just looked it up. So the vodka makes the pastry flakier. That's excellent.

That's a very good, would one call that a life hack? I don't know. It's verging on a life hack. It depends on how you like your crust, you know. I like it flaky. Yes, yes, me too. But then also, I don't mind a little soggy at the bottom too, because then I just feel like it's got a little, I don't mind.

I like a bit of both. Exactly, but there's still that little bit of water that is in the vodka that helps it keep that nice little dense layer like on the bottom where it's still. So it just like, it's perfect. It's so good. Shay, please, when I'm in Chicago next, please can we meet? Oh my God. Yes. Please, next time you're in London, please let me know.

It's such, it's been so amazing watching you from season nine, but also all stars being the winner, but also just, you are so kind and warm and generous with your drag and the way that you kind of conduct yourself and you offer yourself to everybody. And I, it was a joy to watch you. It's so wonderful to speak to you.

I think you're so inspiring and thank you for doing table manners with us. It's early in the morning. Thank you so much. Thank you. to you. I think you're so inspiring and thank you for doing Table Manners with us early in the morning. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. It was so much fun. Thanks for having me. oh shea coulee so sweet what a lovely person i've been a fan of drag race for ages now and that's the first drag race star we've had actually i mean obviously shea is more than just a drag race star even though that's a huge acclaim, but it has so much going on and it was just really lovely to chat to them about everything. And I'm going to try and do those soy eggs.

That's a really nice idea, isn't it? Vodka pastry. The vodka pastry is a genius idea. Yeah, makes it more flaky. Thank you, Shea Coulee. And anybody who wants to, well, just go and watch the new All Stars Drag Race series.

They're brilliant. I thought I'd managed to miss bedtime, but they seem to still be running riot. So I better go and put my kids to sleep. Bye. See you. Table Manners is produced by Alice Williams.