Having won the fifth season of Ru Paul’s Drag Race, Jinkx Monsoon brings her newest tour to Sussex. Jamie Walker spoke to her ahead of it.

Hi Jinkx, talk to me about your tour, what can people expect?

We’re doing a show that features all the music from my new album, The Ginger Snap.

It’s a show that is about being able to talk about the dark side of fame and drag In a light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek way.

It deals with serious issues in a silly way.

How important to you think it is to put a lighter side on serious issues?

I think people don’t come to a drag show to be weighed down.

That’s not to say that drag can’t be serious but that’s not the kind of drag I want to do.

If I’m doing an hour long show my formula is 55 minutes of comedy and five minutes of tragedy.

It’s all about topics that are stigmatised to such an extent that we believe the problems we have don’t exist.

The point of the show is to play down that stigma so that people leave being able to talk about those things.

How do you think those sorts of attitudes to drag have changed your act over the years?

For me it’s just that my audiences know that I have a very loud voice, and a lot of opinions, and it’s hard for me to write a show without a political message or underlying theme that’s bigger than the show itself.

I write what’s funny to me but I also think of the most outlandish way to present it.

So you started drag at 15, how has it changed as a performance art?

When I started I saw a lot of the same stuff for years, and whenever anyone thought out of the box they all did it in the same way.

What I see now it drag acts being able to do any other type of performance genre, while in drag.

When you are a drag performer, drag is just how you present what you’re doing.

Drag is no longer limited to drag bars, you can see it in rock venues and huge stages where we didn’t used to be invited.

Your most recent album came out in January, what has the reaction been like to it?

From what I can tell it’s been extremely positive.

I couldn’t be happier with it.

It’s me and my music partner doing our best work as collaborators.

I love my first album, but I think this one is a bullseye for what I was going for.

From where I’m sitting everyone seems to love it.

You’ve also starred on Ru Paul’s Drag Race, did that experience change the way you perform as a drag act?

I think it gave me the confidence in my style of drag and my reasons for doing drag.

It gave me the confidence to take it as far as I could.

It helped my find my audience across the world, so that I have people to perform it for.

So why is this the show to see?

If you want to see a show that’s filthy and stupid and ridiculous, but also have a lot of great music and a worthwhile music, then you should see this show.

Whether you like drag a little bit, or you’ve been told by friends that you would like it if you saw the right one then this is that show.