Call Me Mother is the Harvard of drag. When up-and-coming drag stars enter its hallowed halls, they’re in for an education. After all, the whole point of the show is to not only display their drag but to elevate it, and they have true drag excellence to help them along the way. There are of course the house mothers Peppermint (House of Dulcet), Crystal (House of Glass), and Barbada de Barbades (House of Harmonie), but also their drag aunties, Dragula winner Landon Cider and true drag icon Farra N Hyte. Yes, that’s right, the mother of Haus of Hytes (aka Brooke Lynn Hytes’ mamaw) and queen of the pageant scene.
How did Farra earn that reputation? Well, for one thing she’s the only Canadian queen in drag herstory to win two international drag pageants: Miss Continental Plus and National Showgirl @ Large. In other words, she knows drag and is the kind of mentor any drag baby would dream of. She spreads that wisdom around (with plenty of sass) in the role of drag auntie on Call Me Mother. It’s a role she relishes, because as she tells PRIDE, not only does she get to pass on her wisdom, but having a front-row seat for the diversity of drag on display this season has been energizing for her as well.
Farra opened up to PRIDE about why Call Me Mother is so innovative, why saying goodbye to the kings and queens can be heartbreaking, and the advice her drag daughter gave her when she joined the cast.Congratulations on season two! But how do you top season one?
The artists topped the season. I think the level of diversity and uniqueness in the artists that auditioned and got on the show really elevated what we did. The first season, people weren’t sure what was going to happen or what the concept was, and how it was going to unfold. And so I think people were hesitant to audition. And they brought in great mothers and great mentors who really helped build them. But now people have seen it. So they knew what they were getting themselves involved in. And they knew that their drag could be represented, appreciated, respected, and elevated.
You’re already a drag icon. What made you decide this was the show that you wanted to do?
It was the diversity of it. I think the other drag reality shows have had in the past a very limited viewpoint of what they accept as a contestant. And what they accept on the panel. The limitation of the usually quite handsome male transforms into some version of a beautiful female. And although that’s great, we all know there’s a lot of spectrum and there’s a lot of variety when it comes to drag now. This show really pushed that in their pitch. They really said all drag is valid. All drag is welcome. All drag is appreciated. From someone who’s been doing drag for so long, that grew up the old way, it was great for me. I got to reinvigorate my love of drag and see all of these new aspects, all of these new avenues of drag and really learn to love and appreciate and support all these different kinds of art.
You’re the drag mother of Brooke Lynn Hytes. Did she give you any advice when you started this project?
‘Make sure the lighting is great so that all the effort you’re putting into your makeup and your costumes are reading well on camera,’ that was an important one for her.
She literally said, ‘Be yourself, do what you do, they’re gonna love you. You’re valid and what you have to say will be so important to so many people.’
You’re an established mother IRL, but you’re playing an auntie. Can you talk a little bit about how that role is different?
I love my role as auntie, and it’s different because I don’t specifically mentor or help a house... I sort of get to oversee everybody on the show.
Which I love because for me success isn’t pushing one of them, or four of them, or two of them, it’s pushing all of them to bring out the best in all of them. And then the cards will fall how they fall when it comes to eliminations.
The eliminations seem like they would be so hard, I’m too much of a softie.
I’m a softy, too. Sometimes I get really upset about it. And I’m like, ‘Oh, I just need to let this go.’ Or like, ‘we need to talk about this off camera.’ At the end of the day, sometimes I just sit and am like, ‘ooh.’ I just have to let it out or cry or laugh or whatever. And then you move forward.
The thing is, even if contestants don’t make it to the end, they do get the benefit of your wisdom. What do most want to impart to those queens?
I say to all of them, be yourself. Be yourself first. There’s no cardboard cutout. There’s no perfect version of a winner. Every one of you can win the contest or every one of you can win the show. If you give us nine weeks or eight weeks of you being your very best and us falling in love with that.
There isn’t a right way to do a challenge and a wrong way to do a challenge. There isn’t a right way to the crown.
People look and go, ‘Well, I’m the new version of’ or ‘I want to be like so-and-so ‘ because they won other things before. That person did it because they were true to their art.
So, as I said, you’re already a drag legend, but let’s imagine you’re a baby drag queen. Which house do you join?
It’s funny, we talk about this all the time. We do it among the crew! I would be House of Dulcet for the very reason that Peppermint is very competitive and she wants to win. I’m that pageant queen, through and through to the bones of my core. And so for me, it would be that I want someone who’s going to push, push, push, push, push me till the very end until the crown.
Call Me Mother is airing now on OUTtv. Watch PRIDE’s full interview with Farra N Hyte below.
Rachel Shatto chats with the star all about Season 2 of Out …
Call Me Mother is available to stream on OUTtv and The Roku Channel.
Call Me Mother is streaming on the OUTtv Amazon Channel in Canada.
