Join JIMBO on JIMBO’s Drag Circus Tour This Spring

Finished Drag Race All Stars Season 8 and want more JIMBO? No worries, because she’s taking her weird and wonderful drag on a tour throughout the U.S. and Canada this spring. 

Titled “JIMBO’s Drag Circus,” the tour promises to be a two-hour-long musical comedy, with all original music created and performed by JIMBO. She’ll be visiting us here in Denver at the Fillmore on April 5, but more dates in different locations are available. JIMBO herself describes the show as “a trip inside my head.”

Drag Queen JIMBO, known as James Insell outside of drag, is a Canadian queen who originally rose to popularity by competing in the first season of Canada’s Drag Race where she won the hearts of the audience and ended in fourth place. After Season 1 of Canada’s Drag Race, she made several guest appearances on other seasons of the show and competed in RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK vs The World, where she won the first two episodes and was eliminated in the third episode in one of the most “controversial” eliminations in Drag Race history. JIMBO’s popularity continued to climb as she was cast to compete on Season 8 of Drag Race All Stars, which she won. 

“Winning has been the best achievement of my life,” JIMBO told us, reflecting on her Drag Race experiences, “I had a really incredible experience on Canada’s Drag Race, and I had a huge fan base rally behind me and they wanted to see more of me.”

The existence of “JIMBO’s Drag Circus” itself is a representation of how much JIMBO’s career and popularity have skyrocketed. With a history in the performance industry, Insell has been working in theatre as a production designer for over 10 years, as well as a costume designer. When he worked at Atomic Vaudeville, a performance company in Victoria, he dreamed of one day doing a solo tour. After her win in All Stars Drag Race Season 8, she was finally able to put together a tour with the support of several friends.

Like a gay Canadian Avengers movie, JIMBO reached out to all of the people that she had worked with in the past, including her friend Andrew, who has been working on music with her for the past 10 years. With Andrew, JIMBO has been creating all original music for the show. Andrew will also be performing in the show as JIMBO’s clown sidekick, Jeepers. She’s also been working with choreographer Anthony Garza, clown teacher and director Britt Small, and Marshall McMahon as the set designer. 

JIMBO’s drag journey started at a young age when her mother put her in drag at the age of five. “I thought it was so beautiful, the transformation, and I always was curious about girly things or things that were beautiful, something that wasn’t for me as a little boy,” JIMBO reflects. However, she didn’t allow herself to explore that feminine side of her until she started to perform as a clown. As her performance journey moved from clown to drag queen, she carried along the aesthetics and goals of clowning, which are to make people laugh. 

“Clowning is all about an understanding of performance; it’s all about understanding how to have a dialogue with the audience through performance and being really present and honest and also trying to make people laugh,” JIMBO explains. She combines this love of clowning with her love of fashion and costume design to create stunning drag performances that are both beautiful and hilarious. 

JIMBO also emphasized the political importance of drag as a way of fighting for queer rights and creating a space of inclusion for queer people through drag. “There are just so many people out there that need to be fought for, that need a space to be loved and to live healthy, free lives where they’re valued and respected and have a place, so I think we just need to keep fighting for that,” she explained. 

However, the fun is just as important as the political aspect of drag, JIMBO explains, saying that, “People love coming to drag shows because they can escape whatever they’ve got going on in their own world, their life and they can come and just give themselves over to a performance, and just laugh and enjoy themselves. So that’s really at the heart of drag. It’s all about performance and laughter and love and entertainment.”  

To any up-and-coming drag performers, JIMBO encourages you to find what brings you joy in drag. “Drag is so expensive, exhausting, and difficult, so you really need to fill yourself back up. And you do that with the things that you love. So find what brings you joy and then share that with other people,” she explains. 

Photo courtesy of JIMBO