Jackie Cox and Jan are making the holidays bright with a Christmas tour

We first met Jackie Cox and Jan Sport on season 12 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Hailing from the vibrant drag scene of New York City, these queens, friends, and Hell’s Kitchen neighbors have captivated audiences with their performances, comedy, and singing prowess. The pair are here to spread some holiday cheer with their new tour, titled “Jackie and Jan’s Jingle Jam.”

What happens when two NYC Gals find themselves hosting a Christmas party in the big city? Madness, mayhem and holiday cheer, and best of all, you’re invited! Presenting the dazzling and uproarious “Jackie and Jan’s Jingle Jam” tour, a festive celebration that will leave audiences singing, laughing, and dancing in the holiday spirit.
 
Bringing their immense charisma, talent, and infectious energy, Jackie Cox and Jan Sport will embark on a dazzling nationwide tour to spread joy, laughter, and fabulousness this holiday season. Known for their show-stopping performances, these New York City-based queens have toured together in Australia, Canada, and the US and are teaming once again up to create a memorable night of entertainment that combines comedy, live singing, and an electrifying atmosphere that transports the audience to the most fabulous holiday party in town.

We had the chance to chat with Jackie and Jan about the tour, their favorite holiday tunes and traditions and lots more in our exclusive interview.

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The last time we spoke, Jackie, you were on stage in Grease. How was that experience for you?  
Jackie: Honestly, I could do that role in that show for years. To be the funny teacher, and then to come out and be the glamorous teen angel in full high drag. I could do it forever. Tell any theaters you know that are casting Grease to consider me. 

Let’s talk about the Jingle Jam. What was the inspiration behind putting that show together?  
Jackie: Oh, good question. I mean, Jan and I have been doing a bunch of different things since, and since before our time on Drag Race, but especially since we’ve been touring a lot together and fans kept saying like how much fun it was to see the two of us together, but we did a New Year’s Eve show, but we’ve never done a big Christmas show together.

Jan: Jackie and I just have this fun theater chemistry that just really, really reads together. And I’ve been watching Jackie do cabarets since I first started doing drag – and Jackie was the cabaret diva in New York City, and now the world! I think Christmas, campiness, and cabaret all go hand in hand. And this just seems like the perfect opportunity for us to really go ahead and make something special for our fans.

What was the planning and preparation process like for putting a show like this together?  
Jackie: You know, it’s so funny. We definitely had this idea from the beginning of it’s you’re two fun friends throwing a party. And that was kind of like what we went with. And then the process kind of it worked in like all different ways where we had some venues where we’ve been to before that we reached out to see if they wanted to bring us back in this kind of a capacity. And then we also worked with some new venues we never worked with before. And so we did kind of the legwork to see, okay, could this be like a tour and then all of these cities. came back to us and we’re like, yes. And then we’re like, great. Now, we have to actually make it all happen.  

Jan: So crazy. Yeah. And and we’re so thankful for all of the especially our manager Gina for helping us put this all together and Daniel Cole and Hard Candy and all of the incredible venues that just you know wanted to wanted to spread some holiday cheer with Jan and Jackie. And they’ve all worked so seamlessly with us and, and on the logistical end, it’s just been a dream. And we’re so excited to have fun now and bring the show to everyone.

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You’ve mentioned that you’ve worked together and you’ve worked together a lot. I mean, from Drag Race on, like, what is it like working together on this show specifically?

Jan: It’s a lot of fun. I mean, it’s definitely a collaborative effort. Jackie and I are very much a Let’s try this idea. Let’s put this out there and if it doesn’t work, we’re not like, Oh no, what are we going to do? We’re like, okay, cool. We’re going to think about the million other things that are in our mind and try to just make something work. And I’ll be honest, it was so easy to get the show together just because Jackie and I are super, we work extremely well together and the show fell into our laps in a very fun and easy way where I think the story is definitely very clear. It’s fun. People are going to laugh. They’ll feel sentimental. And, yeah, there’s so much greatness going on.

Jackie: Yeah, and I think the easiest part was that the story’s about friendship, right? It’s about two friends trying to have, like, this moment at the holidays. And, of course, you know, not everything goes to plan. Because, you know, we have to bring that tension in. But I think because, you know, Jan and I are friends, we’ve spent so much time with each other. I haven’t been to Jan’s family’s for the holidays, but I have hung out with Jan’s family, so I know, like, you know, we know each other really well, you know, we’re definitely hanging out a lot in our personal lives, so it’s just, because, like, the core of the show is friendship, I think that’s kind of what we do, and that’s what made it so easy to just, like, put the pen to paper, is, like, Versions of all of the things that happen in this show have happened to us in real life.

So what can audiences expect when they come to see the Jingle Jam?
Jackie: Glamour. Okay. Drag. And one, some of, I would say this is one of the most eclectic holiday.  Set lists you’ve ever heard.  

Jan: Absolutely. Expect, um, some non Christmas stuff in there thrown in with a holiday twist. Uh, I’m very excited about that. I can’t wait for audiences to react to the set list that we have it.
Yeah, it is a little all over the map, but in, um, not in a way that is.  It is surprisingly cohesive how everything goes one into like one into the next

Jackie: Yeah, and I think too for fans who’ve seen like either my one woman show jackie vision Which I did a couple years ago They know that like I like to pull from a lot of different eras and then jan, you know Also brings this whole like amazing pop repertoire. So pulling from like All of our own, like, things that we love and our references, and  it becomes kind of a mix of just like us, and then we make it into holidays. 

Jan: It’s so fun. It’s Jan and Jackie doing our own individual things and marrying them together on stage to create the jingle jam. It’s, it’s a lot of fun.

Jackie:  It needs a lot of ingredients to make a good jam.

What is your favorite holiday tradition?   
Jan: I think for me, something that has, has happened every year is I love my dad is a DJ. And so he loves to just spin his, um, his holiday remixes from the loudspeakers that we have in the house. and then my mom is baking cinnamon buns and we’re doing scratch offs in our house. So that I think are, are, are some of my favorite holiday traditions that are personal to my family.  

Jackie: Yeah, and for me, I didn’t do like, you know, my mom’s not Christian, but she’s still we put up a tree. We did presents and Santa, but we didn’t do like, we didn’t like know what Christmas not. We’d know what Christmas was, but we didn’t have like, you know, she didn’t celebrate Christmas back in Iran and I was mostly most of my Christmases were with her. Um, so it wasn’t, um, anything super specific, but I just remember that feeling of like, Oh, this is like nice and cozy.

You know, now as an adult, I think my favorite part is just celebrating with my friends, you know, I, I get to actually like create new traditions with my friends and even if it’s not on Christmas Day, it’s, you know, the weeks and, and weeks leading up to Christmas is all these amazing, fun events and seeing my friends do their shows and also going to fun, ugly Christmas sweater parties, like all of those things are the things that I love is it’s like this feeling of togetherness that I really, you know, Makes me like all warm and fuzzy inside.

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What is your favorite holiday song?  
Jan: Ooh, that’s a great question. I think mine has to be Mariah Carey’s version of Oh Holy Night. That just gets me together in such a gay way, is the best way I can describe it.

Jackie: Okay, if we’re talking old school song, it’s probably The Man with the Bag. Oh, yes. And if it’s like a newer pop diva Christmas song, I think it’s probably Kelly Clarkson’s Underneath the Tree.  

Now if you were to sit in Santa’s lap, what would you be asking for this year?  
Jackie: Consent?  Yeah. First I would ask. 

Jan: And then what’s to follow, Jackie, after the consent?  

Jackie: Okay, if Santa says, you can sit on my lap, and we both agree that’s what we want to do. I would ask him, in his big bag he’s carrying around the world to bring as much understanding as he can so that we can understand each other better. You know, the root of so much anger and hate is just really not understanding where other people are coming from and with so much happening in the world, I think there’s just always a need for more understanding. That’s what I would ask from Santa.  

Jan: That’s beautiful, Jackie. I would love for Santa and his elves to come and set up my brand-new drag studio while I’m on tour so that I can come back to a lovely drag studio with everything perfect. And I know that the elves are just the folks to do it. So that’s my wish.

Now, you had kind of alluded to this, a lot of the queens now are doing these like tours and shows like that. Do you think that drag performers are being taken more seriously as artists now?

Jackie: You mean now at Christmas? No, now, like, now in general.

Jackie: Like, just in general. These queens, they can’t do an Easter show, but Christmas? We got them. Um, I mean, I don’t know if drag is taken more seriously. I think the drag, obviously in the, in the, you know, how 15 seasons of Drag Race has become such a national phenomenon.

And global too, but, you know, drag is definitely just an art form that people even know about, you know, our audiences are a mix of all kinds of people. Um, and that’s just amazing to see is we, we, we love that drag has become an art form that people in and outside of our community respect. So I think that’s something really exciting.

And the coolest part for me about this tour is we’re going to places. where there are big and powerful lobbying groups who are trying to take drag out of these communities. And so to be able to bring that back, a lot of these venues we’re performing at are queer venues who would need the support of people like us who have a bigger platform to support them, to support their local communities. I mean, that’s something that’s so cool. I know that we feel this whenever we go out on the road, but especially at this time in the holidays is It’s nice to support a lot of these smaller queer venues. 

Besides the tour, what else do you have going on right now or what do we have to look forward to from you in the future?
Jan: Well, I just released a single with Drag Race UK superstar Tayce called “For You Only”. And I am also releasing a Christmas song the first week of December. If you come to the show before the first week of December, you’ll get a sneak peek of it, which is very exciting. It’s called “Christmas Hookup” and I’ll just say it’s about a personal experience of mine. Music is definitely on the forefront for me right now, and I’m so happy that I could bring it to the show.

Jackie: And I can’t quite say exactly where you’ll see me, but you’ll see me on your television screens. In December as well, making a guest appearance on a television show. That is all I can say.

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Out of all the things that you do, and you’re both so talented, like singing, dancing, comedy, acting, which one is like the most challenging to you, and which one is the one that’s the most pleasurable to you?
Jackie: Dancing! I’m still not the best dancer, but we’re working on it, and that’s all we can do, right? It’s like, every day, get a little better, try a little more, stretch those old bones as much as we can. I’m not embarrassed about it, you know what I mean? I’m just like, you know, I’m not the best dancer, but I’m gonna work as hard as I can, and I’m gonna still give you a show, honey.

Jan: I love it.  For me, I think singing is both of those things. It is the hardest because I really, to do what I, to perform at the level that I know that I’m capable of, I need to make sure that I am taking the best care of myself and drinking a gallon of water a day and steaming and all of those things. But getting a reaction from the audience that, you know, they love me singing is definitely worth all of the hoops that I jump through to make sure that I’m happy and healthy with the voice.

Now, since you’re both all stars in my book, um, the question that I’m, you know I’m gonna ask is if, if Mama Rue came knocking, would you want to go on all stars?
Jackie: Well, Jan’s already done it, so, you know, uh, Ru could come knocking again? You never know.

Jan: I would definitely say yes.

There are the worldwide ones now, you know, you can go and compete on a global stage.  
Jan: I would love to be judged by Brooklyn Heights.

Jackie: Oh, werk. I was going to say I plan on winning Drag Race Monaco when that comes up.

Tickets for Jackie and Jan’s Jingle Jam are available now at JackieandJan.com. Keep up with Jackie and Jan on Instagram.