Thorgy Thor brings the merry with a new Christmas show

We first met NYC queen Thorgy Thor on season eight of RuPaul’s Drag Race. She was a standout from the minute she walked into the werk room and has become one of the most beloved queens n the franchise. She returned for All Stars season three, where we got to see her skillful violin playing and, sadly, her take on Stevie Nicks for the “Divas Live” challenge got her sent home again, much to the disappointment of her fans.  

Since competing on Drag Race, Thorgy has been one busy queen. She has appeared on Amazon’s Mozart and the Jungle, VICE, WWHL with Andy Cohen and is a cast member of Dragnificent! on TLC. She has traveled the country and has performed in the Hater’s Roast and Drag Queen Christmas tours. She and Kiki Ball-Change took on Trinity the Tuck and BeBe Zahara Benet to see who are the hostesses with the mostess on Hulu’s Drag Me to Dinner.  

Already having showcased her musical talents on Drag Race, Thorgy has had the honor of playing solo violin, viola and cello in Thorgy and the Thorchestra with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and Charlotte Symphony Orchestra among others.  

Thorgy is currently making spirits bright with her Thorgy Does Christmas! tour, an evening of songs, music and laughs.  The tour continues through December 23 with upcoming shows in a host of cities including Nashville, Buffalo and Atlanta.  

We had a chance to chat with Thorgy from the road and discuss the new tour, Christmas memories, upcoming projects and more in our exclusive interview.  

What has been going on with you? 

Well, this year was kind of fascinating. I've been doing a lot of music stuff – and when I say stuff, I mean playing with major symphony orchestras. I played with the London Philharmonic. I played at Lincoln Center with my drag sisters Monét and Sapphira Cristál. That was a big undertaking. I've done a bunch of other orchestra shows. Oh, I worked with Bette Midler and Michael Kors at Halloween with the NYRP (New York Restoration Project). I was the red carpet correspondent. I got to interview all the celebrities, so that was really, really fascinating.  

And…I've been working on this new Christmas show for the last couple of months. We’ve kind of been putting it together and now we hit the road, which is funny enough. It's the Christmas show, but I also have been writing a new show called “Music and Fashion”, which is from the very beginning of time, everything from Bach to Beyoncé. We just did it with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for about 2000 people so that was pretty fascinating.  

Now tell me a little bit more about the Christmas show. What can fans expect to see?  

Well, it's me, myself, Thorgy Thor, and of course my brilliant friend, James Shepard on piano. He is an alumnus of Manhattan School of Music. He is very classically trained, but he's also a very, very funny guy. We wrote this show together and it's going to be a variety show of comedy parody numbers. There's going to be singing, duets, piano playing, and there's going to be original Christmas songs, and of course, traditional, amazing, nostalgic, heartfelt Christmas classics. I'm playing violin live a few times throughout the show, so people can expect a live, singing, musical, cabaret variety show.  

Do you enjoy Christmas? Some people can't stand it, some people love it.  

I know. I always feel like it's kind of crazy. You know, I've asked the audience on the tour who likes Halloween? Who likes Christmas? Do you like Christmas? And it's a mixed bag. People don't…and I'm like, then why did you come to the show? But, you know, we do a kind of funny parody song. We are kind of making fun of Christmas at the same time as welcoming people into the holiday season to kind of enjoy it – and we do it with drag humor, of course, and beautiful costumes and wigs. 

I do like Christmas and I even say that in the show. One of the pieces we do is “O Holy Night.” It's towards the end of the show and I kind of bring it out in a very serious way because that song specifically reminds me of sitting around the Christmas tree In Ronkonkoma. I'm from Long Island so, you know, with my whole family around the Christmas tree it really brings me back and it brings up memories and sometimes those memories are sad and sometimes they're hilarious – and I welcome the audience to experience both with us.  

You mentioned “O Holy Night” …is that your favorite Christmas song, or do you have another one that is your absolute favorite? 

When people ask me what's your favorite this, favorite that, I find something to love and hate about everything. I just love to complain, I'm like a lawyer. I'm also a Gemini, so I see from both sides of the coin. “O Holy Night” is, in terms of playing solo violin, there's nothing more beautiful than that song. And if you ask a soprano singer they’d probably say the same thing. It’s beautiful, although it is kind of religious, isn't it? It's a religious piece but I never really grew up religious. It's kind of more heartfelt and more musical to me than anything else. What do I love?  I mean, Bing Crosby anything and of course, Barbra Streisand's whole Christmas album. I love” Jingle Bells.”  

Do you have any favorite holiday memories?   

Well, I've been playing violin since I was very young. I grew up on a block on Long Island and we had a bunch of musician kids and singers and we would go caroling around, but it would be freezing, and we would do it anyway. I remember my fingers freezing off while we were walking around caroling door-to-door trying to make a couple of dollars. That was just kind of something as a kid on Long Island that I did – as a musical nerd – that I really loved. Also, I always used to you know, take the LIRR into the city and go see the tree at Rockefeller, as a New York kid. I was very New York.  

What would you ask Santa Claus for this Christmas?  

Oh my god. I have a long list. What do I want this year? I want this year unlimited miles. If there's some magical way that he could give me unlimited miles to fly wherever I wanted to, that’s what I want. I love traveling. I am such an adventure person. I'm like, where's the adventure? Where are we going? So, I would love if I could just continue to fly for free anywhere on the planet for the rest of my life.  

Where is your favorite place that you've visited?   

Finland.  Japan was really cool too, but my favorite place that I ever traveled to was probably Finland. Only because do you know this about Finland? Their bread is unlike any other bread on earth. It's like candy. You could eat an entire loaf of Finlandian bread and never feel full.  

I did a gig there and I asked the promoters, to sweeten the deal, can I stay for an extra couple of days in the hotel? And they said sure. So, I got to really experience Finland for a few days walking around. The people are beautiful. The air was fresh and everything we ate was just great…fish that people literally just grabbed out of the ocean and put on a plate. It was so fresh. I can't wait to go back. Japan was gorgeous and India was amazing. I went to Mumbai and New Delhi. I performed with Milk Queen from RuPaul's Drag Race and that was quite a culture shock and very different from growing up in Ronkonkoma. I'll say that.  

You've done so much but what has been your favorite thing that you've worked on so far?  

Oh, that's an interesting thing. Probably my fourth orchestra show. I did the first orchestra show literally performing for thousands and thousands of people with the top professional musicians in the world. It's funny because I just did the Winnipeg symphony show. I don't know if I have a favorite orchestra that I've played with, but as a drag artist and also a musician, it's such an honor that I got to say that on television. Just saying like, I want to do an orchestra and travel the globe. 

It's actually fascinating to me that I was invited and I'm still working since 2018 and I've lost count of how many orchestras I've played with. But writing that show was so fascinating to me because it was who I am. I've been playing since I was so young and it gets to combine two of the loves of my life, which are music and drag comedy – and making fun of people. I'm making people laugh and If I can compile that into one show and sell tickets and make a living, I don't see what is better than that and I'm very lucky that I've been able to do that. 

I'm very grateful. So, my favorite has been writing this orchestra show and I'll never forget it. Actually, I think it was last year I played with the Charlotte Symphony. I did a Christmas show with them. I switched it up this year and decided to do a smaller tour at the City Winery locations, but all over the place and then we're doing, I think, Shea’s in Buffalo, Chicago, we did Palm Springs. So, it's all over the place.  

Are you planning on doing more orchestra shows? Because Atlanta has a wonderful symphony orchestra…just throwing it out there.  

You know, it's funny, every gig I do that isn't orchestral, somebody from every city says you should come back here. I was just in St. Louis and they're like, can you come back and play with the St. Louis Symphony? I'm like, give me the contact. Make me an offer. Let's do it. Put it on the books.  

One of my favorite things that you've done on the screen is when you do “The Pit Stop with Bob… 

Oh, wow. You know, I was only a guest. This is a secret. I was being talked about to be the permanent host for one of the seasons and it didn't happen because I think they were sticking to winners. I think whoever won – like Bob, Trixie, they had Bianca for a couple of seasons. I think they wanted winners to do it specifically, which I don't agree with. But I was a guest with Trixie. I was a guest with Bob and that was fun.  

Are there plans to have you come back to “The Pit Stop”? Season 17 is just around the corner… 

Oh, yes. And, you know, I also do a viewing party when I'm in Brooklyn. I started doing a really successful viewing party after the COVID shutdown. They were open air, so it was outside, and they were the only venue that was open, and they reached out to me, and they said, do you want to do a viewing party of RuPaul's Drag Race? 

We've kept it going because people wrote me so many emails and they said, “You better keep going in Brooklyn.” So, we've been doing it ever since. I have to leave sometimes, because I do other viewing parties or I'm filming for “The Pit Stop”. They'll absolutely invite me back. They came and did “Out of the Closet” with me. That was a really fun thing where I got to give everyone kind of a tour of my crazy costume house. And I just filmed a documentary with Paramount Plus that's coming out at the end of this month.   

And then I'll have a week off and I don't know what to do with myself.  I'm addicted to working. I told you, I want to live on an airplane and keep traveling constantly. I'd be very happy.  

I loved seeing you on Drag Me to Dinner. What was that experience like? It seemed very chaotic.  

It was very chaotic. Well, you know, they wrote me, I don't know if I'm putting my foot in my mouth, but what do I care? What are they going to do, eliminate me? Interestingly enough is that BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon were one of the episodes in the show you know, two queens per episode. They asked Ben to come back and be kind of Creative Director of the show. So, I was talking a lot with Ben, and Ben told me, it's a new show, it's our first season, we have no idea what the F we're doing. So, the creative and artistic freedom that I was given for that episode, I mean, the world is your oyster – and no pun intended because we serve Oysters Rockefeller, but that was really fun. 

And they asked Kiki Ball-Change, who is another singer and drag queen artist in New York City. When we heard we were being paired together, I'm like, this is going to be ridiculous. We had a couple of meetings with the Associate Director and all this and Neil Patrick Harris was going to do it and I think Willam and me were on the phone. We were doing it. Alaska was there and we were there. It was just great because we just knew we were doing the twenties. They were like, you're doing the twenties. We're like, okay, let's do a brothel. Let's do this. But when we were there, it really was chaotic. 

And you know, if you haven't filmed television, you don't really get it until you do. It sounds really exciting and looks really exciting when you're watching it. But when we were there, there was nobody prompting us. There was no script. It was all improv. So, the cameras rolled and it was quiet if we weren't talking. There were no cuts and nobody knew what was going on. It was a free for all. It was chaotic and me and Kiki just were like let's just be ridiculous and have fun.   

One funny thing is David, Neil Patrick Harris's husband, is sober. He doesn't drink. But we wanted to serve gin martinis in a high heel shoe. We had Beefeater gin or whatever and filled up this giant tub. And then we were serving everyone gin out of a high heel, but he didn't know it was real gin. He thought it was just like a TV prop and he took a big sip and he lost it. He was like, that was real gin. I'm like, sorry. But yeah, we were doing cartwheels, and even Bianca afterwards was like, this was really good, you guys had fun – and we won the episode! It was really nice to actually win something because I lost RuPaul's Drag Race twice.   

Is there something that you'd still like to do that you haven't done yet?   

I really want to come out with my own line of wine. I've been thinking about it for a long time. Also, you know, my brain is always like a magnet that goes against things that everyone's doing. I'm always like, oh, if everyone's doing it, I don't want to do it.  And everyone has a podcast, but if you've noticed, I can talk a lot about anything. I also love interviewing people. I love talking about it. I love asking questions. I love making people laugh. I love, love, love it.  

And everyone has been telling me for like two, three years, they're like, Thorgy, you need a podcast. Just set it up with guests and talk like you would be so successful. So how about this? I'm saying this to you right now. I'll make this happen in the next six months. We're going to make it happen. Kind of like a talk show/podcast, you know, but I want to film it. I think it's important and I also think I would be great at it. It would be very successful and it would be something I really would love to spend my time doing. So yeah, let's do that and come out with some wine.   

What else is next for you besides the tour and hopefully Thorchestra shows?   

Well, I'll tell you this. I can't say it out loud because I can't. But next year, what am I doing? In February, I'm filming something really fantastic with one of my season eight sisters but I can't talk about it yet. 

Get info and tickets for Thorgy Does Christmas here. Follow Thorgy on Instagram and Facebook and check out her website for future performances, merch and more!