Among the treasured father-child activities in family life, appearing on MTV for a drag-queen makeover isn’t high on most people’s lists.
And yet eight fathers and their kids jumped at the chance to do it earlier this year, as evidenced by the June 24 premiere of MTV’s latest streaming series, “Drag My Dad.”
“I remember feeling gung-ho as soon as I heard about it,” said Keith Ochoa, a 21-year-old Colorado Springs resident who appeared on the show with his 43-year-old father, Scott. “I recognized this was something generally outside my dad’s comfort zone, but it was something we could do together. I thought, ‘There can’t be a super high chance of making it on the show, but why not try?’”
Not only did Keith and Scott make it, sailing through three rounds of entrance interviews, but MTV also flew them to Brooklyn in late April for a 13-hour shoot that included the drag-queen makeover — presided over by “Drag My Dad” host and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 8 champ Bob the Drag Queen — as well as some unexpectedly intense father-son discussions.
All on camera, of course.
“There’s a reveal in each episode where the dad comes out behind the curtain in full drag in front of the crowd, and I can tell you I was petrified to go out there,” said Scott, who lives in Pottsboro, Texas, about an hour north of Dallas. “It’s exciting and completely scary. I think I was embarrassed, but it’s because I was afraid of being super goofy and not a great drag queen.”
The concept behind “Drag My Dad” will be familiar to most TV watchers: A father and child reconnect after a strained or nonexistent relationship, bonding through the funny, sad and ultimately uplifting process of the makeover, which introduces an entertaining element of instability that cuts through years of emotional distance.
But this iteration of feel-good family TV — part ”RuPaul’s Drag Race” and part domestic intervention, with a heavy dose of the heartwarming, makeover-centric “Queer Eye” reboot on Netflix — adds substance to the thin outlines of these types of shows, emphasizing personal empowerment, open-mindedness and (naturally) a fabulous look.
“I struggle to find stuff to do with Keith because we have the distance factor, and I can’t travel every month,” said Scott, who said he divorced and remarried Keith’s mother before divorcing her a second time, which led to an overall rocky relationship with his son. “When I saw this, I thought, ‘This is so unique, and so us,’ because Keith is an entertaining type of guy.”
Neither Keith, who is gay, nor Scott had really watched “Drag Race,” “Queer Eye” or the other shows from which “Drag My Dad” draws inspiration, so the process was new to them. Before spending three hours in the makeup chair, Scott met with the show’s designer to tweak his drag look, in the process trying on a corset, high heels and fake eyelashes.
That was far from the most difficult part of the day, however.
“I was able to hear some of Keith’s interview, and that was hard for me,” said Scott, who only found out Keith was gay through his mother. “I’ve always wanted a better relationship with him but didn’t know how to break through.”
“I had to be a little bit guided toward un-thinking my relationship with my dad,” Keith said. “Sifting through the emotional aspects of it and seeing our issues in a new light was (hard). I’d been set in a mindset for so long that the producer had to keep asking me questions to get a bit more clarity. ‘Think about it this way. You’re sounding like this … .’ “
Keith had some input in the look, too, suggesting a superhero or anime influence to Scott’s eventually angular, bold reveal.
“I definitely think we’ve seen softer sides of each other now,” he said. “We had some great heart-to-heart moments, so I definitely think there’s less of an awkward edge.”
Scott agreed, stopping short of pronouncing their relationship fixed and instead accepting that they’ve only just begun getting to know each other again.
“That distance has been there since he was younger, and this experience got us talking on a much deeper level,” Scott said. “Being a drag queen is something that nobody ever expected of me to ever do, including myself. It’s just way out there.”
Watch Keith and Scott’s episode by visiting facebook.com/MTV/videos and clicking on the “Drag My Dad” playlist. (Or head straight to Keith and Scott’s video right here.) New episodes — eight total in this first season — arrive each Monday at 4 p.m.
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