Camp Wannakiki: An Interview with The Sugarbaker Twins!

For the viewers that haven't checked out the first two seasons, what is Camp Wannakiki all about?

Apple Brown Betty: Imagine if you combined “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “Survivor” and “Troop Beverly Hills” … but then took away the budget and production teams.  That’s “Camp Wannakiki!”

Cherry Pi: In other words, it’s a hilarious reality competition featuring the campy side of drag.  Oh yeah, and contestants have to be in drag all day… in nature!  There are daily camp activities, like you’d see at an actual summer camp for kids.  Every night there’s a talent show with themed looks because, you know, at the end of the day it’s about the drag.

What makes this season stand out?

Apple Brown Betty: Seasons one and two were very much a learning curve for us as producers. We didn’t know the first thing about creating an actual TV show. For us, at least, Season three is more of a complete show

Cherry Pi: I Agree. We added the “Rec Room” and other elements to the show in order to get to know the campers better. I think people are genuinely surprised to find out that we literally film the entire season in about 10 days with a very small crew! So the challenge has always been how do we get all the footage we need, while also allowing time for the campers to get into drag… let alone sleep or eat! We really do cram an enormous amount into a short period, but season three is getting closer to where we want the show to be.

Who comes up with the ideas for challenges in the show? Do you personally test them out?

Cherry Pi: The two of us come up with most of the ideas for challenges, with some help from Ruthie of course.  We’re always thinking of what camp activities would make for good TV, as well as ideas for talent show themes.  Then the fun part is seeing which activities and themes go together to create the “badge” that the campers are vying for in each episode.

 Apple Brown Betty: As for personally trying out the challenges… Only the fun ones!  But seriously, we do sometimes have to test out certain elements before everyone arrives at camp to make sure they will work for the show, and in the allotted time that we have.  But most of the time, we use the campers as our guinea pigs.

Did you grow up going to summer camp?

Cherry Pi: We did!  My worst memory from summer camp was waking up and finding a gigantic scorpion in my bed!

Apple Brown Betty: That’s funny, because one of my favorite memories is watching you running around like a headless chicken because you had just been chased out of the cabin by a little ol’ scorpion.

Cherry Pi: That thing was HUGE!

Apple Brown Betty: Ok, yeah it was pretty big.

Can you tell us more about how you became drag queens yourselves?

Apple Brown Betty:  I used to manage a bar in Washington, DC, back in the early 2000’s.  It was a multi-level joint with a martini bar on the main level and dance floor upstairs.  We were looking for something to do on Sunday nights, and I had this idea to do “Gong Show Karaoke.” Basically, if you sucked you got gonged and had to stop singing… but you got a free drink, so all’s well that ends well.  When our regular host had to take a couple weeks off for a trip, I decided to get in drag and host it myself.  I should mention that I love karaoke, and would often be there at the bar even though it was my night off.  Well, long story longer… The crowd loved “Apple Brown Betty.”  You could say they just ate her up.

Cherry Pi: Nobody was saying that.

Apple Brown Betty: Anyway… When the regular host returned from her trip, I told her she was fired, and I was taking over her show.  Of course, I said it much sweeter than that.

Cherry Pi: Wouldn’t you just love to work for Betty?  Haha.  And while all this was happening, I was living in Chicago.  So whenever I’d come for a visit, I’d get dressed up as Betty’s twin sister Cherry Pi, and we’d host the show together.  Although I don’t like to sing as much, so my job was to conduct “quality control” on all the alcohol at the bar.  Years later when we opened the Hamburger Mary’s in Chicago, we revived the twins and hosted karaoke in the upstairs bar, called “Mary’s Attic.”

What was the inspiration for drag queens at camp?

Apple Brown Betty: When we first had the idea for Camp Wannakiki, there wasn’t nearly as many drag reality competitions as there are today.  There were basically two, and neither of them really celebrated campy drag.  So we thought, “Hey wouldn’t it be fun to do a show featuring campy drag queens?”

Cherry Pi: And why not amp up the camp by filming at an actual summer camp!?  And while we’re at it, let’s make them do camp activities in drag!  The whole idea was a little crazy, but the more we talked about it the more we really wanted to make it happen.  The next thing you know, we’re calling summer campgrounds and asking how much it would be to rent the place out for a week.

Apple Brown Betty: We got our friend Dear Ruthie on board right away and started calling some local drag queens to gage interest.  About two months later we were on location filming.  The whole thing is a blur at this point.

 Why is this show important? What does it mean to you?

Apple Brown Betty: We have always been more drawn to the camp side of drag… John Waters films with Divine, and comedy queens like Coco Peru, Lady Bunny, etc. Really funny, campy queens that didn’t take themselves so seriously. We felt that was lacking in the current TV offerings so we wanted to change that.

Cherry Pi: We also thought it was extremely important to have representation from all drag performers. Camp Wannakiki was the first major US drag reality competition that included a Drag King, a Trans Male, an AFAB Queen, etc. We base our selection on the individual and how best they represent Camp Drag. And Camp Drag can mean a lot of different things to different people. It’s really important for that representation to be out there.

If there’s a future season Camp Wannakiki, where can local queens look to apply?

Apple Brown Betty: We’ll be doing some in-person casting events over the next few months at various places across the U.S.  If you can’t make it to one of those, then just sit tight because we’ll be opening up auditions to everyone else soon.

Cherry Pi: The best thing to do is follow us and Camp Wannakiki on social media.  That’s where we’ll be posting more info about auditions.

Where is Camp Wannakiki?

Apple Brown Betty: We actually filmed at a different camp for each of the first three seasons, all of them in Illinois or Wisconsin.  We loved the aesthetic of the Season One camp.  But it was kind of in the middle of nowhere, and we weren’t just dealing with Midwest queens for Season Two.  Plus, they tried to jack the price up after getting a whiff of all that YouTube ad revenue.  No ma’am!

Cherry Pi: Aside from the harsh Wisconsin spring, the camp we used for Season Two was great.  They had a lot of amenities that made filming there much easier, and the camp director was a big fan of the show.  But unfortunately, some of the big donors did not approve of drag queens taking over the camp.  So we got booted.

Apple Brown Betty: That brings us to the camp we used for Season Three, which is near Lake Geneva, WI.  I think we are finally home here.  We moved our filming from late-spring to early-fall, which is typically better weather.  We’ve also extended our filming from about 8 days to 14.  We still use some location shots from the previous two camps.

What’s Hamburger Mary’s all about?

Cherry Pi: Hamburger Mary’s is our side-hustle, when we are not wrangling drag performers in the woods!  Mary’s is known for big juicy burgers served with a side of sass, not to mention some of the best local drag shows and drag brunches in town.

Apple Brown Betty: Hamburger Mary’s originated in San Francisco in the early 70s, and was a popular hangout for the queer-friendly crowd. It has since expanded and grown into a nationwide franchise system of nearly 20 locations.  In addition to nightly drag shows, Mary’s is known for being an environment where everyone is welcome to “Eat, Drink and be Mary!”