And Don't F&%k It Up
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Average rating3.5
A definitive history and celebration of the groundbreaking show RuPaul's Drag Race in its first decade, from a Burbank basement set all the way to the Emmy's, and every weave in-between, as told by its stars, producers and fans. Told over the first ten years, And Don't F&%k It Up tells a cultural history through the stories of the people who lived it: the creators of the show, the contestants, the crew, the judges, and even some key (famous) fans. It begins with RuPaul's decades-long friendship and business relationship with World of Wonder Productions, the entertainment company that helped launch him into superstardom, and later talked him into giving a drag reality show a chance. From there, it follows the growth and evolution of the show--and its queens--through a decade of gag-worthy seasons, serving up all kinds of behind-the-scenes realness. With a history as shady and funny as it is dramatic and inspiring, And Don't F&%k It Up shows how RuPaul's Drag Race is a mirror reflecting the cultural and political mores of our time. Its meteoric rise to becoming a once-in-a-generation success story is explored here as never before, in intimate, exuberant, unfettered detail.
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It's wonderful to have an oral history of Drag Race but this book has several glaring issues.
The biggest of them is that, being produced by WOW, you get a sanitized corporate history here. Various issues are glanced over or not mentioned at all, and critical voices and people who are not in WOW's good graces, such as former contestants Willam, Carmen Carrera, or Courtney Act, or former staff members such as Mathu Andersen, are mentioned but never get to tell their story. I doubt they were even asked to take part. Scandals and moments in the history of the show where it faced pushback from within the queer community are entirely absent, which feels cowardly.
It's also just not very informative beyond the opening chapter, and could have done with much more aggressive editing. Once they recount season after season of the show, it's largely fluff, and information any fan would have been aware of already - you expect more new information in such a long book. There are often stretches where multiple people are quoted saying essentially the same thing, or making fluffy statements with no real content about how amazing the show or the contestants or RuPaul are, and a better oral history would have cut down on all those repetitive, zero calorie statements and removed those that don't add anything valuable.
All that then comes at the expense of the All Stars seasons just being briefly recounted all in one chapter together, as if they weren't just as important as the regular seasons, rushed through, and the international franchises and the expanded Drag Race franchise (conventions, tours, spin-off shows...) getting barely a mention.
It's messy and not at all the definitive history it presents itself as.
