Spankie Jackzon, winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under” season two and everyone’s favourite Palmerston Northerner, makes her FRINGE WORLD debut in 2024 with the solo piece “Just The Tip”.

Somewhat defying expectations, this performance is less lip-synching, death drops, or reading to filth from the library, and more heartfelt love letter to rural New Zealand, cosmopolitan Melbourne, and families, both the ones grown up with, and those found later in life.

Spankie introduces us to Blair, the gayest child in all of Manawatu, all scowls, frowns, dance lessons, and every single performing art he can find in high school. Bullied yet defiant, Blair minces up and down the school corridors in two-dollar flat wigs and dresses during book week, is the prettiest orphan in the Dirty Boys Chorus in first stage production Oliver, and is generally bursting at the seams, waiting to be discovered.

Broadening his horizons to first Wellington, and then Melbourne, Blair discovers the gay, drag, and club scenes almost all at once, taking the first steps to becoming Spankie.

At the core of this show is love. Spankie’s love for her parents shines through, a beacon in the thickest of fogs, a guiding light both when she left home and when she returned. Also, Spankie’s love for her drag family and wider community, especially drag mother Amanduh la Whore.

During Blair’s years in childcare before returning to drag, his love for his charges, and the children’s respect and adoration right back. Perhaps most of all, Spankie’s love for Blair, both for what they were and for what they became, that child with entirely too much personality and sass for small-town Feilding.

Towards the end of the hour, Spankie reacts to her own show – “Come see Spankie, she cries a lot”. She also apologises for every minor issue that crops up onstage. But the audience isn’t here for perfection. They are here for honesty, for authenticity, for vulnerability, and with “Just The Tip”, they get all of these in spades.

An accomplished storyteller, a magnetic stage presence, and a fantastic live singer, Spankie brings one of the most beautiful and caring performances seen at FRINGE WORLD this season, one that challenges anyone watching not to be moved, not to catch all the feelings.

We cannot wait to see what they do next.