We Watched RuPaul’s Drag Race in a Berlin Pub and All We Got Were These Awesome 3D GIFs

This article originally appeared on VICE Germany

There’s just something special about getting hammered while watching the football at some pub with a ton of complete strangers, isn’t there? Well, guess what’s even more exciting than that: Getting hammered down the pub while watching RuPaul’s Drag Race – that’s what.

And that’s literally what happens every week at this bar called Südblock in Berlin. Local drag queen and all-around entertainer Pansy and all her sisters invite what feels like half of Berlin to come down and enjoy the show over a few too many whiskies. And people show up in droves. All manner of people. Drags, gays, lesbians, straights, singles, couples and basically everyone in between clamber over each other to find a spot from where they can watch this fantastic piece of modern TV.

RuPaul’s Drag Race , if you haven’t seen it, follows the same formula as all the other reality casting shows, except it’s not about ridiculing people who can’t sing or screaming at underage models; it’s about drag queens competing for RuPaul’s attention. Which is obviously way, way cooler.

It was pretty obvious, at least on that fateful evening we were there, that the crowd at Südblock all had their personal favourites. People weren’t afraid to howl at the screen when they came on either. Believe it or not, the show wasn’t the main attraction: Around 11:30PM – just as RuPaul’s credits began to roll – the projector screen disappeared and Pansy thrust herself out into the limelight. The host, decked out in some rather serious high heels, commanded the audience with her shrill voice and told everyone to prep themselves for her queens.

The stage curtains were pulled to make way for a crew of men, all done up impeccably in the most glamorous of ladies garb. Melli Magic, Bambi Mercury , Shiaz Legz and the rest of team. It was impossible to not be just a bit of envious of the curly locks popping out of Pansy’s décolletage or of Absinthia’s super-sharp moustache. And let’s not forget that general feeling of euphoria surrounding the fact you were more likely to get by a piece of pizza flung about by a drag queen than someone’s fist.

Overall, the night was a proper kaleidoscope of booze, fake nails and the most impressive stage names since Hedwig and the Angry Inch. We figured that photos wouldn’t do the night the justice it deserved, so here’s a bunch of 3D gif’s: