Queen Irma Gerd's The First East Coast Star On Canada's Drag Race & Says It's 'A Big Weight'

Canada's Drag Race is on its third season, and until now, they haven't had a performer from the East Coast, which came as quite a shock to this year's Atlantic Canadian drag star, Irma Gerd.

In this week's episode, the St. John's native was unfortunately eliminated after a long battle striving to be Canada's Drag Queen 2022. Even though she didn't win first place, she says she's still happy to have gotten to the top six and represented Newfoundland and Labrador.

"I'm not only representing Newfoundland and Labrador, but I'm representing all of the Atlantic provinces. There hasn't been a performer east of Montreal, I believe, which is crazy," she told Narcity.

Irma said that being the only queen representing Atlantic Canada on the show was "a big weight" on her shoulders.

"But I think I did a pretty good job. I mean, top six, that ain't too bad," she laughed.

Irma Gerd's The First East Coast Queen On Canada's Drag Race & Says It's 'Big Weight' #shortyoutube.com

However, that's not the only thing that sets the East Coaster apart from the other queens on the show. Coming from Newfoundland means having to find a way to be creative without access to all the resources of a big city.

"When you come to Newfoundland, you're gonna get some creativity; you're gonna get ingenuity," Irma said. "We only have one fabric store. So getting ready for Drag Race was not easy — but it makes you resourceful."

But this resourcefulness gives drag shows on the East Coast their own character when compared to those found in Toronto, she says, adding that "when you come to a show in Newfoundland, you're getting some creative weirdness."

Don't you just love that?

Overcoming a speech impediment

One thing that makes Irma Gerd even more remarkable is how much she's overcome since she was in elementary school.

In this week's episode, the performer shared a raw moment with the audience where she talked about her childhood traumas of being bullied because of her speech impediment.

Growing up, they couldn't say the letter "R," and in one particularly tough moment in front of a class full of students, their teacher asked them to repeat the name of a dog called "Bernie."

"I didn't like that. It gave me a lot of self-confidence issues that just spiralled into me being bullied and being socially awkward," she said.

With time and speech therapy, Irma got rid of her speech impediment, although she says she still has a "strange relationship" with the sound of her voice.

"It's been a slow journey of being a very shy person who was afraid to do any public speaking, to somebody who's now on national television, talking about whatever I want to talk about. And now I'm not really afraid anymore, of anything," the performer said proudly.

Even though Irma Gerd has left Canada's Drag Race, she'll still be around for fans to check out as she plans to take her show on the road.

"Stay true, north, strong and weird."