Canada’s Drag Race has brought Queens, stardom and an overload of competitive drama to our screens.
The Canadian version of the popular USA Ru Paul’s Drag Race does not disappoint, as the Monday evening show is currently one of the most-watched on the BBC.
While talented Queens take to the stage to show off their singing, dancing, sewing and acting skills – to name just a few – there are also a few other appearances that fans catch a glimpse of each week.
So who is the “hot” sound guy that viewers have been seeing on Canada’s Drag Race? We spoke to him and found out everything you need to know!
Meet John Diemer
John Diemer is a 31-year-old sound producer and editor from Canada. He is the owner of production company Farmhouse Creative Labs, the team behind various shows such as Masterchef Canada, Amazing Grace and Survivor.
He is allegedly one of very few well-known producers in Canada, and is known to be the youngest amongst them. John regularly travels from show-to-show as part of his career, and has visited the UK several times to visit his girlfriend’s family and to work on children’s shows on CBBC.
Although John usually lives in Canada, he regularly stays in New York City when he’s visiting the US for shows. John told us that Canada’s Drag Race was the most popular show he’s ever worked on. He said:
Post-production, the show made me feel good. I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a show that’s had this many eyes on it, and I didn’t anticipate how many people outside of Canada would watch it, but it’s so popular.
- FLIP OR FLOP NASHVILLE: Has Flip or Flop Nashville been cancelled? Fans demand season 3
John on Canada’s Drag Race
Canada’s Drag Race is the most popular show John has edited sound and music for. But as previously mentioned, it is not the first Canadian version of an American show he’s worked on.
He said that he used his own equipment when putting clips together and that he wanted to make it their own, rather than copy how the American version of the show uses sound.
John told us:
In the American format of the show, you’d think we have everything that they have at our disposal, but that was not really the case. We were kind of on our own. So we watched the American show to research what sound effects they used and had to recreate things the American show did – but we wanted to sound like our own. We got to point where we would use attach sound effects when certain characters would make the same faces.
- CANADA’S DRAG RACE: Where is the show filmed? Ontario location explored
He also explained that Canada’s Drag Race was one of the most creative shows he has ever worked on.
Doing Drag Race was one of the most creative things I have been able to do. When you watch the show, so much of the humour comes from the sound effects. Every dig or every read, every punch line means something. It was the most control we’ve ever had over emotion and effect.
Feeling the Canada’s Drag Race pressure
When joining any reality TV show, any sound team’s main aim is to make every audio part of the show sound incredible. But John faced a whole new level of pressure when perfecting the songs that Queens would be miming to. He revealed: “For the first time in my career, I felt like I was now in position where I am affecting the outcome of something.”
John added:
There was a lot of pressure as you don’t want to affect the outcome. At the end of the day, the song needs to sound awesome because nobody’s really getting sent home because they can’t sing. We wanted to make an awesome song as if a Queen goes home, it’s because they didn’t lip sync properly. It’s stressful to make an awesome song, but it was so fun and we got a lot of love from that. It’s called Not Sorry Aboot It, and people watched it so many times.
John may have faced some challenges but fans loved the song he produced for Queens to lip-sync to. And he was called “hot” by Priyanka in Episode 1 – so he has definitely made his mark on the show. He said: “The Queens are some of the most talented people that I’ve ever met.”
We are so excited to keep catching glimpses of John on Series 1 of Canada’s Drag Race!