The Jackie Cox Streaming Guide: The ‘Drag Race’ Queen’s TV Inspiration, from Lisa Rinna to Seven of Nine

Jackie Cox: I Dream of Jackie, which is the show that I previously toured a little bit with, is a show that’s very dear to my heart. I definitely made references to it on RuPaul’s Drag Race, and it was a show that I thought really captured all of the things that I loved: 1960s style campy humor, a little bit of magic and silliness. My plan was to tour with that show in 2020, especially leading up to the presidential election in November. That show was written in 2017 and was originally very much a reaction to the election of Donald Trump and the ban on people from Muslim majority countries traveling to the United States, which was a big theme that carried through [I Dream of Jackie]. And I used this character of Jackie the Genie being a Middle Eastern person, all of a sudden sucked from her bottle into the year 2017, or through 2020. So that show was very much a product of that specific moment in time.

Unfortunately, of course, I didn’t get to tour at all in 2020. So 2021 being a new year, and I was so obviously captured and fascinated by WandaVision, as so many of us were—especially in the queer community—that I latched onto this idea of people using television as a a way to process feelings, emotions, things that we love, how to connect to those things—what are the little pieces of iconography that you can find in television, and then how do we celebrate that? And that’s where JackieVision came from.

Stream I Dream of Jeannie on Tubi

Stream I Dream of Jeannie on Prime Video

Jackie Cox: I don’t want you to take my nerd card away, but I was very much a passive Marvel movie watcher. I’d seen Black Panther, and I’d seen some of the Avengers movies. I saw Captain Marvel because I do love anything with a female lead. So when WandaVision came about, I was like, “Wait—this is all about classic TV? What’s going on? This is a Marvel show? Kathryn Hahn is here? What’s happening?” So I dove in, and in a weird way, WandaVision has become my entry point to really deep dive and I’ve gone back and watched almost all the Marvel movies now. I’m trying to pick up all the clues and the pieces that were dropped in WandaVision. And so it is my entry point to the MCU, but it’s Kathryn Hahn’’s entry point to the MCU as well, so I think I’m in good company.

WandaVision is very much a show about a woman processing her grief through things that she loves, using those things and the pieces of iconography that were meaningful to her as a child. And wow, that speaks to me so directly as I had just come off of doing a show that was me doing basically the exact same thing—processing my conflict around the way that Donald Trump was handling people of Middle Eastern descent in the United States and using my love of a television show to talk about and process my feelings on that. And so I was like, “Oh, my god, this is actually what I do in my drag.” And then when you add on top of it all of the amazing campy, quirky details referencing television and so many different television shows, you get amazing musical theater writers to write these amazing catchy jingles for each episode.

Plus you have Kathryn Hahn appearing in full drag at the end, which is truly amazing. And I say that with the utmost reverence and respect, because what she did with that part was so exciting to watch and was obviously inspiring to me.

Stream WandaVision on Disney+

Jackie Cox: I go a bit in chronological order through JackieVision, and, Star Trek is a big show of the 60s. My first access point to Star Trek was watching The Next Generation on TV with my dad, and then I went back and watched the original series and my god, the costumes and the makeup, I’m obsessed with. Every actress who walked onto the different foreign planets and was seduced by Kirk had more extravagant eyeliner than the other. It was absolutely ridiculous. The eyes and the hair, it was just all so much. So I definitely am referencing these kinds of things in my little Star Trek moment [in JackieVision]. It’s a franchise that is dear to my heart that is now one of the most queer representative franchises on television, hiring trans and nonbinary actors.

When I was in middle school, I only had one poster of a girl up in my locker ever, and it was Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager, who is now a canonically queer character. I must have just sensed it. I was obsessed with her and, of course, the minute I started doing Star Trek drag, everyone kept saying to me, “You look so much like Marina Sirtis.” Deanna Troy is of course an iconic character to portray. And Nichelle Nichols is truly a pioneer and an icon. There are so many amazing women who continue to hold that banner high and I am obsessed with all of that.

Stream Star Trek on Netflix

Stream Star Trek: Voyager on Netflix

Jackie Cox: I will be appearing on [Peacock’s upcoming original miniseries] Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem opposite Lisa Rinna, and I don’t want to give away too much of what happens between us but it’s really campy, it’s really funny. And all you need to know is that I’m a Lisa Rinna impersonator, which I think you already do. It’s the Snatch Game that keeps on giving.

I’ve been blessed with so many cool things that have happened because of that [episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Andy Cohen basically has me on speed dial, and now whenever Lisa Rinna shows up at the Bravo clubhouse, he’s like, “Get Jackie!” It’s been a wild ride and I am adding a little bit of Real Housewives-ness to JackieVision. So fear not, for those who are awaiting my full length cabaret, The Rinna Takes It All will get a little taste of it in JackieVision.

Stream The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on Peacock

Stream Days of Our Lives on Peacock

Jackie Cox: You’ll see my take on The Nanny [in JackieVision]. Fran Drescher is another option that I would have loved to have done on Snatch Game, but it’s been done. I’ve never thought of [performing as Fran Fine] as intimidating because it’s just too much fun. The thing about that character, too, is that character is always having so much fun. She’s a little bit of I Love Lucy mixed with a little bit of, I don’t know, Desperate Housewives. She’s just so ready to have fun and do whatever she can to get her her man.

Stream The Nanny on HBO Max

Jackie Cox: I have tuned in to Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and I’ve tuned into Loki. Of course, I wish that I could make a giant Miss Minutes costume and just run around as a clock. I’m not saying it’s not impossible or that it won’t ever happen. It has crossed my mind! I don’t think that’ll happen in JackieVision. What’s fun about JackieVision is it’s a lot more of a cabaret in the sense that I talk a lot with the audience. So I love to engage them and see what their favorite TV shows are and find ways to throw references in as we go. And the thing about JackieVision is, let’s say next week I become obsessed with a new show. I may pull out a number and pop in a new one. You never know!

Stream Loki on Disney+