[VIDEO] How to Run Successful Drag Shows Online

The Covid-19 pandemic's effects on the events industry are indisputable. The venues where people used to gather to have fun are now waiting for better times. In the meantime, most of the entertainment has gone online, and this also includes drag shows.

We recently sat down and discussed with George Nichlos a.k.a. drag queen Orange Gina of That's Drag.  They have made this transition from offline to online live streaming and, with the help of Speedify, they managed to reach new audiences. Here's their story.

George Nichols, better known as Orange Gina, is a successful drag queen from London. She's been doing shows every month for many years now, but when the pandemic struck, obviously the live performances were stopped. They lost all show bookings, along with any income from entertainment. Which is, unfortunately, the case for everybody else in the entertainment industry.

Gina knew they had to switch to online, so they began hosting drag bingo shows on Zoom, especially since there were a lot of people interested in enjoying the show. Initially it was only Gina, but as the show grew, her partner joined as well, to assist with the tech aspects of it, music, sound, etc.

As the show went online, Internet struggles appeared. Even though they were holding the show next to Wi-Fi router, occasionally the Internet would drop out and they'd have to reconnect back into Zoom.

They switched the location of the show to a different room, which is located upstairs. As the router is downstairs, the signal was weaker and unstable. They tried using a Wi-Fi extender, but without any notable results.

During drop out times, the attendees were left alone, which isn't at all a good thing, especially since they were buying tickets for the drag shows. According to Gina, most of the general public was understanding of this, as technical difficulties happen. But when it came to doing a corporate offering, they had to find a solution to stop the Internet from dropping out.

First thing Gina & team tried was to switch to a wired Ethernet connection right to the router instead of Wi-Fi. But even then, they still had issues. The broadband provider was just no help - no surprise there.

The revelation came before Christmas 2020, when they were working with a company that was using Speedify in order to keep connections from dropping. They said: "If you are gonna do an event with us, we'd like you to make sure that you are using Speedify because it will stop you from having those embarrassing moments of your internet dropping out in the middle of a joke, and you're completely losing the flow."

So then they started using Speedify and since then they had many streamergencies saved. "It's been really cool!"

Since discovering Speedify, Gina is now running Speedify while hosting the online drag shows. They are using their home Internet together with a tethered cellular connection.

As we all know, when attending an online event, a flawless stream is key for success. "When you've got this long thing that you don't want interrupted, it's really really really stressful when it gets interrupted. And you don't know when it's coming back, and you're like “ah what do we need to do? Do we need to unplug something? Do we need to reset something?” People are waiting."

"I'm no longer having a panic attack halfway through the show, so there's that. But actually it's helped me understand what's going on with the internet like when it sticks, when it's disconnecting, how often it's disconnecting, etc. The data that we're getting from it [Speedify] is quite interesting."

As for the future of their online drag shows, Orange Gina talks about hybrid events happening more. "We would probably do an event in a space but also stream that event at the same time so people can engage both online and in the audience."

The online space provides much easier access to global markets - large-scale, international. "A lot of the stuff we want to do is about queer inclusion and making sure that we raise awareness of LGBTQIA+ issues.", says drag queen Gina. As long as you can make sure the Internet is fast and reliable, to broadcast your shows without stuttering, buffering and disconnects, you've got it made!

When you’re having issues with your Internet connection, try using 2 connections simultaneously. Along with the home internet, you certainly have a smartphone with a cellular data plan. So why not put those two connections together to work for you? You’ll get more reliable and faster Internet. Plus extra privacy for your online activities thanks to Speedify’s encryption capabilities.

When you don’t have two connections available, Speedify can still help. Its powerful error correction algorithms minimize packet loss on wireless networks. So even if you only have one connection available, Speedify will still be able to help you with more reliable Internet.