I’ve been learning more about the urinary habits of celebs recently than I ever thought I would. First, it turned out that loads of singers use a pee bucket backstage if they’ve gotta go mid-concert (yes, really).
And now, it seems some on-screen talent have their own secret code to ask to go to the loo ― at least, that’s according to makeup mogul, singer, motel owner, and RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Trixie Mattel.
In a recent video, the drag star shared the behind-the-scenes secrets of reality TV. “I had to learn on my feet what exactly a TV set was,” the star said in the video ― and that included working out how to nip to the loo.
So, how’s it done?
“Did you know on television when you have to pee... you say, ‘I have to ten-one’, ’I’m taking her to ten-one,’‘she’s going to ten-one,’” Trixie shared.
“It’s a more elegant way of saying ‘go pee,’” the drag star added. “And on a TV set when I was 24 years old, my instinct was to go, ‘will someone take me to pee?’ And they’d be like, ‘you mean ten one?’”
Studio Binder confirms that 10-1 is walkie-talkie lingo for needing to pee ― and it turns out that 10-2 refers to needing to, well, go number two, as well.
They add that if you find you need more time in the bathroom than you’d expected as a TV cast member ― maybe that dodgy food from last night caught up with you out of nowhere ― you can ask to “upgrade your 10-1″ on the walkie-talkie too.
This will buy you more precious alone time.
“I have no idea where that came from,” Trixie shared, referring to the initial 10-1 code. Well, we think we might have answers ― the ten does seem to apply to the ten code, which refers to abbreviated speech you can use across telecoms, and one is, well, going number one.
But why you couldn’t just ask to pee instead is frankly a little beyond me. Perhaps I’m just inelegant...
There’s more pee drama (there’s always more)
This is less specific to TV shows in general and more applicable to drag ― but Trixie brought up the topic of urine again towards the end of her tell-all video.
“This one I’m going to be vague about, but we’re in drag for long days, and drag is very taxing on the body, and sometimes people don’t get to pee,” she said. “And sometimes pee happens... that’s all I’m going to say,” she added.
“I’ve never peed myself on Drag Race,” she pointed out, “but I know it’s happened. Whether or not people have said it happened, I think people have peed their pants and it hasn’t shown on camera so no-one knew.”
Basically, I’m learning that if you haven’t faced a pretty Medieval peeing system at least once in your showbiz career, you haven’t made it big. I knew fame wasn’t for me...