PRIDE 2023: FACE TIME WITH MICHELLE VISAGE

Michelle Visage is best known as the longest-serving judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race aside from Ru herself—and that also includes the universe of Drag Race All Stars, Drag Race U.K. and Drag Race Down Under. For her work as a producer on the franchise, Visage has won three Primetime Emmy Awards. Since last June, she’s hosted a weekly Friday evening show on BBC Radio 2. Visage’s radio and record-industry roots run deep; she was a member of ’90s dance-music trio Seduction and a morning-drive on-air personality in NYC, L.A. and Miami before segueing to TV stardom.

From your unique perspective, why has RuPaul’s Drag Race been so culturally powerful?

For me, Drag Race is so important and culturally powerful because everybody can relate to somebody on the show. In the beginning, people wanted to put it in a box as this is “boys dressing up as girls”—not my quote—when really, it is so far beyond that. It’s less about “dressing up,” and more about the tenacity of the human spirit and heart.

So if you are an 11- or 12-year-old kid, whether you identify as a boy or a girl or in between—or don’t, in general—there is a place on this show for you, because you see somebody that you can relate to. And I know that this 12-year-old kid in New Jersey didn’t fit in anywhere and struggled with everybody because I didn’t fit in with the cool kids or the smart kids and was a weirdo and a loner. And if I had a show like RuPaul’s Drag Race, I think I would’ve loved myself so much more. And half the struggles I dealt with wouldn’t even have appeared, because I would’ve known and seen that my people were out there.

That’s why I feel it’s so culturally important, since everybody of every age can relate to the struggles that these kids have been through, and the colors and the beauty of the drag and all that stuff, that’s just icing on the cake.

What keeps you on the radio, Michelle, and how are audiences different in the U.K. than they are in the U.S.?

There’s nothing stronger than the ability to be with somebody day in and day out. Monday through Friday, you wake up with me, I am in your car, in your kitchen, in your ears; I’m on the subway with you. You come to me for laughter, for reality, for your favorite songs. Whatever it is, there’s something so personal and so amazing about that connective gift. It’s an honor and I take it seriously.

As for the difference in audiences, the U.K. audience is much more interactive. They are so invested in the songs that I play to actually take the time out of their day to stop and call and email and text and WhatsApp to tell me, “Oh my God, I can’t believe you just played the song that reminds me of X, Y and Z.” Whereas, big-market U.S. radio audiences are just too busy to even think of that. They’ll call but won’t stop and do the email and the extra this and that. And that’s the big difference. U.K. listeners are much, much more invested in what we’re talking about on the radio.

But the biggest difference of all, especially working for the #1 station in the country, with 14.5 million listeners? I get to pick my own music. Wow! It doesn’t have to be focus-grouped or researched. So my playlist is eccentric. I can go from playing Liza Minnelli into Amy Stewart into Sylvester.

You’re a published author [The Diva Rules], starred in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie on the West End, filled in on the Wendy Williams talk show with Leah Remini and just held down the 2023 BAFTAs red-carpet broadcast. Girl, is there a “dream gig” in your future?

I love what I do and wouldn’t trade it for the world. I have that kind of Joan Rivers syndrome where I feel like I’ve only just begun; there’s so much more that I want to do. I haven’t even scratched the surface with acting—I really want to surprise people and get into scripted film and TV and have people go, “Oh my god.”

Of course, a goal will always be a talk show. I’ve always dreamt of being Oprah 2.0. Who doesn’t? But I want people to watch me on television the same way they listen to me on the radio and go, “I feel like I’m watching my friend or my sister.” That’s the biggest compliment you can give somebody on the radio: “I listen to you because it’s like listening to my best friend.”

Today we must face the situation that some of our LGBTQIA+ friends, and drag performers in particular, are under attack. As one of the loudest and most fantastic allies of all, how do you feel your fellow allies out there can work together to fight back?

Right now, allies need to step their pussies up—to talk the talk and walk the walk. You can’t just sit there and go, “Yeah, I love gay people,” which is great, and LGBTQIA+ people need to know that they’re loved. But as the parent to a queer kid, it is for me to always be louder and prouder and fight harder, because we are being attacked. And our brothers and sisters did not work this hard for us to just sit back.

We need to really stand up and fight now. How? You can be out there in the Pride marches. You can be posting stuff on your social media. You could be calling your congressperson; you can be fighting. There are things that you can do to not just roll over and take it. Do your part. Stand up. When people are talking shit or badmouthing or fighting for things that you don’t believe in, speak up. Let them know why they’re hurting humanity. Don’t be afraid to tell people in your life who are talking badly about these people, “You’re wrong!” You have a voice, use it. And that is our job as an ally.

There’s no time for complacency anymore. That ship has sailed. We are being attacked in a very big, very public way. And people who have no idea what they’re even talking about are joining ranks here. The best way I can say it is, you would never attack an ice skater. You’d never attack a painter or a sculptor. These are all art forms.

You’re not going to leave a drag show and become a flaming homosexual because you watched it. It’s so dumb. Drag has never had any impact on children. And by the way, drag shows and drag bars are not for children. So be a parent and don’t let your child go to a drag bar. Drag story time? Absolutely! There’s not going to be any drag queens humping on the go-go poles at a Drag Story Hour. If you go to your local library and they have Drag Story Time, then that’s what it’s for: children! Reading children’s books.