Michelle Visage exclusive interview – Christmas Queens tour, social media trolling and more

by Daniel Falconer | 17 November 2016

Christmas is right around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than with the fabulous Michelle Visage and five of the most talked-about stars of RuPaul's Drag Race, taking on some of the world's most famous festive songs for your pleasure?

Michelle Visage

We got the chance to have a quick chat with Michelle about the tour, working with drag queens, social media trolling and more!

You're going on the road with Alaska, Manila, Detox, Phi Phi and Katya for the Christmas Queens tour and you'll be hosting the show, but should we also expect a couple of tunes from you?

Of course, yes! I'm not just gonna stand there, I will host the event, keep it moving, keep everybody interested!

These Queens have big personalities, so what do you think it's gonna be like touring with them and on the road?

Well I've toured with them many times before. They're big personalities but that's a drag personality, so when we tour they're in their boy drag, it's much smaller than what you see on the stage.

As you mentioned you've done Battle of the Seasons, so do you enjoy that touring lifestyle?

Oh I love it! I did it all except Singapore because I had a family commitment I couldn't get out of and it was amazing. It was so amazing to see the love for our TV show, honestly.

It feels like the show's gone strength to strength, how does it feel to be a part of something that's constantly growing?

It's amazing. I'm so honoured to be a part of it, but more importantly I'm so lucky to be able to have Ru as my friend. To leave a mark on the world that won't be forgotten. There are a lot of reality shows coming on, and I think this one will be remembered for a long time.

Drag used to be taboo, but now it's mainstream and in the limelight which is a great thing…

It's mainstream because of the show. It's mainstreamed, but it's not mainstream. I agree with Ru that it'll never be mainstream, because mainstream means, everybody knows it, everybody loves it, everybody accepts it. That's never gonna happen with drag, but it's definitely become more mainstreamed for people that never knew anything about it, being opened up to it as a form of art.

I know you're a huge fan of the UK, so which are some of your favourite cities to visit when you're here?

I like staying local, I don't do any touring stuff, because the first time I came here when I was a baby, I got it out of my system. Recently my kids came over for the first time so I showed them around, but for the average person I can get on the tube and go around town. I love Oxford Circus so I can do Primarni, and I can do River Island and Topshop and Selfridges. Selfridges we just look, we don't shop! For the most part I just basically go to some of my favourite vegan restaurants, and everything else is kind of walking around shopping. I always hit Soho at least once or twice.

The drama off-screen for Drag Race seems to get bigger each season maybe because of the increase in fans, do you think it's gotten a little out of hand?

I'm not gonna say just the fans for this show have gotten out of hand, I think social media in general has gotten out of hand. When I first started it was a really good thing, a necessary evil, but at the same time it opened up the door for tonnes of venom and tonnes of hate to be spewed. I feel like our show is the antithesis of that. We are the all-inclusive, all-loving empire, it's what we do, we fight for a community that's been marginalised and ostracised. So now, with all the hate that's coming out from these kids, it's sad to me, it's disheartening. That's not why we do what we do. You might not like a Queen, you might not like a person, but that does not give you the right to be so awful to them.

It's a gameshow at the end of the day, as you've said…

You better believe it, and it's also a TV show at the end of the day, it's not reality. In reality these people all get along.

So let's talk about your book The Diva Rules. First of all thank you, as it helped me with my anxiety and career path a lot…

You're so welcome, I know what that's like as you know!

How have you found the response to the book to-date?

Oh it's been amazing. I hear things like you've just told me and it just assures me that I did it for the right reasons. Obviously you don't get rich off books unless you're like, JK Rowling, so I wrote it with love in my heart and the hope that the people that read it understand that we're all in the same position, and it's OK to go through what you're going through and come out a winner in the end.

Have you got any plans to release more books in the future?

Maybe, we'll see. I feel like it took me all these years to write that book, and I wanna give it probably another year or two in-between, to have more life experiences and stories to add, but definitely I'd like to do it again.

There are rumours of a Celebrity Big Brother All-Stars and I've seen you'd be interested! So who would you like to see in there if you got the invite?

Who I'd love to be in there with would be Rylan, Katie Price, the whole lot, Claire from Steps, all the people I've become friends with. But I can handle anybody who they put in because at the end of the day, I'm just me. You can put [Hopkins] back in, no problem. I am not concerned.

The What's The Tee podcast has gone weekly, with you and Ru, so are you excited about that?

Yay! It's really exciting. The response was so overwhelming that it kept selling out all the sponsors and everything, we realised there's a greater need for this to go weekly. You can film anywhere, all you need is a microphone and a recording device. It's really just Ru and I sitting there and talking. It's something we just love to do, and we do well.

Michelle Visage will host Christmas Queens - Live in Concert across the UK this December! Get your tickets now for £35, with all the dates below: