dishin' it

Monét X Change dishes on her revealing new live show, Ellen DeGeneres & why opera is so gay

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Monét X Change | Photo Credit: Jaime Prada

Soak it up while you can because, before you know it, Monét X Change is on to the next gig!

The Drag Race All-Star winner and fan favorite is more booked and busy than ever, and she’s showing no signs of slowing down.

Just this week, she dropped the steamy video from “Body,” the first single off her highly anticipated two-part R&B album. We knew she had the performance chops thanks to her legendary runs on Drag Race, but baby this is an artist, proving the music is more than just a hobby.

And, speaking of performing, Monét is about to take this show on the road with her acclaimed Life Be Lifin’ tour, bringing together her gifts for comedy, storytelling, and—yes—even opera (we won’t give away too much, but the show’s climactic operatic medley has to be seen to be believed.) After a smash-hit run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last summer, she’s bringing the BenDeLaCreme-directed production to ten cities across the country beginning at the end of this month.

Oh, and somehow she found time to pop by Madonna‘s Celebration Tour? As the “Vogue” guest at the April 4 stop in Tampa, FL, Monét’s appearance even had her sister and show emcee Bob The Drag Queen gagged.

Related:

Monét X Change reveals how she & Madonna surprised Bob The Drag Queen on stage of The Celebration Tour

The ‘Sibling Rivlary’ podcasters had an emotional full-circle moment on the stage of the Celebration Tour this week.

All of that on top of regular episodes of the Queerties Award-winning podcast Sibling Rivalry? We don’t know how she does it!

We’re just grateful the iconic queen made some time to stop by for the latest round of our rapid-fire Q&A series, Dishin’ It. In our conversation, Monét shares how opera helped her find her voice (literally and figuratively), the grade-school crush that changed her life forever, the R&B divas who inspired her new music, and why she’ll always have a soft spot for Ellen Degeneres.

Is there a piece of media—whether a movie, TV series, book, album, theater, video game, etc…—that you consider a big part of your own coming-out journey, or that has played an important role in your understanding of queerness? Why does it stand out to you?

For me it was Ellen Degeneres, The Beginning special. I remember it was on HBO, and I didn’t quite know who Ellen DeGeneres was—I wasn’t even really into stand-up. I mean, I had seen Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence’s specials, but I was maybe too young to really care. So, when I got consciousness of Ellen later on, when I understood more about comedy, I watched that special and it was just so eye-opening to me.

For one, she’s just a brilliant comic, right? Ellen was and is super funny, and I thought that special was just really, dope. But then, later on, when I’d been coming more into my “queer consciousness,” I realized what an icon she was. Because, before that special, she had come out on her show, and she had lost so much—she lost lots of gigs and pretty much lost her career for a really long time. Risking it all for coming out is so crazy.

And, yes, Ellen has some problematic things at work, et cetera. But I think that sometimes we lose sight of the reason why Ellen was elevated to that point was because she was someone who was not afraid to lose everything for coming out, for being honest and true to herself.

Opera plays a big role in your show Life Be Lifin’ and by now we all know you have the vocal chops, but what would you say opera means to you, especially in relation to your development and empowerment as a queer person?

Through the narrative of the show, the audience gets a bit more perspective into how opera factored into me finding my voice, both literally and figuratively. But, when I was a young little gay boy in high school—I went to a professional performing arts school, and that’s when I really got I started doing classical music where we wold do lots of spirituals and anthems and Schubert and all that. consciousness. Then I went to college for music education and opera performance and that’s when I like really got into the nitty-gritty of classical music and just how f*cking gay it was.

In all these operas, there’s a lot of gender-bending, and I think that the general public doesn’t realize it’s pretty f*ggy. There’s so much crossing and blurring the lines of gender between different roles. And that’s around when I found out about Drag Race, too, because season 2 and 3 were airing then, and that piqued my interest.

Long story short, years later, when I set out to do my first stand-up special Fists Of Glory, I wanted to find an interesting way to put these parts of identity into my stand-up. So I sing this opera about fisting—now, fisting is not a service that I offer in any direction—but I thought it was interesting to sing this classical aria about it. So I feel like I’ve found this way to bring different facets of Monét X Change into all the different ways that I do art.

You first took Life Be Lifin’ to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, so I’m wondering what those audiences were like and how they might’ve helped you fine-tune the show?

When I went to the Fringe Festival, I had only done the show one time before in LA, so obviously I was still working the material a lot. And doing the show every night for 15 nights, it grew so much so quickly. And I think that the biggest lesson I learned is just not being afraid to let a show evolve. I had written the script and rehearsed the thing, and sometimes you get caught in the weeds. But it was helpful to be malleable, letting it grow and change with me.

Like, there were so many jokes I had written that were specific to American audiences, but they didn’t know who the Bloods and the Crips were in the U.K.—I don’t even think they know Jonathan Taylor Thomas. So I’d change it! And some of that comes from my years of just needing to improv while hosting a show in New York City, just letting the night be what it’s going to be—for better or for worse. It’s just about being in the moment.

More broadly speaking—beyond the Fringe—what would you say is the worst or strangest gig you’ve ever done, whether comedy or drag?

I would say the name of the company, but I don’t remember, because I don’t care about sh*tting on people. I mean, it wasn’t their fault—I think it’s just circumstances. Maybe I should have had a little more foresight about it, but I was doing stand-up for this roomful of young, queer professionals in D.C. So they’d been in these meetings and things all day—they’re f*cking over, they’re tired, and they finally get a chance to let their hair down at cocktail hour and hang with their friends. And then here I come in the conference room, and I’m on this stage with like 2,000 people at this thing, and they’re all at different tables eating and having drinks. I’m just trying to tell jokes, and literally no one was listening. The room was so loud, everyone was making so much noise, and I was like, “This is crazy! I’m literally screaming into a void and no one can hear me.” It was like, “What is my life? What have I done to have this be my career?” It ended up being fine—the people that heard me had a good time. But that gig was rough.

This show is, in part your coming-of-age story, and you talk a lot about being a young closeted gay kid, so I’m curious: Was there a particular celebrity or maybe even a fictional character you remember having a secret crush on at a younger age, one that you consider especially formative? What do you remember loving about them?

Well my big one was real, and I talk about him in the show. My first true love, first obsession was this guy in middle school named Ricardo. I was just enamored by his bad boy vibe—he had a je ne sais quoi, if you will. And at the tender age of 12, 13, seeing him was the first time I was like, “Oh my god. I like boys.” I mean, l had my suspicions that I was gay before, but Ricardo cemented it. I just remember thinking that he was so beautiful. So Ricardo was like the time I really, really discovered that in myself.

And, honestly, I’m happy because I’ve met some folk—in my now 34 years of life—who genuinely didn’t know they were gay until later, like in their 20s. So I’m glad I knew early and was able to circumvent some mistakes I would have made, or whatever. And all because of Ricardo and his beautiful, Puerto Rican and Black face. He was that gay lightbulb—my little rainbow lightbulb!

And I wanted to make sure we touched on the fact that Life Be Lifin’ was directed by your follow Drag Race sister BenDeLaCreme, a seasoned performance queen herself. What’s something you’d say you learned from DeLa in the process of working on this show with her?

I knew I had wanted to do the show, and I had seen some of DeLa’s shows—like Cosmos and Ready To Be Committed—so I wanted to pick her brain about her process was because she’s her shows are so good. If anyone gets a chance, you should go see her shows—they’re so good.

So I texted, we had lunch, and we talked through a few things. A couple of days later, I get a text from her and she was like, “Hey, I would like to be a part of this with you!” And I immediately was like, “Yes!” We didn’t know in what capacity at that point, but just having her on this process with me was great because she’s so brilliant.

So I would do a whole bunch of writing, and then email it to her, and she’d be like, “More! What do you mean here? Can you elaborate on this?” And I was like, “What do you mean more?” But then once I’d written a whole bunch of sh*t down, she’d help me condense it and find the funny parts and really figure out how to tell me stories to these people. And then she directed it, too, so she was just a really instrumental part in the creative process of the show. And I’m really, really grateful to have her on board.

Beyond the tour, you’ve also got an album coming up which we got a taste of with “Body” and the new video that just dropped. What can you share about the new music and they vibe you’re going for?

I have loved R&B music ever since I was a wee little lad. Brandy’s Never Say Never was the first album I bought with my own hard-earned allowance money from shoveling snow. I remember listening to that album and just crying to songs like “Have You Ever?,” just bawling into the pillow over something I had never even felt before.

But I’ve always loved R&B music, so I’ve take a moment over the past two and a half years, I’ve been going to the studio and writing and working really hard to finally have this fully realized R&B project that I’ve been dying to do. I listen to R&B music all the time and that’s not an exaggeration—when I’m happy, when I’m sad, when I’m groggy, when I’m at the gym. So I just wanted to make music that I love to listen to, that feels super authentic to me. From the old-school sh*t like Adina Howard to the new girlies like SZA and Summer Walker, I feel like it all really encompasses me.

I just love the genre, so I wanted to put my stamp on it in a way that I think queer people honestly will get—because this is gay R&B music, right? I’m talking about dudes that I’ve f*cked, the dudes that have led me on, the DL guys I’ve messed with, and basically all the guys who have done me wrong. That’s what this album is about!

Wait, and speaking of, you did get to meet SZA somewhat recently, right? How was that?

I did get to meet SZA, for a brief moment in time, and she was just so nice. It was crazy because I was going to [Austin City Limits Music Festival] and, at the airport, I had on these short-shorts and thigh-high socks and Crocs on and these big glasses—I probably looked crazy. But she was the sweetest, kindest person and got me VIP tickets like watch her set. All the amazing things people describe her as, she was that—in just the few minutes I got to hang with her at the Austin airport.

Who is a queer or trans artist/performer/creator that you think is doing really cool work right now? Why are they someone we should all be paying attention to?

Trace Lysette. She is such a brilliant actor. Brilliant! And we’re not super close, but Trace and I know each other, we’ve hung before. And she’s such an amazing talent. She had her movie Monica, and I’m sad it didn’t get nominated for an Oscar. My boyfriend and I watched it, and it was really, really amazing work. I just can’t wait to see how the heavens and the skies open up for her more in the future, and we get to see more of Trace’s work. When Trace gets that Oscar nomination, that Oscar win, I’m going to be right there watching my YouTube TV and cheering her on. She’s an amazing talent.

Monét X Change’s Life Be Lifin’ tour kicks off April 30 in Seattle with shows across the country running through May 19. More details and tickets can be found here.

Related:

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From the fashions to the vocals to a killer Mike Tyson impression, the sponge queen delivered.

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