As RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season four winner Monét X Change takes her poignant and hilarious one-woman show Life Be Lifin’ on a North American tour this month, she speaks exclusively with The Queer Review’s editor James Kleinmann about creating the show with the guidance of fellow Drag Race alum BenDeLaCreme, what drag means to her in her life, her latest music, and her favourite LGBTQ+ culture.
James Kleinmann, The Queer Review: take me back to how you first got into drag and what it has meant to you in your life.
Monét X Change: “Drag has taught me a lot about myself. It made me find myself. Drag was how I discovered my gender identity. Drag was how I discovered who Kevin and Monét were. The journey here was checkered. Some of it was great, some of it was lovely, some of it was sad, some of it was annoying, but ultimately all those little things culminate in me sitting here in my drag garage in Los Angeles, in my own home. So I can be upset about the things that were less than savory, but ultimately they’re the reason that I’m sitting here and I’m getting to do this tour of my show.”
What was the first spark where you thought drag was something that you wanted to explore?
“I think that would be my first time in drag. I went to Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and they did this drag ball where they would have a local New York City queen come in to be the host of the show. It was Peppermint who came and I got in drag to do this show there at my school. I went to Payless and got some shoes and went to Target and got a skirt and a blazer. I was a freshman in college and I looked horrible! It wasn’t anything to be impressed by but it was amazing to to see how all the other kids saw me and how powerful drag was and how magnetic it was. Even though it was really bad and really crunchy and horrible drag, it was incredible how many people gravitated towards me and looked at me bright eyed and were like, ‘Oh my God! Wow, you look so beautiful!” They were liars, obviously! But it still felt nice to have that power as a queer person in a space.”
So the appeal was partly about other people’s reactions to you?
“Yeah, for sure, although it wasn’t about other people’s validity of my drag, but how it made me feel. I don’t need you to validate the fact that I’m in drag, or if I look beautiful or not, but to see how drag has the power to change the energy in a room is amazing. How a queen can walk in and immediately you can feel an energy shift in a room. I love that feeling.”
It’s cool that Peppermint was there for your first time in drag.
“I know! This was back in 2008 and it’s so cool that it was Peppermint, but I had no idea who Peppermint was then. It was the first time I’d ever seen a drag queen in real life and it was really cool.”
Let’s talk about your one-woman show Life Be Lifin’. Give me an insight into the writing process and how it started to take shape as a show.
“I knew that I wanted to do a one-woman show and I had seen some of BenDeLaCreme’s shows like Ready to be Committed. DeLa is so good at crafting a story and it being such a fully realized product, so I hit her up. I was like, ‘Hey, girl! I would love to have lunch and pick your brain about your process’ and she was like, ‘Sure!’ She talked me through how she goes about it and gave me some pointers. Then I went home and got to work. A week later she called me and she like, ‘I really like what I think you’re going to do and I would love to be a part of it. I’d like to direct your show.’ And I was like, ‘Perfect!” That evolved into her being even more involved.”
“I would write for days and send all these pages to DeLa and then she’d read them and be like, ‘Oh, this is interesting, tell me more about this.’ Then I would write about that for hours and days and have all these pages to send her. Then she’d be like, ‘Let’s take these ten pages and tell me more about that’. Of all the stuff that I wrote, we ended up using maybe 5% for show. DeLa was really instrumental in helping me to funnel it all and in threading the needle of this through line of what the show ended up being. So DeLa was a huge part of the show. She truly directed the show. After it was all done and the material was all there, she helped me set the blocking and the lighting. All props to her.”
The opening is so much fun and really helps to build your connection with the audience. What’s it like performing that section of the show?
“That point in the show was about leaning into the uncomfortability of it. After that thing happens a couple times you know that it’s going to happen again but you still laugh because of the joke and what it all means in the show. At first it was a little awkward for me. I was like, ‘Girl, I don’t think we should do it this many times’, but DeLa was like, ‘No Monét, trust me, we should and we will!’ So it was about leaning into the awkwardness of it and settling into that and then it became really great.”
Presumably what you talk about in the show are all real life experiences. What was it like to shape those into stories that you were then going to share on stage?
“I’m not someone who gets easily embarrassed by stuff because I truly consider everything that I’ve gone through as a lesson. So when it came to telling these stories—which are all 100% true—I had to be casual about it and be like, ‘Hey girl, you know this thing happened to me…’. It may not be the exact experience that happened to someone else, but most people have been broken up with and most people have experienced unrequited love. Those are things that we can all identify with. So I lean into that. Most people are not going to leave this earthly plane without having their heart broken.”
How did you come up with the song selection? It is really meaningful when we hear them because of the context that you have put them in.
“The song “Lost In the Stars” which I talk about in the show, is something that I learned at college with one of my voice teachers. Outside of the story in the show, which is true, I also think it’s a beautiful song. Kurt Weill is brilliant. He’s one of our great American composers and that piece is truly beautiful. Studying it in conservatory, I had to find out who wrote it, when he wrote it, why he wrote it, and what musical it’s from. So I know a lot about this musical that I’ve never seen, “Lost In the Stars”, and it’s never been revived so it’s probably not a great show. I wanted to sing that song because I think it’s truly beautiful.”
Something that you touch on in the show is your relationship to your singing voice and how that’s evolved. How would you describe your relationship to your voice now?
“My relationship with my voice has changed so much and a big part of that was getting to sing on Drag Race and seeing people’s reaction to a bass voice. Besides some pop folk who have been basses and had thriving careers, you can count on one hand the amount of successful low voice singers versus the millions of tenors out there singing. As a low voice male singer you’re not told that your voice is that beautiful all the time because you’re singing very low and the types of roles you play in opera are not typically beautiful roles. You’re often the villain or a bad guy or some priest or boring old thing! So for a long time, especially learning that in college, I was like, ‘This is the box that my voice has to live in. It is going to be this secondary, ancillary thing to support the beautiful tenor or the soprano. It’s never going to be the star or the focus.'”
“That’s what got into my mind about what my voice was always going to be, so getting to sing that beautiful aria on Drag Race and have people be like, ‘Oh my God, you have this beautiful low voice and you’re the star’ was amazing. Now I’m getting all these great opportunities to sing these roles with different operas and showcasing my voice and my talent and doing my own music and singing in my low voice. Drag Race is a big part of validating that for me and letting me know that I have a pretty voice and that people should hear it.”
Having done Drag Race three times now, how do you reflect on what the show has given you in your life?
“Drag Race has given me my career. I didn’t start doing drag to be famous or to get onto Drag Race. I started drag at a time in my life before we saw what Drag Race can really do. I started drag because it was my lifeline to discover myself and to know who I was and I’m so grateful for that. I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with people who do drag to get on TV and to be famous. That’s also completely valid, but it wasn’t why I did it. So if I had never found Drag Race I would probably still being doing drag at this point and I’d be very happy doing it. But because I was blessed to get on television and to talk to RuPaul on his show a few times, I’ve gotten this really great career and I’m able to tour and do my music and make content and have people consume it and people want to see more of me. I’m truly grateful for that. I don’t know what my life would be like if I never got on Drag Race, because that’s not what the reality is, but I would assume I would still be doing drag because I love drag so much.”
Drag Race gets you some attention as a drag artist but then it’s really up to you what you do with that platform isn’t it? That was something that I was speaking to Bianca Del Rio about a while ago.
“At this point there are hundreds of girls from the show so you have to put in the work to distinguish yourself from everyone else. You have to do what is right for you and your career and what talent you have. Bianca is someone who has had a thriving, beautiful career because she’s a great comedian and she didn’t just rest on, ‘Oh, I’m on Drag Race, now I’m famous.’ No, she was like, ‘Hey, I’m on Drag Race. I’m a nasty, hateful bitch and I’m going to monetize that and I’m going to do shows across the world doing that. I have a talent to be mean and nasty, so why not do stand-up and do shows around that concept?!’ And she’s so good at it. She’s so good at being a troll and it is working really well for her!”
One of the things that I loved about Life Be Lifin’ is your relaxed and intimate delivery. It really felt like you were talking to your best friend, which is amazing as an audience member because it makes you feel like you’re that best friend who is being confided in. How naturally does that come to you?
“It’s not something that I’ve ever really worked on, but it is something that I get told a lot. I have my new podcast, Monét Talks, and I did a solo episode recently because we didn’t have a guest but I still wanted to record something. So this whole episode was me just talking at the camera for 50 minutes. In the comments people were like, ‘Oh my God, I usually hate solo episodes of YouTube shows or podcasts, but this was so relaxed. I felt like I was talking to my best friend’. I guess I don’t realize that that’s something I do. I’m not telling these stories in a certain way or talking to the camera in a certain way to evoke that feeling, it’s just second nature to how I talk to people and tell stories. I’m not trying to be relatable or personable, it just happens and I’m grateful that that’s naturally my thing because it would really suck to be someone who likes to talk if no one wanted to listen to you! So I’m happy that I like to talk and people want to hear it!”
You launched Monét Talks in October 2024, what’s your vision for this latest podcast?
“Any chance to get away from Bob the Drag Queen! He is literally a succubus or a leech in my life. So being able to do a project that he was not a part of spoke to me! Also, I get to talk to friends, other celebs, politicians, and ex-boyfriends and have open and honest conversation with them. I’m a naturally curious person and I’m so intrigued about people’s lives and how they become who they are. I love talking about that, but also finding the relatability in these famous people. I’ll be like, ‘I heard that you be tasting the fruit at Whole Foods. Is that true? Why do you do that?!’ I find that stuff to be interesting and I like to find that out about people!”
I love your most recent album, Grey Rainbow Vol. 1. Give me an insight into putting that together and how would you describe it for those who haven’t had a chance to hear it yet?
“Grey Rainbow Volume One is all R’n’B because R’n’B is one of my first loves in music and I like putting out music that I like listening to. Not to mention any names, but I’ve heard some interviews with artists who make music that they don’t really like. They’re making country music or they’re making rock music, but they don’t really particularly like country or rock. When I’m at the gym I’ll be listening to R’n’B. I’m not listening to a dance remix of “Pink Pony Club”, I’m listening to Summer Walker or Tank. I like slow music at the gym. I’m a fucking weirdo!”
“Grey Rainbow Volume One tells stories about my life. Life Be Lifin’ is such a small part of what I’ve been through and Grey Rainbow tells you more of that story, specifically when it comes to love. I have Volume Two coming out in 2025 which is more upbeat because Volume One is a little more somber, a little more quiet, a little more serious. With Volume Two we get to dance a little bit and I’m really excited for the features that I have coming out on Volume Two. I think it’s going to be really fun.”
What’s your favourite piece of LGBTQ+ culture; something that has resonated with you over the years and has had an impact on you?
“Definitely ballroom! I think ballroom is such a huge and important part of queer culture, queer legacy, and queer history. Ballroom is so rich and it has given us so much that we don’t even realise, not just to queer people, but to the world at large. It has informed a lot of our culture, fashion, and vernacular. It is so instrumental and so pervasive in so much of our lives and it’s so beautiful. Shows like Legendary gave us a bigger peek into what ballroom is, alongside Paris is Burning, and I follow people like Dashaun Wesley, Leiomy Maldonado, and Shannon Balenciaga and all these people online who are injecting so much richness into our lives through ballroom. I love ballroom culture so much. I get into these YouTube holes watching battles and balls all the time. It’s just so great.”
What’s your own connection to ballroom?
“I grew up in New York City and in my high school choir there was this guy named William and another person named Lonnie who were both members of the House of Ebony. While we were at high school they would take me to Kiki functions at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis on 23rd Street. A Kiki function is a small version of a ball. A ball is a huge thing with a judge’s table and there’s a whole production, whereas a Kiki function is more casual and intimate. There are a few people there voguing and doing the categories and having a good time. There are no stakes. You can’t win trophies or money anything like that.”
“The experience of going to those Kiki functions in high school at that point when I was quote, unquote straight, gave me little glimpses of my bubbling queerness. I’d get a fake ID and sneak into La Escuelita club on 39th Street and Eighth Avenue, which was the big ballroom club in New York. They’ve since closed down, but it was so cool to sneak in there and to see people having balls in the club. It was amazing.”
Monét X Change is currently touring her critically-acclaimed one-woman show Life Be Lifin’ across the U.S. and Canada.
Jan 9 – Seattle, WA (Neptune Theatre)
Jan 11 – Portland, OR (Aladdin Theatre)
Jan 13 – San Francisco, CA (Regency Ballroom)
Jan 15 – Salt Lake City, UT (Jeanné Wagner Theatre)
Jan 16 – Denver, CO (The Oriental Theater)
Jan 18 – Philadelphia, PA (Theatre of Living Arts)
Jan 22 – Asheville, NC (Orange Peel)
Jan 24 – Boston, MA (The Wilbur)
Jan 25 – Portland, ME (State Theatre)
Jan 26 – Washington, DC (Howard Theatre)
Jan 28 – Toronto, ON (Jane Mallett Theatre)
Fore more details and to purchase tickets head to Obsessedwith.co/monet-x-change-live. Follow Monét X Change on Instagram @monetxchange.
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