Season 2 · Episode 1
Voguer · Seduction singer · Drag Race judge
Released 8 Aug 2022 · 1:01:04 as a podcast
Every name, club, book, song, night and look from the interview - 154 references and 386 mentions in this episode. Michelle goes from a misfit in the New Jersey teen clubs to drama school in the Ansonia at 17 - with a fake ID her mother posted to her. Then the Palladium, the Underground and her first night of voguing, the Christopher Street piers, the House of Magnifique and the Love Ball, the name Visage, the Seduction audition, Paris Is Burning and Madonna, meeting Ru at the Copa, The RuPaul Show - and Drag Race. Hello!
Glitter cat-eye glasses, big gold hoop earrings, a black tank top over an orange top, gold name and star necklaces, long burgundy nails
A pale blue-grey room with a black office chair, a framed black-and-white portrait on the wall
Bare face
Walking Face with no make-up - wiping off with Pond's cold cream on the floor
Michelle was compared to her all her career; won a Madonna lookalike contest at 16 and grew up wanting to be 'the next Madonna'
First words at the Copa; really met in a green room when she had the Bodyguard song and Ru had Supermodel - 'you are a motherfucking superstar'. Brought her on as co-host of The RuPaul Show
Heard as “Roo / Ru Paul / RuPaul / Rue”
The guest: voguer, Seduction singer, radio and TV host, RuPaul's partner in crime and Drag Race judge. Links to her Night Fever episode
Heard as “Michelle / Michelle Bizal / Michelle Lesage / Michelle Vassage”
Michelle's real education - she walked Femme Queen Vogue and won the first time
Heard as “Ball / ball / ballroom / balls”
Host; plays a 30-second game at the end: name 10 projects in the next six months
Heard as “James”
Her house father in the House of Magnifique, who pulled her onto the floor for her first ball
Heard as “Caesar / Cesar”
'Everybody wanted to be an Xtravaganza'
Heard as “Extravaganza / Ganses / extravaganza”
It 'watered it down', Michelle says, 'but hello, this is something so queer'
Heard as “came out with Vogue / heard Vogue / put out Vogue / then Vogue”
She moved there at 17 for drama school
Michelle was there every weekend; where she first saw RuPaul
Heard as “at the world / go to the world / of the world / working at the world”
The 1980s teen dance club scene where Michelle first felt free
Heard as “New Jersey / tri-state”
Where she met Willie Ninja and Caesar, and the voguing family gathered
Heard as “Piers / piers”
'Mother Angie' - lovely and loving to Michelle, she says; James knew her at the Sound Factory
Heard as “Angie”
Same pale skin and blonde ponytail as Michelle - people played them against each other, she says
Heard as “Julie”
She vogued with the Magnifiques in knee pads and a blonde ponytail
Heard as “Love Ball / love ball”
Her best friend, who passed her the Seduction audition number
Heard as “Eidalis / I Dallas / Idalis”
Co-host; asks how she stayed sober in the clubs
Heard as “Fendon / Fenjan / Fenton”
Co-host
Heard as “Barbado / Randy”
Her drama school at 17
Heard as “AMDA / Amda / American Musical”
Her student dorm across the street - cockroaches included
Heard as “Beacon”
Her first stop with the fake ID - the bouncers ended up calling her 'Abs'
Heard as “Palladium / palladium”
One of the houses on the piers
Heard as “La Beja / lebigas”
Walking Face with no make-up - wiping off with Pond's cold cream on the floor
FashionBare face
Heard as “cold cream / walk face”
Michelle was hurt not to be in it at first - 'this was not my story', she says now
Heard as “Paris is burning”
Paula Abdul's cartoon cat - 'the worst name in history'
Heard as “Scat Cat / Scatcat / scat cat”
Very big hair, very short shirts, tight biker shorts, flat lace-up 'Victorian' booties, ruffled fold-over socks, neon fishnet and jelly bracelets
FashionBig hair, biker shorts, neon, jelly bracelets
Heard as “Lolita / biker shorts / jelly bracelets”
Became Madonna's dancer for Blond Ambition
Heard as “Jose Lewis / Jose and Louis / Jose and Luis”
'Legendary' - a pioneer Michelle learned about when she came in
Heard as “Pepper”
Michelle saw Leigh Bowery at her parties all the time
Heard as “Suzanne”
Michelle was co-host - two seasons, 100 episodes, from 1996
Heard as “RuPaul Show / RuPaul talk show / Talk Show”
Michelle's song on The Bodyguard soundtrack; the video was shot in a hurricane-wrecked Miami hotel
Heard as “Lovely Day / lovely day”
Her favourite singer; she sang 'Déjà Vu' at the audition
Heard as “Lady T / Tina Marie”
Michelle sang 'I Am Love' to land the job
Heard as “Jennifer Holiday / a jennifer”
Their duet on Ho Ho Ho
Heard as “hard candy Christmas”
Miss Mona is her dream role
Heard as “Best Little Horror House / Miss Mona”
'The hardest working man in showbiz' - James says Michelle has taken his crown
With Madonna, the new artist of the teen-club era; later a guest on The RuPaul Show
Heard as “Cindy Lauper”
Her signature: a royal-blue cat eye in Cleopatra pencil
FashionRoyal-blue eyeliner
Heard as “cat eye / royal blue”
Home of her drama school; old Follies girls in ermine walked the halls
Heard as “Ansonia”
Where it all started: a stranger brought her downstairs to a room of 'misfits' voguing
Heard as “the Underground / the underground”
'I clicked my heels three times and ended up on Christopher Street'
Where James knew Mother Angie
James asks if she met her - she didn't
Heard as “Dorian”
Interviewed her about voguing; she danced on its dance show
A white motorcycle jacket from Trash and Vaudeville with mirrored letters spelling CARA - 'face' - which gave her the name Visage
FashionWhite motorcycle jacket, mirrored letters
Heard as “mirrored letters / motorcycle jacket”
Aired The RuPaul Show
At the Love Ball and Susanne's parties
Heard as “Lee Bower”
'Opposites Attract' kept Seduction at number two, Michelle laughs
Heard as “Paula Blue / Paula debuts”
C+C Music Factory producer who auditioned her - 'pack your panties, you're going to Virginia Beach'
Ghost-sang Seduction's first single; she won her lawsuit, Michelle says, and they're still friends
Heard as “Martha Walsh / Martha Wash”
Guest on The RuPaul Show - Michelle 'lost her mind'
Guest on The RuPaul Show
Michelle's documentary, on Paramount+
Heard as “Explant the documentary / documentary is explant”
Fenton and Randy's company
Where James says her book Diva Rules can be bought
The good hair spray she worked to buy as a teenager
Heard as “Sebastian Spritz Vorte”
Former Ziegfeld girls in their 90s, fabulous in their make-up and ermine coats
FashionErmine coats
Heard as “ermine coats”
Got her start at the Continental Baths, under Michelle's school
Heard as “Beth Middler”
Her first fake ID said she was from the University of Texas
Heard as “University of Texas”
Home of the Underground
Across the street from the Underground, James says
Heard as “Maxis, Kansas”
Michelle met him on the Christopher Street piers
Heard as “Willie Ninja”
On the piers with everyone
Heard as “Octavia”
Where a mutual friend worked
Sold the jackets with mirrored letters
Heard as “Pat Fields”
Where she bought the letters for her CARA jacket
Heard as “Pearl Art Supply”
Her white motorcycle jacket came from there
'I wasn't given money like Paris Hilton'
James asks if she went
Heard as “area”
One of the Club Kid 'legends' Michelle knew
Heard as “I knew Michael”
She was doing a newscast with him at the Copa when RuPaul burst in
Where she and Ru finally connected in a green room
Heard as “dance music convention”
Ru's hit the year they met in the green room
Heard as “Supermodel”
Her last radio audition
Knee pads and a blonde ponytail
FashionKnee pads, blonde ponytail
Heard as “knee pads”
Michelle asked why she wasn't in Paris Is Burning - 'this was not my story', she says now
Heard as “Jenny Livingston”
Watch it, she says, and you can see the Madonna influence
Heard as “heartbeat video”
Shooting the 'Lovely Day' video at a hurricane-wrecked hotel
Heard as “Miami”
Madonna queuing unrecognised in sweats and a hoodie, as James tells it
FashionSweats and a hoodie
Heard as “sweats and a hoodie”
The era of James's Madonna-at-the-World story
Heard as “who's that girl”
Her old gym, where Madonna worked out too
Heard as “Upper World”
Number one when Seduction was number two
Heard as “opposite attack”
Where James partied with MC Skat Kat, he says
Her second audition song - she hit the high part
Heard as “I Am Love”
Where Seduction went to rehearse
Seduction's first song - ghost vocals by Martha Wash
Heard as “One and Only”
Guest on The RuPaul Show
Guest on The RuPaul Show
Guest on The RuPaul Show
Guest on The RuPaul Show
Guest on The RuPaul Show
Guest on The RuPaul Show
Designer of the dresses Ru wore on the show
FashionDesigner of Ru's TV gowns
Heard as “David Darimple”
The gowns Ru wore on The RuPaul Show
FashionDalrymple gowns
Heard as “Darimple dresses”
Ru's Christmas album - 'Hard Candy Christmas' got James through 1997
Heard as “Ho-Ho Ha”
Where James had just moved in 1997
James caught Michelle on her show
A pale blue-grey room with a black office chair, a framed black-and-white portrait on the wall
FashionGlitter cat-eye glasses, big gold hoop earrings, a black tank top over an orange top, gold name and star necklaces, long burgundy nails
His home library
FashionAn ivory satin top with a chunky multi-strand pearl necklace and black glasses
Side by side with Fenton on a grey sofa in a trailer
FashionA rust-brown jacket over a white T-shirt, a lanyard and a yellow wristband, camouflage trousers
Beside Randy in the trailer
FashionA navy top with thin red-and-white stripes and rimless glasses
The big number counts mentions in this episode. The gold number counts the same name across all episodes on the site. Timestamps mark the first mention. Spot something wrong? Tell me! Dive into the Network →