“Break through all that noise.” Michelle Visage on life, lessons and Stan Original Series RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.

It's a Friday morning when I'm connected to a Zoom call that has Michelle Visage on the other side. 

While the loading button spirals my gay housemate, who has watched every single season and spinoff from the RuPaul's Drag Race franchise is out of the frame and looking at me like I have won the lottery.

The hullabaloo is understandable.

She is Michelle Visage after all - AKA not just any other person. She first made her mark in the 2000s when she gained recognition as a member of the band Seduction. She later became a radio DJ on BBC, an actor, and in the last decade, a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race and on the upcoming season of the Stan Original Series RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.

Take a look back at the RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under contestants from season one. Post continues after video.

More importantly, she's a LGBTQIA icon.

When her familiar voice eventually greets me, she is humble and warm, and effusive.

Talking is just one part of her job, and she's damn good at it. 

Michelle Visage, RuPaul and Rhys Nicholson on RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under Season 1. Image: Stan. 

To have such a mass hysteria surrounding her, and all that she does as a RuPaul's Drag Race judge across the globe, she says, is "a gift". 

"I'm honoured and humbled and grateful to be part of the legacy," she tells Mamamia. 

And while many would want to leave their work outside the door the second they arrive home, Visage doesn't feel she "needs" to separate from any of it. 

"It's a job that I love to do," she explains. "I'm bringing the joy that I just had at work, even though it's very hard sending somebody home. I bring the joy that I have home and it's just it's a great place mentally for me to live."

Visage has been a fixture judge on RuPaul's Drag Race, and its various spinoffs, since 2011. In 2021, a touchstone Australian and Kiwi version came to Stan. 

During the finale episode, Kita Mean was announced by RuPaul as the first winner of RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under, with the second season of the series premiering on Stan this Saturday, July 30. 

With talent hailing from around Australia and New Zealand, Visage says the competition is absolutely fierce this year for RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under season two. 

"It excites me the most when I sit down for episode one and meet all the new queens or at least see them for the first time," Visage explains in reference to the very first season of RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under. 

While being part of the RuPaul's Drag Race dynasty has been one of her greatest honours, it's her friendship with RuPaul (which has spanned decades) that has made this journey all the more special. 

"Think about how amazing it is when you're a kid and you talk to your best friends like, 'we're gonna grow up and we're gonna have houses next to each other," she explains. "We're going to work together and have our babies at the same time' - that's what girlfriends, and in particular girls and gays do."

RuPaul and Michelle Visage. Image: Getty. 

She goes on to say, "they plan their lives around each other. Nine times out of ten, that doesn't happen because life gets in the way. And in this situation, I get to go to work and sit next to my best friend (plus my other good friends) in each different country. 

"We're able to do that and I get to watch the world's most talented drag queens perform. It's every day. With the best cast ever. So to say I am grateful is an understatement."

The duo found one another all the way back in 1988, while both in the depths of the legendary New York City nightclub scene. It's where Visage and RuPaul both found their footing, and they've been inseparable ever since.

Like most friends, they've leaned on each other during hard times, and it was during one of those difficult moments for Visage, where RuPaul gave her one very special piece of advice. 

RuPaul and Michelle Visage, 1990s. Image: Reddit. 

"RuPaul said to me once in a very rough time of my life... 'I wish you could see yourself through my eyes. And through God's eyes. Because you wouldn't question any of this. You wouldn't suffer through any of this,' she tells Mamamia.

It was a eureka moment for the judge.

"I thought about how not only special that was but how deep that was and I thought, 'I am only seeing this world through my clouded vision. And if I can just open my mind to see myself from the outside, I'd see how good I'm doing and how much I'm loved.... And that was eye-opening for me."

A part from the styling challenges contestants themselves have to undergo, Visage has her own process for working out exactly how she is going to look for each episode.

"[My stylist and I] have a meeting of the minds," she explains. "He'll bring over everything for our first fitting and then I'll bring out the rack of stuff that I bought because I tend to lean towards getting vintage stuff online."

Listen to The Spill, Mamamia's daily entertainment podcast. Post continues after audio. 

"Whether it's Poshmark or eBay, I tend to buy stuff that's already been worn once or twice because it keeps it [within] the budget. You know we can get a lot more for our money because I don't have the ability to just call Gucci and be like, 'can I have that suit and that dress,' because I'm not given stuff like that." 

The art of giving is what RuPaul's Drag Race is all about, and in Visage's case, there are a few designers who are "generous" with what they give to her. 

"There are a few designers that are lovely with me. And one of them is Australian, and they're called Zhivago and they are wonderfully generous with me so I get to wear a bunch of their things and I buy some of their things as well... It is all a process, basically."

Despite having what some would argue to be an endless wardrobe, Visage opts for re-wearing outfits she knows and loves. The opposing mindset is one she despises.

"I have been re-wearing outfits because I'm so sick of the mentality, 'if you wear it once, you can't wear it again'. I hate that. It's what's [part of] killing this planet. So I'm very much into recycling fashion these days," she tells Mamamia.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Michelle Visage (@michellevisage)

There are thousands of applicants each year for RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under. The process to decide which queens will make their drag race debut is an immense challenge. So upon asking Visage what advice she would give to those looking to be part of the next season, she keeps it simple.

"BE yourself. So many kids audition, and I think they believe they have to be something that we're going to want," she explains, "They try to produce themselves and they make their audition tapes so complicated. You have to break through all of that noise. 

She continued: "So if you want to audition, go for it. Everybody's welcome to audition. Just make sure that your audition is authentically you and that you can deliver what you put on your audition tape on to the main stage."

Towards the end of our conversation, I have one last question.

I want to know if she has any idea of the legacy she has helped to create and foster. If the magnitude of what she is a part of has really sunken in yet.

"I actually don't stop to think about it," she says. "You know what? When journalists or interviewers ask if I ever thought it would be this big, I'm not even sure. I [don't think I do] realise how big it is. Because we love doing it so much. It's just our little world. And it feels like our little worlds that we never thought of as, 'oh this is gonna be the next big thing'. 

"You just hope that is fun. And that people love it as much as we do. I don't stop to think about it. All I think about is the lives that it's changed in the best way possible."

RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under season two is available to watch weekly from July 30, only on Stan.

Feature Image: Getty / Mamamia.