{"id":382,"date":"2025-07-11T15:24:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T15:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/draplenvuxio.com\/?p=382"},"modified":"2025-07-23T09:30:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T09:30:06","slug":"michelle-visage-is-not-so-secretly-the-best-tv-host","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/draplenvuxio.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/11\/michelle-visage-is-not-so-secretly-the-best-tv-host\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelle Visage Is Not-So-Secretly the Best TV Host"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For a moment I am petrified, convinced that Michelle Visage<\/u><\/a> is about to run up on me. <\/p>\n

She\u2019s asked me a question no entertainment journalist ever wants to hear in an interview: \u201cI have an article on my phone, and I\u2019m wondering if you wrote it.\u201d She pauses,. \u201cNo, it\u2019s not a bad thing, it was a good thing. It was, \u2018Michelle Visage is quite possibly the best living talk show host,\u2019 or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The article<\/u><\/a> which covers Visage\u2019s lockdown-inspired talk show How\u2019s Your Head Hun?<\/em>, reads, in part: \u201cBeyond the glamorized portrait she puts out into the drag world, there is an unmistakable depth to Visage, with deeply heartfelt convictions about womanhood, love, motherhood, and family-making. […]. I want more Michelle Visage. Television needs more Michelle Visage.\u201d <\/p>\n

She continues now: \u201cI\u2019m going to tell you this, which will make me emotional: that article meant so much to me, because you don\u2019t understand how long I have been trying to prove to the world that I am worthy. That I am more than that. I am so sick of being shoved into one box. It was a moment for me that made me so proud. Thank you for seeing me as something other than what people want to put me in a corner. To do that meant so much to me, because my dream is to have my own talk show, that\u2019s my dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That wish was granted for both of us, in part, seeing as Visage is the host of the new Botched<\/em> spinoff series, Botched Presents: Plastic Surgery Rewind<\/em>. Over the season, various celebrities with various plastic surgery procedures will face their desires to reverse \u2014 or keep the same \u2014 those same procedures. The series calls to mind The Swan, <\/em>an infamous plastic surgery show from the dark days of the aughts. <\/p>\n

Visage laughs at this.The Swan<\/em> is her \u201cfavorite TV show of all time. Sorry, it\u2019s absolutely horrific what it stands for, but it was mesmerizing.\u201d But having seen the first few episodes, those fears were abated, instead replaced by genuine shock at how far the medium has come in the last 20 years. As part of the process for the celebrities that go through the \u201cRewind Retreat,\u201d each episode includes challenges and sessions with Dr. Spirit, a psychotherapist tasked with delving into the how and why behind the celebs\u2019 surgical desires.<\/p>\n

Visage says it was \u201cso important\u201d for therapy to integrate in the format of the show. \u201cThere’s a reason why we got the surgery in the first place, right?\u201d she tells PAPER<\/em>. \u201cI can use myself as an example to demonstrate: the same issues that I had with my flat chest at 21 are going to be there at 55 when I take my implants out. That’s just the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Among guests in the retreat are The Real Housewives of Atlanta<\/em> OG Kim Zolciak and daughter Brielle Biermann, 90 Day Fianc\u00e9<\/em> star Larissa Dos Santos Lima and even Aubrey O\u2019Day. The former Danity Kane member learns of Diddy\u2019s arrest over the course of production; Visage says it was a \u201cgift\u201d to be a \u201cshoulder for her and a sounding board for her.\u201d They share a bond as two women who\u2019ve been through the recording industry and reality television gauntlet. Visage agrees, saying: \u201cWe have a kinship because I went through the same machine. Mine was just earlier. Mine was in 1989 and 1990 with C&C Music Factory, and having gone through a production deal and that kind of a machine, I know what it feels like \u2014 I know what it feels like to feel disposable and to feel like we don’t really matter, replaceable, you name it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nSee on Instagram<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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This motherly sentiment is something that comes up often in my conversations with drag queens who\u2019ve been through the RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race<\/em> pageant circuit, presided over in part by Visage. While RuPaul is \u201cmother\u201d in a more literal sense, it\u2019s Visage who exudes an immediacy and warmth with past contestants like Jinkx Monsoon, who she described in June<\/u><\/a> as one of her children. \u201cWhat I’m realizing is I\u2019m not sure I really got the parenting that I deserved as an adopted kid,\u201d Visage says.\u201cSo I am now able to be the mother to my inner child that I was never really able to have in my life.\u201d Through the work, she found that \u201cbeing able to do that for these kids, or for any queer kid that feels like they were never seen by their mother, or had that motherly love to protect them or guide them or just tell them that they matter, if I can give that to somebody, then that’s my reason for being.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more from PAPER<\/em>\u2019s interview with Michelle Visage, continue reading below. <\/p>\n

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There is a really powerful moment in episode two, where you sit and you take your make-up off with the celebrities, and you kind of challenge them to do the same. It was interesting to see you just go right into it with them and be like, I’m in this experience with you. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It was the very beginning, they were still kind of feeling me out. They might have known who I was, but they’ve never spent time with me. They don’t know how I am or who I am. And I really wanted to make everybody feel loved and welcomed as the host, you know? Dr. Spirit has that calming, soothing way about her, but that’s not my gig. I’m not a therapist. So as the host, I wanted them to know that I was there with them and in a sisterhood with all of them. Spirit asked me to do it and I said absolutely. I’m sure my makeup artist wasn’t so happy, that all his hard work was taken off on TV.<\/p>\n

It read like you got emotional afterwards, asking them to participate, and telling them that you see them as beautiful and who they really are. Talk me through that reaction in the moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

People that have been through the machine of Hollywood have one certain way of thinking they need to be, and they’re afraid to appear any other way. And now that I am a certain age, I realize, \u201cOh, you’ll get the full me in every way that I deliver myself.\u201d So if I’m there with no makeup, or if I’m in sweatpants with a bun on my head, you’re still getting the full me. It’s us. We are our own worst enemy and our own worst critics. So I was sitting there looking at all these beautiful people who had tons of makeup on, the hair, the outfits, the heels, the lashes, you name it. And I know that deep inside there’s insecurities just like me, just like everybody else.<\/p>\n

So I thought, listen, if I go first and I remove this exterior, and I expose myself, maybe they will, What made me emotional \u2014 spoiler alert \u2014 every single one of them did it. I didn’t expect any, and every single one did. And the fact that Aubrey did it first, even, that was mind-blowing to me. She’s as much of a drag queen as I am. So it was really, really emotional to see these beautiful people be willing to shed that on TV. It’s a big deal. It doesn’t seem like it, because, I mean, there’s people out there on the front lines of war. I’m not comparing it, but for these people to be that kind of vulnerable on television is a big risk.<\/p>\n

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I have to say, you and Aubrey O’Day have one of my favorite Drag Race<\/em> moments.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Directing the perfume videos!<\/p>\n

Yes, in season five! She described Alyssa as looking like a serial killer, and there\u2019s that image of you two watching the commercials. It\u2019s been meme-d heavily over the years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Laughs<\/em>] That\u2019s accurate.<\/p>\n

What was it like reuniting with Aubrey? You haven\u2019t worked together since, from what I could tell.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, we haven’t worked together since. I’ve seen her here and there. But what was a gift for me, was seeing how excited she was to see that it was me standing there when she got out of the car. I could automatically, instantly see her guard get let down, and she felt protected and she felt safe. It was wonderful that I could provide that for her, because she struggles. She doesn’t have a lot of people around her that she trusts or that are there for her in that kind of context. So that was really special to be able to be by her side through all of this, because as the show goes on, she finds out that Diddy had been arrested. It all unfolds in real-time on this show. So being able to be a shoulder for her and a sounding board for her was a gift.<\/p>\n

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I’ve covered what she and Dawn Richard have gone through, just with Making the Band<\/em> and their experiences in Danity Kane, for what feels like a lot of my career now. The machine that they came through, you can see the effects that it might have had on them, either their sense of self or their sense of self worth. Did you see that unravel a little bit over the course of the show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah. And you know what, Joan, we have a kinship because I went through the same machine. Mine was just earlier. Mine was in 1989 and 1990 with C&C Music Factory, and having gone through a production deal and that kind of a machine, I know what it feels like. I know what it feels like to feel disposable and to feel like we don’t really matter, replaceable, you name it. I had a kind of kinship with her, so it touched at my heartstrings even more than maybe the average person. And when you watch it, you realize that this kid has been through a lot of shit, so it’s very interesting, and I hope she gets the peace that she deserves at some point, and she will. I know she will.<\/p>\n

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