"RuPaul's Drag Race"? She's won it. Operatic arias? She sings them. GLAAD Media Award-winning podcast? She's got that too. Monét X Change is a multi-hyphenate entertainer, to say the least.
Despite her varied resume, X Change said wasn't initially sure stand-up comedy was in her toolkit too. But now the winner of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars," cast member of "The Traitors" Season 4 and co-host of the hit podcast "Sibling Rivalry" is launching her second national tour: "High Heels, Bad Knees." Her first stop? The Spokane Comedy Club, March 20 and 21.
X Change spoke with SPR's Owen Henderson about finding her love for stand-up, authenticity on reality TV, and the intersection of drag and politics.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
OWEN HENDERSON: From multiple seasons of "RuPaul's Drag Race," to talk shows, to podcasts, to political activism, to opera, to the current season of the hit reality show "The Traitors," drag queen Monét X Change's career is multifaceted, to say the least.
She's about to launch a stand-up comedy tour—“High Heels, Bad Knees”—across the country, and she's starting in Spokane this Friday. She joins me now to talk about it all. Monét X Change, thanks for being here.
MONÉT X CHANGE: Thank you for having me.
OH: People who know you from your time on Drag Race, your many podcasts and talk show appearances, or The Traitors, already know you're a very funny person, but being funny and being good at stand-up aren't exactly the same skill set—
MXC: Agreed. Some queens need to stop. Bianca and Bob, sit down.
OH: How did you navigate the transition from hosting drag shows and cutting up on podcasts to doing stand-up?
MXC: That's actually a great question. Four years ago, my agent came up to me and said, ‘Hey, Comedy Dynamics, they're looking for four queens to do comedy specials.’
I said, ‘Okay, great for them. What does that mean for me?’
He's like, ‘Well, I think you should do it.’
And I was like, ‘Uh, I don't do stand-up, though.’
And he was like, ‘You do, you're just not calling it stand-up.’
And I was like, ‘I really don't.’
He's like, ‘Do me a favor, sit down, try to just work on some material, and let me know where you get.’
I never put pen to paper and write materials. When I hosted drag shows, it was just like, everything was off the cuff, pretty much crowd work, to be honest, and other little anecdotes that I would tell for my life in the city and yada yada yada, never calling it stand-up.
And I sat down, wrote some material, and then I did a show a week later at the Brea Improv. I was like, ‘Oh, wow, like, I do have stand-up, like, this is crazy.’
And then the following week, I recorded my first comedy special, "Fist of Glory."
If any comedian listening to this is like, going, they're like, ‘No, no, no, girl, what are you talking about?’
Yeah, I recorded my first special after two weeks of having the material, which is not the way to do a special, by the way. You're supposed to do it after like a year or two. And then this new hour, ‘High Heels, Bad Knees,’ is actually the way you do material.
You work it for about a year, and then you take it on the road, and then you put it to bed. I can't believe it took me so long to find my way to stand-up, but I love it. I hope I can do stand-up for the rest of my life, to be honest.
OH: You know, I actually got the chance to see you do stand-up a few years ago, I think, while you were traveling that last hour. I think you might be the only stand-up I've ever seen who's worked opera into your set. How do your backgrounds in opera and in drag complement and inform what you do on stage as a comic?
MXC: My first year of stand-up, I was trying to figure out how I could maybe incorporate other aspects of my artistry into stand-up.
And now I think I'm just leaning solely on the stand-up. And you know, I can decide that now, maybe in two years from now, I'm like, ‘No, I want to have more parody, opera parodies in there.’
And that's all fine. Your stand-up is what you want it to be.
But I think in terms of a drag queen, being on those stages in New York City, like I did seven shows over five days in New York City when I was in my prime, my last two years before Drag Race. And so I was learning how to be on stage and not be intimidated by a room full of people.
Or honestly, what's more intimidating? A room not full of people. When you're on stage and there are two or three people in the audience, you're like, 'Well, here we are.'
But to know that I can turn that room as well, I think, informed me back then of my talents and what I have and how no room is too small, or too big to scare me. So I love that. I love that those early days in New York City taught me that.
OH: I have to imagine what you do now, obviously, is very different than what you did before your first stint on Drag Race. Talk to me about how life as a drag artist changes when you go from what some people would call local drag to being put on this enormous platform and given all these different opportunities. How does that change what you do?
MXC: In my humble opinion, I think sometimes people let the Hollywood of it all change what the ethos of your drag is. I think my drag will always be about entertainment, by any joke necessary. And with a grain of salt, right?
When I say any joke necessary, I mean like I would do anything short of punching down to go for a joke, right? Like a lot of my humor is self-deprecating because my life is just so ridiculous and the things I've done are so crazy. And so a lot of it is centered around me and the things that I've done and my experiences.
And I think that sometimes when, I mean—this might be a little shady—look at some people like Dave Chappelle and these other artists. Your life has become so Hollywood; it's just not relatable.
And I think that drag will always be a little bit under the mainstream—that I will never get the chance to have the Dave Chappelle of it all.
OH: We mentioned earlier you are part of the current season of The Traitors, and you did make it one episode further than your "Sibling Rivalry" co-host, Bob the Drag Queen—
MXC: Sure did. I let him know every morning. I sent him a text every morning like, by the way, I went one more episode than you.
OH: But I guess I'd ask, what have you learned from literally just being on set more? This is your fourth season of a TV show, but you've also done all these different podcasts and you have a show on Dropout. What have you learned over the course of all that time?
MXC: My God, I look back at Season 10, Monét, I was so green. I had no idea what TV was, how it all worked. I had no idea.
And I think going in, I had a game plan of, ‘OK, when I go on Season 10—when I got casted—I'm going to be this. I'm going to try to do this.’
And I remember chatting with Bob. He's like, ‘Monét, don't do any of that.’ He's like, ‘Just go in there and be yourself. That's why you were cast in the show, and that's all you have to worry about.’
And I think I've carried it on through every iteration of TV I've done, from my own personal projects. When I had my talk show, "X Change Rate," my show on Dropout and Traitors, I'm just going on this and being myself.
And I think that anyone who tries to go on reality TV and tries to give a false perception of who they are or coming in with a plan, ‘I'm going to be the bitch. I'm going to be the sweetheart.’ It never works, because at the end of the day, anytime those people come on TV to pretend to be something they're not, it always shines through.
Who you are at the core of your personhood is going to be the thing that will resonate through TV. And lucky for me, who I am, people like, and people think of as funny and charming and lovely. And I am, for the most part.
My fiancé might say something different, but I think I am.
OH: This is a bit of a pivot. But in 2024, you, along with a number of other prominent drag artists, helped found DragPAC to help get out the vote to support LGBTQ rights. I think there are a number of different schools of thought about whether or how much people in industries like entertainment or sports should or shouldn't weigh in on politics. And I'm curious what your train of thought was, what pushed you to get involved in that way?
MXC: For me, I was looking at the state of the world and this world that, by the way, we all have to live in. So I was like, what can I do with my little platform and who I am? I do not want people to look back at me and be like, what did you do when this was happening? I want to be someone who speaks openly and proudly and freely and speaks truth to power.
That's why DragPAC was important. I was like, I mean, DragPAC is not AIPAC. We don't have the same buying power or something like that.
But we do have something. You know, there are a lot of drag fans who are finding, not even just drag fans, just people in the world are finding their voice in politics and vocalizing the atrocities happening on American soil. So I think that that's why DragPAC was really important because we wanted to activate the 25-to-35-year-olds to use their voices and activate change in our country.
OH: Monét X Change is a drag queen and a stand-up comic. She'll be kicking off her "High Heels, Bad Knees" tour in Spokane this Friday and Saturday at the Spokane Comedy Club. Monét, thank you so much for your time this morning.
MXC: Thank you, darling. Thank you for chatting with me.
