Gabbing With Gigi

Unless you’ve been locked up in a convent for the past year, there are two things that every queen knows:

1. Tom Cruise is a complete lunatic; and

2. Gigi Monroe won the very first Atlanta Drag Idol contest.

The competition was fierce but only one girl could emerge victorious. With a lot of hard work and sheer talent, Gigi clawed her way to the top of a majestic mountain of sequins and feather boas.

But who is the woman behind the legend? I was determined to scratch beneath the surface and discover the mind and soul of this fierce competitor. I invited Gigi to come by for dinner last week so that we could sit down and chat. Naturally I can’t make toast, so I conned DJ into preparing us a delightful gourmet meal of eggplant curry.

After dinner, I asked DJ for a little privacy and proceeded to subject Gigi to my best Barbara Wawa impression. Luckily, this Chatty Cathy didn’t require much coercion. It turns out that she’s an extremely intelligent young lady who’s not afraid to speak her mind. So sit back and enjoy the first official interview of Atlanta Drag Idol, Gigi Monroe.

Daph: Where were you born and raised?

Gigi: I was born in Louisburg, Pennsylvania and I was raised, let’s say Massachusetts.

Daph: So, you’re a Yankee?

Gigi: Yeah, I am.

Daph: When did you move to the South?

Gigi: After high school, I came here to go to college. I went to Emory for two years and hated it. They tricked me into going there. They said it would be a good liberal arts school. They lied. Everyone there was pre-law or business or pre-med. So I tried to make my own queer studies major while I was there. I took all the classes that they had that I wanted to take and left.

Daph: But you stayed in Atlanta?

Gigi: No, when I left Emory, I moved to San Francisco with my partner at the time and lived there for a year and a half. While I was in school here I started interning at non-profits and in the community and really wanted to do activist work and fell into the fundraising side of things. So, once I got out there, I interned at a queer youth organization and then became full-time staff. I worked there for a while but it was too expensive so I left there (San Francisco) and moved back here.

Daph: What part of San Francisco did you live in?

Gigi: I started in Santa Cruz and I was tricked again. They said it was close to San Francisco so we figured we could live there and work in the city. And that’s just a really bad idea: an hour and a half to two hour commute. Then, we moved to North Oakland, which was cool and lived with some friends in a big house. And then we moved into our own place in downtown Berkley and lived there for the next year. Then he went to grad school back in Boston and I moved back here.

Daph: So, what do you miss most about San Francisco?

Gigi: It’s weird because when I was here before I always felt like the only one on campus trying to do something radical and felt very isolated here. So, I wanted to be there so I wouldn’t feel like the only one trying to do something. And, when you’re there (San Francisco) everybody’s doing that and trying to be the most radical and the most outside the box and then you kinda get saturated with it and everyone’s jaded. So, when I was there I missed feeling that I was needed and valued. And when I’m back here, I definitely miss just the amazing stuff that goes on there. Even though, the sheer volume and the number of events that you can go to any day are totally overwhelming.

Daph: Tell me more about your volunteer work.

Gigi: I started with Youth Pride here in Atlanta. At the time, they had a huge emphasis on peer leadership and kinda had this youth leadership council that ran all the programming in the center and really dictated a lot of the structure. They were still in the formative stages to some degree, so the youth in the center had a lot of input.

It was through that that I had a lot of opportunities to go to conferences around the country and meet other young people who are activists. At those conferences you get exposed to so many new things that you never thought of before. I think the thing that I was exposed to that has stuck with me the most is a lot of social justice ideas and that queer liberation couldn’t be separate from other people’s liberations. It really shaped my views on things and my place in the community.

Daph: Let’s move onto some of the juicy things I know your fans want to hear about. If you could star in the drag remake of any film, what would it be?

Gigi: I’ve always thought about this and have a giant list. Well, the first one that I ever thought about doing is “Grease”. I’m just the ultimate Sandy: good girl turned bad. I think it would be so wonderful because it has such gendered roles: super feminine; super masculine parts.

Daph: What is one of you guilty pleasures?

Gigi: Oh my god, I can’t say those out loud! I have so many. All my pleasures are guilty. I love old Benny Hill videos. They are so hilarious to me and I can watch them over and over and over. I’ve never watched them with anyone so I think I have some kind of shame there. Friends kind of skim right over that in my movie collection.

Daph: If you hadn’t won Atlanta Drag Idol and you could choose the winner out of anyone in the contest, not just the final four, who would it be?

Gigi: Oh, Alexandria. I feel like out of everybody, she’s a real entertainer. When you can work a crowd regardless of what number you’re doing, what you look like and anything else; if you can still entertain them, that’s phenomenal. She didn’t let anyone tell her what she should do.

Daph: Yeah, it showed very early on in the competition that you two were really working very hard and bringing it week after week.

Gigi: We saw the contest in similar ways: what it meant to be asked to be in it. I thought, you’re giving me this stage and that is huge. I’m gonna do the best I can and bring as much sh!t as I can. I’m gonna bring props and I’m gonna bring stuff I would never bring anywhere else because this is such an honor.

Daph: Now that you’ve won Atlanta Drag Idol, what is your goal for the next year in terms of performance?

Gigi: I started drag last summer and the speed at which I’ve grown to this point is really fast and I know I’ve learned a lot of stuff and I’ve changed a lot. I’ve achieved some things that I set out to achieve. So, I just want to keep that pace and a year from now be able to say the same thing.

The main thing that I’ve learned in the past year is about working a lot and trying to fine-tune my stage presence. I know I have a lot of energy on stage and I think when I started I didn’t really know how to use it. I feel a little more comfortable now that I’ve tamed it a little and know how and when to unleash it. So, I’ve slowed down a little bit, which is probably really good. I look at old videos and I was a little spastic.

I want to keep working on that specifically. I tend to be most impressed with performers who can really move me with a ballad. They’re not relying on the energy of the song necessarily or a fast beat to keep their own energy level up. If someone can keep my attention and have the same effect that someone would if they’re doing a high-energy song, then that’s a real talent. I want to get to that level too.

Daph: How did you get your start in drag?

Gigi: I did one benefit show that a group of friends organized. We all kind of spearheaded this benefit at the Radial Café. It was called Cirque Du So Queer and it was a night of all kinds of queer performance art. Everything from drag kings and queens to live bands. I did a David Bowie number that night and also did Cindy Lauper. That was my first really public performance.

Six months later, I was like “I really want to do this again.” I had gone out in drag a couple of times just to bars and stuff. I was working at East Point at Oz Pizza and knew the Possums. They always talked about the big show that had every summer. I told them I had done drag for this one event a few months ago and really wanted to do it again. So they were like you have to do our show. I spent months preparing for this one show in the parking lot of a restaurant. I worked with this DJ friend of mine on this music mix and spent forever shopping for clothes. I had no idea where to start or where to get certain things, how to achieve these looks that I wanted. But it was amazing; it was such a great experience.

That night after the show, I was so excited and just wanting to go out, so we went to Blake’s. I ran into Phoenix and Nicole Paige Brooks. They were like, “Who are you, what’s going on, where did you come from, what’s your name, do you do shows?” I was like, “Ummm, I don’t know, I’m Gigi, I just did this show, whatever.” I didn’t know who these people were. They were like, come to this night they hosted at Compound last summer. So, I came out every Wednesday night over the summer to see them and watched Phoenix a lot. I really liked her performances and kinda studied her a little bit. I talked to Nicole a lot over the summer. I was like, tell me about my makeup and tell me what things to do. I spent last summer just going out as much as I could.

I went to the Metro all the time. Then they had a talent contest they were doing and the winner got to have a spot at Shawnna’s and Ashley’s show on Monday nights. So, I went out and I did that on July 19. That was kinda my first time in the mainstream drag bars here. I totally lost but it was a great night because I got to meet Shawnna officially. I met a lot of people and Regina, who manages the Metro, really liked me. She encouraged me to come back and come out as much as I could. She said that she thought she saw something in me. She does this whole wise woman routine. She was like, “I want the other girls to see you,” and I had no idea what she was talking about at the time. But, I followed her advice: I came out to the shows and dressed up for them. I’d just introduce myself to people and support their shows.

The first real gig that I got was through that. I went to see a show on Wednesday night that Maxine Blue hosted. She saw me in the audience and we had never met before but at the end of the show she was doing callbacks and she waved me up on stage. I was like, what are you talking about, that’s not me. She had one of the cast members come down and get me. I was like, what’s going on! I don’t know what she’s about to do. They always did the song “Dreamgirls” for their closing. So, she was like, “Do it, do the song with us.” I don’t really know the words, but I was like ok. It was really weird and I bowed with them.

After the show, I talked to her outside. I totally lied and said I had performed in Athens several times. I had a friend who came out with me at the time and she was from Athens and totally vouched for me. She (Maxine) was like, “Okay, well I host a show at Buddy’s on Saturday nights, so come on by and I’ll give you a booking. I didn’t know what a booking really meant. When she said the show starts at 11, I didn’t know that meant be there earlier than 11. I think I got there about 11:45; they run on drag time, soooo. Then, she was like, do you have another number and so I whipped out “Toxic”. It went over really well and it made lots of money. So, they added me to the cast there on Saturday nights after one show. So, it was a quick start.

Daph: Now that you’ve been through the whole Drag Idol competition, what is your advice to the next round of contestants?

Gigi: Now, you know they’re doing the talent search and my advice is to go out there every single week and do the talent contest. Hopefully, you’ll grow as you do it each week. And, they’ll see you grow. Ask a lot of questions if you don’t know something. Let them see that you’re putting the experience and their advice to use. That just speaks volumes for you as a person and as a serious entertainer. If you’re really serious about your craft then you listen when people who have been there for 20 years tell you what to do. You don’t always have to do exactly that, but at least think about it.

Once the competition starts, it’s a really f#cking hard thing to do. Don’t do it unless you want the biggest challenge of your drag life. Because it will be, guaranteed! We saw it with someone like Alexandra who’s worked so hard for so long and built her career. For her to be so challenged by this contest showed how intense it is. It’s really challenging for everybody because creativity speaks more than anything else. You’ve got to do something new every week if you want to be a strong contender. You’ve got to constantly give them something fresh and shock them a little. It takes a lot of time and a lot of energy to do.

If you’re seriously thinking about doing it, start preparing now for January. That first week, I thought I was going to totally turn it out. I designed something to have made to wear and put a lot of work into the costume and the whole look. I focused so much on that and realized I would have to not only do that but also create an entire performance for each number. Not just go out there with a great look and a great number but also really bring them together.

Well, that’s enough scoop for now. Be sure to stop back next week for the continuation of Gabbing With Gigi. If you think I’ve gotten some revealing dirt so far, you haven’t seen anything yet. Part II is where things get really personal.

Smooches,
Daph