Original subtitles

Now sissy that walk.

[cheering]

Trend alert.

I'm new to a lot of things.

I ain't new to stunning.

I always joked about running away and joining the circus,

and I basically have. [laughs]

Category is New Jersey/ Atlanta housewife.

♪ She's a super queen ♪

Naomi's such a whore. I love it.

I don't need a lot of communication.

I just need to, like, there to be a plan.

Vanessa Vanjie Mateo.

Thank God.

Oh, send me home!

♪ And if I fly or if I fall ♪

[deep voice] Yeah, can I have a double cheeseburger

with cheese only and two medium fries?

Like that, though, bitch?

A sweet tea, two apple pies,

and, uh, a McChicken, no mayonnaise.

[laughs]

I would, like, change my voice, because I would, like--

I don't know, if I thought

my food was gonna get spat in or something.

Being gay is hard, okay!

There's a lot of things you have to worry about.

[laughs]

When you care.

But now I don't give a fuck, so...

Nope. I'm very self-sufficient.

If I can get it up high enough,

then I can grab it from the top.

I don't need nobody's damn help!

Here we go.

Oh, yay, you can look at my ratty, end-of-the-show ponytail

that I have so much time to do my hair

because I'm right next to the closing number.

Take a right, take another right, take a left,

climb up the mountain, sail over the sea,

take another right, take another left,

climb through the cave, and there, here we are.

Ladies and gentlemen, the muscle queen

turned bodybuilder Barbie, Kameron Michaels!

[cheers and applause]

I'm sure I would be a completely different person

had I grown up in a larger city.

I think I was kind of teetering on the last generation

where we really had to hide.

I grew up in a small town in a Southern state.

You know, I was picked on, made fun of,

and people talked about my voice,

people talked about the way I walked.

Everything that was said about me

to make me feel like I didn't belong.

♪ It's a brand new day ♪

♪ This is the beginning ♪

I think Kameron is a way out,

because she allows me to be crazy and spontaneous,

which I'm not usually all the time.

♪ The beginning ♪

When I was younger, I always knew

I was meant to do something more than what I was doing,

and now I'm living the goal.

♪ Right, right ♪

♪ Get it, get it, g-g-get it, get it ♪

♪ Right, right ♪

♪ Get it, get it, g-g-get it, get it ♪

♪ Right, right ♪

♪ Get it, get it, g-g-get it, get it ♪

♪ Right, right ♪

Vanessa Vanjie Mateo!

That ho that runs your anus.

That's my opening monologue.

[laughs] Your whole monologue?

That's my open monologue.

You wanna have half of this shot with me?

-This is the problem. -No, no, no.

-She likes to feed me tequila. -Yeah, and--

I either cry or take my clothes off.

So now I know why I was giving it to her.

-Cheers! Aah! -Cheers!

I enjoy Kameron.

And when we get to share dressing rooms,

we kiki and cut up.

Life's too short for bad sex, you guys!

This is the education channel. We gotta teach them.

Make sure you douche and make the water run clear.

Now, this is my real tip.

Okay, I learned this, you know, later on in the future.

You do your first few douche--

shove it up in your ass and let the water come out clear.

Shove it up your ass, let the water come out clear.

Your last one, do a few drops of Listerine.

You do a few shots--

a few drops and the Listerine in that water, let me tell you.

When that boy or whoever get up in there,

you done got 'em

and they get that experience,

they gonna call you, bitch.

Is it for the coolness or the taste?

Just for fresh, the coolness, the taste.

They gonna end up, they're, like...

And they're gagged, and you're like, "Mm-hmm."

In high school, I was told

that you had to put Listerine on your dick

before you got blowjobs.

So any time I'd get ready to go to a party

I'd, like, swish my dick in some Listerine.

-What? -But it never got sucked,

so I stopped doing that as an adult.

Don't wash your dick with Listerine.

-Oh, my God, now, that, I-- -It'll leave you disappointed.

[Yvie laughs]

I don't know any of you anymore.

We're gonna edit that out.

But, yes, Listerine and dishwater.

Well, I went to a private school,

so we didn't have sex ed.

That was against the rules, so...

And sex with men definitely wasn't a thing where I'm from.

And even in school, they--

Sex Ed with Kam.

Sex Ed with Kanji.

And we would even--

Wow presents plus. Sign up now.

The cut-up now.

You know what? That's a fierce idea.

And we probably will recreate the situations for y'all.

Kameron Michaels, dancer, showgirl.

Always kills it onstage.

Yvie: Cool, mysterious, like, a hard-to-crack nut.

But, like, when you do, she just, like, spills over.

She's a candy queen. She can do it all.

She might not be able to do it all, but...

Kameron Michaels, that's my ride or die.

Oh!

Probably the quietest person

I have ever met in my entire life.

She is very quiet and reserved,

which is funny, because it's, like,

such a juxtaposition of her character online.

Kameron sent me home, so fuck her.

That's all I have to say.

No respect around here.

None!

-Damn it! -What, girl?

Guess I have a mole tonight.

That's what happens.

You fuck up your makeup, you give yourself a mole.

Are you giving yourself a mole tonight over a pimple?

-No. -Yeah.

My makeup doesn't smudge.

-Oh! -Ugh.

Yet.

Damn it!

Never fails.

I think that I'm not as quiet as what was seen on television.

I did things to avoid the cameras at times on the show.

I was shy. I took off my mic sometimes.

You know, there is a certain character that you give,

but also a certain character

that they are trying to portray for you.

Kameron definitely has two sides to him,

like the side where, like, just there to do the gig.

And then, like, it's so funny when the camera comes on

and the phones come out, like, we get this butterfly.

It's just like this completely different person.

Hi, hello, how are you?

I'm just a woman.

So much work right now,

I'm so busy. Oh, my God.

I have so many things to do. What am I gonna do next?

Without meaning to, I'm sure that my persona was created

so that I can come outside of my shell.

Probably not intentionally,

but I'm glad that it's there so that I can.

I'm a woman today,

and you can't tell me anything else.

That's literally how I feel!

I know. I feel like such a woman today.

She's having a pretty day, so it, like, radiates.

Just because Kameron seemed chill on TV or whatever

doesn't mean she's like a zombie person in real life.

There's people that will never accept me,

that will always think that I'm the quiet, introverted one,

that I don't speak, that I don't talk.

And that's okay.

You can't please everyone in the world.

I don't really, like, read

a lot of my comments anymore,

because I just don't care.

No one's ever here to zip me.

Where is everyone when I need them?

I need a zip! Goddamn!

We've all had different journeys to get where we are,

and I'm doing the best with the journey that I've had.

You look...decent.

Aw, thank you. About time.

Kameron Michaels is my other persona,

and she allows me to be an extrovert,

even though I'm introverted.

The part I love the most

is that I get to walk out onstage.

That kind of makes up for the fact

that I didn't get to be seen as much on my season.

In my number, I am Mars, the bringer of war.

So I am hard and edgy and loud.

I wanted to do, like, spears.

I'm not loud, but I like to be loud onstage.

I drop myself in from the ceiling 40 feet

and land on the stage.

I don't think about it, but it's a little dangerous.

So, like, I guess my life kind of depends on these people.

Is there a way to make her fall in from the ceiling?

And I went, "Well, now, by falling,

you don't really mean falling."

He goes, "No, I want her to, like, fall

like she's landing on a mat.

Dan, you wanna take that?

Kameron enters from the ceiling.

She drops from the center point.

Honestly, this is the scariest part.

Kameron has to spin

about 30 to 40 feet up in the air

in the dark while the projector plays.

And then she has to drop on a cue,

and she pulls the lever herself.

Every single night.

I could never. Never.

Uh-uh. Mm-mm. Not my gay ass.

Nope.

And sometimes there'll be, like, mishaps.

My manager asked me, "Are you scared of heights."

I said, "No, not that I am aware of."

So there's a lot of safety consideration we have to take.

The first 15 to 20 feet of the drop

is completely free.

There's no descender, there's nothing on her.

This tour, something's happened with the cables,

and I keep turning around in circles.

She can't control it,

because she's literally up there on a wire in a harness.

So if it decides to turn around, she's, like, well.

My cables for my number are twisting,

and they've twisted the entire tour so far.

So when I'm hanging backwards and I fall backwards,

I'm literally in the air 40 feet, swinging my legs,

trying to turn myself around towards the audience.

And today, it kept spinning me around backwards,

so I literally just gave up and just dropped backwards today,

and then, like, turned around.

I was just over it today.

New day, new city tomorrow. Well, not tomorrow,

because we have a day off tomorrow. Thank God.

I get hooked up right here and yanked up into the ceiling

to just hang there

like a bird on an electrical wire.

I don't know.

Something funny, something clever.

And I pull the ripcord and fall to my death.

Or so I hope every night.

I'm putting together all of this crap

for this damn number,

so I spend my nights putting together light bulbs.

Who am I supposed to be so I know who?

Darth--Darth who?

Darth that person.

-Darth Vader? -Yeah, him, too.

No one is speaking to you, Kameron Michaels, okay?

Hey, I need as much airtime as I can get,

so if means stealing somebody else's,

that's what I'm gonna do!

You should have got your airtime on your season, toots.

Yeah, well, now I'm gonna have to make up for it.

Okay, well, that's not how that--

that's not exactly how that works.

I'm not popular enough for All Stars.

No. [chuckles]

Asia is my favorite.

She's probably the one that I'm closest with.

If I like you or I know you well enough,

I am mean.

Shut up, Asia.

-What? -Nothing.

Kameron, pick your battles!

I'm your only friend here.

-Literally your only friend. -Really?

Yeah, I am your only friend here.

Vanjie, are you my friend?

No, of course she's not!

Girl, she don't even know your name.

Kameron is like my little sense of home.

Kim Chi thinks you're the merch girl.

Kim Chi said she's my friend.

Well, Asia and I love poking fun at each other.

Like, there's a sliver of truth

in everything that we talk about.

I'm literally her only friend,

and yet she always tries to come for me,

which I don't really understand.

You know, like, she's got enough enemies,

and she wants to--

Hi, Kameron.

Who you talking about?

I was just talking about this girl I know.

What's her name?

Uh, uh, I think her name is Dane.

-That's like a boy's name. -Yeah, it is.

Uh, yeah, a lot of stuff about her is like a boy.

-Oh, really? -A lot. Yep.

-Uh-huh? -She's--yeah, she's not--

she's not the most-- she's not the most feminine.

She considers y'all friends?

She should.

She should, but you know, her perception is kind of askew.

Yeah, Kameron, get ready for your number.

I hope the apparatus works.

I hope a black drag queen

hasn't been up there in the ceiling tampering with it.

They're gonna hook these onto me,

and then I'm going to go up there.

It just feels really cool.

I don't remember drag queens falling from the ceiling,

so that's fun.

Yo, this stunt is everything!

Three minutes.

As a perfectionist,

I want everything to be perfect at all times.

[cheers and applause]

Did you get that on film?

What happened?

Backwards again.

I'm used to it happening now, so today I, like, landed backwards,

and then just, like, spun around.

It felt kind of cool to do that,

so you know what?

If I land backward from now on,

I'm just gonna turn around and hit a pose.

Hopefully I land all right.

[cheers and applause]

I think for me, it's never going to be perfect.

I'm never going to be the best dancer,

I'm never gonna be the most muscular,

I'm never gonna be any of these things that I'm working for,

and that's okay.

For a long time, a lot of us struggle

with wanting to be the best at something.

And there are so many amazingly talented people in the world.

But you can be the best that you can be,

and I think that's a struggle

that a lot of us have to get over,

and that's something that I've finally accepted

and been okay with.

I'm never gonna be the prettiest one,

but I can be the prettiest me,

and that's just how it is.

[cheers and applause]

Oh, my God, go follow Vanjie.

She's more interesting than I am.

And she's way prettier.

That's not true.

Bye!

-Tonight? You mean always. -Always.

Always. Always ready first.

What are y'all talking about?

Her drink of choice.

Which is?

The tears of my enemies.

Or the tears of my friends. That's even better.

What friends do you have besides Jeremy?

You see? And everybody wonders why

I'm in a bad mood all the time.

Let's be realistic.

You prefer your life without friends,

because you wanna do what you wanna do when you wanna do it.

You don't wanna have to explain to nobody,

or have anybody upset because you didn't invite them.

That's how you prefer it.

I'll give you that.

I don't ever wanna answer to anyone.

And if Kameron's feelings were hurt,

she was specifically not gonna tell anybody.

[laughs]

So...

I still regress sometimes

to wanting to be by myself and wanting to be alone

just because of my childhood.

I was a pretty outgoing child.

I think going through the trauma of being a gay youth

really changed me and made me more introverted.

I would just eat lunch by myself in the yearbook room.

My kind of go-to defense mechanism for a long time

was just stay away from other people.

Um, I adjusted, so I know

that a lot of other friends that I've had

that had the same struggles never recovered from that,

and they still tend to be extremely introverted.

So I know that I call myself an introvert,

but I'm a reformed introvert.

But I think for the fans that I gained after the show,

they've learned that I am a normal personal.

[cheers and applause]

At the meet & greets,

a lot of people say they're there for you.

Yeah. I think the fans relate to me the most.

They call me the "relatable queen."

I don't live this alternative life.

Like, I'm pretty honest

about what goes on in my life every day.

Wow.

Who's your favorite?

-Kameron Michaels! -Yeah.

Kameron all the way.

Oh, because she's the muscle queen.

And I think the fans really relate to that.

-Kameron. -Kameron Michaels.

It's cool to walk up to someone

and, like, have had the same experience as them

and be able to talk about it.

Even if it keeps me

from being the most popular or the most famous,

the most grand or diva-ish,

it's, like, I don't care about that.

I wanna be, like, an everyday person, too.

Morning.

It is 11:00. I'm already late.

I should have been eating breakfast by 10 A.M.,

yet here we are and it's 11:00.

So I'm gonna go find a local gym,

which is what I do every single day.

Seattle, Portland, all these places.

There's no rainbow roads in Nashville.

You should take notes.

I grew up in a Southern state,

where even to this day it's still not very acceptable,

like, to walk on the street and be exactly who you are.

Just to give you a glimpse into where I'm from,

the town 30 minutes south of me was where the KKK was founded.

Once high school ended and I found a gay community,

it made it a lot easier.

Here we are, my home away from home,

my workout for today in Seattle.

Today I'm doing chest, shoulders,

and a little bit of cardio, because I need it.

Tour food, candy.

The craft service table really gets me.

I've been better this time,

but if I eat a really healthy meal,

I'm gonna walk by the craft service table

and shove a handful of M&Ms in my mouth.

It's just gonna happen.

There's no way around it.

I started doing drag when I was 18.

I didn't start going to the gym until I was 25.

If one would have came before the other,

I don't think the other would have happened,

so I'm glad drag came first.

Yeah. Like, a lot of the girls would be, like,

"You have to cover up your arms.

"Your arms, your shoulders are too big now.

You look like a man."

Fit girls look awesome, I think,

especially with, like-- if they look strong,

I think that looks great, so whatever.

Again, who gives a fuck what other people think?

Do what you wanna do.

I'll never look like Naomi.

Like, I'll never be able to wear, like,

a teeny-tiny spaghetti strap

and have these, like, supermodel-slender arms.

So I'm never gonna look like that onstage,

and that's okay with me. [laughs]

And now I'm not gonna shower before I get in drag,

because drag is just as sweaty.

So for all of you that come say hi to me at the meet & greet,

I'm sweaty from the gym.

I just douse myself in perfume so I don't stink.

It just makes no sense. I'm not gonna shower

before I put on sweaty drag I wore the night before.

I got to find out so much about Kameron,

about all her preferences in life.

She reminds me of, like, one of those Sweet 16 girls,

because she's, like, everything must be perfect.

Like, she has to have her way.

-Geo! -Coming!

Is this hair on the left side gonna fall?

My left or your left?

-Like, right here. -Oh, it's the same.

No. It's secure down here.

-It's just, like, out. -Gotcha.

You put texture?

-Yeah, it's texture. -Uh-huh.

It's, like, just threw it up after the gym,

and threw on a dress to go party.

Very that.

[laughs]

Clean that up.

Watch someone fall. Watch someone fall.

[sighs]

Where are the drinks?

See, you can't even give anybody

a fucking compliment in this building.

Don't ever tell a drag queen

something specific that you like that they did today,

because that means the other 364 days of the year,

they didn't do it right.

Don't ever compliment a drag queen like that.

Or, like, "I like your makeup today."

"Why? What was wrong with it yesterday?

"Did it not look good yesterday?

It just looks good today"

Why do you say that like it doesn't usually?

What did I tell you?

What just happened here?

What just happened here on this day?

-What did you say? -Your makeup looks so good.

And what did she say?

Why don't you tell that to me normally?

My home city. We're in Nashville today.

Just to, like, walk out onstage in the TPAC Theater,

which is, like, where I came

and saw, like, Phantom of the Opera,

and, like, all these, like, plays

with my family when I was little,

when I was a kid,

Now I'm on that stage. That's really cool.

[cheers and applause]

Just the adrenaline that you got

from being onstage in front of people,

whether I looked good, or whether people cared or not,

the feeling of being up there,

I knew that's where I was supposed to be.

[cheers and applause]

[cheers and applause]

There's also another star from my season here tonight,

from the finale.

My grandma's in the audience somewhere.

Can everybody say "Hi, Edith?"

Edith. E-D-I, Edith.

On the count of three. One, two, three!

-Hi, Edith! -Hi, Edith!

[cheers and applause]

I failed speech class in high school.

Now I walk out, I'm not scared at all.

So it's really cool.

I'd love you guys to scream Werq the World

as loud as you can.

One, two, three.

-Werq the world! -Werq the world!

Signing off in Nashville, this is Kameron Michaels.

Bye, adios,

how are you, and goodbye.

I don't know what that is.

We're doing things

that have never been done before with drag queens

on a scale like this, and it's really cool

that a lot of kids are inspired by us.

They are learning more to be themselves and be who they are.

That's a really cool aftershock effect from the show for me.

[screaming and cheering]