Ahead of the Angels of The North taking place this April, one third of the group and Drag Race finalist Michael Marouli got in touch let us know what we’re in for. We chatted about the unmatched charm of Northern Drag as well as History Month, inprov and of course, world domination.
What can audiences expect from your Angels of The North Tour?
It’s gonna be an epic, full production show – really slick, high quality, and we’ll be bringing a disaster class so it’s a mixture of comedy, choreo, costumes, lights, dances – expect everything. The thing is with us three is we’re all so different, so we’ve each got our individual styles and performances that we’re gonna bring. It’s just gonna be the best night out, I’m so excited.
What do you think that lends to the show the fact that you are all such different characters?
It’s like magic when the three of us are together, the perfect blend and we complement each other really well. We always say Ginger’s the nana, I’m the mother and then Tomara is the naughty child and we just have the best time together. Honest to God when we did the disaster class on drag race, we wrote it in like 10 minutes it just came out our mouths straight away.
It just clicked.
100%. The show will be epic – you better be coming.
What makes Northern Drag special to you?
I think it’s the fact that were all working class and kind of its the grit and … hard knocks in life and then but still coming through and being fabulous. It just makes it all the more sweet.
You’ve performed to a lot of crowds both in the UK and abroad, do you notice a big difference between how you interact with them?
When I perform abroad, a lot of audience members do travel from the UK but you can just read the room and its very much in the moment, according to who’s sat in front of you. I think the UK audiences have just been wild and the best. Me and Tomara did a brunch just last weekend in London and it was insane – they were screaming and rushing towards the stage, one of the best gigs I’ve ever done.
I guess the interactive nature of it means that all your shows are quite different.
Yes, that’s the beauty of it, you can adapt and tailor it and that’s what I love about performing live. The reaction from the crowd just gives you all that energy back.
Yeah because you could go to like multiple of your shows and have a completely different experience.
Absolutely and we also bounce off each other so the improv will change the show every night – there’s people that have bought tickets for every date so will see all the shows so there’s always gonna be something different about how we do it.
You’ve got 17 years of experience in drag.
That makes me feel old.
When you first started, did you have any style inspiration?
I take reference from all things pop culture, and I was obsessed with the Spice Girls in the 90’s – I wanted to be one of them when I grew up. Then of course there was Lady Gaga and all that kind of thing and when I started in drag, I was working around a lot of the old school queens that had been doing it for years. I learnt how to talk on a microphone, how to work a room that sort of thing so it’s all about experience and watching other queens.
What advice would you give someone starting out their career?
Stick with it, work hard, trust your gut and be yourself. Don’t try and imitate what other people do because you’re enough as you are.
What’s the best and worst piece of advice you’ve been given?
My best piece of advice would be to be yourself, and the worst piece of advice I’ve ever been given was, ‘Why don’t you try drag.’
What makes LGBTQ History Month important to you?
It’s just about recognising where we came from and celebrating queer culture. I think that was what was so nice about when we did the makeover challenge on drag race hearing Peters stories about growing up in the AIDS crises in the 80’s and it’s just so important to keep those stories alive so that people know where we came from and what we’ve been through and how we got to where we are today, it’s just so important.
What is next for you after this tour?
We’ve got tours coming up, more TV, I just want to do everything and just enjoy this moment. I want to travel and experience everything that the world’s got to offer in drag. It’s just so exciting that I get to do it with two of my best friends as well.
What does 2024 have in store for you?
World domination.
The Angels of The North Tour April 2024 tickets available here:
