This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:18] Heather Bedor: Hello there.

[0:20] Amber Brzezinski: Hello.

[0:21] Heather Bedor: Gorgeous specimen joining us on the show.

[0:24] Ariel Bellvalaire: Hey, hey, how's it going?

[0:26] Heather Bedor: Oh, it's good. And if you hear the crunching, uh, the Frenchie is now chewing on a plastic phone against the couch. So and people might be confused. They're like, who is everybody on the screen? I have my glasses on, Amber's off to the corner, the dog's chewing. And then we have this gorgeous blonde rock star next to us. Do you want to give everybody like your elevator speech about who you are, how amazing you are? Because I can do it, but I'll just get like all fangirlian, and that would be weird.

[0:55] Ariel Bellvalaire: I mean, I'll start it out, but I totally want to hear your elevator pitch.

[0:59] Heather Bedor: Oh, you want me to fangirl? Okay, yeah.

[1:01] Ariel Bellvalaire: No, no, no. I just like to hear what people come up with.

[1:05] Ariel Bellvalaire: Um, but basically I'm the lead guitarist of Drag the Musical. Um, I've been singing and playing guitar for many years now. It's a full thing. I tour around, um, I play with Debbie Gibson as well. I actually met her through Drag the Musical because I've been doing it in LA, which is amazing. And when I'm not touring playing guitar for other artists in drag, I also do my own music too, which we call like Lady Gaga meets Van Halen because it's like commercial pop, but you gotta have a shred solo. Every song is a little bit of Gwen Stefani, but that's just a selfish name because I love Gwen.

[1:41] Heather Bedor: Gwen's amazing.

[1:42] Amber Brzezinski: She's incredible.

[1:43] Heather Bedor: Um, and your vocals are cool. Like it's catchy and poppy, but it's got an edge to it that I wouldn't say it's like Britney Spears. I would say you're at a whole other level.

[1:52] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, I agree.

[1:53] Heather Bedor: Thank you.

[1:54] Amber Brzezinski: Hey, you're welcome. So yeah, so my elevator pitch for you would be like badass, amazing hair, shredding rock star guitarist. Super talented, super talented, um, incredible musician. Um, also was the Kia Hamster that played the guitar, like it has like a really cool resume booster, incredible stage presence.

[2:16] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yes.

[2:17] Heather Bedor: Um, and like leads the drags through Drag the Musical to like an epic glory. Um, I told Tomas, yeah, of course, you're welcome. So you can just take that for any time. Um, but I had told Tomas on the show a couple weeks ago, it was like, um, yeah, so I'm a huge fan of Had Book of Maine Granch, and it literally just reminded me of that. Um, and I love it. I we learned a lot about like what kind of inspiration came like for the music, um, and like how the songs were written. And I'm like, now that we interviewed him and I've already seen the show, and then I saw the show again, I was like, Oh, there's a Meatloaf poster, okay, cool. And I'm like, all of us now make sense.

[2:56] Ariel Bellvalaire: Oh, yeah, everything made so much more sense the second run through after we talked to Tomas for sure.

[3:02] Heather Bedor: Oh, a hundred percent.

[3:03] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, it's so funny. Like the garage area is like we call it Tomas's dream just because it has all of his favorite bands over around it.

[3:13] Ariel Bellvalaire: I love it. Well, and he was telling us there's like no real way of hearing anything going on because it's everything's out to the speakers to the actual theater. So he's like, So we're jamming, but we can't really hear much of it going on. I was like, oh man, that takes a lot of talent.

[3:28] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, it's interesting. Like, we are all on inner monitors, so we have our own mix in our ears, and we can like adjust our own levels, but I have no idea what the show actually sounds like from the audience.

[3:41] Heather Bedor: No, it sounds amazing. So, like if you think it sounds amazing in your ears, it sounds amazing to the audience.

[3:47] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, that's incredible. It's just so much fun, but it's like catchy. Um, and Amber and I quote it all of the time. Um we do. I mean, it's just but we know that like the goal is kind of like a very like um um Rocky Horror Picture Show-esque kind of fan base, and um and we have some fun little surprises along the way tonight because with running the fan group, we also have done a poll. Um we've you can hear the French in the background. Son has made his fur text known. Um but we uh ran a poll to see what people would like to be called as fans, so that's so cool.

[4:24] Ariel Bellvalaire: I'm cool. I'm gonna be curious to see what you think, and then um maybe we'll have like a final run of it back on our socials.

[4:32] Heather Bedor: Oh, that's exciting.

[4:33] Amber Brzezinski: I know it's exciting, and something really cool. Um, that Ariel's signature is also on, is we're gonna do a giveaway.

[4:40] Ariel Bellvalaire: Woo!

[4:41] Amber Brzezinski: Yes, your adorable little signature right here.

[4:45] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yay!

[4:47] Amber Brzezinski: Um, so yes, we're gonna have a hell of a show. We're gonna do a little bit of Broadway news because there's been some like weird stuff that's happened in the last 24 months. Um, and Ariel's gonna join us for it. So super exciting. Um, and then yeah, we will uh try to get to any comments if anyone has any questions or comments about Drag the Musical, about Ariel's career, about hamsters, about guinea pigs, and I just have to interrupt you. You're also a Connecticut girly, too, right?

[5:14] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yes, yes, girly.

[5:17] Heather Bedor: Oh my gosh, I was born and raised in Windsor.

[5:20] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, that's so awesome.

[5:22] Heather Bedor: And we're sitting in her couch in Bristol. On our on her couch in Bristol right now.

[5:26] Ariel Bellvalaire: No way, yeah.

[5:28] Heather Bedor: That's right. Yeah, I came up from Orlando and I so I did the first week, and then during this week here, driving her crazy. Um, and then I'll go back into the city next weekend and then go back to Orlando where 20 degrees outside is not a thing that ever exists.

[5:42] Amber Brzezinski: Right, right.

[5:42] Heather Bedor: Um, that's not a bad thing.

[5:44] Amber Brzezinski: Well, but now your hair handles it very well. Mine just doesn't know what to do.

[5:48] Ariel Bellvalaire: Fair, fair. Well, when I would try to straighten my hair, uh I could not go outside.

[5:54] Heather Bedor: Oh no, like, cool, it'll get bigger, it's fine.

[5:56] Amber Brzezinski: Right, absolutely.

[5:58] Heather Bedor: Absolutely. So, all right, we're gonna get started with some Broadway news. Ms. Amber, take it away with some Broadway news.

[6:06] Amber Brzezinski: All right. We don't have much going on. Like I said, we did talk about it yesterday. Um, but we've had some kind of cool happenings. We had a really cool 90s moment in Sunset Boulevard with Joey Fatone and AJ McLean visiting um backstage. As you know, Joey is um starring in and Juliet right now. And AJ's just Why are you telling me this? Tell them this. AJ's just a cool supporter um of the arts. It's nice to see all the boy bands supporting everybody else. Went to see Nicole in Sunset Boulevard and had like a nice little backstage moment. So that was really fun to see. Like it made my little like teeny bobber heart explode for a moment there. So I was like, oh, this is like a blast from the past.

[6:51] Heather Bedor: Well, but I have a question, Ariel. I know that you guys have had a lot of visitors between like the LA show at the Bourbon Room and New York, and I know that you took over the role as lead shredder more recently in the New York side, but you you were in the LA side too. So have you had like a fun, like celebrity guest moment, or somebody that just like really was your favorite person to attend? You don't have to call them out, or like the worst, it's totally fine. Nobody's paying attention.

[7:16] Ariel Bellvalaire: You know what's amazing? There has definitely is not a worst. Everybody who's come to the show has just been wonderful. Like awesome. The audience is incredible. All of the guests, celebrities have been amazing. The cast is awesome. Like it literally doesn't get any better than this. It's really awesome. Um, but in LA opening night, Paula Abdul came, and that was like, oh my god. And then um the very last show of one of the LA runs, Debbie Gibson came. And we were all like, oh my gosh. Yeah, and that was amazing. And I just I just wanted to get a picture with her. So I was like, it's just I'll just casually walk by because she was um she was there with Joey, who was in the show, Jay McIntyre. Yeah, I was like, I'll just walk by, see what's going on, and see if it's okay to get a picture.

[8:10] Heather Bedor: Yeah, I mean I totally saw them in concert together.

[8:15] Amber Brzezinski: Yes, you're younger than me.

[8:18] Ariel Bellvalaire: I know you're really aging me now. Thank you so much.

[8:22] Amber Brzezinski: Um that's amazing. I was at Joey's last show. That was my first time attending Drag the Musical was at Joey's last show.

[8:29] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, I think it's amazing. He's amazing. Adam is incredible too, though.

[8:35] Heather Bedor: Oh my god, but it was so cool of just like seeing Joey just perform. He is just so natural on stage. His choices are just they just make so much sense, and he just flows perfectly, and he's just so nice. And like we couldn't imagine anybody else doing the role because it was Joey, and then Adam steps in and he's phenomenal. The role just becomes him, and it's just so cool seeing such talented professionals make this role their own and just own it on stage.

[9:10] Ariel Bellvalaire: Right. I mean, you guys are on the stage the entire time, aren't you?

[9:16] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, and like I have two songs in the show. I'm still playing, but the garage doors closed, so I'm like, we're just gonna sit. Yep, we're gonna sit, not do anything. But then you have your solo moment, which by far I would have gotten out of my seat to share. Um you just see like this tiny like rock star, and you just see the hair if you have a silhouette.

[9:40] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, yeah, and then like walking across, go down the runway, and then straight down to the ground with a guitar.

[9:47] Heather Bedor: Yeah, like so cool. I feel like it was like watching like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, like things that humans should be doing, but don't really do anymore, like that like flashy kind of rock.

[9:58] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, like, yes, I love her, she's amazing.

[10:01] Ariel Bellvalaire: So it was cool. We actually did that in LA, but the stage was very, very different. So, like the setup, the band was on the stage, but it was like a double decker stage, so like the drummer and I were on the ground, and then the rest of the band were upstairs, so you couldn't see the yeah, they had to climb a ladder.

[10:21] Heather Bedor: Oh my god, wow.

[10:23] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, I try and imagine that because everyone needs to hear that tempo, but I wonder how the sound was.

[10:27] Ariel Bellvalaire: Well, we still had in ears, so we could still talk to each other, and um, we could we could hear, but you couldn't see the whole band, so a lot of people were wondering if it was live. We're like, no, no, no, everybody's here, you gotta float it. We're just kind of in different spots, but for the solo, it was literally like walking from the little band box on stage, just a couple feet to the edge of the stage, and then strutting back to the little oh, so now when you have a full catwalk, you're like, it's so funny.

[10:55] Ariel Bellvalaire: Um, I'm very small, so it takes me a while to get here. So we actually, when we were blocking it, um, I had to like walk out to like the first marker, which is close to the table and closer to the catwalk earlier, so I can get to the catwalk in time for the soul. So we had to try a lot of different things. I'm like, okay, how fast do I have to walk?

[11:18] Amber Brzezinski: Right, but you do it walking, speed walking.

[11:20] Ariel Bellvalaire: Exactly, exactly. Speedwalking, speed rocking.

[11:23] Heather Bedor: Oh my goodness. So, all right, so that was first part of it. Oh, you know what? I'm gonna ask you the stage door question as Amber's getting rid of and I'm watching the dog destroy a cup of joy. He's having the best time. He's losing last life. Like, he I think he waits for us to do the podcast to just lose his mind.

[11:39] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, you're just gonna hear growling and it's better time.

[11:43] Heather Bedor: It's great. Uh sorry, Chris is fun. So um Zen, stop, buddy. Um, so stage dooring. We talked about it a little bit last night with my buddy Michael Droy, and we're talking about stage drawing. I love your stage tour because at New World Stages, for those of you that don't know, New World Stages is kind of a mirror. So you have one location, which is where you enter into the main location, and then there's a massive courtyard, and then the actual opposite side is just the exact same building.

[12:14] Ariel Bellvalaire: So everything.

[12:15] Heather Bedor: I have a dog sitting on my butt right now. It's great. Uh, everything is mirrored, but it used to be an old movie theater, so everything is underground, and then the only way to get out is through that way. So you guys had a he's eating the cupcake on my butt. Thank you. Cool. Um sorry, I don't mean to be so distracted.

[12:37] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, huh?

[12:38] Heather Bedor: That sucks.

[12:38] Ariel Bellvalaire: Oh, doesn't it, son? Um, but it's really nice because you guys come out and everyone's so polite. And I haven't met an angry Drag the Musical fan at Stage Door. Everybody is just there to support, they're so excited to see everybody. Um me personally, and I know Amber as well. Like the minute we see the band come out, we're like, yeah, band. Woo! I mean, how could you not? You guys are literally there the whole time. People have been putting on to Reddit and having all sorts of issues of, you know, why are you guys cheering?

[13:09] Ariel Bellvalaire: Not us specifically, but at different shows.

[13:12] Ariel Bellvalaire: Why are people cheering for the musicians, or why aren't they cheering for the musicians, or why are people cheering for the ensemble and you're teasing that it's the main character or the main lead?

[13:21] Ariel Bellvalaire: Breaking cheer for everybody, especially like the mixture.

[13:25] Ariel Bellvalaire: Absolutely.

[13:27] Heather Bedor: So how has it been now? How is it in LA for Bourbon Room? Did you guys have a stage door experience at all?

[13:33] Ariel Bellvalaire: Or are you just kind of like we actually didn't? Um, the stage door has been a whole new experience, and I love it.

[13:40] Ariel Bellvalaire: It's just so cool being able to see how people really do love the show and how they react.

[13:46] Ariel Bellvalaire: Whereas in LA, we knew they liked it because they would cheer.

[13:50] Heather Bedor: Right.

[13:50] Ariel Bellvalaire: Um, but everybody just leaves in your backstage, and right people get to really interact.

[13:56] Ariel Bellvalaire: And it's a whole rock star experience.

[13:58] Heather Bedor: Yeah, but um, the best part is just seeing how the show and our performances just move people.

[14:05] Ariel Bellvalaire: Right. They're like, this inspired me. Um, I loved the story, and it's just so cool having that involvement and just seeing what your production does and the benefit it has for everybody.

[14:18] Ariel Bellvalaire: It's just so special.

[14:20] Heather Bedor: I wish we had that in LA.

[14:22] Amber Brzezinski: Right.

[14:22] Heather Bedor: Well, now that you guys have it in New York, I mean, I so it's funny. So, you know, we've been running the fan group for a while, and um, we've been able to, you know, meet some of our friends through the show.

[14:33] Heather Bedor: But the first time I went, I had met somebody that actually purchased the guitar you guys have for sale.

[14:39] Heather Bedor: Which is also so cool. It's like a Christmas guitar.

[14:42] Amber Brzezinski: It's so cool.

[14:42] Heather Bedor: It's amazing.

[14:43] Heather Bedor: But I'm standing there and like the band dipped out so quickly.

[14:48] Heather Bedor: Obviously, it was like Tomasa's like pink hair like halfway down the row, and I'm like, come back, come back.

[14:53] Heather Bedor: And the girl I was standing next to, Sharon was there with her friend who's the guy that bought the guitar.

[14:58] Heather Bedor: He's like, wait, no, I know them because I bought the guitar, they owe me.

[15:01] Amber Brzezinski: And I was like, they owe you?

[15:03] Heather Bedor: He's like, Well, they like that I bought the guitar. Do you want to meet them?

[15:05] Heather Bedor: I was like, Yeah, sure.

[15:06] Heather Bedor: So he grabs Tomas and Tomas and I have a great conversation.

[15:10] Heather Bedor: For the guitar of Drag The Musical, I wouldn't be able to um bring you guys onto the podcast.

[15:16] Heather Bedor: Amber and I wouldn't have been able to have all these great experiences running the group.

[15:20] Ariel Bellvalaire: So that is so cool. We're thankful for the guitar.

[15:23] Heather Bedor: Right, right.

[15:24] Amber Brzezinski: I know. Thankful guitar and now the uh current shredder of the guitar.

[15:29] Ariel Bellvalaire: Incredible.

[15:31] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, you're it girl so badass.

[15:33] Amber Brzezinski: And before you get into your uh growing up and and why you chose the guitar and all that, and if you I think we have a couple more news things.

[15:41] Ariel Bellvalaire: We do, we have some weird news things.

[15:43] Amber Brzezinski: Um prepare yourself.

[15:45] Amber Brzezinski: We also had news about the Dolly Parton musical making its pre-Broadway world premiere in Tennessee this year.

[15:51] Ariel Bellvalaire: So that's a very exciting thing.

[15:53] Amber Brzezinski: That's really cool. I don't know about you, but I love Dolly Parton.

[15:56] Ariel Bellvalaire: I'm a huge Dolly Parton fan.

[15:58] Amber Brzezinski: Incredible. She is just like in a class above her own.

[16:02] Ariel Bellvalaire: She is just love her book program that she does for all the kids that like they can get folks.

[16:06] Amber Brzezinski: Yes.

[16:07] Ariel Bellvalaire: So cool. If anyone deserves a musical, a bio musical about their life, it is absolutely a Dolly Parton.

[16:12] Amber Brzezinski: And she has some great music.

[16:14] Ariel Bellvalaire: So a friend of mine was planning on doing um, I do a lot of stuff with the fringe, and a friend of mine actually wrote a Dolly Parton musical called Working Nine to Five.

[16:25] Ariel Bellvalaire: But it was Dolly Parton mixed with like a Hallmark Christmas movie.

[16:30] Amber Brzezinski: It was hysterical, and of course, that showed it like he didn't get picked for this year.

[16:34] Ariel Bellvalaire: But love Dolly.

[16:35] Amber Brzezinski: Love Dolly so much.

[16:36] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah.

[16:37] Amber Brzezinski: She is a legend, yeah.

[16:39] Ariel Bellvalaire: Sure.

[16:39] Amber Brzezinski: You're a legend too.

[16:40] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yes.

[16:41] Amber Brzezinski: Thank you.

[16:42] Ariel Bellvalaire: And then Dolly.

[16:43] Amber Brzezinski: Incredible.

[16:44] Amber Brzezinski: Last but certainly not least on the Broadway news news section.

[16:49] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yes.

[16:50] Amber Brzezinski: We had some really cool live performances on TV last night.

[16:55] Amber Brzezinski: We had Nicole Scherzinger from Sunset Boulevard performing on the Colbert show.

[17:00] Amber Brzezinski: We also had Megan Hilty um performing on Jimmy Fallon for the gays from Death Becomes Her.

[17:06] Ariel Bellvalaire: I love that Broadway is taking like the late night show route right now.

[17:10] Amber Brzezinski: I agree. It's awesome.

[17:11] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah.

[17:12] Amber Brzezinski: Um, because as we always talk about, more accessibility for Broadway shows is always, you know, just the goal.

[17:19] Ariel Bellvalaire: We want to expose more people to these shows.

[17:22] Amber Brzezinski: We want they don't want to expose ourselves to the people, just the shows, just the shows, absolutely.

[17:27] Amber Brzezinski: So just having you know, people get the chance to see these songs and say, Oh, I want to, I have to see the rest of this show, is a great opportunity to get the these shows into the light, the limelight.

[17:39] Ariel Bellvalaire: It's like a Twitter.

[17:40] Amber Brzezinski: We did post videos in both of our groups, um, Sunset Boulevard and Death Becomes Her.

[17:46] Ariel Bellvalaire: So if you're looking to see these shows, check out the Facebook groups, check out just uh rewatch the clips, and you'll be able to watch those videos in our groups.

[17:56] Amber Brzezinski: Yes, you see the dog going crazy right now.

[17:58] Amber Brzezinski: It's like I'm being present to all I had back surgery on Wednesday, and he's decided that he's gonna use my back as a jumping point.

[18:07] Ariel Bellvalaire: Anyways, thank you, Amber.

[18:09] Amber Brzezinski: Um and then we do have like weird Broadway news.

[18:12] Amber Brzezinski: I know Ariel, we were talking about it before we got live.

[18:15] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, crazy.

[18:16] Amber Brzezinski: BroadwayCon lost the venue that they're at, and now they're having to move over to the Marriott Marquee.

[18:23] Amber Brzezinski: Um, so we're not associated with BroadwayCon.

[18:26] Ariel Bellvalaire: We were at BroadwayCon last year.

[18:28] Amber Brzezinski: Um, they were moving it from the Hilton Midtown to the Marriott Marquee.

[18:32] Amber Brzezinski: Um, there's all sorts of craziness going on from what we understand.

[18:36] Amber Brzezinski: Vendors um can set up for Friday, but then they'll have to do some sort of room arrangement, break everything down and set up in a new room Saturday.

[18:45] Ariel Bellvalaire: All sorts of craziness.

[18:47] Amber Brzezinski: Um, but with that being said, even though we're not associated with BroadwayCon, we do have some really great partners um with Marriott.

[18:55] Amber Brzezinski: So I'm gonna post our promo code for anyone that's listening that does need to rearrange, or they can actually use us anytime.

[19:01] Amber Brzezinski: Um, the W Times Square, if you use a corporate code E7103, um, they'll wave a destination fee and give you a great rate.

[19:09] Amber Brzezinski: And then if you contact the Weston Times Square, if you just tell them you want their Broadway fan club deal, um, they will give you 10% off your room and also waive a destination fee.

[19:18] Amber Brzezinski: We want to be able to help out people, whether they're our members or not.

[19:20] Amber Brzezinski: We don't get anything from it. We just want to be able to help.

[19:23] Ariel Bellvalaire: So yeah, lots of people are really scrambling.

[19:27] Amber Brzezinski: It's like not what did we say, nine days from today?

[19:30] Ariel Bellvalaire: Something like that.

[19:31] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah.

[19:31] Amber Brzezinski: So our part to help the community get, you know, their kind of um plans in order at this kind of final hour, if you will.

[19:42] Amber Brzezinski: Like refunds, like things are going crazy for people.

[19:46] Ariel Bellvalaire: So we just want to be able to help.

[19:48] Amber Brzezinski: That's amazing.

[19:49] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah.

[19:49] Amber Brzezinski: Any other news that we have?

[19:50] Ariel Bellvalaire: No, I think that's all the news that I can think of.

[19:53] Amber Brzezinski: All right.

[19:54] Amber Brzezinski: Now it's all the Ariel show.

[19:57] Ariel Bellvalaire: Are you ready for it?

[19:58] Amber Brzezinski: Look at this.

[19:59] Ariel Bellvalaire: Awesome.

[19:59] Amber Brzezinski: I'm ready.

[20:01] Ariel Bellvalaire: The Ariel and Zen show.

[20:02] Amber Brzezinski: Right?

[20:03] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yes.

[20:03] Amber Brzezinski: Apparently.

[20:04] Ariel Bellvalaire: He's literally chewing on a candy cane on my butt.

[20:08] Amber Brzezinski: He's like, I'm blonde.

[20:09] Ariel Bellvalaire: We're ready.

[20:10] Amber Brzezinski: Right.

[20:10] Ariel Bellvalaire: He's he blends into the couch, but he matches your hair perfectly.

[20:13] Amber Brzezinski: It's great.

[20:14] Ariel Bellvalaire: Perfect.

[20:14] Amber Brzezinski: Let's go.

[20:16] Amber Brzezinski: Um, and again, we'll open up our comment section. If anyone has any comments or questions, please let us know.

[20:21] Amber Brzezinski: I'm sure you'd be happy to answer.

[20:22] Amber Brzezinski: Um, and then yeah, so why don't you walk us through?

[20:26] Amber Brzezinski: I know that you sent us your bio, which is so cool.

[20:29] Amber Brzezinski: Um, walk us through like being like little Ariel and like how you decided guitar was gonna be your thing.

[20:37] Ariel Bellvalaire: It's hard to stick with something, especially like I don't want to say it because it sounds terrible, but like a girl as a cool shredder, like it some people don't like understand that, and I'm like, no, but it makes so much sense.

[20:51] Ariel Bellvalaire: It's so cool.

[20:52] Ariel Bellvalaire: Um, I I didn't really expect myself to be a musician.

[20:57] Ariel Bellvalaire: Um, I was a gymnast as a kid, which I'd still pull out all of those tricks on stage.

[21:02] Ariel Bellvalaire: So we had a video to prove that.

[21:05] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yes, but I started out in gymnastics, and um, I was in summer camp, gymnastics summer camp, and I was on the balance beam, which is my least favorite.

[21:14] Ariel Bellvalaire: So anything to get me off the balance beam, great.

[21:17] Ariel Bellvalaire: Avril Lavigne.

[21:18] Ariel Bellvalaire: Unless you're pushed off of it, probably not a great experience.

[21:18] Ariel Bellvalaire: Probably not.

[21:22] Ariel Bellvalaire: I mean, I've fallen off plenty of times.

[21:23] Ariel Bellvalaire: Haven't been pushed, but I have fallen off way more times than I'd like to do.

[21:28] Ariel Bellvalaire: I did point my toes though.

[21:30] Ariel Bellvalaire: Always point the toes.

[21:31] Ariel Bellvalaire: You gotta you gotta point your toes.

[21:34] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yes.

[21:35] Ariel Bellvalaire: But Avril Lavigne came on the radio, and it was the song "Complicated."

[21:40] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, I I wasn't really into music at all, but something about this song just mesmerized me.

[21:46] Ariel Bellvalaire: I heard it and that was it.

[21:49] Ariel Bellvalaire: It was like tunnel vision.

[21:50] Ariel Bellvalaire: I jumped off the beam and was just sitting around the radio, and just like that was it.

[21:56] Ariel Bellvalaire: I was like, okay, this is what I have to do.

[21:58] Ariel Bellvalaire: Right. Forget gymnastics, I still want to do it, but I actually have to be Avril Lavigne, specifically Avril Lavigne.

[22:06] Amber Brzezinski: I mean, I could now see that a hundred percent.

[22:09] Ariel Bellvalaire: Shout out to Avril Lavigne for teaching me how to tie a tie, by the way, because I would have never known how to tie a tie.

[22:16] Ariel Bellvalaire: Because of her, because if not for Avril Lavigne.

[22:20] Ariel Bellvalaire: Oh my goodness.

[22:20] Ariel Bellvalaire: Oh I was just obsessed.

[22:23] Ariel Bellvalaire: You couldn't even call me Ariel, you had to call me Avril, or I wouldn't answer.

[22:28] Ariel Bellvalaire: And um, my parents put me in um singing lessons, and the studio.

[22:36] Ariel Bellvalaire: They are the most supportive, amazing people on the planet.

[22:39] Ariel Bellvalaire: I owe everything to them.

[22:42] Ariel Bellvalaire: But um, growing up in Connecticut, I took uh music lessons in Manchester, actually, at an amazing studio called Summit Studios, and they had a rock band jam class, which is basically school of rock.

[22:54] Ariel Bellvalaire: So I was put in the rock band jam summer camp just as a singer, and I was also in boy clothes and a tie and devil horns gotta be boy clothes it doesn't have to be boy clothes exactly well we definitely they were like probably eight year old boy clothes and i was no doubt 12 um but it worked but i sang my first bar at 10 years old and it was it was over i learned uh i learned guitar a little bit like i knew the chords and everything and um the next season the guitarist in the the kid band quit probably to soccer or whatever kids do oh you're gonna take over oh he wasn't ready he didn't even know it was coming so i started just playing and singing and it just came so naturally and i started learning my very first guitar solo it was iron man from black sabbath of course so i have a love hate relationship with that song i have to tell you this is yeah worse things to like admit on our podcast okay and i'm gonna call this okay so i was teased all the way from like elementary school to high school because i the first friend that I made in elementary school after my parents put me in private school until second grade I happened to make friends with a girl that wore glasses and like that apparently like set me on like the path of like being not popular which is the dumbest thing kids are stupid but I also had gnomis guy josh sunshine yes I'm gonna call this dude out um and I knew second grade we happened to be sitting next to each other in marine biology in high school.

[24:34] Heather Bedor: And my last name being Fedore, he sung Iron Man, but with my name and put in very mean lyrics like Heather be a door is the biggest.

[24:45] Ariel Bellvalaire: And like yes.

[24:48] Heather Bedor: So I love this out.

[24:50] Heather Bedor: I love the song, but like that earworm is like forever in my brain.

[24:55] Heather Bedor: We're talking about years ago.

[24:57] Heather Bedor: And every time I hear it, I'm like, God, oh get it out.

[25:01] Heather Bedor: It will never go away.

[25:02] Heather Bedor: And I literally have like I'm healing from a concussion, and that is still in my head.

[25:06] Heather Bedor: Like, couldn't that part have gone away?

[25:08] Ariel Bellvalaire: Right.

[25:08] Heather Bedor: But I love that better.

[25:10] Ariel Bellvalaire: Paranoid is way better.

[25:12] Heather Bedor: Yeah, fair enough.

[25:13] Ariel Bellvalaire: Okay.

[25:14] Ariel Bellvalaire: I just had to share that like weird, awful moment in my life.

[25:17] Ariel Bellvalaire: But I love it.

[25:17] Ariel Bellvalaire: Oh my god, of all the songs I could have picked to learn a solo to first.

[25:21] Ariel Bellvalaire: It's fine, it's fine.

[25:22] Ariel Bellvalaire: Um, it's totally fun.

[25:23] Heather Bedor: I tried teaching myself guitar.

[25:25] Heather Bedor: Um, I played the flute from sixth grade and on.

[25:27] Ariel Bellvalaire: Oh my god.

[25:29] Heather Bedor: And like I was the girl that could like listen to music and then kind of figure it out on my own.

[25:33] Heather Bedor: But like learning the guitar, it just sits in my living room.

[25:37] Ariel Bellvalaire: It's really pretty, but like I just can't can't figure it out for like everything.

[25:41] Ariel Bellvalaire: You have to have fingers, man.

[25:43] Ariel Bellvalaire: It really hurts.

[25:44] Heather Bedor: I had your little baby fingers.

[25:46] Heather Bedor: And Ariel, you have like tiny hands too, but they're strong because the way that you try this is so sick.

[25:52] Ariel Bellvalaire: Anyways, instrument chooses you because I tried flu in third grade and fourth grade.

[25:59] Ariel Bellvalaire: I was not good at it.

[26:00] Ariel Bellvalaire: I didn't really love it enough to put the time in either, but guitar.

[26:06] Ariel Bellvalaire: My parents hold my mom forced me to take like band.

[26:09] Ariel Bellvalaire: So like I'm already nerdy, and then like I'm taking marching band and symphonic band, like all I want to do is be an art class.

[26:19] Ariel Bellvalaire: Music class was fun once they were like, all right, you can bring your guitar. You can do whatever you wanted to do, right? Absolutely. But yeah, just learning the solo, I didn't think anything of it. I just did it because, you know, we're gonna play this song out live. It's not because I didn't know girls couldn't play. I just did it because that was the song on the set list, and it took me a while. But I started to get it. And the very first time I played a solo in front of an audience, it was dead silence. You could hear a pin drop, and I was like, Oh, did I screw it up? And then freaking out because a little girl played the solo. Yes, I love it. Ooh, it'd be in that room. This is a thing.

So it just totally, yes, I agree, Cheyenne. We do rock, but back in like the 90s, it was like you were the nerdy ones. That's fine. I'm still a nerd. I will happily be a band geek. But yes, um, Ariel makes being a band geek look really cool. Being a band geek is pretty cool. Yep. Um, but after that, it kind of became a female guitarist thing because I knew girls didn't do it. I did it because I loved it, and you have to really love it because you get so much pushback. It's much better now. But when I first started, um, I uploaded a YouTube video at 15. I think it was also playing an Aussie solo, and I was new at guitar, I wasn't great yet, but I could play the solo, and that video went viral, and people were just attacking me every day, right?

Just for being a girl playing guitar. But when you really love something, really nothing can stop you. So the stage was my love, so I just pushed through everything and just kept going. And from there, I would often get hired because I was a girl who could play these things.

[28:24] Amber Brzezinski: Or like, was it more like I'm gonna prove to you like why I'm badass? Like, what was your kind of approach to it?

[28:32] Ariel Bellvalaire: Weirdly enough, like I just know I was meant to be on the stage. Like, there's just something about it. If there is a stage, I'll find it, or it finds me, I should say, and I just always end up there. Like, I'll put in the work so that when the opportunity comes, I'm ready. But it's not really like I have to prove myself, it kind of just happens, and here we go. I'm ready. People will either love it or they won't. But I'm here, this is what I'm doing, this is what I came to this world to do. So it just happens, but there's always that sense of um, am I good enough? Um, I will always that imposter syndrome that everybody has the worst thing ever.

[29:16] Heather Bedor: Yeah, yeah.

[29:18] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, there's always like the scariest is like when you're auditioning for a new project and you're the only girl there, and you know, I should make you stand out and immediately like, yep, she's in.

[29:31] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, absolutely.

[29:32] Ariel Bellvalaire: Normally, a lot of times it does, but there have been situations where people will like watch me and be like, the third note you played was uh should be something else. Like, oh, I'm like that wouldn't happen if I was a guy, right?

[29:47] Amber Brzezinski: Right.

[29:49] Ariel Bellvalaire: And instead, it's like, yeah, it's kind of a double-edged sword. Like, I'll get more attention because I am a girl doing it, right? But I'll also get more pushback doing it and more criticism because I'm a girl. But I just love it so much that I kind of just made it my own. And on stage, like nothing else matters. I just go into rock mode and I feel like a wild animal. Like, um, I'll just do the hair flips and just rock out.

[30:15] Amber Brzezinski: And you taught the hair for it, so it works.

[30:18] Ariel Bellvalaire: We're basically an 80s rocker in spirit.

[30:21] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, absolutely. I absolutely now we're you're talking about auditions, and I'm curious how did you get into doing Drag The Musical in LA? Was there an audition process? Was it that you knew somebody in production prior to that? Like, what's the correlation?

[30:36] Ariel Bellvalaire: Drag actually came really unexpectedly. Um, like I had done an off-Broadway musical years before, and that came just from word of mouth from a gig too, and that was amazing, but it was a one-off of Prince, and I was like, oh, I love this, but just did it actually we did it two times, a couple years apart. But other than that, that was my only experiences with musicals. And um, the female guitar world is very small. Like, I feel like even if we don't even live in the same country, we still know of each other. Um, so my friend actually got the gig first in LA. I hadn't even heard of it, and um, I just get a text from her saying, Hey, I booked this musical, it has a bunch of the RuPaul drag race winners, um, amazing drag queens, the music's really fun and punk, but I can't do it. Um, would you be interested? And I was like, okay, that sounds fun. I love Drag Queens, I love any sort of like theatrical production. And this is a theatrical production, of course.

[31:41] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, I should have no idea. Um, when I first got the gig. So I was put in touch with Tomas, and they sent me Drag is Expensive. And um, they sent me two versions of it. They sent me um the full recording, and also a version of it just with my guitar parts taken out so I could play them and audition. And um, I sent in the audition tape, and I was like, I don't know if they're gonna like this because I mean I played all the parts right, but in that song, my parts don't come in until the end, so there's like so many empty spaces, and I was just like dancing and rocking out. Turns out that's what they wanted, but cool, this is great. Like, this is great. I didn't have to do anything fake, I'm just my genuine self.

[32:27] Amber Brzezinski: And I'm gonna I'm gonna post this here so you can see it if you didn't see it already. Remy says, Hi, Remy Tuchman here. You're incredible, Ariel, those backbends, hair toss. How do you not get headaches?

[32:36] Ariel Bellvalaire: I love it. We do get headaches, not on stage, it's the days off where my body's like what did you do? All the synchronized, yeah, yeah. Adrenaline's a beautiful thing on show days, days off all the time. And it was like, I'm not moving, it doesn't bother someone, or I might be broken.

[32:57] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, absolutely.

[32:57] Ariel Bellvalaire: Oh yeah, yeah. We basically need an ibuprofen endorsement at this moment.

[33:00] Amber Brzezinski: Right, right. I know there's been some huge sponsorships for the show coming up, and I don't think they've been made public yet.

[33:11] Ariel Bellvalaire: So I don't even know if we know about them yet. I mean, I'll just put it this way: the Brendans were hinting at it on the Instagram Live last week, and um I think I picked up on some stuff at the show on Saturday, but we'll see if I was right.

[33:22] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, that's exciting.

[33:24] Ariel Bellvalaire: Okay, it's like it's like constantly looking for Easter eggs at the show. Like we were talking here. Like after talking to Tomas a couple weeks ago and him saying like it's a Rocky Horror style, like that's really the kind of vibe they want to go for, and like influences from like the hair bands or like Meatloaf, and then you're looking and I'm like, oh, there's a Meatloaf poster. Oh, there's like a Frankinfer hiding over by the door.

[33:46] Amber Brzezinski: And a Motley Crue.

[33:47] Ariel Bellvalaire: You gotta know. Oh, I've seen Crue live, and that's that's a hell of a show.

[33:52] Amber Brzezinski: Divine.

[33:52] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah.

[33:53] Amber Brzezinski: Your hair goals.

[33:56] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah.

[33:56] Remy: I bet the vocal days off are hard. Because I know like when you use your voice a lot and it's in the moment with adrenaline, you're good. But like, I don't know, there's so many shows where you can't even talk after.

[34:07] Ariel Bellvalaire: So I'm assuming days off, you're just like even even during podcasting or like professional and seeing, like I use um Singer Saving Grace, which if you've never used before, have you used it?

[34:20] Amber Brzezinski: No.

[34:22] Ariel Bellvalaire: Okay. So it's echanation, like a bunch of weird stuff. It tastes awful.

[34:28] Amber Brzezinski: Okay.

[34:28] Ariel Bellvalaire: Awful. But it's for professional artists like singers or Remy. We love this. This is great. Um, but you sprayed at the back of your throat, and it literally, if you have no voice, it brings your voice back like this. Like I had to do a huge presentation a couple of years ago, and I had no voice for like four days. I've never lost my voice completely, and I was freaking out because it was for work. And I used like two pumps of a spray, and I was able to actually do my presentation really gruff, but it's incredible.

[34:59] Amber Brzezinski: Wow.

[34:59] Ariel Bellvalaire: Okay. I do not I am not sponsored by Singer Saving Grace, but I always like to tell people about it to help out.

[35:05] Amber Brzezinski: That is amazing. I used like the Vocal Ease brand, which it's probably similar, but that sounds incredible.

[35:11] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, it's awful.

[35:14] Remy: I love that Remy. Gives you an excuse to not uh not answer questions.

[35:18] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, right. Sorry, I had to do a show, can't do that.

[35:24] Amber Brzezinski: So that's great. So then you kind of found out through his friend. The friend was like, No, I can't do this. And you're like, okay, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna be myself, and then they're like, This is what we want. And then what happened next?

[35:33] Ariel Bellvalaire: It was awesome. So I learned all the songs. I have to say, like, after hearing Drag is Expensive, I was like, oh, this is gonna be so easy. Oh no. And it's like jazz shred. And I was like, what the hell was that riff? I had to slow it down to like two. We didn't have sheet music um in the first round, so I figured out everything by ear.

[35:57] Amber Brzezinski: Oh my goodness, wow.

[36:02] Ariel Bellvalaire: Oh, yeah. And then once like once I got it, we're good, but like that was the hardest song to figure out, and now it's my favorite because I can do the riffs, and it wasn't.

[36:14] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, that one's so good.

[36:15] Ariel Bellvalaire: I love I love the riffs. Um, I think my favorite favorite song. Well, kind of it has to be, but it's a drag just because of the solo.

[36:24] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, absolutely.

[36:26] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yes, that's a good one. Yeah, it's but that's selfish reasons, and you're allowed to be selfish.

[36:31] Amber Brzezinski: Exactly.

[36:32] Ariel Bellvalaire: We're very nice in every other aspect, so I'll take that one. That one's it's it's confidence, not cockiness.

[36:40] Amber Brzezinski: You're great.

[36:40] Ariel Bellvalaire: Absolutely, absolutely. But um, the cool thing is there is not a bad song in this show.

[36:46] Amber Brzezinski: Right.

[36:47] Ariel Bellvalaire: It's just absolutely incredible. The right bangers all the way through. They're memorable. We catch ourselves singing them all of the time, yeah.

[36:52] Amber Brzezinski: All of the time, and you're just like, and now I we're I think we both have seen the show just twice each. But like still able to like blurt it out by mouth and listen to the original cast recording.

[37:08] Ariel Bellvalaire: Like it's um incredible. Like the concept album. So much fun.

[37:11] Amber Brzezinski: So cool.

[37:12] Ariel Bellvalaire: The biggest change I would say from LA to New York really is just the music. Like the songs, they're still the songs, but like um, we'll do like different pieces, sections have been added. So it's like, oh yes, one of the boys. We do need that one. I love that song. Um, so we still did all of these songs, but like a whole new section would be added, and um, they'd be maybe acting over it, or there'd be singing over it. Um, so it wasn't what we were used to in LA, so we had to kind of like unlearn what we knew and relearn it, and it just fits the show so much better now. So it's really cool seeing the evolution of the songs where they're still the same songs, but different.

[37:54] Amber Brzezinski: And you were telling us before we went live about the difference of the actual setup of the theater where you were downstairs with the drummer, and then everybody else had part of us on the ladder.

[38:03] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, so the bourbon room stage was absolutely incredible. It had like totally that sunset strip vibe from the 80s, but like a little more glam, much cleaner. Um, you would think so. Yeah, I love the bourbon room, it's my favorite spot in LA, but it's just like so rock and roll glam.

[39:21] Amber Brzezinski: Um did he have a pink hair at that point?

[39:23] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah, and um, the stage they could record everything too, like the audience could record some of it, so there's lots of stuff on.

[39:24] Ariel Bellvalaire: He did. He always had pink hair for drag. You know, his hair is not pink right now.

[39:30] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, oh the intro of the show is be like, um, photography is strictly mandatory. We didn't glue all this face always to our face for nothing. Take a picture.

[39:41] Amber Brzezinski: That's so cute.

[39:44] Ariel Bellvalaire: It was so great. It was so great. But the band area, the drums and guitar. Um, my guitar, there's always two guitarists in the show. There's just so many parts. Um, we were on the bottom, so you could see us on the stage. And um, keyboard and second guitar were up above us, like, and you kind of a speaker was there. There was a bunch of wigs, so you could like see them, but you would have to like look up. So um often people wouldn't know there was a live band just because they only saw two. I um Tomas was uh over he was on stage too, but he was off to the side.

[39:29] Amber Brzezinski: I know he walked in, I'm like, who is this?

[39:32] Heather Bedor: Oh yeah, we got that text message.

[39:35] Amber Brzezinski: He's like, I went back to New York.

[39:37] Heather Bedor: He was so happy to be back home in LA, and then with everything out there, and then like everything happening at the show because everybody in New York City is getting a cold when he came back, and I was like, have fun.

[39:48] Amber Brzezinski: So we missed each other by like near moments.

[39:50] Heather Bedor: Uh we were so excited to see him though.

[39:53] Amber Brzezinski: Like Tomas is Drag The Musical.

[39:56] Heather Bedor: Yeah, it's just so cool seeing his ideas come to life like this, and it's just one big happy family, and like looking and talking to some people and same with some of the Instagram lives or just anything from it.

[40:11] Amber Brzezinski: You got to seem so cohesive, and I'm sure it's always like crazy.

[40:14] Heather Bedor: I asked the Brendans when they were on Instagram, um, if anything crazy has happened backstage and they gave us a cute little story, but I kind of want to know from like a band perspective if you've ever like guys ever have any pranks or did you guys ever have anything like crazy or something that like nobody else knows?

[40:35] Ariel Bellvalaire: Um at any location.

[40:37] Ariel Bellvalaire: I'm trying to think.

[40:38] Ariel Bellvalaire: It's kind of funny, like the band, we're not backstage much because we're literally on stage the whole time.

[40:44] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, yeah, but like is there something like someone weird in the audience that you're like, oh my god, this person was like taking off their clothes or oh my god.

[40:52] Ariel Bellvalaire: So if you can hear the band has a talk back mic, right?

[40:56] Ariel Bellvalaire: So we can talk to each other and nobody else can hear it.

[41:00] Ariel Bellvalaire: Well, some of the people that work backstage can, but like not everybody.

[41:04] Ariel Bellvalaire: So we're all really cool, so there are literally no filters.

[41:07] Ariel Bellvalaire: So if somebody in the audience is doing something weird, we will call them out and so everybody can like look at them and um you know if you can't see them, we'll like describe it.

[41:19] Ariel Bellvalaire: Uh there's been our favorite.

[41:21] Ariel Bellvalaire: There was one lady who it might have been a coat, but I swear it was a sleeping bag.

[41:27] Ariel Bellvalaire: She was passed out, mouth wide open in the room in a sleeping bag, and we'll be like, second first row, left side, sleeping bag.

[41:39] Amber Brzezinski: So 12 o'clock, and we'll all be like, Oh my god.

[41:44] Ariel Bellvalaire: I wonder if it was one of those like jacket sacks kind of thing.

[41:48] Ariel Bellvalaire: It was.

[41:49] Ariel Bellvalaire: It was pretty amazing.

[41:51] Amber Brzezinski: Well, like, okay, so um we saw Caparius past weekend, and there were two people to my left that like had doused himself in tiger balm for whatever reason.

[41:59] Ariel Bellvalaire: Amazing.

[42:00] Amber Brzezinski: And they were both open mouth snoring, and I'm just like, how do you just fall asleep at a show?

[42:05] Ariel Bellvalaire: Right.

[42:05] Amber Brzezinski: How do you fall asleep in a show like Drag The Musical with those tracks, like with that music?

[42:11] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah.

[42:12] Ariel Bellvalaire: With those lights, like with the catch.

[42:14] Amber Brzezinski: The strobe lights.

[42:16] Ariel Bellvalaire: No.

[42:16] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, yeah.

[42:18] Ariel Bellvalaire: We had another show where this couple had like matching Christmas sweaters, and it wasn't holiday time at all.

[42:26] Ariel Bellvalaire: Um, they're just like matching um sweaters and just complete straight faces, and we could not tell if they liked the show at all.

[42:36] Amber Brzezinski: And um and so we'd be like, was that a smile?

[42:40] Ariel Bellvalaire: Nope, nope.

[42:41] Ariel Bellvalaire: And the end of the show, they cheered so hard, and we're like, they loved it.

[42:46] Amber Brzezinski: I loved it.

[42:48] Ariel Bellvalaire: Looking at like anybody who's not like into the show or doesn't seem like they're into the show, will notice.

[42:55] Amber Brzezinski: Um, I was pretty excited too because we were sitting near people who were like really stoic and not reacting.

[43:02] Ariel Bellvalaire: Meanwhile, we're like, Woo!

[43:03] Ariel Bellvalaire: And like I was watching, I think it was Juju just like stare somebody down, like through like death rays to be like, I'm working this really hard right now.

[43:13] Amber Brzezinski: So um, oh and Remy says apparently a drunk lady in the front row fell into him the other day.

[43:20] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, um Remy, you'll uh correct me if I'm wrong, I just saw this from the sidelines, but um Remy jumps off the stage for the finale, and everybody was kind of like standing up, and I think she like tipped over kind of into them.

[43:35] Ariel Bellvalaire: Is that right, Remy?

[43:36] Remy: I just I saw it from the side and was like eh.

[43:40] Ariel Bellvalaire: I also have to say that Remy and I share the same brain because I have been walking around since Saturday singing wigs wigs wigs, to like every the like anything I see, like dog, I've got shoes, shoes, shoes, I've got dogs, dogs, dogs, like anything to the tune of I can't get wigs wigs wigs on my head it's been stuck in my head so when he said we got swing swing swings I'm like yes yep you're in my brain yep and we're hoping uh both Remy and the Air on because we talked to Air after Stage Dorf Saturday yes was like oh yeah I'd love to do it maybe Remy can do it too we're like yeah clearly like we we want everybody I I was joking with Amber but like we'll do a whole Drag The Musical podcast series like this is great that was so awesome yeah oh yes Remy the mice the mice Remy I can't wait for you to come on the show and just give all the tea all the tea yeah what about the tea with the mouse there was a little mouse um I I have now since named him Harold and um this happened uh I think it was during it happened twice but the first one was straight man so we're in the band box and this little mouse runs into my shoe and then runs into the corner and all of us were like it was not not very solid because we all like basically we're trying to catch our balance after like uh oh my god and then um uh what song was it it's a drag it runs between my legs and I'm trying to be still and was like oh my god I mean you couldn't have paid for like even more support for like you're getting the creatures you're like Cinderella I was gonna say you're literally like a Disney princess.

[45:31] Ariel Bellvalaire: Like a rock goddess.

[45:32] Ariel Bellvalaire: I mean, I had guinea pigs.

[45:34] Ariel Bellvalaire: I love mice.

[45:34] Ariel Bellvalaire: I wasn't mad about it.

[45:36] Amber Brzezinski: And you were a guitar playing hamster for Kia.

[45:38] Ariel Bellvalaire: I want to hear about that too once you're done with this story, I want to hear about it.

[45:42] Ariel Bellvalaire: That was that was the coolest job ever.

[45:45] Ariel Bellvalaire: But man.

[45:47] Ariel Bellvalaire: So so many rodents in my life.

[45:49] Ariel Bellvalaire: I've played one.

[45:52] Ariel Bellvalaire: We got a Harold and I had guinea pigs.

[45:54] Ariel Bellvalaire: It's great.

[45:55] Amber Brzezinski: Now we do have a video.

[45:57] Amber Brzezinski: I kind of want to play a little bit, so people that don't know how incredible you are.

[46:01] Amber Brzezinski: That we can uh kind of show you off a little bit.

[46:04] Amber Brzezinski: So as I'm syncing that, Heather, do you want to kind of tell the people what they're about to experience?

[46:10] Heather Bedor: Yeah, so this is an original song by Ariel.

[46:14] Heather Bedor: It is um called Elastic and it features as she was saying, um, some of her gymnastics mixed in with some of the rock and roll stuff.

[46:26] Amber Brzezinski: So it's got some very cool aerial work.

[46:29] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah.

[46:29] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah.

[46:33] Heather Bedor: All right, so we synced it up because this is where I mean the whole freaking song's incredible, but this shows off like you're playing guitar in a freaking Lyra hoop, and like I'm just so beyond excited.

[46:45] Ariel Bellvalaire: Oh, thank you.

[46:46] Ariel Bellvalaire: Hi Jeff.

[46:57] Amber Brzezinski: Amazing.

[47:17] Ariel Bellvalaire: Like, you're just the coolest person I know right now.

[47:20] Ariel Bellvalaire: Oh, thank you.

[47:21] Ariel Bellvalaire: I just love my wild stunts.

[47:25] Amber Brzezinski: But like what on the absolute planet of Earth made you decide I'm gonna take my guitar play upside down on a Lyra hoop.

[47:35] Ariel Bellvalaire: Please tell me.

[47:37] Ariel Bellvalaire: Um, I'm crazy.

[47:38] Ariel Bellvalaire: There's really no other reason about that.

[47:40] Ariel Bellvalaire: Like, no one's done this before.

[47:42] Ariel Bellvalaire: I'm gonna be the first to do it.

[47:44] Ariel Bellvalaire: It's another thing.

[47:45] Ariel Bellvalaire: Kind of like music, that happened by accident too.

[47:48] Ariel Bellvalaire: A glorious accident.

[47:49] Ariel Bellvalaire: But being a gymnast, um, I always have to do some sort of gymnasticky thing.

[47:56] Ariel Bellvalaire: And um, I had a group on for an aerial class.

[47:59] Ariel Bellvalaire: I was like, oh, that'll probably be really fun.

[48:01] Ariel Bellvalaire: No guitar.

[48:03] Ariel Bellvalaire: Like a Lyra hoop too.

[48:04] Ariel Bellvalaire: So I'm like, oh my god, that's so cool.

[48:06] Ariel Bellvalaire: It was the silks I tried first, and I loved it because it's basically all gymnastics based.

[48:12] Ariel Bellvalaire: Um, so it was really fun, it came easily to me.

[48:16] Ariel Bellvalaire: And then um I was like, oh, I want to try all of the circus stuff just because it's fun.

[48:21] Ariel Bellvalaire: And I tried Lyra, and that was my apparatus.

[48:29] Ariel Bellvalaire: Lyra was it for me.

[48:31] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah.

[48:31] Ariel Bellvalaire: And um, but you can like everything, yeah.

[48:35] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, and like with the silks, you're wrapped up, so like your hands and everything else, you you get tangled.

[48:41] Ariel Bellvalaire: The Lyra, it's solid, so you know it's easy, and you know, your hands can be free, you can do really cool stunts, but you can also just be hands-free in some tricks.

[48:53] Ariel Bellvalaire: And basically at this point, performing is all I can ever think about.

[48:59] Ariel Bellvalaire: So when I figure something else out that's cool, the next thought is how can I incorporate this into a show?

[49:07] Ariel Bellvalaire: So I'm hanging upside down and I'm like, how do I do this with a guitar?

[49:12] Amber Brzezinski: Of course, that's the next step.

[49:14] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah.

[49:15] Ariel Bellvalaire: Logically, right?

[49:16] Amber Brzezinski: It's not how can I stick the landing?

[49:18] Amber Brzezinski: It's how can I do this with a guitar?

[49:21] Ariel Bellvalaire: So we were um like Guitar World magazine, like noticed that you did that, right?

[49:29] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah.

[49:29] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yes, that was the coolest thing.

[49:30] Ariel Bellvalaire: And for Girl, too.

[49:32] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah, yeah.

[49:33] Ariel Bellvalaire: That was the coolest thing ever.

[49:35] Amber Brzezinski: Oh my god.

[49:36] Ariel Bellvalaire: And yeah, that's the way you're like, okay, and and yet you still have imposter syndrome.

[49:42] Amber Brzezinski: I don't know if it ever goes away for performance.

[49:46] Ariel Bellvalaire: I know I'm ready for any performance and will happily and gratefully take the stage, but there's always the am I good enough or like beating myself up after.

[49:56] Ariel Bellvalaire: I think that just comes with the territory, but I love it so much, it's not gonna ever stop me.

[50:02] Ariel Bellvalaire: But with the the Lyra, I had recently met somebody who made guitar straps that go around your waist, so it saves your so it's meant to be like health conscious, yeah, and save your body.

[50:14] Ariel Bellvalaire: So I'm just like I'm gonna absolutely send me on an Alera here, and um of course my way of testing it to see if the guitar would move.

[50:24] Ariel Bellvalaire: I was like, okay, I'm gonna strap it on and just go for a handstand, and it stayed.

[50:29] Ariel Bellvalaire: And uh I was like, All right, we're bringing the guitar to a Lyra class, and it worked, and it was over.

[50:37] Amber Brzezinski: I mean, and the rest is history, right?

[50:39] Ariel Bellvalaire: Well, like you see like pink flying around her concerts, but like she's just constantly doing stuff.

[50:44] Ariel Bellvalaire: I love her, I think she's so cool.

[50:46] Amber Brzezinski: But like now, I definitely want to see like what Jeff is saying here, yeah.

[50:50] Amber Brzezinski: Um, besides the awesomeness of your performance.

[50:53] Amber Brzezinski: The I have seen aerial inclusive show.

[50:56] Amber Brzezinski: Um stunt work.

[50:59] Amber Brzezinski: Can't wait to see the full shebang.

[51:00] Amber Brzezinski: So when is that happening?

[51:01] Ariel Bellvalaire: Because we want to go.

[51:03] Ariel Bellvalaire: Very soon.

[51:03] Ariel Bellvalaire: I actually debuted um an aerial show live in New York at the cutting room in December.

[51:10] Amber Brzezinski: Nice.

[51:11] Ariel Bellvalaire: It was awesome.

[51:12] Ariel Bellvalaire: So now that that's happened, I've done I've done like the aerial stuff like for TV things, but it wasn't like live in front of an audience.

[51:20] Amber Brzezinski: So now that that's happened, no pressure, like a live audience.

[51:24] Ariel Bellvalaire: Right.

[51:24] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah.

[51:25] Ariel Bellvalaire: Actually, the TV stuff is even crazier without a live audience to feed off of.

[51:31] Amber Brzezinski: No, absolutely.

[51:32] Ariel Bellvalaire: That's also fair.

[51:33] Amber Brzezinski: That's fair.

[51:34] Ariel Bellvalaire: Yeah.

[51:37] Amber Brzezinski: I want to hear about this hamster story.

[51:39] Ariel Bellvalaire: I can't get it off my own.

[51:40] Ariel Bellvalaire: Oh my God.

[51:41] Ariel Bellvalaire: So one of the coolest things I've had the opportunity to do in LA was get a commercial agent.

[51:49] Ariel Bellvalaire: Um, I was never trying to pursue acting specifically, but I've taken like so many classes, I've done commercial seminars, and they actually really liked the fact that I do play music because a lot of commercials are often looking for musicians.

[52:03] Ariel Bellvalaire: So I'll get I'll get pitched to everything.

[52:06] Ariel Bellvalaire: But one audition was looking for um a guitarist.

[52:11] Ariel Bellvalaire: It didn't necessarily have to be female guitarists.

[52:13] Ariel Bellvalaire: Hi Neil.

[52:14] Ariel Bellvalaire: Um it just you know Neil too, of course you do.

[52:17] Ariel Bellvalaire: I love Neil.

[52:19] Ariel Bellvalaire: Um so I do the audition, and it was actually most auditions, like they don't even have you play live in a commercial audition.

[52:27] Ariel Bellvalaire: Sometimes they do, but this one they played a riff and um just on a recording, and you had to play it back to them.

[52:34] Ariel Bellvalaire: And I was like, Oh, that's easy, cool.

[52:36] Ariel Bellvalaire: So I got a call back, and then that callback, there was two rooms.

[52:41] Ariel Bellvalaire: It was um people over five two and people under five two. So they wanted a guitarist who could actually play things note for note, rock out under five two, and I'm five feet. So I'm like it was written for you. Yeah, they narrowed it down quickly, and I didn't know it was for the Kia hamster. Um, I just got a call saying, Oh, you booked it. Are you comfortable in a costume? And I was like, Yeah, I will shred in whatever you want. Right. And then I get the breakdown, and it's like guitar shredding Kia hamster mascot, and I was like, and you're like, as a guinea pig person, I am all for this. Oh my god, the guinea pig came later. This was foreshadowing. Oh, okay. But um, I actually got to go into the studio and record the guitar parts, and um, they just wanted somebody who like knew the parts and could rock out.

Um because when the actual commercial came, we had hamster paws on, so there's no way you're playing it live, but I got to play on the track, which was awesome. Yeah, because you kind of did like a twofer, like you look cute as a hamster, and then you're also able to play. They had us in the hamster suit, which was like basically a giant eggplant around us with little tiny feet. And so they dressed us. Um when you see the the hamsters, like the whole thing is a costume, and the head is just a helmet for CGI. I'm totally trying to find this commercial right now, and it's like the hardest thing to look at. Look up what is it? Kia soul jam. Okay. Yeah. If not, I have it saved somewhere. I can I can send it to you, but it's so funny.

I had a little blue hamster mohawk. You had a blue. I love us so much. That'm never gonna see you the like the same. I'm just gonna see you as a blue mohawk hipster. I'm cool with that. That was the best job ever. Well, there's another one where um oh thank you. I I love that job. Um, yeah, just rocking out as a hamster. And one of my favorite things was this like strutting around set in a hamster suit and just cracking everybody up. I love it. Yeah, definitely send us a video if you can find it. If not, no big deal, we'll post it again and we'll just get you some more loving. Oh, yeah, I thought it's saved somewhere. Somewhere is the keyword. Well, we will uh share it as soon as we get it, but you know, just have to when the next time you come on the show, we'll play it.

Perfect, perfect. Um amazing. Okay, so do we want to get into like hard-hitting questions? Ooh, yes, but one more thing I think we wanted to mention was the fact that the band is called The Drags. The Drags. The dancers are called the Dragett. Yes. And we're trying to narrow down a good name for the fandom. Yep. So do you want us to tell you what we have people voting on right now? Yes. And do you remember who asked us to find this out? Yes, it was Eddie, I believe. Who plays drunk Jerry in the show? It's like we're trying to figure out what what we should call the fans. I was like, we'll do a poll. And I I literally texted Tomasless Station, I was like, we're gonna put a poll up to see what the fans want to be called.

Um I'm gonna find this because it's now buried deep down the rabbit hole here. Ready to go. Here we are. So people have written in their own, and we had a couple of suggestions. Um, so we had the draglings. Oh, that's awesome. Yep, the glam fam. Um, and I Cheyenne says the dragsters, and then somebody said, but that's a car club. Um, the sequence squad, nobody liked. It's a zero percent. The glitterati. That's awesome. Or the mother tuckers. Oh my god. I just want a t-shirt that says the mother tuckers. I'll make one for you. All right, I will. I will wear it every day. I will make you not even kidding, I will send you a sharp that says mother tuckers, and I will make you a breakup. Yeah. Oh, every show.

I love it. I love it. So um, all right, so we will add you to the mother tuckers uh voting. Yes, it's between two. Okay, the mother tuckers just cracks me up, so automatically I love that because she doesn't love a daily dose of laughter. Um, but the draglings is so good. It's it's like a little feeling. I just love that word. But you kind of expect like little fuzzy ducks and drag. Yeah, I think the mother tuckers, that's just so good. That was a fan fan written in one added by Greg M. Janover. So thank you, Greg, for your input. We appreciate that. Thank you for your service, Greg. That is incredible. Also laughed our faces off because we were on the train coming back from New York and going to Connecticut, and it's late and we're like punched on we just left the show and we're just cracking up over these names.

I'm like, oh my god, somebody wrote this in. And it's just been so much fun to watch. I think we have like three hours left to vote. So if you're on the dragon musical fan group on Facebook, or if you're not good at www.thebroadwayfanclub.com, I'll post that here. Um, and then you can go vote. Go vote, make it and I think if there's a couple options, we're gonna then throw them up on our Instagram. Yeah, we can watch it narrowly next because we had some people at stage door just on Instagram only because they didn't say they wanted to be involved. I guess we can offer them an option. That's awesome. But we're still gonna make Ariel her shirt and her bracelet, of course. That's what nice. I will wear it proudly regardless of the winner.

That's just so good. I have glow in the dark neon pink vinyl that I will put it on if you would like that. Please do. Got you. I guess all right. You want to start any questions? I mean, we've been hanging out for almost an hour, and time always flies, so I don't want to take up anyone else's time. I know. So, yes. Um, let me go to my list of questions. I'm gonna ask you my favorite question to ask people, and I'm surprised that nobody's prepared for it because I always throw people off, so no pressure. Here we go. Bring it up. What is a question that you've always wanted to be asked? Whether it's about you, your career, your involvement with drag the musical, anything that no one's ever asked you before, and what is the answer?

Ooh, you know what's funny? I think that would be like what my dream show would be. Okay. Um, what would your dream show be? One of my goals is to have like a residency or just some sort of over-the-top circus type show where we have basically like the theatrics. I I see it as a Vegas show, or it could, it could be everywhere, but where it's aerial musicians, or I'm happy to hold that one down. I'm gonna send you, I'm gonna send you somebody's contact information now that you're saying this, but go on. Yes. I would love just like basically an over-the-top rock circus. Oh, yeah. Um, with original songs, aerial, all of the theatrics. I think in New York in LA. I can see that in Vegas too, but I can also see it on tour in multiple places.

Right. So Vegas residency rock circus or multiple taking over the entire world. Yep. It doesn't have to be Vegas, but I feel like a Vegas stage could definitely handle that. I could see that. Absolutely. But then you'd have to have like lots of sexy people just completely almost new. Right. Yeah. Oh, we're gonna have over the top costumes. Yes, Neil, I totally want to stay in New York City. We can have the show here too. Yes. Neil says stay in New York. We vote stay in New York. I do love you absolutely. Um, what are like your biggest influences, not necessarily from drag, just you know, and music in general? Like what what do you think besides Avril Levine, of course, you know, makes you motivated to keep going and and just brings you know the most joy to your to your musical abilities?

Yeah, well, obviously, Avril started it all as we Avril started it all. But um, I love I love Ozzy just because I'm obsessed with Randy Rhodes' guitar work. He's the reason I'm the guitarist I am. I heard Crazy Train and it was over. So I fell in love with all of the guitar heroes. Uh Randy Rhodes, I love Van Halen, I love Guns N' Roses. They were huge influences, but you know, my younger days, I I was a pop girl, a pop rock punk girl all the way. So yeah, so pink for sure, Paramour, and Gaga is a good one. My favorite artist. I'm so inspired by her, especially with like the over the top costumes. Right. Um the costume and drag the musical is awesome. So cute. That jacket is so badass. Oh my god.

I had it, I had it made. Um I debuted it at my very my my first show, which Neil was at in New York where we did the aerial as well. And every time, every time I'm there and I'm gonna go see a show, I'm like, where are you at? And like we miss each other by like just a second. Or like he's like, I'm seeing drag tonight. I'm like, I'm gonna see it tomorrow. So it's so frustrating. Oh but I had one of the costume designers, Andy, who uh works at drag, just make this over the top thing. I was like, here's the reference picture, but I want your spin on it because you are amazing. Hi Jennifer. And it was just it was awesome. I'm in love with that. Um, I also didn't know that I needed a bedazzled pointy loincloth in my life.

Everybody does. Everyone does. I I was trying to figure out the costume because I'm like, it's so cute, but it's loinclothy. Like every time you'd rock on it, it's like that's genius, though. It's so cute. It's so funny. Um he was like, here's the skirt, and I was like, that's a loincloth. I love it. Right. You're like, that's that's fine, everything's fine. And then you have those badass snake tights. Yeah. The whole ensemble is like the the full picture, the vision is great. We gotta get some new snake tights. Uh, because my guitar might have gotten stuck in it. And I think I'm there. Whoops. Yeah. Oh I but see, I like the leggings, like the um fence net, like stockings. Yes. But now they make them in like all sorts of like the colors and black and nude, but they have like the gems all over them.

I love those. Those are actually have a pair of those. Um, I learned if I go down onto my knees, I will be cut by the rhinestones. Oh, yeah, yeah. Or like if it didn't take blocks, the rhinestones get stuck, and you're like, what just happened? Right. Oh my god, kneeling on a rhinestone. Oh no. It's a punch. You mean there's rhinestones at drag? No. Really? You know what's crazy? I think half of them are mine. That's amazing. I already believe that. I believe that. Yeah. That's amazing. But more recently, I've been really inspired by obviously everybody in drag, but I've been going to the drag shows after drag and the theatrics, the costumes, the talent. Oh my god, this is the same. New York Queens come to play.

Yeah, and I love them so much. I'm so excited for drag. Yeah, drag did great, Laguna did great, Lux did great. Lux. Oh my god. They are just so ridiculously talented. It's incredible sharing the stage with them. Well, you're so incredibly talented. I'm sure they feel just the same way, if not like, oh my god, we have our own band. I love it. It's just so cool. Um, that they're not used to playing with a band regularly, and that it's special. Cause you know, for for us, we're like, well, this is this is what we do, but like seeing people who are new to it and love it, we're just like, This is awesome. Yeah. Well, it was cool for me because the first time I saw the show, it was actually in previews.

Right. Wow. So when I saw it on Saturday, there were so many new costumes and things because everything was more, you know, refined and edited. So I was like, Oh, this is so new. This is so new. I was like, my mind was blown. Like it was the same thing. And I had no idea that you hadn't taken the costumes. So I was like, and you're like, oh my god, the costumes is like they're amazing. And she's like, I didn't see them before it's like mind blown. Yeah. So it's so fun. So I really got the full picture on it. So that was awesome. So now before you play, do you find or like play or like get to shoot a video or anything? Do you have like a pre-show ritual or like a warm-up, like something that you do that day that like this every day, or do you take like you know, a picture of your guinea pig on stage with you, like when I said he's your your background wallpaper?

[1:05:54] Ariel Bellvalaire: But is there something that's like Gucci? Oh, he was a rock star. But um, interestingly enough, I always have to have a guitar in my hands before I perform. Um it was so funny at the first round of drag, um, some of the other musicians they're like, Do you ever put your guitar down? And I and I realized, no, I have to run through every song or else I'll get in my head. And also, like if I have the guitar and I'm just like noodling around, yeah, it takes away the time because like right before a show is when you're most nervous. So if I can just play and distract myself, it's like, oh, it's showtime. Here we go. I don't have time to be nervous anymore. Right so I have to play through every single song before I perform.

Wow. And if I don't, I can still get through a show. There's been a there's been times now where I'm so used to it where I'll I'll show up a little later and I'll be like, uh my costume took too long. I guess we're we're going in, so I know what parts I want to warm up. I will always put the cat house fever. Always I mean great, yes. Yep. Yep. But um ideally I love to play through every single song. So I don't get how long does it usually take you to play through all the songs? Just like as you're going through, obviously, not in between like acts. Um if I say I have two hours, I would take the full two hours. If I have two, if I have like 15 minutes, I will do the speed version, which I'm a rocker, so I'm pretty sure I do the speed version.

That's impressive. Yeah, yeah, but there's like specific parts where I'm just like I have to play that riff. Okay, the verse is the same, I can just play it once. I know what to cut, but there's there's that one monster riff in cathouse fever that I have to play before every single show that I'm like, okay, it makes sense, of course. It makes sense. Oh man, I it just that sounds like so much pre preparation, I think is the best way of putting it. Like, there's a way to like make sure you're good. Um, that you can go on. Have you ever been asked? Like, I I love to like talk to like younger kids about theater, but like have you ever been asked, or like what would you say you would give as advice to somebody who like either wants to shred like you do or have that stage performance presence?

Like, what kind of advice would you give to somebody if they were trying to be as amazing as you are? Well, basically, you you do it because you love it. Um, that is just the bottom line. That's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because like if you're doing it for a specific reason, you're gonna get people that try to knock you down all the time. And it could work if you don't absolutely love it. But if your heart is in it, everything is worth it. And a lot of people do feel that way, which is amazing. So when you do love it, you just have to do it anywhere as often as possible. Take every opportunity you can get. And if if it's a situation where you don't know where to play, upload a video. Just learn as much as you can every time you possibly can, post regular content because that can lead to gigs.

Um meet as many people as you can, reach out to people that you admire, because and nowadays people will respond sometimes, which is awesome. But yeah, just put yourself out there as much as you possibly can, and one thing always leads to another. And I think the biggest thing, which was my biggest stumbling block, is perfectionism. It's never going to be perfect. No such thing as perfect. I try never know if you don't try, right? Exactly. Exactly. But um, sometimes the things you were like, oh my god, that was the most horrible thing ever, get you your next gig. You never know. So you just have to put yourself out there and uh the worst you can get is a no. Exactly, exactly. And if it's one of those things where you're like, I don't want to post because I'm not good enough.

My theory is I'll post it and then not watch it again and just move on to the next thing. It's like when you're writing down like a letter, like you're angry, like your kids are saying that your parents you like write in a letter or like an X or something, you're like, never read it, just tear it up, but you get it out of your head and onto that paper. Exactly, exactly. Because nothing is ever gonna be good enough for us. But other people's own works for sure. Well, so you started off as a gymnast. You said screw the balance bar, like balance. I'm gonna be a guitarist, I'm gonna be an awesome rock star. If somehow, some way, like sliding doors moment, what would you do if you weren't doing what you're doing right now?

Like what other career would you be doing? I feel like I have to do something creative because I just always find myself in that place. Yeah, um, I would love to be a costume designer too. I feel like that would be fun because I love arts and crafts. It's it's my second favorite sport. Same, yeah. Yep, yep. Well, if you had a hand in designing that awesome jacket, I could definitely see it in your future. Oh man, I can't even take credit for that. I saw something, I was like, I just want to do it. Right. No, I gotta give that one to Andy because I was like, here's an idea, but I want it spiky and big. I don't know what that is, but I know you do. Right. So I talked to him. I'm I'm designing two costumes for the Broadway cruise, and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna do this.

And I just picked, I just picked up tie-dye ink just to drip blood on a dress, so yeah, I'm here for it. I know I'll send you pictures. That's so cool. But I'll have like costume ideas, but I'll be like, I gotta assemble the team because and I'll let you know. Draw them out, just draw them out. I started I started like getting fidgety because of going, I like to design stuff too, but I don't want to like draw a form and then like figure it out. But there's like forms that are readily available online that you can draw around it. So once I found that, I was able to just really push through it. That's so cool. So that might be my next uh little side. Do it, yeah. I'll try. Do it. Yes, ma'am. I was like, you should telling me if you can ready to say it.

Um, I think we're out of our questions. Yeah, which is impressive to us because we usually never get to actually ask people stuff. Yeah, that was awesome. Thank you. No, we love it. Is there anything that you want to say to fans of Drag the Musical or fans of you specifically that you maybe haven't been able to say to them? Um, or like, do you have any plugs you want to do? Like anything else coming up, any other creative projects coming up, or you're just here for drag? I mean, I just want to say I'm just so grateful to everybody who's seen all of the shows, both mine, whether it's live clips of a show online, drag. It's just been so incredible performing this much. Yeah. And I just love the energy that we're receiving back from every show.

This has just been the absolute best two years ever. I I'm just loving it, and I'm just so grateful to everybody who's always in the audience. And it just it's so cool just feeding off the energy of a live show. Absolutely. That being said, I do have another solo show coming up. Yeah. Okay, great. When is it? Tell us all about it. February 4th. Okay. Um, so very soon. It was kind of a last minute put together. It's at the cutting room, 7 p.m. And it is with live band Jimbo is gonna be doing a set from Dragon. Okay, awesome. Lux Noir in London is gonna be doing a set. Okay. And um, our amazing swing Cameron is gonna be doing a few songs and hosting the show. Oh, awesome! It's gonna be so much fun.

I'm doing a set as well. We're gonna throw in my very favorite cover song and then some originals. What's gonna be your favorite cover song? Sweet child of mine from Guts. Awesome. That will forever be my favorite song. And if people want to prepare for that incredible show, which is literally the day after I leave New York, um, they can also find you on Spotify. Yes, which has five singles on it. Is that correct? Yes, Till the Clock Strikes is my favorite song out of all of them. Check this out right there. Woo woo woo. Go check it out and subscribe, right? Yes, please. Thank you so much. No, it's incredible. Um, and then I'm also gonna share, um, tell people how to find you. I know that we find you on Instagram.

Oh, please be my friend. Lots of yeah, just spammer with friend requests. So it's Ariel Bell. I respond. Right at A R A R I E L B E L L V A L A I R E. L Bell, it pops up. If you touch it, it'll guaranteed pop up. You don't have to type in the La Lair. I love it's a shortcut to be her friend. It is. Um when you're ready to go check out the show if you haven't seen it yet. Um if you have seen it, there's new casts. Oh, yeah. It's so good. It's so much fun. And like I I've always loved Adam Pascal. Um, I've never had the opportunity to meet him. And I texted Tommaso's like, I'm I want to try to introduce myself because he'll be on the Broadway cruise on in the end of March. And so Tomas is like, he's gotta catch a train right after the show.

It's like, no, I totally understand. We were at the stage door. First person that comes out is Adam, and I was like, that's cool. Like, he's just so nice and genuine. But that's what's so much fun about watching the show is that it's an intimate show with a lot of energy. Um, and you're gonna constantly pick on up on something differently, which I love, especially with all the swings that you guys have and just the Brendans, like we just love everybody at that show. That somebody's uh ego doesn't over or outpower another ego, everybody's just a wrong charge despite the show being a bunch of drag queens, yeah. No ego outpowers and other drama, but there's none right amazing, right? But just it it's just on stage, right?

Right. But check out www.dragthemusical.com and make sure that you go support the show because we want our friends to be at New Roll stage just forever and ever and ever and ever. Yes, well, we can't wait to see you all at drag. It is the best time. Yeah, love it. And don't forget, Ariel has a show February 4th at the cutting room. Um, I will find a link and post that right over to our groups so they can go check you out and hopefully we'll get you a sold-out house. Woo! Amazing, thank you so much. And thank you for taking the time to chat with me. This was so my god, when you were like, Yes, I want to do the podcast. I was like, done. We're we will do an extra show this week so we can put you in on your schedule.

Thank you. Because it wouldn't even work out next week because you've got your show. So see how that works. We love it. Thank you guys for this. Yeah, no, thank you for the support um of the podcast because we love doing it. And don't forget we've got our giveaway, which the dog almost ate, um, of a signed play bill of Dragon Musical. Signed by Jimbo and Adam Pascal, and Ariel, and Ariel. And Nick Adams, and everybody in the drag race cast on Saturday night. I was like every every single person that came out is on there. Jan signs in purple because of course she does. Of course. I love it. I mean, it's fine. And then Ariel has like this cute little signature that I showed down here, which is fine because it's very similar to the Disney Princess signature.

So incredible. Did you really? You really are. Oh my god. That's incredible. I will I will literally send you a picture of the one from the theme parks. Please do. I have to see you now. We will laugh. You will laugh. So we appreciate you taking your time on this lovely Tuesday. Um, thank you so much. Thank you so much. We're gonna come harass you at the show and seriously. We are going to send you out that uh Mother Tucker shirt and bracelet. Yes. Oh my god, I'm gonna wear it. I'm so excited. I'll just send it in multiple colors. You can just have one for each day of the week. It'll be great. That's perfect. I don't even know what to think about the outfit. This is great. Oh, we're gonna love it.

Well, we appreciate you so much. Thanks for hanging out with us. So fun. And thanks for your friends for joining in. You've got new fans. I know Cheyenne Cook is gonna be like looking at you all over the place. She's one of our regulars, and we love it. So amazing. Thank you all so much. This was so much fun. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, thank you, yes. Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday, everybody. Um, also don't forget, next week's episode is also on a Tuesday, because I'll be flying back from New York Monday, and we will have Steven Tookesbury um on our show. So we're really excited about that. Sweetie Todd Alum. Yes, sweetie Todd Alum and all sorts of other incredible stuff. But thank you so much for your time. Thanks, Ariel, and um everybody have a great rest of your week. Bye everyone. Bye everyone. Thank you.