Aug 6
EDGE Interview: No Escape from Work for Manila Luzon... Even on Vacation
Timothy Rawles READ TIME: 5 MIN.
When you're "Drag Race" royalty and work as much as Manila Luzon, it's hard to carve out time for a Fire Island vacation. But if you are the workhorse she is, when you do get away, you film it for a reality program. That's the premise behind "Manila Luzon's Escape to Paradise" now streaming on OUTtv.
In it, our Filipino queen along with her husband Michael Alvarez try to escape the hustle and bustle of the real world to spend time together doing things that couples do on holiday such as playing chess or getting intimate. EDGE talked with Luzon shortly before the show's late June premiere, and even before the cameras started rolling, she was a little irked.
"At the time I was super annoyed," she says. "I thought I was on vacation, and it turned out to be a little bit more work than I was expecting."
It's par for the course when her husband is in charge. But that doesn't mean she isn't capable of planning a vacation herself; she just finds it too stressful and relies on other people to do it for her.
"I let my husband do it this time, but my husband is also a big hustler. He's always working and so it turned in work location really quick." Michael's persistent ballyhoo is a pet peeve Luzon has to live with, "even when we're at the dinner table he's, you know, sending an email."
She does credit her hubby's incessant hustling to keeping her motivated, but she wishes he would put his phone down sometimes, especially when they make plans for a holiday because it's so rare they take one. Most of the time she has to live out of her suitcase for work, and if that gets lost (spoiler alert, it does in the show), it can be catastrophic to her livelihood.
Luzon competed on "RuPaul's Drag Race" Season 3. She made it to the top two but lost to Raja. She got a second shot to take the crown on the first season of "Drag Race All Stars" but was eliminated placing eighth, only to return again for "All Stars" Season 4. This time she sashayed away in the eighth episode. Her presence within the "Drag Race" universe continued as a regular on the spin-off series "Drag U." Extending her brand even further, the entertainer started her own Vodka label called Serv along with a line of personal lubricant products. Furthermore, she's had a few chart-topping songs and continues to be an activist in the LGBTQ+ community. With a workhorse lifestyle like that, there's little time for some rest and relaxation. In "Manila Luzon's Escape to Paradise," she attempts to take some. But it doesn't work out that way.
In the show, while Michael is trying to secretly deal with Luzon's lost luggage, two of their friends show up to party. Adult entertainer Ricky Roman and "flamboyant" dancer JMV literally burst through the front door and within hours are wrestling in a small pool of Luzon's lube. It's product placement at its sexiest.
