Liz OhanesianEvery reality show has one intriguing person who is eliminated so early that viewers are left wanting to know more. For season three of RuPaul's Drag Race, that person is Venus D-Lite.
Venus D-Lite is the drag persona of L.A. native Adam Guerra, a performer with ten years experience and a reputation for pulling off outstanding celebrity impersonations.
“I'm just as confused as everyone else, I would say,” said Venus of the elimination when we spoke on the phone last week. “I thought that my drag credentials would have tickled RuPaul's curiosity to what I could do creatively.”
He added, “I would have loved to have shown a little more of my bubbly personality and my creativity. My make-up skills, my costumes. My Madonna impersonation. That's the one thing I regret, not being able to show it, being able to show my creativity as Madonna.”
Though Venus has impersonated everyone from Judy Garland to Paris Hilton, he's best known for taking on the challenge of portraying Madonna in every one of her fashionable incarnations. Venus, who performs regularly both in West Hollywood and Riverside, says he tends to portray Blonde Ambition Madonna most often. He also has a love of Confessions on the Dancefloor, which was particularly popular at the time that Madonna's disco epic was released.
Credit: All images courtesy of Venus D-Lite
“The album was so popular when I was performing it that I had to have all my costumes and shoes replaced. All my leotards were ripping and shoes were breaking on stage,” Venus recalled. “That was the most memorable time of me performing Madonna…I even dislocated my pinky finger performing it at Arena.”
We couldn't help but wonder how the dislocation happened.
“I don't know,” he said. “Maybe I landed too hard on the floor. “
The show itself, though, sounds like it made up for the injury.
“The showtime was really late there, it was 1:30 in the morning, everybody was butt drunk and having a good time.”
Venus described it as being “like concert.”
“People were jumping up and screaming having a ball.”
Of course, when the crowd is wild, so is the performance.
“[The crowd] pumped me up to do an extra split or do an extra disco move.”
He concluded, “I was panicking and freaking out. I had one of the dancers pop it back in.”
Credit: All images courtesy of Venus D-Lite
There's more to Venus than Madonna, or even celebrity impersonations. Growing up in L.A., his first club experiences involved dancing to DJ Irene's sets at Arena. In more recent times, you may have seen Venus burning up the dancefloor at parties like Shits & Giggles and Bears in Space (of the latter's resident, Chris Bowen, Venus says, “He knows how to make me forget about everything with his tunes.”). Needless to say, four-on-the-floor beats and hot dance moves in packed clubs are important to Venus.
“I'm a huge fan of shuffle dancing,” said Venus, who describes the popular dance as “the running man mixed with the mashed potato for a bit with a raver style.”
Now, Venus is interested in bringing his love of the dancefloor into the studio. He's currently working with a producer on a dance track.
“I really want to go into the house direction,” said Venus.
The tune is still in the planning stages, but, in the meantime, you can catch Venus D-Lite on stage. Tonight, he'll be at Rage for part of the long-running revue Dreamgirls. Showtime is at 10 p.m. Venus D-Lite is also set to perform at VIP Nightclub in Riverside on Wednesday and Here Lounge in West Hollywood on Monday, February 7.
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