Michael Dalton, 49
Entertainer/Performer
Cis male, Gay
He/him
Entertainment was always a part of Michael’s life from a young age. “I was flamboyant, theatrical and camp!” Michael recalls of his childhood.
But Michael didn’t always fully embrace his fabulousness. When a friend in college likened him to the British singer Jimmy Sommerville, Michael was deeply offended.
“Jimmy Sommerville was like really really camp, and I wasn’t… or at least I didn’t think I was,” explains Michael.
It was around that same time that Michael came out to his mother over a teary moment at the kitchen table.
“My mother said to me that I had chosen a very hard life for myself, and I simply told her that I didn’t choose it,” Michael remembers vividly.
Upon completing his musical theatre studies, Michael returned to his hometown London to pursue a career in entertainment and was well and truly out and proud, yet still uncomfortable with his effeminate ways.
“Someone said that I reminded them of the great Nathan Lane, and instead of being flattered, I was horrified because I didn’t want to be seen as a screaming queen,” Michael recalls, adding that he was looking for roles as leading men in shows and nobody wanted an effeminate leading man. “I guess I wasn’t 100% confident with my sexuality and felt like I was just trying to butch it up a bit.”
When an opportunity came knocking to do a drag gig in Cardiff, Michael jumped at it, having had a little experience in Melbourne. Putting his signature trademark of singing live instead of lip-synching, the gig was a hit and so began the rise of Dolly Diamond.
Seventeen years later, Michael and Dolly are inseparable and a force to reckon with, taking Dolly from the club scene to the cabaret stage and eventually on national breakfast TV and more recently to the Edinburgh Comedy Festival.