So..when you watch Party Monster, they take the liberty of several talk show appearances combined into one. Each year, every show would feature them. It'd be interesting to watch them all back to back. You could witness the demise.
In 1993 the Geraldo producers decided to pick one final panelist the morning of the show, with little knowledge of who they were and how they fit into the scene. Prior to then, Michael Alig more or less hand picked the panel. Even though he had his favorites, he wasn't an idiot and did pick an assorted bunch to ensure his empire looked cool on TV. Geraldo's crew being total idiots, ended up picking this stumpy fat Parsons freshman who went by the name Princess Botanikle (I believe that was the proper misspelling.)
She really was a gnarly troll. She had only gone out maybe 3 times. The show usually taped in October, and she was one of the newbies that had arrived that fall. At the time we thought she may have even made up her name on the spot. None of us had ever recalled having a Princess Botanikle on a guest list. Club kids came in all different sizes. Some found themselves so gorgeous they'd have everything on display. Some were insecure nerds who covered up every square inch of their body and reinvented themselves as something else. This would be her. She was your classic art geek. Short, fat, horrific frizzy hair; her "outfits" were all bulky costumes that hid who she was. I think she even wore glasses. In retrospect, I think the producers knew she was a wannabe and put her up there hoping some mean girls type drama would transpire. It didn't. She didn't say very much.
The entire scene let out a collective heave when they learned that she had been picked. I didn't go to the taping. I was on the 1992 one. You have to be up at the crack of dawn and every one and their mother shows up dressed as ridiculously as possible to become the next Princess Botanikle. By the following year I was having none of it, including her. To be quite honest it was people like her, that waned me off the "scene". It was not nearly as cool as nostalgia will have you think. Though it was an "escape" from conventional society, it was very much like conventional high school. There were the "popular" kids, and there were geeks. That morning when Botanikle woke up...she was a geek.
Nonetheless, she was about to have her "moment". The week the show aired her name went on the Disco 2000 flyer. This unofficially meant she was now "somebody". Being somebody didn't magically make her attractive, so she like most ugly club people put up the facade of a lot of attitude. This didn't win her any brownie points. Michael had a sick sense of humor; he might have found it all entertaining.
I never knew her, she always kissed my ass because by the time she was on the scene, I was working a "VIP" rope. In her eyes I was somebody "important". I thought she was awful though, she and her ugly friends.
The party I worked at was called "Queen". It was Wednesday nights on the main stage at Webster Hall. My friend Chris and I worked velvet ropes on both sides at the foot of the stairs leading up to the it. They was a runway down the middle. Once enough alcohol was consumed all kinds of shenanigans happened up there. I thought it would never work. I was wrong, I worked there for close to 2 years. (I'll elaborate further about said party later.)
Chris and I hated everyone, the "Botanikle Beast" was one of our favorite inside jokes. After Disco 2000 got sick of her, my idiot promoter put her on the payroll. Our job was pretty awesome though, they all made idiots of themselves up there, and we got to stand there and mock them, in clear view of everyone.
On Thanksgiving Eve, I believe it was 1994. Botanikal showed up in one of her usual bulky ridiculous ensembles. In lieu of traditional platforms, moron used electrical tape to attached extra large coffee cans to her stumpy little calves. She then painted them. I do recall her execution not being super horrible. Though you could tell it was tape and coffee cans, and I hated that. You could also tell she thought this was one of her better looks...which makes what happens next all that more joyous.
She takes her first few steps out on the runway and SPLAT!!!... nasty face plant; The fall in and of itself was pure gold. I could rewind and watch it over and over. But that was just the beginning. Because of her weight the coffee cans bend badly when she attempts to get up so she can't move. These were the Costco sized ones and she was a rather small girl. Her limbs are too stumpy for her to do much of anything. She's laying there in the middle of the runway like a wounded walrus. It's hella awkward. The ENTIRE club is staring at her. It's so above and beyond your ordinary fall.
Chris and I laugh hysterically. We LIVED for this sort of thing. Especially when it happened to people like her. When pressed most of the party goers would try to tell you that it was "all in fun". The hell it was, those losers took that runway shit seriously. They felt they deserved the attention and fought each other for it. People fell down all the time, but she wasn't drunk yet, and there was no way to play this off as "fierce". It was like she got up there and demonstrated to the entire club scene why she sucked, and how stupid it had all become.
From what I understand she fails out of Parsons and out of New York. I do recall her disappearing suddenly. Nonetheless, my rumored demise was an alleged heroin "addiction" which was actually my rommate, but guilt by association. I really just enroll in SVA and get a job...but I'm cool with people thinking I ended up a druggie.
