James St. James

James St. James (born James Clark; August 1, 1966) is a television and internet personality, author, celebutante, frequent collaborator with Mathu Andersen, and former "Club Kid", a member of the New York City club scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Career

In the late 1980s, St. James became friendly with Michael Alig, although at first he and the other club personalities shunned the newcomer. Undeterred, Alig soon created his own scene by gathering up other creative personalities of the nightlife world; he used his flamboyant style, and engaged in self-promotion and themed parties. St. James morphed from celebutante to Club Kid while helping Alig create the new scene. Alig and St. James threw many parties together, eventually setting up the Disco 2000 club night at the New York City club The Limelight. St. James wrote several columns, most famously for the short-lived New York City-based gay publication OutWeek during the magazine's two year life span from 1989 to 1991.

St. James appeared many times on television talk shows to discuss the Club Kids during the 1980s and 1990s, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Phil Donahue Show, The Jerry Springer Show, Geraldo, and The Joan Rivers Show.

Publishing debut St. James's debut book, Disco Bloodbath (1999), is a memoir that describes his life in the club scene and documents the infamous rise to fame of Michael Alig and Alig's and Freeze's killing of Andre "Angel" Melendez. The film Party Monster: The Shockumentary (1998) was released prior to but is based on events in Disco Bloodbath, as is the film Party Monster (2003).

Freak Show and the 2000s St. James published a second book, Freak Show in 2007, a comedy/romance about a teenage drag queen who attends a new school and forges a relationship with the football team's quarterback. Freak Show was named to the American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults list. The book was adapted into a feature in 2017 by Maven Entertainment. The film was directed by Trudie Styler and stars Alex Lawther, Abigail Breslin, and Bette Midler.

St. James curates art shows at the World of Wonder Gallery for the production company World of Wonder, makers of both Party Monster: The Shockumentary (1998) and Party Monster (2003), and blogs regularly on World of Wonder's website, the WOW Report.

In the 2000s, St. James has made regular appearances on America's Next Top Model, cycles 5, 7, & 11, presenting contest skill challenges to the aspiring models. St. James also appeared in season 2, episode 9 of RuPaul's Drag Race, where he interviewed the top four contestants on a red carpet before they walked the runway.

St. James had a long running webseries through the World of Wonder channel WOW Presents, titled Transformations: with James St. James. The webseries featured various makeup artists, drag queens, Club Kids, and RuPaul's Drag Race alums giving St. James themed makeovers.

St. James currently has a podcast, Night Fever, on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, which he co-hosts with Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. The podcast includes leading New York nightlife figures of the '70s, '80s, and '90s.