Queer Voices
Queer Voices
April 16th QUEER VOICES: Dixie Longate and Kris Andersson talk with Brett Cullum about Tupperware and Truth!
In a podcast exclusive, Brett Cullum gets to talk to legendary icon Dixie Longate. Dixie is in residence at Stages Houston until April 20th, doing her last round of a whirlwind tour that has been happening since 2008! Dixie is the creation of actor Kris Andersson who, in a rare switcheroo, allows QUEER VOICES to talk to him and Dixie in one session. You get all the sass of the plastic pusher as well as the insight from the man who made her. In the end, we find out that Dixie is a loving tribute to women everywhere who have to stand up for themselves. Also, Dixie was in a huge controversy after her run at the Kennedy Center, which sparked ire from some politicians. You can't get a voice any queerer than Dixie's or Kris'.
For tickets:
https://stageshouston.com/event/dixies-tupperware-party/
Dixie's Tupperware page:
https://mytwpage.com/dixielongate
Queer Voices airs in Houston Texas on 90.1FM KPFT and is heard as a podcast here. Queer Voices hopes to entertain as well as illuminate LGBTQ issues in Houston and beyond. Check out our socials at:
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Dixie Longate has been selling Tupperware in her theatrical party since 2007. This has become a sensation and, believe it or not, you can actually order Tupperware at this theater show. She actually sells this stuff. It's hilarious, and all of it is the genius move of Chris Anderson, who had a film and a drag career even before this madness started. Now Dixie is going to be at Stages for a two-week run. Tickets are already selling fast about as fast as plastic containers, to be honest. So welcome to Queer Voices, chris, or rather Dixie, both of you at once. What? I will flip back and forth between both voices. This is a shock, because I've only heard Dixie, so Chris's voice is very different. That's amazing, chris.
Speaker 2:How are you?
Speaker 1:I am so good. What an honor to have you. I am just amazed because I've heard about this for years. I mean, everybody always talks about this show and how wonderful it is. Please tell me how all of this got started with this Tupperware party.
Speaker 2:It was interesting. I went to a Tupperware party years ago in 2001 with a couple of friends of mine and a friend of mine said oh my God, the woman that was doing the party was trying to basically recruit everybody at the party and a friend of mine that was there said oh, you should do it, you'd be great, you'd do it in character, that would be so funny. And he kind of dared me to do it in drag and so I created this character, this kind of Southern housewife from the wrong side of the tracks, and just did a couple Tupperware parties. And it caught on and more and more people were inviting me to do parties and I was going up the ranks of the Tupperware Corporation as a consultant and selling more and more Tupperware. And I was going up the ranks of the Tupperware Corporation as a consultant and selling more and more Tupperware. And it was interesting. I would go to these. I was living in LA at the time and I would do a lot of my parties in Orange County, which is just south of LA, and obviously, famously, the Orange County housewives dominate that area.
Speaker 2:This is before that TV show was on, but the same women were there, you know, and I would go to the parties and they would be fascinated with me. They would always ask me you know, oh, tell me about you. And I'm, you know, in full character. I'm setting up my Tupperware table before the party and I would say, oh, I'm Dixie, and you know, this is my, you know, I'm from Alabama and I've been doing this. And then I'd turn it on them. I say, well, tell me about you. And they would say, oh, well, you know, my husband does this. And I'd say, okay, well then, tell me about you. And they say, well, I've got two kids, you know, one's in soccer, one's in ballet. And I kept noticing how these women would talk around themselves. You know, their identity was completely linked to other people. And so when I I I told a friend of mine who's a director in New York, oh, I'm doing this thing now, I'm doing these Tupperware parties. And he's the one who said, oh, this should be a show, you need to turn this into something. And so I kind of wrote it as a love letter to the unsung women that don't see their own strength, and I put it together.
Speaker 2:We took it to New York as part of the New York International French Festival back in 2004. New York as part of the New York International French Festival back in 2004. And that was seen by a number of people. That kind of had some influence. They moved it up the food chain and I ended up having an off-Broadway developmental run in 2007, which led to the tour. And it was a very different show at that time because there were a lot of hands on that show when it went into New York and so it wasn't exactly the show I wanted to do. And so when the tour was already connected to it, but the tour was going to end up being too expensive the way they wanted to do it, so I kind of rewrote it and stripped it all down to what it needed to be, which is a love letter to women, and so that's how it ended up going on the road in 2008.
Speaker 2:And the booker at the time thought we'd maybe get a year out of it at most, maybe 18 months, and 17 years later the show is still going, and this is my final year. I'm wrapping everything up in the fall. So as far as the road is concerned, I'm wrapping up. I've got bigger designs past that, but that's how it all came to be, and so it's a fun opportunity to go. You know people kind of underestimate what the show is. They think it's going to be a silly little show about a Tupperware party and it ends up having this message about resilience and finding your own courage and your own strength and lifting yourself up. And people are always kind of sucker punched by that and it inspires people to walk away from the show, kind of valuing themselves a little bit more.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's a lot, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:I'm not good at one word answers, but no, that's amazing though, but okay, and if you want to, you can answer this as Dixie. I would just like to know who is Dixie. Where did you come from, dixie?
Speaker 2:She is. Well, listen, I have had a couple of run-ins, I've been married three times. I have three kids that I know of, you know, and there, yeah, you know, I, I, I start. I was doing things. I never thought I would be a tough word lady. I was doing things that normally weren't.
Speaker 2:You know, panning out from where I was from, and you know my mama said I'm not pretty enough to work at this trip, but I was bendy enough and so, but I would come from a place that they didn't throw dollars, they'd throw quarters, and I wouldn't want to go through my 20s getting these little bruises all over me. So I said no, I'm on part of the conditions of my parole. My parole officer, when I got out one time, she said you know you need a job in order to get your kids back. And I was like, who wants that? That's no, you know, I didn't mind the job so much, but getting the kids back, that's a law that needs to be changed, obviously. And so I started.
Speaker 2:She's the one who suggested I start SoundTepware and I did it and I became top SoundTpperware lady in the entire United States and Canada, which is so crazy. But I would go to these jubilees, the big Tupperware convention, and that's really what got inspiring to me, because I would watch all these women get celebrated for what they were doing you know, selling Tupperware and having their own business and I was like, oh, I want to be like that. I want to get up on stage and be recognized like all these other great ladies are being, and so that's what, what you know, really got me going in the whole Tupperware thing and to be able to go into people's homes and share some quality, creative food storage solutions with them and be able to laugh and drink. You know, this is the bottom line. I get to drink for free at work and that's really why you do any job. If you don't get to do that, you need to really reconsider what you're doing for a living.
Speaker 1:You're doing something wrong if you can't do your job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know I mean, that's the thing I was like when I went to my first party. The host said would you like a cocktail? I said oh no, I'm working she's like, but it's a party and I said I'm staying in this job forever.
Speaker 1:Now, are you, like, related to Reba McIntyre at all, because you look A lot like Reba.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, that is the nicest compliment anyone's ever given me, all the time.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:I'm not, I don't, I'm not related to anybody that I'm aware of, and so you know it's just. I'm just a southern redhead. That's what happens, you know. You get in the south and everybody's kind of related to everybody else, whether they know it or not, because you know the population down there is we're longing for something of meaning, and so sometimes mama gets behind the dumpster and finds something on a friday night. You never know what you're gonna be doing. You know how it is. Nine months later mistakes are made always now.
Speaker 1:Okay, you were at stages until april 20th how did you connect with stages? How did they get dixie? Longgate?
Speaker 2:well, I have been in houston a couple times before I had been at the Tuts, presented me the first time I came through a theater under the stars at the Hobby Center and then I was brought back two different times there. And then I've also played Galveston at the Opera House three times. And then I think it was just Mitchell Greco, who's one of the members that runs the whole thing, reached out and he said, hey, you're pretty. And I was like it's true, I can't help it because of Jesus or whatever. And then he said you won't come to your program here and I said I'd love that. That would be so fun.
Speaker 2:So it was just about people knowing me from you know haven't been here before and they were looking for some fun programming for their season. And they said, well, we'd like to try this because we had seen the show over at the Hobby Center. We really we really got a giggle and we thought our audiences over here would enjoy the show a lot. So they said let's come on in. So two weeks I'm here and I'm having a good time. I mean, everything in Houston is fantastic, so I'm having a good time here and everybody's so naively.
Speaker 2:It's very interesting because their audiences that go to the Performing Arts Center are somewhat different than the audiences that go to stages, and so it's you know where I go to the Performing Arts Center. People know me, they're used to me because I've been there a bunch, and so I'm sort of having to rebuild an audience. There's a lot of people coming over that have seen me before, but there's a lot of people that don't know my show at all, over the hobby and, sorry, at the stages, and so it's kind of like building the reputation from scratch, which is always an interesting thing starting over, you know.
Speaker 1:Now the scuttlebutt on this one is this is the last tour for Dixie in this Tupperware party, and why end a good thing? I mean you got to go, and why is this the last you know I have?
Speaker 2:been on the road 17 years. We never thought that. You know, me and my team never thought it would be this long, and save for COVID when I was off the road for a little bit because everything was shut down. I've been hooking it for a long time and I figured, you know what, it's time to kind of wind the tour down on the road and we're looking at taking the show to New York in the fall and sitting it down off Broadway and doing a long run there. So that's going to. You know, take me off the road.
Speaker 2:But I said, you know I'm like I'm not going nowhere, I'm just going around. But I thought, you know, I want to kind of wrap it up and start. You know, end where I started, but be able to take the show that I've been doing on the road for the last 17 years. It's really kind of inspired me and inspired so many audience members. I want to take that and put it down in New York and do it that way to kind of book in the whole thing. So that's where I'm going. But yeah, it's. You know, I love being on the road, but I think it's just time. You know, every chapter of your life ends and a new one begins. I think it's time to write a new story.
Speaker 1:Let's get serious here for just a second.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So Kennedy Center you performed there, right, I did I was very, very grateful.
Speaker 2:They invited me to do a month of shows last summer and it was great, I mean it was to be able to perform at such a legendary venue and to be able to I mean it was an honor. It was an honor to step foot in those hallowed halls and be amongst the performers that have gotten to be there.
Speaker 1:Now you're not invited back, are you?
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know. If you're aware, there's a little bit of a scuttlebutt. Yes, there is. The president has decided that he wants a very specific program, and of which I am not counting myself among, because they have decided that they are going to curate exactly what he wants to see and not what the patrons want to see, necessarily, or what people are used to. I mean, the thing about art centers is it's going to be a diverse program and not everybody's going to like everything that's in there. You're going to have opera and ballet and you're going to have poetry jams and you're going to have musicals and plays, and not everything is going to be your cup of tea. But the whole point of it is it's because everybody has different artistic visions and that should be able. An art center should be able to share all kinds of different points of views and perspective, and the president doesn't seem to think that that's a good idea.
Speaker 1:I think that this is iconic. Seriously, it is the biggest reason that I want to come see you on this run and stages to support you, because this is just amazing that they're trying to even target this kind of production or anything like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it was very interesting to kind of be called out basically personally by the press why we can't have I had done my show there and it was in the name of the theater there are six theaters in the building in the name of the theater that I performed in was called the Family Theater and he's like, oh, we don't want drag shows for families.
Speaker 2:And I was like, well, that's not what was happening. It was the Family Theater, it was my show and it's a show about empowerment and it's also a show you never bothered to step foot into the theater to see. So I don't know what you're talking from, but it's again, you know, it's an inspiring, empowering show and makes people feel good and makes people giggle, and so I'm not sure what's wrong with that. But that is, you know, I'm not able to. I'm not able to fight past that thing. So that's I'm not going to be a bad effect. But you know what I'm grateful to have been there. The people that brought me in are sticking to the guns and saying thank you so much for being part of our programming and our legacy, and I'm very happy about that.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm happy that you're going to be at Stages through April 20th, because that gives us a chance to see you here. I don't have to travel all the way to DC, yeah come on and see you at some family theater.
Speaker 2:And the last night. And so there's somebody came out after the show and said I got to see you in dc and that's why I came, because, like it was a lady that lives here, but she's like, I was in dc traveling for work and the show popped up there and I said, all right, I'm gonna come and see what this show is.
Speaker 1:And then, because she had so much fun there, she came to see it last night because, I mean, you're neck of the woods you know I have to ask because I I don't have a lot of it, but if you have to buy one item of Tupperware, what do I need?
Speaker 2:You know it's all dependent on who you are and what you do. See my tumblers, you'll see, at the program. I have tumblers that are with me all the time and they have a seal that you stick a straw in and so like, if you're drinking and driving and you hit a baby or whatever, you're not going to spill your drink because the lid on it is going to keep anything from spilling, which is so nice, and you can drink right through the lid, which is great. That's something I couldn't be without. I mean, and I put, like you know, my morning vodka right on the bedside table and then with that, so if the cat walks on it it's not going to get hair in it and it's not going to spill over.
Speaker 2:There's over, there's that. There's my wine opener. Like you'd be amazed what tupperware has. There's everything's just plastic bowls, but there's so much different stuff. I have a wine opener that I love because I take it with me in my glove box when I'm driving places. I get thirsty and parched. There is a jello shot container that I take my jello shots to church, to, you know, to serve jesus and everything. And there's so many good things that you're going to see the program you're going to be like. I didn't even believe they had all this.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm there and I'm ordering. Finally, I want to ask Dixie what do you think of Oreo-flavored Coke?
Speaker 2:Oh my God, Did you see that? So people that know me, they know that I love Oreos and I have all kinds of videos up on my social media about different Oreos. Because Oreos have been going through this thing in the last couple of years where they've been making all these different flavors and they had this weird cross-branding thing with Coke where they did coke flavored oreos and oreo flavored coke and the coke flavored oreos. The smell is a bit overwhelming when you open up the package at first, but this they actually taste pretty decent, but the coke the oreo flavored coke is. This is an abomination. They should be ashamed of themselves. They should sit in the corner and cry until they know what they did and what they unleashed on the rest of the world and they need to understand and take that accountability forward.
Speaker 2:Because it is a flavor in your mouth. I had a bottle of it. Let me explain to you. It took me about four days to get through a single like 12 ounces, I think, because it the flavor is. I've had things in my mouth before and this is not one that I would repeat, you know, and I kept it for so long because I kept thinking that, well, maybe if I tried a different way. It'll be okay. Maybe if I tried in the morning, maybe I tried it after I've already been drinking. Maybe if I try it, you know, when it's flat, it will be better. No, no, it never improved, it just got worse. It just made the baby Jesus cry and it's already so moody. You know you don't want to do anything to make it worse. So, yeah, it was, it was. It's something.
Speaker 1:Yeah you know, I I have to confirm.
Speaker 2:I tried it, it was foul, it was really and you've got to, you've got to wonder, because you know, companies this big do all kinds of taste tests. And I want to sequester the people in the room that was said, oh, this is a good idea. And that did that taste test and said this is the version you need to put on the market, and I want to smack them upside the head so hard. Oh my lord, what's wrong with people that were like, oh yeah, that'll be okay, you know, put that out. Oh no, no, what's wrong with people?
Speaker 1:well, what is a good idea is to go see dixie's tupperware party at stages through april 20th I believe april 20th, yeah, next two weeks, two whole weeks, lots of shows. I even saw there's some on tuesday, wednesday, thursday. I mean they, they're filling it every day we have.
Speaker 2:Monday is my day off, but we have every day of the week and we've got matinee on saturday and a matinee on thursday, which is so interesting you're doing matinees on thursdays yeah, yeah, so sometimes, and thursday on is very interesting, so you're, it's going to be like a luck of the draw, you know, because they wanted to be able to give people as many opportunities to be able to see the show as possible. So they just like, do shows all the time. So I'm doing a Thursday matinee too.
Speaker 1:Okay, according to Chris's IMDB page, you have been in some of my favorite movies, like Scream 2, hellbent, which is this amazing gay horror flick that everybody needs to see. No, that's amazing and the iconic. Of course, girls will be girls, with all of my favorite drag queens so I'm wondering, you know, when all of this wraps, if dixie ever decides that it's time to go, what's next for you? Are you going to pursue more film? Well, I mean, I say you're a dancer, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, I was back when my body moved. That way I'm getting older. So, you know, one of the reasons, one of the things I'm looking forward to about taking the show to New York, is to be with people is to be with people. You know, New York obviously has a lot of theater, a lot of film and TV, but also has a lot of resources for because I like to create stuff. So I mean I created Dixie, I created all the tours that I've done. I mean I've done four different shows now under the Dixie character, three of them live and then one of them during the pandemic.
Speaker 2:I did a show called Dixie's Happy Hour, which I went into a small theater near where I lived and filmed it, and then we got it streaming to 26 different art centers around the country to bring income in. And so I, you know, and I've done all this stuff as Dixie, but I'd like to create things and I want to be in a city where I have access to more people, more resources, more ability and opportunities to create other things. So I have some things that I'm working on, for sure, that are in the early stages and medium stages, and when I get there I'm hoping to throw. You know, throw out some wide nets and meet some people and collaborate on some things. I don't see myself sitting down for too long and just kind of being lazy, so I'll be doing the show every night there while I'm there, but also during the day I'll be taking that time to reach out and create a wider sandbox with bigger toys to play with.
Speaker 1:Well, I look forward to seeing whatever comes next for you, because Dixie obviously just a beloved character and just you've had an amazing run. I really hope that you kind of do what some. There's another performer that comes through stages a lot, denise Fennell, and she does the sister shows at stages a lot, but she also comes in as Denise sometimes and she'll do shows where she's herself and she'll do ones where she's sister and it's amazing to watch her branch out and create new things and always kind of spin things out. So it's going to be amazing to see what's next. But I don't ever want Dixie to go away. I definitely want her around. We need someone to push this Tupperware. Dixie will be here.
Speaker 2:Even though I'm going to be off the road road, I'm still gonna be very active on social. I'll still be doing a lot of stuff and, and you know, and sharing smiles. That's the one of the things that I'm. You know, and you talk to any actor and any actor will say how grateful they are if they get to do a long run of a show. But to be a character that I got to create and that's been kind of inhabited my body now for, you know, 23 years, 24 years, it's, it's, it's great, it's great. And the fact that people like her probably more than they like me, she's great. I like her, you know, and it, but it's. I'm very grateful, I'm very lucky to have created something that's left kind of an indelible mark on so many people's hearts. And so I don't, I don't foresee her leaving necessarily anytime soon. She's just going to be off the road for a while.
Speaker 1:Well, Chris Anderson, where can we find you? Where can we find Dixie Longate's socials?
Speaker 2:Dixie is all over social I am. I have very limited social because most of my life I've been her. I started this before social media even existed, so it's actually kind of funny. So all my social is pretty much her, except I have a small, very small Instagram handle. I don't even know what it is Chris Anderson official but I don't know, I don't know. I've got to look at it because I don't even know.
Speaker 1:You've got to resurrect it now.
Speaker 2:It's funny because everybody knows Dixie but nobody really gives a crap about Chris.
Speaker 2:Let's save that Chris Anderson underscore official and you know most of the stuff I post on it. It doesn't have a lot of stuff on it, but most of the stuff I post on it is like, oh, a picture of me standing outside an art center that Dixie's about to play. So because she's the dominant force in my life, she gets all the attention. But, yeah, you can find Dixie Longgate on any of the social platforms I'm not on. Interestingly, I'm not on TikTok yet.
Speaker 2:A lot of people have been like, oh, go on TikTok, go on TikTok. There is a lot of my content on TikTok but none of it is. But I've released people and like, tagged it and stuff from other platforms. But and you know, I'm I'm hoping that I will probably invest some time into creating a TikTok platform. If it stays, I mean, nobody knows what the hell's going to happen with it, because every other day there's another. It might be going away. It might be coming away, yeah, so, but I'm on all the old old lady platforms Facebook, instagram, a little bit of a blue sky account. I don't use X that much because it's just become too divisive, so you know, but I'm on air.
Speaker 1:Well, chris, it was a pleasure to have you, and Dixie was a pleasure to have you as well. I am so thrilled. Thank you both for being here.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. You are very kind, I appreciate that.
