Interview: Dixie Longate of DIXIE'S TUPPERWARE PARTY at Holland Performing Arts Center

This is one phone interview I won't soon forget! Dixie Longate is returning to Omaha and she is primed and ready to sell. If there's one comedy act you need to see this year, it's this one.

Hello! Am I talking with Dixie?

Yes, it's me, Dixie. I'm so excited to be coming back to Omaha! This is my second time, and you were all so neighborly the first time, I'm so excited to come back.

I saw you in a picture with the bronze bison near the Holland Performing Arts Center.

Oh my Lord, y'all have so much great art there just scattered all over the streets! It's amazing. When I saw that bison, I just wanted to get up on it and ride it like a mechanical bull in a county fair!

I didn't see the show the last time you were here, but I'm really looking forward to it. I've heard you laugh so hard, that you can't breathe.

Oh, you're so sweet. You know what? I've been on the road for a long time. I'm so lucky that people have been giggling right along with me for all these years. It's especially nice when I get a call from a theater that asks me "if I am not too busy drinking, do I want to come on back. We had so much fun with you last time, we want to expose you to some other people." And you know me, I'm happy to be exposed to as many people as possible. I was just there last year. And they turned around and said, "Come on back!" So I'm putting down my drink and packing my bags.

Dixie, do you actually sell Tupperware? It's not just part of the show?

Of course I do. I started selling Tupperware about 15 years ago in people's living rooms. And when I turned it into a show, I thought, "I can still bring people these creative food storage solutions but do it in a way that is fun and hilarious and neighborly. I mean what kind of a hooker would I be if I told everyone how great this amazing fantastic plastic crap is and then I prevented them the opportunity to get it? People would burn me at the stake like a witch in one of them old movies about burning witches at the stake. If you want to buy Tupperware at the end of the show, you can, but I just want to make sure that everyone has a great time at the show and giggles till their face aches.

You said Tupperware parties are the original social network.

Yesss. Tupperware came out back in the 40's originally. Ladies had been so involved with the war effort, being Rosie the Riveter and such. When they war ended, so many women were shoved back into the kitchen. Well, these were ladies who had done so much and been so valuable to this country and to cut them off at the legs was kind of crappy. So when Brownie Wise created the Tupperware party, she had the idea of getting women together to do parties in their own homes and connect with one another

The Tupperware became the fervor of that era, but it was the opportunity for these women to go back into the work force, to make their own living, and to be stronger members of their families and communities that really made Tupperware what it is today. It was watching these women connect with one another and grow that really tapped into something powerful back then and it still continues today, all these years later.

This show debuted 12 days before 9-11.

Well, I started giving Tupperware parties August 31, 2001. That was my very first party. I did Tupperware parties just like your grandma did them for a long time. It wasn't until 2004 that a friend of mine said, "You know you should really do this as a show. You should take this on stage because it's real funny. And I thought, if I'm going to put this on stage, I want to not only talk about the plastic crap, but also make it a love letter back to all these women who have been Tupperware ladies in the past and become so inspiring to me. I took the show to NY as part of the International Fringe Festival in 2004 and then it moved off-Broadway to the Ars Nova Theater in 2007. The next year, I started touring with it and it is still going. 8 years later! Isn't that crazy?! I guess people really do love their food storage solutions.

That's amazing! And you got a Drama Desk nomination in there, too.

I did. I was so lucky. When I played New York for the first time in 2007 and I was nominated for a Drama Desk. I didn't even know at the time that it was such a big deal. The Tony Awards are for Broadway, and the Drama Desk Awards are for both Broadway and Off Broadway. It's basically like a Tony but on a scale that covers more. And I was nominated . Sadly, I lost that award to Laurence Fishburne, of all people! He was doing a show called Thurgood at the time, and we were both up for the one-person show. That's a person I'm okay losing to! I was so overwhelmed and flattered by all that!

What's the most outrageous response you remember to your show?

Being on the road this long, I have had a few hilarious things happen. I did have one lady that came up to me after the show one day and she said, "I just had to tell you I had so much fun! And I'm pretty sure I made tinkle on the seat." She laughed so hard she made tinkle! And I couldn't believe it so I went up to the couches on stage, we have couches on stage so a couple people can sit up there and join me during the show. I went right up after that and sure enough, it was stained with tinkle. And then there was another time. I was showing a product for kids that was a little Barbie set with tumblers and plates and a tiny pitcher. I call it the "Barbie mini-starter alcoholic kit cuz the tumblers were the size of shot glasses.... And it was so funny cuz there was this elderly lady that doubled over and she started choking and I thought she was having a heart attack or something, so we rushed to her aid, and I was so worried. It turns out that she laughed so hard that she coughed her fake teeth into her hand! She put her teeth back in and caught her breath and I just moved forward with the show. I think the crowd laughed at that for about the next 20 minutes! It makes me happy to know that I can make people spit their teeth out! You wont see that at "Hamilton."

I used to hate the games we played at Tupperware parties. Do you do games?

I do play little games. The ones I do are real fun. They're ones that I made up myself because I don't want people thinking that this is some throwback show to the 50's. It's 2016. I make sure we are playing games that your grandma might not have come up with. I like to get people up on stage with me. We do different raffles and I give away prizes and stuff. Some people come up and help me with some of the demos onstage. I want to get people involved. After all, it's a Party. Might as well have some damn fun, right?

Are you from Alabama?

Mobile, Alabama, born and raised.

And you have three children?

Ah! Yes, I do. In fact if you want one, I can give one to you. It'll be like a gift with purchase. They're all potty trained. They're sweet but sometimes I want to push them off a bridge. I've got a 16 year old, a 10 year old, and a 3 year old. Wynona, Dwayne and Absorbine, Jr. Do you have kids?

Yes, one is 29 and one is 26.

Oh my Lord, I hope the son is not living at home. My stars! Get out and get a damn job! Kids these days just don't seem to want to leave the trailer. They just stay at home playing video games and borrowing things from the side drawer of my bed-side table. I tell mine, if you borrow anything from that little cabinet, you best put fresh batteries back in it when you are done. Lord, kids are stupid.

The show is not all just laughs.

It has a little bit of a heart-felt message. I talk a little bit about my background and where I come from. I share of what makes me tick. I had a pretty good momma who really made me realize that we have one trip around this globe so get out there and do something great and don't let anyone cut you down or hold you back. I tell my own personal story about that, and then spin it around to everybody else and say, "Get out there and kick some ass." Life should be an adventure. When your head hits the pillow at the end of the day, you shouldn't say, "That was nice." You should say, "What the hell happened." The way I see it, that's how you have a good life.

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