Dixie Longate’s Tupperware parties have had a good run, but they end with this tour
RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer
Rich@DallasVoice.com
There is a slight poignancy in interviewing Dixie Longate this time around. Or maybe I’m just overdramatizing things.
Almost exactly a year ago, Longate headlined Bass Hall’s McDavid Studio in Fort Worth with Dixie’s Tupperware Party. I went there with a guy I had been dating. Only it turned out to be our last date. So as Longate and I talked about her last tour for a while, I talked about the last date I had at her show.
“Oh no, I’m so sorry,” she exclaimed in her signature Southern drawl. “I hope it wasn’t because of me.”
Far from it. If it had been, that would have been a far better story. Alas, it was not. And instead of any lamenting, she quickly offered comfort.
“You know I have seen it all at my shows over the last 17 years. People have gotten together, people propose. Someone has vomited. Another person fainted,” she said. “Now I guess I can add a breakup to the list.”
For almost two decades, it’s no surprise she’s seen it all — not that she planned to. She and her agent thought the initial bookings would keep the “Alabama gal” busy for about a year or so.
“I am tired,” she laughed. “But really, this has exceeded every expectation I have had. And from this, I created three other shows.”
For the unfamiliar, Longate presents a legitimate Tupperware event where guests can not only get their fill of her stories and humor but also order some plastic bowls and small kitchen appliances. You can see her items on your phone for ordering as she demonstrates each product with her own special flair — and sometimes with audience members.
So have that credit card ready.
As she embarks on this farewell tour, this being its final season would seem to make sense.
The 80 year-old Tupperware company filed for bankruptcy in September last year and was then purchased by hedge funds in October. While buying the company out of bankruptcy, a new CEO was brought on to re-envision and rebuild the plastics innovator into The New Tupperware Company.
Longate said that one really had nothing to do with the other. In fact, the Tupperware news caught her by surprise.
“None of us had an inkling they were in such dire straits,” she said. “Right now I still have my supplier to do this last go-round. But I’ve been itching to do other things.”
She was also concerned that while her Tupperware party was always a success, it could also be a crutch.
“I’ve been having a ball with it, but I think it also gives me an excuse to not do other things,” she said. “My hope is to go to New York and create new shows, live theater or bigger projects. I want to work and collaborate and get on a bigger playing field.
“The show is so much fun, but I think it’s time to level up.”
But first she’s got a tour to finish. And even after, Longate says, she won’t be far away.
“I’ll be using this time to build up my social media, and people can always reach me there,” she said.
Longate will be busy working her socials and working on her big Broadway break, but she won’t forget her live crowds either.
“I’ll miss the audiences. They are always so stinkin’ sweet,” she said. “It’s such a privilege to be able to make people smile and to get so many wonderful hugs and kind words.
“I’m gonna miss those hugs.”
For tickets, visit BassHall.com. the show runs April 2-6