Dixie Longate, the other side of playwright and actor Kris Andersson, has had a busy career on the road. Spanning most of the United States and several continents, Andersson’s Longate has taken her Tupperware parties across the globe and as a result has also sold millions of small plastic containers throughout the years. However, the wonder bowls brought to incredible success through home parties by Tupperware found Brownie Wise aren’t the only thing being hawked by Dixie at her stage shows.
Over the countless tickets sold for each affair, each represents someone who feels at home in Dixie’s one-night show and tell sessions. The inspiration that helped Andersson develop the character also brought about someone that could mingle with a largely female audience and hear their stories while telling Dixie’s. It’s comfortably presented in such a unique and relatable way, and paired with a few dozen quips and a cocktail or two, Dixie and the girls turn up the parties with wild laughter and many unforgettable evenings. So where does the road lead from here? QNotes asked Dixie herself, and the answers only give a prelude to what audiences can expect at the Blumenthal’s Booth Playhouse, April 24-26.
Jonny Golian: Good Morning, Dixie! So, I’ve read up a bit about you and the family, and wanted to start by asking how the kids are doing. How are Wynona, Dwayne and Absorbine, Jr.?
Dixie Longate: The kids are gross. You know, they take up time, and they just always want things from you. You know, when I’m on the road, it’s always trying to doing facetime and saying, “Hey, Mama, what are you gonna bring us?” I’m like, “An STD, If you’re lucky. You should have to get your own job.” Yeah, kids, kids are sticky.
JG: Sounds like you have had a wild life.
DL: I have. It has been something, and I’ve been grateful for everything that’s happened. I’ve been lucky that things have gone on. I never thought I’d be out of Alabama doing anything of value. And the fact that the show has been running for this many years is kind of insane. To me, it’s just been one of the best rides, and people have been so stinking neighborly. And I love even more getting to come back to the city over and over again. I’m in Fort Worth right now doing my show, and this is my eighth time here. And then I’m going from here to Houston, where I’ve been many times, and then I’m coming back for my sixth time in Charlotte. So it’s really lovely because people will come back again and again to the show, and they’ll bring other friends. That just warms my heart to be able to meet new people and then have other people say, “I follow you. I’ve come to the show multiple times. I’m always so tickled by everything you do,” and so I’m grateful. I would say I wish people could spend a day in my shoes, because people are so kind and neighborly, and I just think we need that more in the world, and I’m just such a lucky beneficiary of all that.
JG: It does seem like you are friends with a lot of people in America, as well as other countries. How many stops for 2025 are in this run? Is this really the final run?
DL: Oh, it’s done and dusted. Sept. 7 in Denver is the final performance. So now I’m working on, hopefully, being able to take the show to New York after that. That’s where everything is kind of focused right now. If I’m able to get all the money together and get the people behind me, I can take the show to New York in the fall and open it there, and then I’ll do it as long as I can there, and hopefully we’ll get a good healthy run out of it. But, as far as the tour goes, yeah, I’m wrapping it up. My kids get so moody when I’m gone so long, and I’ve tried to just be gone for their whole raising time, because I don’t want to have to deal with that, but then the police get involved. So, it’s time that I settle down for a minute, and if I can be at one spot for a long period of time, that will make life a little bit better. But, being on the road, once I get the ankle bracelet removed, I don’t have to run away from the law.
JG: So you actually do sell Tupperware, beyond the shows. How much do you think you’ve sold from the start of your career to where we are right now?
DL: I could not even imagine counting all that. I have no real record of that. I know back years ago as part of the conditions of my parole, I was just doing it in people’s living rooms. From 2001 at the start to 2007, I had already sold well over a million dollars in check work. From 2008 to 2025, I have lost count of how many millions. I mean, I knew I was counting back then because it was a whole different thing. And I was just that work full time and not doing a show, so it was easier to track everything that I was doing and but now I’ve just lost track completely. But yeah, millions, it’s crazy.
JG: What inspired you to take the Tupperware parties and turn it into a show?
DL: I had a friend that was a director, and he said to me, “You should do this as a show. There’s something here to say.” And so, at first, I’d done the tougher parties in people’s living rooms, and it was just me hawking the plastic bowls. But when I was at the parties, I would meet all these wonderful women. I just noticed a pattern when I would go and set everything up, and the ladies would ask me about me. As I’m setting them up, I tell them about me, and Alabama, and about my kids and everything, my story and why I was doing it, what I loved about getting to meet so many people, being in people’s homes every night, and so on. I decided to ask them, “Well, tell me about you.” And they’d tell me, “Well, I got two kids, one’s in Galilee, and one’s, you know, in the film football.” And I just noticed that all these women were always talking around themselves, never about themselves. So I thought I wanted to write a kind of a love letter to all the women that I’ve met and all the unsung heroes of the world. And so, the show has a definite message of inspiration and personal empowerment, and about lifting yourself up and showing that you’re better than you give yourself credit for. And so that’s kind of a slight little message hidden in that. And that all comes from me doing parties in people’s living rooms and wanting to celebrate all these people that don’t get the chance to celebrate themselves.
JG: So this is your last run of touring shows. For all of the audiences that have come to love you and the shows, what is the enduring message you would want them to take away from everything?
DL: My biggest takeaway in each show that I always leave people with is to go out there and do something to prove to yourself that you’re amazing, because by you being able to pat yourself on the back, by being able to recognize what your value is, the world is better when you play at that level, when you honor yourself, and when you find things about you that are great, because then everybody gets to see that, and everybody gets a benefit from that, and it makes the world better. Where people are mad and yelling at other people, it’s because they don’t stop ever to take stock of what they have. When you recognize that you have good traits that you can develop and that you can put out into the world and share with people, it makes the world better, because everybody’s operating from a place of joy and happiness and kindness, and they’re not operating from a place of trying to tear each other down. And so that is my hope that I leave that and all three of my touring shows have some sort of element of that in it, because I think that’s a lesson that bares repeating again and again, because it’s so easy to forget sometimes how great we are and how lucky we are to be here.
Dixie Longate brings her comedic stage show “Dixie’s Tupperware Party” to the Booth Playhouse at the Blumenthal Arts Center in Charlotte April 24-26. For ticket info go here.
Dixie Longate rocks!!!