Featured photo by Jaycen Hugh.
At this point, the dolls are the dolls — and Amanda Tori Meating is bringing nearly 40 of them together under one roof for one of the most sickening drag shows New York City’s ever seen.
The RuPaul’s Drag Race alum is putting on the show, called Dollapalooza, on Saturday, May 17 at 3 Dollar Bill in Bushwick. There, Amanda will welcome a truly show-stopping lineup of more than three dozen trans femme queens from Drag Race, the New York drag scene, and beyond, including Aja, Amethyst, The Girlfriend Experience, and Jasmine Kenndie, to name just a few. But Dollapalooza is more than just a fabulous drag show: it’s a fundraiser for trans community members who will be recovering from gender-affirming surgeries this summer.
INTO caught up with Amanda to learn all about Dollapalooza, from the inspiration behind the show, to keeping it real on social media, to her hot takes on Drag Race Season 17.
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Hi, Amanda! Congrats on putting together this amazing lineup for Dollapalooza — what was the inspiration for the show?
I launched my GoFundMe for my facial feminization surgery a few months ago, and it kind of just popped off severely in the first 24 hours and I exceeded my goal. I really didn’t anticipate that. I was planning on maybe putting together a fundraiser show just for me, for my FFS recovery. And then I was like, “Oh, I don’t need to do that anymore.”
I just was sitting around thinking about it, and I was like, “Okay, well, this is something that happened for me because of being on Drag Race. And I’ve met so many sickening dolls in Brooklyn who haven’t been on Drag Race — yet.” And I was like, “Okay, well, we can probably put together something at 3 Dollar Bill that’s big, kind of like the Made in Asia fest that Shia Ho puts together. And I was like, “Okay, it can be an all trans cast. We’ll do trans DJs, trans go-go dancers, and have a raffle fundraiser to get some coin to some of these dolls locally, who all happen to be having these gender-affirming surgeries this summer.”
Amazing! The fundraising element of it all is so exciting.
That’s something that I feel like I really want to let more people know about, is like, it’s not just a show. It’s also intended to be this massive fundraising moment for trans people in our community.
I also always see you reposting other trans folks’ fundraisers on your social media. You’ve also said that any cis allies who can’t make the show themselves are welcome to buy tickets and send them to you, so you can redistribute them to trans folks in Brooklyn for free. Why is community crowdfunding and support important to you?
With everything that’s happening nationally, with the current political landscape, I think a lot of us are kind of freaked out about our access to gender-affirming care being disrupted, and it seems like these local community-based crowdfunding channels are the main ways we can count on that.
“It’s just gonna be a night of doll-ery, and pusswatcha, and estrogen.”
– Amanda Tori Meating
What will the actual night of Dollapalooza look like?
We’re probably going to have three sets of shows, probably 10 to 12 girls in each set. I’m going to be hosting, and I’m going to have a rotating co-host, and that’s going to be Charlene Incarnate, Julie J, and Chiquitita, all local trans icons who — I just love listening to them talk. I could listen to these girls yap for hours.
It’s just gonna be a night of doll-ery, and pusswatcha, and estrogen. I feel like there will be some eggs in the crowd that get cracked from all of the gorgeousness that happens on stage. And then in between sets, we’re going to have dancing with all of our trans femme DJs, and we’ll have our raffle where we have some pretty sickening prizes already lined up. It’s going to be sickening!
It sounds sickening. I also wanted to ask about a recent post of yours that popped off, where you opened up supporting yourself with side hustles in addition to drag after being on Drag Race. Was that inspired by Onya Nurve’s story on the current season about working as a cook on the side?
Yes, It was! I seem to get plucked, and then I go to Twitter, and then I say things — but yeah, I just feel like there’s been this whole attitude around doing drag full-time as this sign of, like, “Oh, you’ve made it.” And you know, I was doing drag full-time while I was on the season that was airing, but not before and not after, because the economy is crazy, and the drag market is very saturated. You just got to do what you got to do to make the cash.
I really appreciate your transparency there.
Well, yeah! Because I feel like none of the Ru girls really talk about that. And I’m like, “It’s not just me, and it’s not just the other ones who have said, “Oh, you know, I have a gig on the side.” It’s like, no, you literally have to, because drag is not paying the bills right now.
Speaking of Ru girls, what do you think of Season 17 of Drag Race?
I think it’s very fun. I think they have definitely brought the reality TV back. I’d say that my season certainly paved the way for some of that. But I think I saw someone on the internet saying that Season 16 was perhaps better drag — not my words! — and this season is better reality TV, which I don’t disagree with.
I believe that that person was Dawn.
My wife, yes.
Do you have someone that you’re rooting for to take the crown?
Oh, Onya Nurve. Absolutely, 1,000%. However, if it’s not her, it has to be Lexi Love. And if it’s neither of them, it has to be Joella.
There could still be a comeback challenge! We don’t know.
I feel it for her. That is my diva, down. She is so sickening.
Agreed. Going back to Dollapalooza, the group of girls you have booked are truly legendary. How did you put the lineup together?
The vast majority of the girls on the lineup I knew before thinking of Dollapalooza, because I didn’t come up in the New York scene. I did drag in LA for a couple years, and then got on the show, and then decided to move across the country.
Since being here post-Drag Race and working in the New York scene, I feel like I’ve met a lot of gorgeous trans women, sickening performers, just people who have really reignited my love for drag. I think the drag queen that I was on the show was one thing, and then after filming and moving to New York and becoming immersed in this scene and meeting a lot of these girls, it definitely added a new layer to what I want to give artistically and what I gravitate toward. And I was like, “I want this to be something that happens more than once. But for the first one, I mostly just want to reach out to these dolls that I know and have met.” I have a few from Philadelphia; I have two coming from LA.
I wanted to give a mix of drag from different scenes, drag that’s been on TV, drag that hasn’t been on TV. I think a lot of people when they think of trans women doing drag, the first thing is they think of a gorgeous woman just giving — which is fierce, and I love it. But I also have so many friends who are trans women and do spooky drag, or alt, creature sort of drag. And I was like, “Well, I want that too.”
Absolutely. You’re celebrating the diversity within this subset of the queer community.
Yes, I was really aiming for diversity in drag, in appearance, in all of it.
I think a lot of people when they think of trans women doing drag, the first thing is they think of a gorgeous woman just giving — which is fierce, and I love it. But I also have so many friends who are trans women and do spooky drag, or alt, creature sort of drag.
– Amanda Tori Meating
I personally was very excited to see some ghouls from The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula in the mix — including Maddelynn Hatter, Onyx Ondyx, and Satanna — because I live for some Dragula.
Oh, baby. I even saw a couple people on Twitter when our season first premiered and I was looking extra kooky-crazy who were like, “She would do really well on Dragula.”
Do you think that that’s true?
Well, I couldn’t eat a bug, and I couldn’t staple anything to myself, and I definitely would not jump out of a plane. So probably not.
But maybe you could eat a spooky look here and there.
Honey, absolutely.
Amanda, one last question: why should people get their tickets now for Dollapalooza?
People should get their tickets now, because we are going to sell out. This lineup is literally one of the most insane lineups I’ve ever seen — and I am patting myself on the back for putting it together. I really am.
I just know that it’s going to sell out, because this kind of lineup does not happen often: all trans women, diverse types of drag, diverse identities of people on top of being trans women, and also from different drag scenes, different TV franchises — it’s so sickening. So, people need to buy their tickets because it’s going to sell out, and people need to buy their tickets because buying a ticket to this show is going to directly support trans people in Brooklyn. ♦
Tickets for Dollapalooza at 3 Dollar Bill are on sale now.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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