'Nothing is off limits': Trinity 'The Tuck' Taylor Talks UK Haters Roast - The Shady Tour
Thursday, 23 March 2023
Written by Laura Johnson
Trinity 'The Tuck' Taylor is an Alabama-born, Florida-based drag queen, well known for jointly winning the fourth season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars with Monet X Change in 2018, having placed in the final four of season nine just the year before. During the confessional accompanying her intro look for the latter, Trinity promised us she, “can do anything from beautiful to way outside the box”, and she’s stayed true to that ever since.
This month the multi-faceted entertainer celebrates her 20th anniversary doing drag, despite being only 37. She’s evolved from a body-focused pageant queen feted for being one of the tightest tucks in the business with “a whole lotta ass”, to thriving in comedy and acting challenges, being named in the top 20 of New York magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Drag Queens In America in 2019, and paving her way as a recording artist, releasing her second album ‘EGO’ in 2022.
Despite her reservations, Trinity surprised everyone, including herself, by slaying the roast challenge and Snatch Game in RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars season seven — the first to feature only winners from previous years. So, the upcoming Haters Roast - The Shady Tour of the UK, should be a walk in the park, right? “Oh no, I absolutely hate doing live comedy,” she admits. “It is one of my fears, but I have writers for this specific tour, so that helps a lot.”
Speaking to us from her hotel room in Canada, where she was busy hosting the War On The Catwalk Tour, Trinity warned us what to expect from the upcoming shows: “If you are in any way offended by stand-up comedy at all, do not buy a ticket. I think this is a safe space for us to literally obliterate each other, nothing is off limits!
“There’s going to be jokes, I’m sure, about my plastic surgery, and me only being half a winner. There’s gonna be face jokes, ugly jokes, dumb jokes, whore jokes, ‘You’re momma is’, literally anything you can think of.”
“Children are not invited! It’s definitely offensive, but in a fun way,” she reassured us. “We are not gonna take it serious, I hope some of these girls don’t take it serious. I definitely don’t want to get punched by one of them.”
Although Haters Roasts have travelled across the US in previous years, this tour will be the first time it has come to our shores, and the first time UK and US queens have worked together for this kind of show. “I’m super excited because I know the UK queens are going to go in even more,” she gushes. “I was on a season with The Vivienne [RuPaul's Drag Race UK winner], and she didn’t hold anything back, so I know this is going to be even worse, but better. I’m just so excited to hear what she has to say about me.”
There is a perceived divide between British and American comedy, but having competed and toured with queens from all walks of life, it’s not something that phases Trinity. “I feel like my comedy, because I do a lot of insult comedy too, is more in line with the UK,” she explains.
“I feel like the UK just don’t take themselves so serious, and can give a good punch, and take a good punch. The Vivienne is one of my really good friends and we read each other all the time, so I just love that. I don’t think there’s going to be a divide.”
With any roast, or in fact any stand-up comedy show, there’s a potential for bombing, which she proved during her season nine attempt. But in Trinity’s experience, this is when the magic really happens. A show that has gone down in recent drag history, and received over a million views on YouTube, is Las Vegas queen Derrick Barry’s set at the Haters Roast 2018. “Sometimes the people that do the worst make the best moments,” explains Trinity.
“A couple of tours ago we had Derrick Barry, she’d never done a roast before and she was very nervous so she had some drinks, and they put her in the second half of the show. She drank the entire time to calm her nerves, so by the time she got up there she was obliterated. She was so white girl wasted, it was the funniest thing. So I’m hoping that we get someone like that, who's so nervous they can’t handle it and it’s just awful, but it's still funny.”
Trinity will be joined on the UK tour by Lawrence Chaney, Baga Chipz, Miz Cracker, Willam, Jimbo, Heidi N Closet and Kandy Muse, with The Vivienne set to host. The tour will visit Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Brighton, Oxford, Nottingham, London, Cardiff and Birmingham between March 28 and April 9.
With so many dates lined up, can we expect the full Trinity experience that led to her being nicknamed Trinity “The Train” during All Stars season seven? “She’s always going to be beautiful, she’s always gonna come with the look. But I definitely will have to scale down,” she admits. “There will not be Trinity “The Train”, because we’re travelling across the ocean. So I’m packing what I can pack in suitcases, obviously. But I will still look gorgeous!”
Trinity may be a renowned ‘look queen’, but she hasn’t always been the polished act you see today. “I did some bullcrap in high school. I had a Party City wig and my little cousin did my make-up for, they call it a womanless beauty pageant,” she remembers. “It was for charity and all the people in our high school participated.”
“But what I really consider my first time in drag, is this talent competition when I just turned 18,” she continues. “One of my friends dared me to do drag and I did it, and it was awful! At the time I thought I was amazing, but looking back at pictures it was really bad. Obviously I was just starting, so I didn’t know how to do my make-up yet, and there was no such thing as YouTube for make-up tutorials.
“You literally just had to learn on your own, or have someone else in the community help you. But I didn’t give up, I kept doing the cocktail competitions. I did it three times before I finally won, and then it just snowballed into the monster I am today.”
That independence in her formative years in Alabama shaped her into the powerhouse performer she is today, unapologetically presenting herself as a proud transgender artist, and being vocal on social media in opposing the recent conservative crackdowns in the US targeting drag performances and attempting to suppress the rights of trans people.
Trinity "The Tuck" Taylor perfectly balances her shady side with her southern hospitality upbringing, and although she’s gearing up to eviscerate her drag sisters across the UK, she makes sure to take the time to appreciate how far she’s come: “I never would have thought drag would have taken me where it has. Where I’m from there was no RuPaul’s Drag Race at the time, I never thought I would have been travelling the world. I was just trying to figure myself out. I was a broke, young queer person trying to pay my bills and stay afloat.”
Haters Roast - The Shady Tour will visit venues across the UK between March 28 and April 9. Head below for tickets.
Haters Roast Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue March 28 2023 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE O2 City Hall
Wed March 29 2023 - GLASGOW SEC Armadillo
Thu March 30 2023 - MANCHESTER O2 Apollo
Fri March 31 2023 - SHEFFIELD City Hall
Sat April 01 2023 - EDINBURGH Usher Hall
Sun April 02 2023 - LIVERPOOL Philharmonic Hall
Tue April 04 2023 - BRIGHTON Dome
Wed April 05 2023 - OXFORD New Theatre
Thu April 06 2023 - NOTTINGHAM Royal Concert Hall
Fri April 07 2023 - LONDON Eventim Apollo
Sat April 08 2023 - CARDIFF St Davids Hall
Sun April 09 2023 - BIRMINGHAM Symphony Hall
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