Living in a city like New York, you could close your eyes, spin around three times, walk in any direction, and find yourself at a queer or trans event. While there are still some lacks of resources or blind spots for inclusivity, it is undoubtedly a privilege to live in New York City, or any other major U.S. city, as a trans person. When you zoom out of the NYC bubble and consider the 70% of Americans who believe they have never met a trans person, you’ll find that trans folks in smaller and more rural cities have far fewer opportunities for community. So, how do we bridge the gap between the programming in larger cities and the lack thereof in smaller ones? To find out, I spoke with trans artists Sunny Laprade and Violet Stanza about their queer variety show, Dolls on Tour.
Sunny and Violet met on TikTok in 2021 after both finding success in creating queer and trans content online. Sunny, who has been doing standup comedy since she was 15 years old, uses her platform to make comedy content. Violet, on the other hand, has a musical and acting background and creates styling, GRWM, and makeup tutorial videos. But since they are trans women, and therefore their lives are political by default, they both also make political and social commentary content. In the first year they were mutuals, Sunny was the most followed trans woman comedian in the world, while Violet was just beginning her eventual career as an influencer.
By 2022, because trans people can’t have anything nice and because platforms like TikTok and Instagram refuse to moderate hate speech, Sunny was doxxed by the blood-hungry “Libs of TikTok” account run by terrorist Chaya Raichik, exposing her to unchecked online violence. As a result and perhaps by design, Sunny started to lay low online to preserve her mental and physical safety. Coincidentally, this is also when Violet’s platform started taking off. She moved to NYC in pursuit of a creative career and found herself managing a TikTok account with 400,000 followers while working a retail job. Despite building this huge online community and living in a big city, Violet couldn’t help but feel alone. So, she posted her cell phone number to TikTok and asked for people to reach out if they were interested in becoming friends.
Sunny, now a social media safety veteran, saw Violet’s post and immediately DMed her. Among the thousands of texts and private messages Violet received in response to her post, many of which were flirtatious or creepy, Sunny’s stood out. She had told Violet how bold it was to post her personal cell phone number online and offered to share a meaningful local space she had found for herself: a trans support group. Whether it be fate or the promise of free pizza, Violet agreed to go and, unbeknownst to her, found exactly what she was looking for when she made that post. Sunny gained a lot from this gesture, too, since most of her trans friends at the time were trans mascs, and she was hoping to make more trans femme friends.
It came as no surprise to anyone who knows Sunny and Violet that they carried the conversation and energy at that trans support group; the two of them quickly established a banter, riffing off of each other’s stories and jokes. After the group, they continued their banter between hits of a shared joint and enjoyed each other’s company so much that Sunny took the wrong train just to spend a little more time with Violet. That was the last group either of them would attend; it had served its purpose.
As Sunny and Violet’s friendship blossomed, so did their respective artistic pursuits. Sunny introduced Violet to another kind of support group — an open mic — called Gender Experts hosted at Metropolitan Bar in Williamsburg. Sunny would work on her comedy material, Violet would perform her music, and the two became enamored with each other as they got to know one another beyond “that girl from TikTok.”
Between the support group, the open mics and greater creative scene, and close friendship, Sunny and Violet established the very community that the two of them, both from small, rural upstate towns, always wanted access to when they were younger but could never find. Instances of trans adulthood and public trans life were few and far between where they were from, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. And if I know one thing to be true about Sunny and Violet, it is that they are two of the most selfless, generous, and kindest people I know. Now that they’ve found a loud and visible trans existence for themselves, it’s only natural they would want to share it.
Dolls on Tour is a traveling queer variety show featuring Sunny Laprade and Violet Stanza. It’s completely self-managed, self-produced and is focused on bringing the type of live show folks in NYC can expect to see on any night of the week to smaller, more rural, and Southern cities. The tour started as a joke, something the pair floated on one of their 40-minute walks around Brooklyn while sharing a joint, until one of them said “Wait, but really… let’s do it.”
They still had a few logistics to work out, like how they’d get from city to city if neither of them had a car and which cities they’d even go to. Tapping into their existing platforms and fanbases, both of them crowdsourced which cities their followers wanted to see them perform in. They took those responses and mapped them out on bus routes to figure out an order. They also asked those followers which local venues they like to see shows at and began cold emailing bookers from there. For cities that didn’t come with venue recommendations, they narrowed down their search by finding venues who had recently, or ever, booked queer and trans shows. But not every venue on the tour was run by queer and trans folks, nor did all of them host queer and trans talent. According to Sunny and Violet, trans art tends to get siloed into their own spaces, which can feel counterproductive to the visibility of that art. They believe they can, and should, take over predominantly straight spaces and “change the vibe.”
Sunny is the comedy portion of the show, and Violet is the musical act, but to open the show, the two switch talents. Not only does this save them money and effort in booking opening acts, but it also allows them to actually develop their skills in the other’s specialty. Sunny helps Violet write jokes, and Violet helps Sunny learn to play Britney Spears’ “Toxic” on the guitar. The girls tell me that Violet does a better job performing comedy than Sunny does performing music, but I choose to remain unbiased. Either way, both are starting with performance experience and with a comfort on stage, which is all you really need to put on a good show.
This first leg of Dolls on Tour included Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, Toronto, and Brooklyn. Life on the road hasn’t necessarily been glamorous for Sunny and Violet, who rely on friends and family members who have offered up spare bedrooms and couches for them to crash on. Because they’re guests in other folks’ homes, they’re in bed by 10 p.m. each night and take extra caution to keep it tidy. This is in stark comparison to how they see touring life depicted on TV and the lifestyle they saw while watching Oasis: Supersonic, a documentary about Liam and Noel Gallagher’s breakthrough years, where they do meth on stage and throw beds out of their hotel rooms. The only thrills Sunny and Violet are getting on tour are through playing Risk and Pokémon and taking advantage of free programs like the The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philly or the national monuments in D.C. Okay, that’s not completely true. They did get a bit of the rockstar experience in Buffalo, where they report they had the sexiest trans women either of them have ever seen attend their show.
More importantly, Sunny and Violet got to visit their hometowns in Western New York that they love and, for the first time, not feel scared. When they were in Syracuse, they went to a local pub owned by a trans woman and her wife where they brew their own beer called Seneca Street Brew Pub. I lived in this area of New York for six years before I was out as trans, and I understand how rare it is to see trans elders, let alone trans folks running their own businesses. I remember how meaningful it was for me that there was a lesbian-owned restaurant in the small city I lived in for grad school. It’s small things like this that feel monumental to people like me, and like Sunny and Violet, who are trying to do all of the things we wish people would have done for us when we were younger. If Dolls on Tour had come to my town when I was younger, it probably would have changed my life.
The coolest part of the tour, the girls tell me, is seeing young trans kids come to the shows with their parents. Sunny tells me something so beautiful and profound about what this means to her that I wouldn’t dare try to paraphrase it, so I’m going to let her speak for herself:
“So much of my transition has been doing what I wish others had done for me. I didn’t have trans friends, so a lot of the stuff I did, I did alone. I picked up my hormones on my own. I was the only person alone in the name change office. Now, I tell the girls I’ll go to court with them, I give them their forms, I go to the doctor with them. I take care of my friends when they recover from surgery. That all feels great, and now with Dolls on Tour, I feel like I get to do that on a larger scale. I’m providing something to these people that would have changed my life if I saw it a few years ago. We are doing something that felt impossible one or two years ago. Showing that to ourselves, and also people in this country, who don’t always have access to that, is awesome.”
The intention behind Dolls on Tour is apparent to the trans folks attending the shows. One attendee, Sammie, tells me, “I love trans entertainment that is made for other queer and trans people rather than for cis people. While cis people are still learning the ABCs of pronouns and respecting friends through their transition, we are taken on a more intensive journey.”
Kary, who went to the show in Philly after following both Sunny and Violet online for years, speaks to me about how impactful it was to attend Dolls on Tour. Outside of the entertainment of the show, they found the environment itself was meaningful. “Give me any excuse to be in a room full of queer and trans people, and I’m in,” they say. “It’s nice to be able to go to shows and just show up authentically. To know I’ll feel safe and comfortable in a room as a non-binary person.”
And yes, Sunny and Violet think it’s really fucking cool that they are asked for their autographs.
Sophie, who also attended the Philly show, has been a fan of Sunny’s comedy since the beginning of her career and says Dolls on Tour was one of her best performances yet. “The minute I saw Dolls on Tour was coming to my city, I booked tickets,” she says. “Sunny and Violet showed vulnerability in their performances that truly captivated the audience.”
Sophie also became a new fan of Violet. “Her performance of ‘Goodwill’ was stunning and I’ve been streaming it every day since.”
And Sophie isn’t the only person who quickly became a fan of Violet’s music after seeing the show. Evie, who has been a fan of Sunny’s comedy for a while now, tells me she was blown away by Violet’s musical performances. “Many of her songs are really beautifully written and speak to the experiences of trans women,” Evie says. “I teared up at a couple of the songs because of how vulnerable she gets with the audience and her talent as a performer.” She adds, “Sunny was hilarious as usual.”
Other show attendees have been lucky enough to see both Sunny and Violet, together and separately, many times before. Woodlief, who lives and performs comedy in New York, is used to seeing musical comedy or musical theater acts, so seeing Dolls on Tour in Brooklyn felt like a true variety show because Violet’s music isn’t some kind of hybrid genre. “What stood out to me is that it wasn’t two people fitting something together to have an excuse to tour,” Woodlief says. “It’s one person who’s incredibly good at what they do and another person who’s incredibly good at a completely different thing, coming together on stage to create an honest product.”
Woodlief thinks it’s special to attend Dolls on Tour, because it’s apparent Sunny and Violet not only love each other but love the community they’re performing for. “It’s clear that they’re having a good time and have put a lot of thought and effort into the show,” they say, “It’s easy to appreciate because it’s a story about friendship and art and being trans.”
Also at the Brooklyn show was Kelly, who’s been a fan of Sunny’s since 2021 and has seen her perform at multiple different shows. “Everytime I see her I can tell she’s been working hard,” she says of Sunny. “She gets better and more refined every single time.” Since she was already a fan, it only made sense for her to see Dolls on Tour, especially because she hadn’t seen Violet perform yet. Kelly says she was powerful and emotional and added a dreamy element to the show. When they tell me this, they also sing a line from Violet’s song “Goodwill” to me, calling the song and her music in general “addictive.” As a longtime fan of her comedy, Kelly loved getting a chance to see Sunny perform music as a little treat, too.
On November 8, Dolls on Tour will be headlining Vulcan Gas Company in Austin, Texas. Vulcan is the former venue for fascist Tony Hinchcliffe’s hack live show and podcast, Kill Tony, before it was moved to fellow fascist Joe Rogan’s own venue, Comedy Mothership. For those who are lucky enough to not know who Tony Hinchcliffe and his crew of consent-adverse buddies are, perhaps you’d recognize him as the “comedian” who recently bombed at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally. Or perhaps as one of the roasters at The Roast of Tom Brady earlier this year, you know, the only one who didn’t actually sit on the panel of roasters and therefore dodged being roasted by any of the other participating comedians. But in this context, Hinchcliffe is the leader of a ragtag group of racists, rapists, and assholes and host of an open mic called Kill Tony. What happens on this show is Hinchcliffe tricks vulnerable standups wanting a shot at making it in this industry into coming to Austin without a place to live in order to perform for one minute in front of a panel of his best friends. When you boil it down, it’s basically a much whiter, far gayer, and less successful version of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
In light of recent events, I ask Sunny about the importance of taking up space in cis-het, male dominated spaces and bringing their version of community to where it’s needed most. Here’s what she had to say:
“It’s very easy for queers in liberal states to write off conservative areas entirely. But no matter how conservative the state, queer people are there, on the ground, doing the work, and they deserve entertainment too! I would be lying if I said it wasn’t scary, three days after the election, to march down to a state where the governor has said that trans teachers shouldn’t be able to express themselves at school, where trans kids are denied life saving care, where if you try to change your gender marker on your ID you’re put in a database, and where there are cities that have put a ten thousand dollar bounty on trans people who use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.
But at the end of the day, there are wonderful, hardworking queer people at Vulcan Gas Company who have been so warm, helpful, and welcoming to us. Austin has a large queer community, and they have earned a good show and access to such a cool venue. We are working with local drag kings, vendors, and queer orgs to put together the best show we can. The hope is that if we sell enough tickets and give the audience a good enough time, it can show some of the large prestigious Austin venues how vibrant and important their local queer community is, and that they will buy tickets and pop out if you make them feel safe and welcomed.
Oh yeah, and Tony Hinchcliffe? You can suck it! Pound for pound, I’m funnier than you. There’s a reason you’re known for running a glorified open mic, not your own comedy. And by the way, no one remembers Hitler’s shitty little opener.”
Well, there you have it. To any queer and trans folks reading this in Texas, get your tickets to Dolls on Tour and bear witness to a cosmic shift to the cultural landscape in Austin. When the girls return home from making history at Vulcan, they’ll be participating in the 20th annual New York Comedy Festival on November 13 at Brooklyn Art Haus.
You can stream Sunny Laprade’s comedy special Queer Enough on Youtube and Violet Stanza’s song “Goodwill” wherever they listen to music.
