This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Business & Tech

VIDEO: The Country's Top Tupperware Seller--in Drag

Here in Long Beach is the humorous pitch that pushes this talented Tupperware Lady to the top.

Kevin Farrell works hard for a living—fighting the horrific traffic in the maze of Los Angeles freeways five days a week.  His car is packed to the max with the products he peddles to home-based customers.

Once he arrives at a customer’s home he sets up his wares, then excuses himself to freshen up, bringing with him a large cosmetic case and wig box.  

After an hour of primping, Miss Dee W. Ieye emerges from the powder room. She is America’s No. 1 Tupperware Lady, ready to pitch the iconic plastic food storage containers to the 20 or so women sitting in a suburban living room or, in the case of the video below, a Long Beach backyard. (one muffled f-bomb toward the end). Dee is good at what she does because she really, truly believes Tupperware is the best thing since sliced bread.   

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Dee is a Rated R, flamboyant yet endearing character. At the T-parties, she introduces herself as a former Tennessee trailer park queen who is the sole heir to the Jack Daniel’s fortune. But she has stopped drinking. She said she’s had one too many DUIs and has trouble maintaining her sobriety when invited to tasting events at the family’s whiskey distillery. She does confess to being reliant on “mother’s little helpers," though, which are actually Tic-Tacs she pops during her Tupperware shows to “even out.” 

With big, long blond hair and over-the top eye makeup, she stirs the crowd into a laughing frenzy with raunchy jokes, dropping the F-bomb once in awhile. She wears hot pants, high heels and a bosom-hugging gingham shirt that shows off a figure that rivals Dolly Parton’s.  

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

“Dee/Kevin’s routine is the perfect mix of kitch and classic—just like Tupperware,” said Jill Brietzman of Thousand Oaks, a fan who served up Dee at a Tupperware bridal shower. “He—I mean Dee—has a magical personality … off-kilter, fun and crazy. ... Such a blast.”

The 46-year-old former actor who lives in Studio City says he rakes in a hefty six-figure income and has been the No. 1 personal salesperson in the United States and Canada for four years running, something Tupperware has confirmed.

“Tupperware saved my ass,” said Farrell.  “It’s the best actor survival job I have ever had.”

Farrell was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, and majored in theater arts in college. He then spent nine years in Chicago, where he honed his craft as an actor in theater. He moved to Los Angeles in 1996 when the producers of the popular TV comedy Frasier, starring Kelsey Grammer, wrote a special guest star episode for Farrell based on his likeness to David Hyde Pierce, who played Frasier’s straitlaced brother, Niles.

He has since appeared in other television shows including Boston Legal, Friends, Ally McBeal, Malcolm in the Middle and My Name Is Earl. He admits that he is typecast as Niles-like characters whom Farrell describes as “anal”—a stark contrast to his alter-ego, Dee W. Ieye. 

“Looking back, I guess I should have known that I was destined for show business. At the age of 8, I was wearing my mom’s scarf and pretending to be Kitty Carlisle while watching To Tell the Truth on TV,” he quips.   

Farrell created his drag persona from scratch in 2004 for an appearance at a charity fundraising event, AIDS Best in Drag. He continues to support the fight against AIDS by volunteering Dee’s act at numerous charity events throughout the year.

Average Tupperware sales for an in-home party are about $400 but Farrell claims grosses five to 10 times that at a typical party with 20 to 30 guests. He has performed at private parties with as many as 80 in attendance, particularly in his hometown of Columbus, where he travels twice a year to do parties that are booked well in advance by hundreds of fans.

Tupperware presentations in drag are not new and date back to the 1950s. 

“When Tupperware held their annual conventions, called 'jubilees,' back in the 1950s and 1960s, the husbands would dress up as women and perform skits—a practice that became expected and continued each year,” said Suzzy Canny, 60, an Encino-based Tupperware consultant and author, who has done research on the nostalgic aspects of the plasticware company.

“What I really liked about the company back in the 1950s was that it allowed people to sell their product and make money, no matter what gender or race—female, black, Asian—unheard of in that day and age,” Canny said.   

Tupperware continues to maintain its policy on nondiscrimination into the 21st century. Gay men selling Tupperware in drag? No problem.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Belmont Shore-Naples