Last night, I found myself with my fellow tour bus passengers, hunkered down in a Mobile, Alabama honky tonk, waylaid, due to a big storm, on our way to Mardi Gras. You know, as one does. At least that’s the premise we all happily bought into in the Garner Galleria Theatre during Dixie’s Never Wear a Tube Top While Riding a Mechanical Bull (And 16 Other Things I Learned while I Was Drinking Last Thursday). The one-woman show is back for its final run (ever!) where it started, right here in Denver. Here’s why you shouldn’t let this last chance pass you by like a moth in a tornado.
I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Dixie Longate in Denver some 15 years ago when I was working for a local parenting magazine. Dixie was performing her premier show, Dixie’s Tupperware Party so, naturally, we talked about ideas for packing school lunches – something of a reach but Dixie was totally game and shared some great ideas. Over the years, I’ve attended that “Tupperware Party” and now “Tube Top” twice. Like Ms. Dixie, they just improve with age.
I don’t know how she does it, night after night, but Dixie talks up a storm and maneuvers her way around the stage and into the audience on sky-high heels. She dispenses life lessons (she really is so smart), lots of laughs and Moon Pies.
Dixie is free-wheeling, tell-it-like-it-is, saucy, funny, wise-cracking and just plain wise. For an hour and a half, she does not stop, switching from one topic to another in a, somehow, organized ramble. It takes some work to keep up but try your gosh-darndest to do so, because you don’t want to miss what she’s saying. Dixie teaches us that riding a mechanical bull provides all sorts of lessons about life (probably true), how the “book” of our life ought to be a thick best-selling adventure novel and not a pamphlet that gets tossed in the discount bin (so true) and that the happy hours of our days should run far longer than just from 4-7pm (so very true).
It must be interesting for Dixie to see the energy and willingness of the audiences to play along from night-to-night. I’d imagine some are a little more pent up and offer more of a challenge. The first time we went, the crowd was raring for a good time, laughing their heads off and jumping right up during the two opportunities to dance at their seats. This time, some audience members were cautious at first but were soon swinging their partners round and round! There’s plenty of audience participation and Dixie goes with the flow of whoever she plays with, showing what a pro she is.
Silly, funny, sweet, inspirational and educational, Dixie gets you thinking and laughing about life, leaving your mark in the end, why God made vodka and water clear (mind. blown.) and how to toss your hair properly when riding a mechanical bull. If those aren’t reasons enough to go, I don’t know what is. But the fact that this is your last chance makes it a must.
Whatever Dixie’s next adventures are, taking her off the road after decades, I just hope we still get to learn from her wisdom. And thank you, Mr. Kris Andersson for bringing Miss Dixie to life! I know I’m still drinking from the Dixie Longate Kool-aid (spiked with Jack Daniels of course).
Dixie’s Never Wear a Tube Top While Riding a Mechanical Bull (And 16 Other Things I Learned while I Was Drinking Last Thursday) runs Aug. 20 – Sept. 7, 2025 at the Garner Galleria Theatre.
-By Courtney Drake-McDonough, Publisher & Managing Editor, In Good Taste Denver
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