After performing to sold-out crowds in famously liberal cities like New York and Los Angeles, Corey O’Brien is about to take his stand-up act on the highway ― proper by America’s conservative heartland.
The homosexual comic and TikTok character will embark on his aptly named “Red Tour” on March 20 with a dwell present in Tempe, Arizona. The tour takes its title from Taylor Swift’s 2013 live performance trek, however it’s additionally a double entendre, as O’Brien has chosen venues situated in states that voted in President Donald Trump’s favor within the 2024 election. After Tempe, he heads to Houston, Philadelphia and Dania Seaside, Florida, with further cities to be introduced within the weeks forward.
At every of his tour stops, O’Brien mentioned, he plans to sort out topics starting from the discourse on “transgender athletes to [former Florida Rep.] Matt Gaetz’s eyebrows.” Elsewhere within the present, he’ll envision what a marketing campaign rally of his personal may seem like, and he’s additionally contemplating getting a full-on “conservative makeover” involving “a lot of plaid, and maybe some spray tans” on stage.
And if O’Brien’s efficiency on the Bell Home in Brooklyn, New York, final fall is any indication, his reveals will even embody playful, albeit well-intended, zingers at his conservative household, in addition to music, dance and different interactive parts.
“I want to entertain and bring hope to people, and also have uncomfortable, awkward and politically charged conversations that a lot of people don’t want to have or aren’t open to having right now,” O’Brien instructed HuffPost. “There’s nothing that’s off-limits.”
“I’m not here to argue with Trump’s supporters ― my dad is one,” he added. “But if who I am is going to be turned into a political weapon, why not just go out there, be myself authentically and celebrate that? That, in itself, is me rebelling.”
Victoria Sirakova through Getty Photos
A Pennsylvania native, O’Brien started his profession as a mannequin and dancer, showing alongside Mariah Carey and Iggy Azalea in addition to on episodes of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” He and his boyfriend, NFL veteran Ryan “R.K.” Russell, started documenting their relationship on YouTube and different platforms in 2019, shortly after Russell got here out publicly as bisexual.
O’Brien turned to comedy as a inventive outlet within the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he started sharing viral recreations of Dua Lipa and Spice Women music movies on TikTok. In 2022, his funds homage to Kim Kardashian’s Marilyn Monroe-inspired Met Gala look appeared in media shops round the world. A few 12 months later, he made his stand-up comedy debut on the Comedy Chateau in Los Angeles.
He started mapping out plans for the “Red Tour” on Nov. 6 of final 12 months, simply at some point after Trump was elected for a second presidency.
Tommaso Boddi through Getty Photos
“Work kind of saves me and so does humor, because if I don’t laugh, I’m going to cry,” he defined. “I’m not embarrassed to say I didn’t vote for someone who, in my eyes, isn’t equipped to be president. But there’s no way in hell that I spent 33 years of my life doing the work that I needed to do, getting sober and learning how to love myself only to let strangers tell me who I am.”
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As anticipated, Trump’s first weeks in workplace have included vital rollbacks of LGBTQ+ rights on the federal degree, a lot of it directed on the transgender and nonbinary communities. The administration’s purge on range, fairness and inclusion content material and workers has additionally had a chilling impact, as federal authorities web sites have eliminated references to the LGBTQ+ group.
Regardless of that hostile local weather, O’Brien is hopeful his “Red Tour” reveals will enchantment to viewers from all walks of life, together with those that “don’t agree with me or agree with my existence, but are willing to listen.”
“Comedy knows no political party because laughter is universal,” he mentioned. “It’s not a Ted Talk, but I want people to enjoy themselves as well as to think and question things. If the hate is going to be loud, then my gay ass needs to be louder.”
