New Cabaret Shows a Different Side of Tina Burner

Tina Burner, the larger-than-life personality who brought a copious amount of red, orange, and yellow to the mainstage on RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13, is touring across the country with her one-woman show, Maybe This Time Live.

Not a traditional drag performance, Maybe This Time Live is a theatrical production with Broadway standards and comedy that tells the story of Burner’s personal life, from today backwards to the first time she realized she was gay. With orchestrations and arrangements by Blake Allen, show stopping numbers include A Chorus Line’s “What I Did for Love,” La Cage Aux Faux’s “I Am What I Am” and Gypsy’s “Rose’s Turn” reimagined as “Tina’s Turn.”

“The message of the show is to never forget where you come from, never lose sight of where you’re going, and never give up on your dreams … oh, and world peace,” Burner explains.

Born and raised in upstate New York, Burner moved to the Big Apple in 2005 to pursue a stage career in musical theatre. After an initial brush with drag, she immediately fell in love with the art form and has become a pinnacle of New York drag royalty. In 2019, the self-proclaimed “Manhattan monster with a heart of gold” was crowned National Miss Comedy Queen, and she was named winner of the GLAM Award for Best Cabaret and Best Comedy Performer.

Since competing on Drag Race, she found a new audience and new passion to leave her mark on the worlds of drag and entertainment.

Burner took some time to chat more about Maybe This Time Live and her Drag Race experience with OFM.

Can you begin by telling us more about your new singing cabaret comedy show, Maybe This Time Live, and what audiences can expect?
They can expect to see a different side of Tina Burner. The show tells my whole story through these musical standard classics, but some are reimagined. On a TV show, you only get to see a certain part of me because it’s the story they tell. I now get a chance to tell my story, my side. You get to see why I’m such a mean monster [laughs].

You were inspired to create this show from your time on Drag Race?
Yes! I played the em-shee in the Ru-sical, which was based on the emcee from Cabaret, and “Maybe This Time” is a song from the production. I decided to take a situation where I was told I was in the bottom, which is questionable, and even watching it back, it’s still questionable, but I wanted to take that experience and do something different. Take an experience I had on the show, take a step back, and make a whole new situation out of it.

Was the Ru-sical your favorite challenge?
The Ru-sical was one of my favorites. I still love what I did, and I was open to any critiques the judges had the whole time I was there. A lot of people would get offended by them, but I took it all in. I love to be critiqued because, sometimes, we are never able to see certain things. We are all very set in our ways, so it gives me a chance to listen to other people. But yes, the Ru-sical was one of my favorites, as well as the acting challenge where I got to play, like, Mommy Dearest.

This is your first national tour. Will you be stopping in Denver?
If you want me to come to Denver, reach out!

We would love to see you in Denver! What have you been enjoying the most about the tour?
I love to meet new people and see the different styles of drag. If a show is going on down the street, I will try to make time to go see it because I have always been fascinated by the different styles of drag all around the country. There are so many facets and people, and I love to meet them. When I finish a show, I stay and hang around. I don’t hide backstage, or hate doing meet-and-greets. I am out there on the dance floor pumping it. People are there to see you, and you should at least give the same gratitude to them as they do to you.

What do you hope audiences take away from Maybe This Time Live?
I hope they are not scared to tell their story. In the show, I share some very personal stuff. I have dealt with a lot of things, from death to relationships, and I hope it inspires people to be able to talk freely about their lives and not be ashamed. Also, I just want people to see a different side of me and maybe come to more of an understanding that we are humans. It is very easy to judge people, but if you take the time to get to know somebody, you will see a whole different side to them. That’s what I want people to see with this show. You were very quick to judge and say a lot about me, but maybe if you took the time, sat down, and heard my story, then feel free to come up and talk to me about it afterwards.

Have you always had a passion for performing?
Definitely. I began performing when I was very young. I did all the school plays and tap dance for 12 years, then I toured for competition tap, and it has always been a part of me. I can’t imagine doing anything else.

When did drag come into play?
Drag didn’t come into play until I was almost 30 years old. I was working in a bar, and they needed a karaoke host because the original host was out. I had done drag before for Fire Island Invasion, so when they said they needed someone to host, I slapped on a wig, painted on some awful Ronald McDonald brows, and then it just kind of snowballed. I was like, wait, I miss performing. I lost a bit of the passion for a while after I moved away, but when I came back, I began working in restaurants and bars, and I was just used to making that money. I think I blocked out the fact that I loved performing. We got back to it, and I never imagined I would be doing drag and performing nine shows a week for years and years.

I would like to ask you a couple more questions about your time on Drag Race. What have you taken away from your experience?
I took away from it the ability to be able to look at myself differently and push boundaries. I always think there is room for growth, and people want to see that as well. Also, I took away the fact that, if you think I gave zero fucks before, I give zero fucks now. People have so much to say about you, and I have always been a strong person, but I have never seen it on a level like this.

When you wake up every morning with those messages of hate, I didn’t think it was possible to build a thicker skin. However, there is so much positivity on the other side, and I have never experienced this much love. People reach out to me about their parents or moms going through depression, and these people generally need someone to talk to. It has been an amazing experience, and I think it has definitely changed me as a person. Hopefully, for the better.

Do you believe you were given the villain edit along with Kandy Muse?
[Laughs]. It’s funny because I don’t see myself as a villain at all, but a lot of people say they kind of gave me that villain edit. If anything, I think it was a good arc because you saw me very empowered in the beginning, I was then able to open myself, and then you get me crying at the end. I think there was such a good arc to watch, but hey, am I everybody’s cup of tea? No, and like I said, that’s the main reason why I am doing Maybe This Time Live.

You will see me open up and talk. A lot of these people think I’m some monster, but guess what? Out of any of them, I was the one who was helping people sew on that show, which you don’t see. I’m doing this or helping someone. I’m not like a regular dad, I’m a cool dad. I may be standoffish at first, but I’m lovable.

How do you respond to the haters?
I guess with jokes. Anytime someone is like, you’re fat, you’re this, you’re that—be like, oh my God, that does make a lot of sense. I did have a lot to eat last night. Someone will say you’re ugly, I’m like, oh my God, you’re right. I was staring at myself today and thought, I look hideous. You have to be able to take it. These are people who sit behind the security of a computer screen. They have probably never done drag or never had their lives put out there. Weirdly, 90 percent of the time, if not 99 percent of the time, anytime a person says a negative comment, they were trying to get my attention. I would respond to them, then they would apologize.

Have you also been blocked by Tamisha Iman?
I have been blocked by her; you are correct. I was probably one of the early ones. I have not spoken to her since I left the show, and I wish nothing but the best. The situation is crazy, and I think a lot of us handle it in our own ways. Blocking is such a funny thing because it’s like, thank you for blocking me, now I don’t have to see your feed. Who did you really punish?

Your season will forever be legendary because it was filmed during the height of the pandemic. How challenging was that?
I will say, and I always say this when people ask about it, I never felt safer in my life. They handled it with the most amazing safety precautions. Whether it be with around the clock testing, being spaced out, being around certain people, it was amazing to see because it was such a difficult time. If anything, I was scared to leave. I commend them for that, and being from New York, we were on complete lockdown. It was very scary here because it’s so populated, so to be able to leave and spend some time with other people, hug people that were in that group with you, it was a gift. I couldn’t imagine being at home those months.

If asked to compete again, would you?
One thousand percent! Like I said, taking a look at yourself, stepping it up, and opening up, I would make people’s jaw drop the next time.

What more do you hope to accomplish with your platform?
I hope to see the world, but I hope to change it a little bit too. Anytime I do these shows and have a microphone, I can speak to people and talk about certain topics. Whether it be politics or any subjects like that, I want to be able to leave it as an open forum and have people in a safe space to be able to talk about it.

My sister was one of the 96 delegates or whatever to go to the RNC for Trump. I might not agree with her views, but we are able to have those conversations. Even my other sister, she didn’t want to get vaccinated, and it took me, not my mom or anyone else, to sit down and have these conversations for her to understand. Then she did. I think as a drag queen, we have a huge power and responsibility to be able to change the world a little bit, even if it’s minor.

To stay up-to-date with Burner, follow her on Instagram or visit her official website. Click HERE for Maybe This Time Live tour dates and ticket prices.

Photos Courtesy of Ginger Beard