How Die Tollie & Manila Show turned SA celebs into queens

Manila von Teez is not just Tollie Parton’s co-host of the drag chat series Die Tollie & Manila Show. Behind the scenes she’s the fairy godmother of drag. Manila is the head of wardrobe, the lead designer, the seamstress, and a whole lot more. It’s a job only a drag queen could do!

We spoke with Manila and her business partner and long-time dresser Barry Reid about how they dragged up the show’s guests – from Chairperson of the Federal Council of the Democratic Alliance Helen Zille, to actors like Frank Opperman, and musicians like Craig Lucas, Jack Parow, and Loki Rothman – after meeting them in person, for the first time ever, just 30 minutes before showtime. 

“We filmed in seven days and we made three outfits per episode, because I made my garments and Tollie’s garments as well as the guest’s outfit. The first day (of shooting) was only one episode. All the episodes after that we shot double episodes per day, so I had to have six garments ready per day. It was stress. It was stress! I didn’t sleep that entire week because after shooting, I came home and literally sewed for the next day,” reveals Manila. 

While the whole makeover process passes in the blink of an eye on the show, Manila has the real story up her (beautifully tailored) sleeve, so let’s get into it!

Stream Die Tollie & Manila Show Season 1 now. New episodes Mondays.

Fit for a queen

Manila: We got a guest list first, so design and concept was probably the first big thing. I formulated a feel or a vibe for each guest, and then we [Tollie and Manila’s outfits] slotted in with the same theme. It’s a little nod to the person’s character. So with Frank Opperman’s episode, we went vintage, but with a modern twist. And with Jarrid Geduld (in episode 1), it was glitz and glam sparkles. 

With Jack Parrow we decided to have a punk episode and a punk look. We wanted to go full-on drag queen with Helen Zille, and she also came to go full-on drag queen! With one of the other female guests, we did a masculine, androgynous look with her, because drag kings are also part of drag, and we wanted to highlight that element. And I actually love her suit. I want to wait for that episode to air, then I’m gonna wear her suit because we’re kind of the same size. She’s also tiny like me! And with Craig Lucas, we said, “Let’s just be colourful,” because he is queer. We just threw colour everywhere, and there’s colour splotches on Tollie’s garment for that episode, which was fun. 

Because of our time crunch, I literally made a mould of Tollie’s body so we could just have her come for one fitting and we could run through eight looks for her. And then we got the sizing (the guests’ complete measurements were sent to Manila), went fabric shopping, and started to make outfits…

Barry: …hoping that the sizing that they sent was correct!

Manila: It’s very different, because we’re adding volume in places. You are getting this measurement, but you still need to add to it in places where there’s now going to be a bra with cups, and there’s going to be padding for hips. It was a difficult task, but I know my padding – because I also made the padding – so I figured out: okay, this is a large, or you will need a medium, or you will need a small pad. So I added that into the measurements. 

And knowing that these men are now going to become ladies, you have to account for that. Our proportions are different. A male torso is much bigger than a female torso, so our underarm to waist measurement is longer than what a female’s underarm to waist measurement is. You have to take that into account. Stretch fabric is our friend, because we need a little bit of leeway. 

Barry: And because he’s been making clothing for drag queens for so long, he’s learned the form of the human, the male, and the conversion and understanding. But we met everybody on the day. We got in in the morning, and the first thing we did when they came in was the fitting, and then we hoped like crazy that it all worked. We took a sewing machine to the theatre, so when each guest arrived and we dressed them, we were able to make slight adjustments. We had 10 to 20 minutes to quickly sew something, change it, or add something. So we had to make provision for that. 

Manila: Hands down, we are MacGyver. By the time they arrived, I had my makeup on but there was no wig on, and I was still in my boy clothes, and I would go meet them and get them dressed, and then see, “Okay, fine. We can quickly do this. We can quickly do that,” and then I’d let the backstage assistants do their job in executing that. Sometimes I did sew here and there when it was something only I could do. But then I had to go get ready for the interview. 

Barry: We had a space set up where we had their bra, their padding, the jewellery we wanted them to wear, the nails, and everything. And then once Manila had done the consultation, we’d just check that everything fitted and it was going to be okay on stage, then the dressers had to take what was there and put it together. There were very slight adjustments now and again, where maybe the belts need to be a bit higher or a bit lower. Then the other drag queens who were doing the hair and makeup, could say, “No, that’s not going to work.”

Manila: Ina [Ina Propriette, Manila’s co-star from Beaulah: Queens van die Kaap, who was a lead makeup artist for Die Tollie & Manila Show] also sewed at one point because Soli Philander’s pants were too long, so I cut of a piece of the pants off, and then Ina saw this fabric, and then just started sewing the fabric to make a headband for him. It was great!

Nails, hair, hips, heels

Manila: We had a little bit of a time, but you either get everything now or you’re not going to get everything done. And knowing where we were going with the look, it wasn’t going to be a good avenue to hire things or buy things when it comes to the looks. Gloves were the only accessory we bought. Everything else was custom. We had a top hat that wasn’t working colour wise, and then I covered it with the same fabric that the suit was made out of. But we had to look far and wide for shoes, and ask friends as well.

Barry: Size 13 was the biggest shoe we could find.

Manila: But ugly! We found ugly shoes. It’s literally part of the camp of it all! They put their feet on the table, like, “Look at me!” Most of them were amazed by the shoes and the nails. We put long nails on them, so they barely could do anything. We had Madison from Beulah: Queens van Die Kaap make all the nails for all the guests. It was a set for me per episode, and a set for the guests per episode as well. And Tollie also had someone that made nails for us. 

Barry: If you watch the first episode, you see Jarrid sitting like this the whole time! [Barry raises his hands with the fingers pressed together, pointed upwards, then mimes opening and closing them, clacking his nails together like braai tongs].

Manila: We supplied everything [for the men and the women]. So Barry ran to do the bra shopping. And then we did the pantyhose shopping, and really all the undergarments in one go.

Barry: We bought four or five generic bra sizes. And after each day, we washed them just in case, because you couldn’t really tell the bust size exactly. We bought new stockings for everybody. But then we had a few step-ins (shapewear that goes over the hips, bottom and thighs) that we washed and reused.

Manila: They enjoyed that process of putting on a whole different body. But telling them about the tucking processes was just weird. Somebody had to! There was one who just mushed it around! We told them the process so that they could use it as part of the banter back and forth. And we made it work, because we didn’t want it to be too uncomfortable. 

The fabric for the garments was probably the biggest expense, and then making the garments after that. After that it was wigs, because they had to be pre-styled and double stacked – that is when you put two wigs into one another. A lot of pre-prep went into having styled wigs. We had 39 wigs! 

Barry: Some got unstacked, and then maybe used slightly differently. So you could see the same colour wig, but you wouldn’t know, because it’s been restyled in one week for three people, and I don’t think anyone is going to even notice it. 

Manila: I think we had a too-small wig problem with one guest?

Barry: There was one person who didn’t want the wig that we made. After their makeup was done, and they were like, “Here’s your wig,” they looked and they went, “No, I want that! I want that wig, there.” It was double the size of the wig that they were going to get. You can take a guess who that was. 

Manila: The look was going to be very monochromatic. It was going to be pink hair, with a pink outfit with a pink shawl. And they were like “Mmm mmm. No. Give me that blonde wig. I want to be big and blonde.”

Love at first sight

Manila: The guests weren’t allowed to see what they look like. When “Lezzie” brings the mirror on, that’s the first time the guests see themselves in drag, because we cover all the mirrors backstage. Even the mirrors in the toilets were all closed and there were no phones. We got to experience the first time they saw themselves. It was fun to see their reactions and how they saw themselves. I sat down to interview them as themselves [beforehand], and some of them can be very quiet and timid. But then you see how the whole drag of it all just transforms them into a more confident being. 

Barry: Even Tollie never saw them at all until they came out! 

Manila: Mature skin just looks a little bit different with a lot of makeup on. Even with drag make-up, it’s a very difficult thing. But man, Loki Rothman looks so good in drag! Jack Parrow surprised me. He was so into it. Even the energy that he had. When I met him for the first fitting we asked if we could go punky. And he was like, “My vibe is very punky! We can definitely go with it. Now let’s go all the way.” That’s why there’s all these pins everywhere. There’s pins in his hair. He was all-in. That one surprised me as well. Even Helen Zille shocked me. She didn’t just look like a drag queen, she looked like a transwoman drag queen. It’s the cheekbones. 

Three quick questions

How did the guests handle the low couch?

Manila: It was the worst thing. Do you know how many takes we had to do of them just sitting down in the chair? It was so hilariously funny, but it was so uncomfortable! Now you’re still sitting on padding, you don’t know which hip to sit on, and you’re literally wobbling from one side to the other side. We didn’t want to take it too far with corsetry with the guests, because I also know that it’s out of their comfort zone, especially sitting in a corset. We knew we were going to be sitting. I had a corset on for one episode, and it was painful because with that fold of the boning, it literally attacks you right there [Manila points to the bottom of her rib cage]. So I was like, “No, this is not going to be cute to the couch”. We opted for other ways around not having to corset.

What did you learn?

Manila: With you sewing so much, you get a hand on your technique and how to manoeuvre things in a different way to still get the same results. So you don’t sit for hours hand-sewing. There was one garment in Jarrid’s episode, where the fabric that we used had diamante stones all over, so you can’t sew over that, yeah? So for all the seams, I had to unpick all the stones one by one, so I could sew the side seams. If you look in that episode, my dress doesn’t have a seam on the side because I was like, “I’m not dealing with me with seams.” I just had a seam at the back. 

What was one of the toughest challenges?

Manila: There was one guest who cancelled the day before, and then another guest filled in. So we had to make a garment for this person that was supposed to come, and then we had to scramble and find another garment for this new person that’s coming to fill in. It was crazy! But it turned out nice. And I think proportion was the challenge for me. There was another guest when we did a sun, moon and stars theme – because I had a theme for each episode – and really, in that episode, I feel like the fit could have been better.

Barry: We didn’t have time to go and rethink it. You won’t pick it up, but for the person as the designer…you know how it is. But it’s too late. It’s out. People still enjoy it, and that’s what matters.

Manila: As soon as that drag character comes out, you just have fun, because it’s not a serious show. We do touch on a little bit of serious topics throughout the process of it, but it’s literally just being a fun show.

Stream Die Tollie & Manila Show Season 1 now. New episodes Mondays.