Grant Gibbs and Ashley Gill, better known online as “A Twink and A Redhead,” launched their first national tour last week. Performing in 17 cities, Gibbs and Gill’s live show blends their absurd online humor with sincerity, retelling the story of their friendship through a comedic and satirical musical.
Gibbs and Gill sat down with The Daily Texan to discuss their friendship, comedy and identity before making their Austin stop at 29th Street Ballroom.
The Daily Texan: The show blends satire, camp and genuine storytelling. How do you balance making people laugh while still letting those more sincere moments land?
Ashley Gill: With the live show, we felt it did need more (earnestness), and there are some heartwarming moments. It makes the comedy all that better when there’s moments of realness and real emotion. Other elements of the story are exaggerated, but it all comes from a place of our actual experiences and the truth of who we were in high school.
DT: With this being your first national tour, what’s been the biggest surprise about taking your work from the internet to cities across the country?
AG: We’re used to performing in New York, which obviously has a culture to it. … A lot of people have been asking us how we think people in Texas (will) respond. … Even though we’re in a more conservative state, there’s still (a) community there that would resonate with our show. It’s going to be interesting seeing how all these cities we’ve never been to respond to it. … There’s community everywhere.
Grant Gibbs: When we go to these cities we’ve never been to, we don’t know anyone, so every single person coming is a genuine fan of ours and that feels really special.
DT: You’re performing at 29th Street Ballroom. What kind of energy are you hoping to get from an Austin crowd, especially one with a big student presence?
GG: That’s so fun for me. Me and Ashley, we’ve (been through) every phase in life (together). We went through middle school, high school and Florida State together. So I love seeing people who are around the age where a lot of our iconic moments (happened). …That age group, they just get it the most.
DT: You describe your work as embracing identity and self-expression. How has your understanding of that evolved from when you first started creating together?
GG: I think I’ve become way more telling of who I am. Especially (in) the time period the show (is) set in, I came out, in a way, when I still didn’t know what I was doing. … I was trying to be someone I wasn’t. I was trying to be straight, but I was gay. Now and over the years, posting online, portraying this overly confident twink, which is so annoying, it’s given me a lot of confidence. … You shouldn’t care what anyone (thinks) about you, as long as you’re not hurting anyone.
AG: In high school, I cared a lot about fitting in and being cool. I hung out with these nasty girls. Once I started becoming best friends with Grant, I realized it’s okay to be uncool sometimes, and it’s way more fun than doing the same thing that everyone else is doing.
GG: It rewards you too. We’ve been able to make this our career by being fucking weird and just cocky and arrogant in a satirical, fun way, and it paid off. Everyone should be weird.
AG: Keep Austin weird, right?
Editor’s Note: The number of cities has been updated here to reflect an edited Instagram caption from the performance duo.
