1 of 1 2 of 1 Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday. Sign up for our free newsletter . If you’ve encountered a flamboyant eighteenth-century aristocrat in the last five years—whether at a local burlesque show or in your TikTok algorithm—it was probably Dandy .
With towering regency wigs, graphic white makeup streaked with blue eyeshadow and red blush, and costumes evoking the height of Georgian opulence, the Vancouver-based drag cabaret character cuts a striking figure. Dandy’s look is intricate, but his bit is simple: making eye contact to cheerfully inform his 600,000 followers, “You’re gay!” “One of the goals is to be disarming, but then to get people to laugh at the clown,” says Ryan Fisher, the real-life performer behind Dandy, over video call. “The point is not exactly to look regency or like an aristocrat, but playing with the gender norms of it—pushing people’s expectations.
” The whimsical world Dandy inhabits is coming to life in a new Telus StoryHive series called Dandyland , which will be streaming for free on StoryHive from September 23. The show features absurd skits, sketches, and puppet shows, alongside interviews with local LGBTQ2S+ people and organizations. Think Peewee’s Playhouse , a touch of At Home with Amy Sedaris , and perhaps even a little Mystery Science Theatre 3000 .
It’s a silly, camp package containing really poignant moments: touching conversations about the importance of pride, facilitated by a bedazzled performer who would make even Louis XIV feel underdressed. For Fisher, the joy is the point. “I don’t want to see any more shows about how hard it is for this guy to come out because his parents would kick him out, or about conversion therapy,” he explains.
“I just want to see queer people existing, and especially queer people existing having so much joy.” Good times are at the heart of Dandy’s brand. The character began at a cabaret in Hollywood in 2019, where Fisher lived at the time.
Fisher conceived of him as a club owner who would give lavender sprigs to the mostly straight audience—then announce that this marked them as part of the queer Lavender Society. “You’re all part of the society, right?” Fisher demonstrates, flipping into Dandy’s plummy cod-Britishisms. “You’re wearing the sprig.
That means you’re part of it. That means: you’re gay!” When the Covid pandemic shut down the real-world cabaret a few months after Dandy’s genesis, Fisher’s Gen Z costume designer suggested replicating the same bit for TikTok. “I thought, ‘I’ll do exactly what my speeches are at the cabaret,’” Fisher recalls.
“The first video we posted, we got 100,000 followers. It was like, ‘Okay, I guess we’re onto something.’” After moving to Vancouver in 2021, Fisher struggled to fit into the established nightlife niches.
So he figured out his own path, hosting drag and burlesque events, and forging strong relationships with the Massey Theatre in New Westminster and the Rio Theatre in Vancouver (where Dandyland will host a premiere party). When the creative team behind Dandyland received funding for the show, Fisher’s local connections came in handy. The eponymous Dandyland set was built in a Massey Theatre studio space, hosting not just Dandy but also his collection of his pals—including a mailman, a non-binary computer, and a conservative dormouse named Chad.
“Chad’s one of my favourite characters we came up with,” Fisher says. “I want to have these issues discussed, like homophobia and misgendering and all of these terrible things, but how do we do it without actually showing these things? So we get the mouse to do it. He just squeaks, and it’s our response saying, ‘It’d be really respectful if you use the proper pronouns,’ but you never hear the terrible things that mouse is actually going off on.
” Through making the show, Fisher got to meet even more of the queer community in the city. Whether it was local musicians, suburban moms standing up for their trans kids, or representatives of long-standing queer organizations, diving deeper into Vancouver’s LGBTQ2S+ scene made an impression on him. “The ally warriors, is kind of how I feel about them, are such an important part of the community that you don’t see on Davie Street,” he reflects.
“I haven’t been in school for 20 years, so it’s a different time, but to see these smaller communities having people rally around, it was such a beautiful part.” Being gay isn’t just fine; it’s dandy. Dandyland premiere When: September 17, 6:30pm Where: Rio Theatre Admission: $13.
42, available here.
