The queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race are gearing up for Halloween—and three Season 17 stars are teaming up to maximize their joint Spooky Season slay.
Lydia B Kollins, Kori King & Suzie Toot—known collectively as BUTTTOOTKING—are hitting the road together this October for a 21-date tour celebrating what a press release touts as “Suzie’s vintage theatricality, Kori’s internet-sharpened comedy, and Lydia’s delightfully off-kilter visual imagination.”
This is the third time the ladies have combined their talents, following a nearly completely sold out tour in 2025, and 13 stops overseas in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. This time, however, it’s all about Halloween, with a show inspired by their favorite horror movies and seasonal scares. Tickets available now here.
So.Gay spoke with the trio before their tour kicks off on October 1 in Washington, D.C., where they opened up about how it all came together, their favorite celebrity fan interactions, which queens they’d put on their Mount Rushmore of Drag, what it’s like for Kori and Lydia to work together while dating, and their thoughts on the BBC recently deciding to drop Drag Race U.K. from its lineup. Keep reading for the full chat!
So.Gay: I am thrilled to be speaking with the three of you. You have a very busy October ahead, visiting 21 cities in one month. Just how do you mentally prepare for a stretch of gigs like that?
Lydia B Kollins: Oh, you don’t.
Suzie Toot: I don’t think there’s any way you can!
Kori King: A Celsius, honestly.
Lydia B Kollins: No, genuinely, Celsius, and make yourself numb to it. You have to go and not expect that you have any travel in store because that’ll make it just so much easier. Melatonin is my best friend on tour.
So.Gay: Do you stock up the computer with movies and TV shows to watch?
Suzie Toot: I don’t remember having time for movies. These tours are very bus, club, another club. It’s numbing. You turn your brain off, and it comes alive again when the show starts, and then you try your best. Dolphins turn half their brains off when they sleep. Yeah, that’s what we do.
So.Gay: You three have toured together before. What is something that you learned from the previous 2025 tour that you were able to apply or maybe change this time around?
Suzie Toot: Oh man, I mean we were just figuring it out. Last October was a big learning experience for all of us, and I think the show was really fun and alive because of that, because we were in the same boat with the audience. We’d never seen the show before, you know? So attacking it now, we have a full year of experience, and we know what the format looks like, so we’re able to play with it in fun, different ways. So I think the show is just fuller and more creative and more exciting.
Kori King: Yeah, my answer was gonna be kind of boring. It was more or less making everything cleaner, like making every costume change easier, planning ahead and being a little more smarter this time.
Lydia B Kollins: We want minimal road bumps because we love the customer experience.
So.Gay: And now this is clearly a Halloween theme show. I know the previous tour you kind of drew from Rocky Horror, Death Become Her, even Scooby Doo with the Hex Girls. What are some of the spooky season inspirations this time around?
Suzie Toot: We’ll tease. What I’ll say is that the opening number for last October was my idea. The opening number for our Europe-Australia tour was Kori’s idea. So we said, “Lydia, it’s your time.” We won’t say what, but it’s everything and the kitchen sink. It’s insane.
Lydia B Kollins: It’s three meddling witches coming to suck the lives out of our audience members.
Kori King: I feel like it’s gonna get very like Southern, like the cheerleaders where all the mixes have like 800 top 40 songs in one. It’s very that.
So.Gay: In general, what are some of your favorite horror movies or things that you revisit every October?
Lydia B Kollins: The Addams Family Values, I think, is one of the best movies of all time.
Kori King: Hear me out: Braxton Family Values!
Lydia B Kollins: I made you watch it. You fell asleep, but you watched it. And also Batman Returns. Tim Burton’s Batman Returns I think is the best Batman movie of all time.
Suzie Toot: My favorite horror anything for as long as I’ve been alive is Repo! The Genetic Opera. And it’s a tough one to get people to watch, and even tougher to get them to stick around. But boy, do I love it! That’s my go-to every year.
So.Gay: Paris Hilton, Sarah Brightman…
Suzie Toot: Paris Hilton is in it, and, oh my god, Kori, I’m just gonna show you the scene where Paris has a wardrobe malfunction because it’s so sickening. As soon as I get to Pittsburgh, we’re watching it. And what movie do you love, Kori?
Kori King: Well, I don’t watch TV, so I don’t know. I don’t have a scary movie. Unless it’s Dance Moms or RuPaul’s Drag Race, I’m in my own planet at this point. I’m sure there’ll be like Halloween TikToks that’ll be coming out that I’m gonna be so excited to watch.
Suzie Toot: What’s your favorite spooky Dance Moms number?
Kori King: The Last Text. That was a good one.
So.Gay: I preface this by saying I love my husband, but traveling and working with him for a whole month, I think, would make me go a little insane. So I’m curious, for Kori and Lydia, did you have any sort of reservations about touring and what that could mean or do for your relationship?
Lydia B Kollins: I’m already insane. I love it. I covet it, and I think it’s great for me. But I’m sure Kori is a little stressed out.
Kori King: I’m very unshakable. Truly, it’s mostly because I’m large, but I’m very unshakable. So I’m doing great.
Lydia B Kollins: He takes everything that I throw at him, and he just is like, “It’s okay. Let’s just take a breath and get on the plane.”
So.Gay: And Suzie, have you had to mediate at all? Do you find yourself in the middle of any spats?
Suzie Toot: Well, I like to instigate fights. I’ll start rumors. I’ll tell Kori that Lydia said something, vice versa. It’s just entertainment!
Kori King: She gets a live TV show. It’s sickening!
Suzie Toot: Stirring the pot, baby. Stirring the cauldron!
So.Gay: How have rehearsals been going? I know the three of you have your own solo tours right now, so what is the process like putting together a show when you’re spending so much time apart?
Suzie Toot: Yeah, I wish I was working with girls that were less booked [laughs]. It would make things a lot easier. So it’s a lot of group chats and FaceTime calls and organizing everything because we have one precious weekend to apply everything and choreograph it, make sure the costumes are all together before we head it on tour, but before that, we’ve been working for three months at this point. And we’re so happy about it!
Kori King: I feel as long as you trust what you’re doing separately, once we come together, it just kind of just does it so quickly. So it’s kind of just like us just being really good on our own, and then when we come together, it’s like boss, like that.
Lydia B Kollins: And Suzie’s kind of like Bob Fosse.
Suzie Toot: That’s what we need. We need multiple cameras in the room when we’re learning the choreo, especially this year. This year we’re doing Janet Jackson shit.
So.Gay: Who picks it up the fastest?
Suzie Toot: Not Kori. No, no, that’s not true. I don’t think.
Kori King: No, not me. I feel like it’s Suzie
Lydia B Kollins: We’re all pretty adequate. I just need it broken down a couple times for sure. Soft parent me.
Suzie Toot: Soft parenting, exactly. Kori’s an incredible dancer, but she doesn’t have the drive. It’s an attention span thing. We’re like, “Okay, Kori, come back.”
So.Gay: And has that one rehearsal weekend happened yet?
Suzie Toot: Not yet. It’ll be right before we leave, baby.
Kori King: That means it’s gonna be like right in our brains. It’s gonna be fresh!
So.Gay: Is there a costume or getup you’re most excited for fans to see that you are okay teasing?
Kori King: It is based on a scary movie, so I am excited for that. Yes, honey, I never watched the movie, but …
Lydia B Kollins: So many of our solos and duets, there’s so many things that we have this year planned that are so Halloween-centered. I’m so excited about that because the few other years we’ve done this, it’s been sort of whatever we’re feeling, and now there’s a throughline of this is a spooky show, and I’m so thrilled about that.
Suzie Toot: There’s a creature that we’re very excited about.
Kori King: I don’t know if I’m excited.
Suzie Toot: Kori’s not excited at all, and the one hint that I’ll give is that it’s based on a part of the human body. And we love her, so we’re very excited.
Lydia B Kollins: Our new daughter.
So.Gay: Will we get a Kori Toot cameo at all?
Kori King: No. Oh my God. I’ve already been doing that for the last couple of shows for my show. She’s getting laid to rest all October, and others can dress up like her in the audience, but other than that, she’s in her coffin right now.
Suzie Toot: There will certainly be Kori Toots at the costume contest.
So.Gay: You brought up the costume contest; fans will be dressing up every night. Is there a look you’d love to see recreated?
Lydia B Kollins: These looks right here. This looks in the chat.
Suzie Toot: My BUTTTOOTKING press tour look, I need to see it. My favorite costumes are the really weird, like specific meme stuff. My favorite from last year was the someone did the grandpa who ate paint, and there’s like a picture of him with like blue paint on his face.
Lydia B Kollins: The stupid gay monkey from the gay monkey at the Apple Store. Absurdity, yeah.
So.Gay: For your tour promo, you dressed as the DC Sirens—Poison Ivy, Catwoman and Harley Quinn—and DC Comics commented on the post saying, “Telling Batman these are the Sirens he should watch out for”?
Lydia B Kollins: So cool!
Suzie Toot: I’ve been a Batman fan forever. The Arkham games are one of my favorite things in the world, and especially those three, those divas. I was so excited to put it out, and I cannot believe that DC actual Comics … that gay intern at DC Comics was really living.
Lydia B Kollins: It is really kind of cool. It’s like when like IKEA or Waffle House comments on a post. I feel seen!
So.Gay: And Suzie, will there be live singing from you this time?
Suzie Toot: There just might be.
Kori King: Oh, brother!
Suzie Toot: I spent a long time figuring out what my solo was gonna be, and the idea finally clicked just about a couple of weeks ago, and there will be live singing.
So.Gay: And Kori and Lydia, too?
Kori King: Of course, I’m doing opera, actually.
Lydia B Kollins: No, thank you. That’s okay.
So.Gay: Not in the repertoire. Since your success on Drag Race, and now all these tours that you have, who has been maybe the most surprising Drag Race fan that you’ve encountered or has dipped into your DMs, sent you a message? Andrew Garfield was on Watch What Happens Live the other night, talking all about the show.
Kori King: That’s how you know that’s a millennial. He’s like, “I love Season 3.”
Lydia B Kollins: In terms of like a superstar that has noticed and recognized the three of us, someone that I continuously gag at because I’m a big Victorious fan, is Ariana Grande, who does follow us and interact. There’s this one fan, and she makes these full sized knitted [dolls].
Suzie Toot: I have it right here, bitch, because I knew you were gonna ask me for it.
Lydia B Kollins: Look at how incredible this is!
Suzie Toot: My favorite celebrity fan interaction is Ethel Cain one time reposted my picture of the black and white look and said, ‘That’s my winner,’ and I freaked out. I love Ethel Cain.
Kori King: Tokyo Toni, that’s mother. I forget. Days after, I’m onto the next thing. I’m gonna say Tokyo Toni!
So.Gay: This was asked of Andrew on WWHL, to name his Mount Rushmore of Drag Race. I’m curious who yours are, excluding each other, of course.
Kori King: They weren’t gonna be there!
Suzie Toot: Jaida Essence Hall, I’m obsessed with her. I love her so much. As far as personality and charismatic drag character, Jaida Essence Hall is number one. Sasha Velour. Jinkx Monsoon, and I’ll say BenDeLaCreme. That’s my answer today.
Lydia B Kollins: Okay, my answer today would probably be … this is a tough one. I’m gonna start off crazy, Laila McQueen. Bob the Drag Queen. Violet Chachki. And I’m gonna go off the beaten path here. I’m gonna put Divine on that list too. Sorry, she should have been on Drag Race. She was just a few years away. And I’m just gonna throw RuPaul up on there, because that’s mother.
So.Gay: That’s cheating, but fair.
Kori King: I don’t want to say RuPaul, but I feel like she’s on top of the Mount Rushmore. And then Bob and Monét. And then also Trixie because of her work ethic. And then I’m gonna also say Envy Peru. When I see Envy Peru, it makes me want to do better. It makes me want to do better drag, that’s my four!
So.Gay: The big news last week was BBC deciding to drop Drag Race U.K., calling it a financial decision. The show will continue on WOW, but co-creator Fenton Bailey said it proves you can’t take anything for granted. What are your thoughts about that, and what that maybe says about the current state of drag?
Suzie Toot: It’s that. It’s the current state of the world. We are currently in a pivot. We had some of the greatest, most progressive time yet in our universe, and then now we’re seeing the pendulum swing again. And queer art is always going to be here, whether it’s on broadcast television or not, and it’s going to survive. And then the pendulum will swing back, and we will return, aided along with us voting and participating in democracy. But nothing is forever, and we will always be here and be back in different ways.
Kori King: That part! Like she said, there’s gonna be times where it’s like a little rocky, but it is what it is. You’re gonna have to keep being you and doing what you do and push through, and I’m sure it’ll get better later. But for now, we kind of just have to keep doing what we’re doing.
Lydia B Kollins: Echoing what Suzie said, the most important thing is to not go away. In the rise of AI and the administration, the horrors that are unfolding on the earth, you just have to not recede. There’s a lot of doomsday talk, and I think it’s good to also have hope in your life as well and happiness. We’re not just gonna roll over and die. So you need to have hope and joy and light in your heart while going through all this.
So.Gay: Are there special guests throughout the tour?
Lydia B Kollins: Yes, we have openers for the tour. We held a contest.
Suzie Toot: Damn right. And we are so excited. There’s a lot of really cool artists there. We have drag kings. We have unbelievable fucking stunt performers. They’re doing shit. They’re doing crazy stuff.
So.Gay: And now, last question I have for you; Outside of this tour, are you going to be able to enjoy Spooky Season any other way?
Lydia B Kollins: I will find my way to Spirit Halloween on every day off that we have. Kori and Suzie, if you want to come with me or not, you can. I’m going to go see Hocus Pocus in the theater. I am going to suck every last drop of the Halloween season out of the Halloween season out of the Halloween cup, for sure.
Kori King: I’m ready for Christmas.
So.Gay: She’s defrosting?
Kori King: My Mariah Carey mix about to be nasty!
Suzie Toot: It’s so fun to do Halloween numbers and Halloween show. For us, it’s Halloween every single day of October, and that’s the minimum requirement, the minimum amount of spooky season that I need in my life, so it’s going to be a blast. I can’t wait.
