This Tupperware Party Wasn't a Drag

When Aunt Cassie Rolle takes on a Tupperware demonstration, she brings a new interpretation of burping a lid.

It’s more like a pffft! of air pumped from a wine bottle.

Rolle, one of the personas of Haddon Township native Kurt Koehler, called on friends from his old neighborhood to help boost his secondary income from home shows of plastic storage containers. What followed in the last week has been home shopping with verve, laughter, and lots of double entendres. 

Thursday, he lugged in boxes of demonstration products to the Kings Highway West home of Jodi Duffy, who had invited more than three dozen friends for a welcoming committee. 

Most sipped wine and nibbled on snacks while Koehler, in a psychedelically printed gown, dangling earrings resembling key chains, cat-eye glasses and fuchsia flip-flops adorned with faux gerbera daisies, brought new life to food storage. 

Koehler, who graduated from Haddon Township High School in 1989 and went on to earn a bachelor of fine arts degree from Marymount College in Manhattan, lives in Los Angeles. He writes, directs and produces live shows and television starring drag queens. His most recognized is Chico’s Angels, a comedy based on the Charlie’s Angels television series that has an outrageous Latino flavor. 

“Don’t store those extra vegetables in a bag, my dear. Your food goes blue, whadda ya do?” he sang early in a speedy 40-minute presentation of some of Tupperware’s new products. 

Selling food storage products for more than 60 years, Tupperware now has items designed for microwave use, along with ice cream scoops, food choppers, tumblers for kids that feature a liquid-tight seal, and a corkscrew and five-piece wine accessories set. 

Koehler showed off the new lines, emphasizing that like the old round and rectangular storage items, all are made in America and are “guaranteed for life, darling.” 

A rectangular cake carrier with locking lid, a longtime favorite at Tupperware parties, can carry not only 18 cupcakes, Koehler said, but 24 Jello shots. 

Another generational favorite, the rectangular Season-Serve container, designed to marinate foods before cooking, will quadruple the lifespan of fruits and vegetables if they are store between layers of paper toweling, he said.

Guests filled couches in the Duffys’ living room, upholstered dining room chairs, and a white and granite kitchen crammed with friends and food. 

“Like at the Walnut Street Theatre, I will play to the mezzanine,” he said with a flourish to several women who snagged seats in a hallway overlooking the living room.

“The average American family of four throws away $550 worth of produce each year,” he said, adding that no one wants to eat broccoli that has a beard.

“It’s a gimmick, darling,” Koehler said of his decision about a year ago to add income without changing his lifestyle. It pays better than waiting on tables while working audition into his schedule, he added. 

While hostesses for home shows earn free products, demonstrators like Koehler earn cash and bonuses. He said his writing partner, who also demonstrates Tupperware, recently earned a Mustang convertible from his sales. 

“I’ve been surrounded by drag queens since 1996,” said Koehler, who said working Aunt Cassie Rolle into his demonstration schtick was easy.

She’s a composite of his babysitter when he was growing up and his two grandmothers. 

His original plan, Koehler said, was to use the character of a 1950’s TV mom, like supermom June Cleaver, but “I couldn’t carry that voice for an hour.” He finds his clothing, stuck in the 1970s, in thrift shops and friends’ closets. 

Koehler said he hopes to return to South Jersey in the spring. He needs a promise of 15 to 20 people to put on a house party. 

“Darling, you can’t buy this in stores,” he reminds the women nibbling on hors d’oeuvres in Duffy’s kitchen, dining room, and living room, reminding them to return the catalogs (“I have to pay for them”) after they complete their order sheets. 

Items would be shipped directly to the homes of the customers, he said, “so plan on 10 percent, plus another $4.50 for that cute Fed Ex man,” he said. 

“If you have a catered affair with leftovers, invite the Garden Club to come over,” he suggested. “Just call me a plastic whore,” he said, adding he has another home show set today in Cherry Hill and another in Gloucester before he goes home. 

He said most of his hostesses earn between $200 and $400 worth of products. 

One of the guests at the event, Toni Mansfield of Haddonfield, who said she “cooks for other people,” said she likes the green factor of using Tupperware but was concerned that people might not return the storage pieces. 

“I just love Aunt Cassie. I think it’s great that she’s here in Haddonfield. I saw these things for years and years in the closets of my mother and grandmother,” said Kerry Buchs of Cherry Hill. 

Kathy Kinner of Haddon Township, Jodi Duffy's mother, said she’s used the same Tupperware Jell-o mold since before she met Koehler when he and her daughter both were in sixth grade. “Green goddess salad: lime Jello, pears, and whipped cream,” said Kinner. 

Koehler, who promises, “This is not your Grandma’s Tupperware Party!” can be reached by email at PaddedProductions@yahoo.com, through dragtupperwareparty.com or as Cassie Rolle on Facebook.