HATERS BACK OFF!
I fulfilled a teenage dream of going to a Miranda Sings / Colleen Ballinger Show.
If you don’t know who Miranda Sings is, she is a YouTube character played by Colleen Ballinger with over 10 million followers. Colleen created her many years ago and started a YouTube channel about Miranda and her story. From that channel, Colleen has been able to produce two seasons of the Netflix original show “Haters Back Off!,” a Netflix comedy special, movie features and her own one-woman show.
Since Miranda and Colleen have been on YouTube for so long, I’ve been watching them for many years – ever since I was a teenager. I wanted to see Colleen’s show when she toured when I was a teen (she’s toured several times across the country), but unfortunately I wan’t able to go that time. This time, however, the duo are touring on the “Miranda Sings: Who Wants My Baby?” bus tour, and I was able to go as an adult. (Colleen recently had a baby, who tours with him, and the joke is that it’s Miranda’s baby and she wants to get rid of it.)
I’ve loved and supported Colleen for many years, and I thought that her show went well. It was basically exactly what I was expecting from her.
A little forewarning – the audience was FILLED with kids. Apparently Colleen’s Miranda character has a strong child following, so there were a ton of young girls dressed up as Miranda. I, personally, went to the show to support and see Colleen and not necessarily Miranda.
The show was at the beautiful Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in downtown Houston. Unfortunately, that was a about an hour drive from where I live so I had to commute to downtown right after work. However, I had never been to that theater before and it was absolutely beautiful.
Tickets for the show were between $60-70, if I remember correctly. There was an option for a meet-and-greet and photo with Colleen for an extra $20-30, I think, but by the time I bought my ticket, those VIP tickets were sold out. I had heard from a few other Colleen fans that I met at the show that the meet-and-greet was interesting but short. It was a 15-minute Q/A session followed by about 30 minutes of people getting their photos with Colleen and a *very brief* conversation with her. They said that it was good to pay for the VIP pass just this once, but they wouldn’t do it again.
Now it’s showtime. The show begins with Miranda performing, telling jokes, and getting audience engagement. Her entire skit is about finding someone to be the new “mommy” or “daddy” for her baby. It was really funny and I actually laughed a lot.
Little over halfway through, Colleen changes into herself live on stage from her Miranda character. She sings and tells jokes as herself, which were also really funny and she becomes quite personal. She reads through her childhood/teenage diary and performs opera with pop music (this part is probably one of my favorite parts of the show because it really shows Colleen’s dynamic range in her voice and musical talents).
The show was over in an hour, which I wasn’t expecting. For the price and having been to other shows before, I was kind of expecting it to be at least an hour and a half, but I guess that it makes sense for a one-woman show to only last an hour.
After the show, if fans go to the stage door, Colleen usually goes out and says hi and maybe signs a few of her memorabilia. There were probably only about 30-40 people (a mix of young fans and their parents, and adoring adult fans like me) waiting outside by the stage door and her bus. We waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually we had all been standing out in the chilly autumn night for an hour. It was past 9pm. A few fans had left, but surprisingly, there were still quite a few young kids waiting to meet her and us adults.
Eventually, I was getting really cold and antsy waiting for her to come out.
And then, suddenly, Colleen pops her head out of a bus window. She had been on the bus the entire time we were waiting out there! We had all been waiting for her to exit the theater and walk to the bus, but she must’ve ran out right after the show.
Fans rushed to the door to touch her hand and get pictures with her, but she never left the bus. Never came to meet those of us who had been waiting OVER AN HOUR to see her. I was, unfortunately, towards the back of the pack so I hardly got a look at her nor was she likely able to see me.
Now, I understand that, in no way, is she obligated to greet fans at the stage door. It’s not a thing that we’ve paid for and it’s not a guarantee. It is a courtesy from her, which she’s usually done for years. However, if I’d known that she was just going to peek her head out of the window for a few minutes, I probably wouldn’t have stayed. Also, could she have done it literally an hour before and let all of us go home early, satisfied with her show and having seen her? Yes. I’m quite irritated that I waited an hour outside just for her to peek her head out.
Because of this late-night experience, I’m quite jaded about the rest of the show. The show was great, but my opinion of Colleen has changed. I’m not sure if I support her now as much as I did before I had gone to the show. I’ve supported her for many, many years but my future with her is unknown because of this experience.
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Thank you for reading! Have you ever heard of Miranda Sings or Colleen Ballinger before? Let me know in the comments below and like this post if you want more like it!
Xoxo’s
Emmalee
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Emmalee Mauldin 