Internet star Trisha Paytas straddles sincerity & satire in KC show: ‘Iconic’
Notorious internet attention-seeker Trisha Paytas brought her online empire to life in Kansas City on Thursday.
“You know we’re not Beyonce or Taylor Swift, but we’re trying,” she said.
A controversial YouTube personality for almost 20 years, Paytas is known for her extreme eating mukbang videos, so-bad-they’re-good music videos and viral podcast episodes. At her sold-out show in KC, 1,600 of her fans, known as “fishies,” packed into the Uptown Theater.
Flanked by four dancers, Paytas performed original music and covers with her music videos playing in the background. She interspersed the songs with conversations with the crowd and montages of her YouTube videos dating back to 2007.
During the karaoke section of the concert, Paytas sang a capella renditions of fan-requested songs, like Britney Spears’ “Me Against the Music,” and Taylor Swift’s “Mean.”
Paytas was in Kansas City at the end of her 35-performance Eras of Trish tour, which started in February and traveled through the U.S. and Canada.
With costumes and merch, the show riffs off of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour as Paytas performs original music and covers from her decades-long career in the public eye. Onstage, Paytas called herself “a knock-off of Taylor Swift.”
Paytas said she’s “a pregnant pop star tonight.” She danced, jumped and leaned over to take photos with fans — all while set to give birth to her third child in July.
“Getting up these days is the talent on this stage, OK,” Paytas said.
An internet inspiration
Aryn Leavell and Danica Patrick were first in line on the Midtown sidewalks to see Paytas in Kansas City. The pair braved the city highways to drive from Fort Scott, Kansas, because they like “how she just stays true to herself.”
Paytas repeatedly went viral for recording her personal breakdowns on her kitchen floor, videos that stood out to Leavell and Patrick. “She always said the realist stuff when she was crying,” Leavell said.
“Honestly I relate to that,” Patrick added.
At one point in the show, a video montage played showing Paytas crying on the floor of her kitchen interspersed with music videos of her emo drag king persona, Sadboy2005.
“I mean, luckily, I monetized it, so I got a little bit of a reward from it,” Paytas said.
She encouraged fans to seek mental health support, “whether it’s therapy, praying, meditation, watching my videos.”
“I didn’t know this whole time that I didn’t need kids to be a mom, because I was mothering long before all of that,” Paytas said on stage.
The fans
Waiting in line to enter the Uptown, Gracie Carver said she has been following Paytas since middle school, over half of her life. Now 24, Carver sang an impromptu verse of High School Musical 2’s “Bet on It,” which Paytas recorded a shot-by-shot remake of in 2019.
Darla Rodgers, Carver’s cousin, also quoted Paytas’ cover of the “Shallow” duet from “A Star is Born” while waiting to see the internet personality.
“It’s man only when the hat’s on,” said Rodgers, who wore a replica of the outfit Paytas wore in the video.
Paytas is known for giving her children ostentatious names, and the friends speculated on names for Paytas’ upcoming son: Atlantis or Twilight.
Carver, like most of the audience, was part of Gen Z. But Miranda Haley is one of Paytas’ millennial fans. The Topeka resident said 37-year-old Paytas reminds her that “life doesn’t end at 35.”
Haley said that she rewatches the now-defunct “Frenemies” podcast, calling the internet star at the time, “Hilarious, chaotic and just like so iconic.”
Missouri shows
Paytas’ show included her signature stunts that walk the line between sincerity and satire.
When a fan threw a Massachusetts Institute of Technology baseball hat onto the stage, Paytas quipped, “What’s MIT?”
Paytas said this was her first time visiting Kansas City, though she visited Branson many times while growing up in Illinois.
“I wanted to play Branson, but they’re like, ‘the demographic there is like 60 year olds,’” Paytas said.
She was not impressed with the celebrities that fans shouted out were from Kansas City, including Jason Sudekis and Eric Stonestreet.
“You guys make up for the lack of celebrities. You all are enough celebrity for me.”
While the crowd recommended Joe’s for barbecue, on Thursday Paytas tried Kansas City’s chain food offerings — her Instagram stories featured takeout from PF Chang’s and Sarpino’s Pizza.
After the Eras
Sheltering from the rain after the show, Gracie Carver in the High School Musical outfit was ecstatic.
“She’s truly like an angel on Earth. I’m obsessed with her. My mother raised me, she raised me, mother,” Carver said.
Paytas shouted out the cousins’ cosplay outfits from the stage, a highlight for Carver and Rodgers.
“I cried five times,” Rodgers said.
