{"id":10363,"date":"2017-06-06T11:55:07","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T15:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/?p=10363"},"modified":"2017-06-14T10:40:14","modified_gmt":"2017-06-14T14:40:14","slug":"twiz-and-tuck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/twiz-and-tuck\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview With Twiz, Co-Star of Viceland Show “Twiz and Tuck”"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s coming up on sunset and Twiz Rimer, 35, and I are facing each other over a giant platter of dollar oysters. Twiz has recently come into the media spotlight as one part of Twiz and Tuck<\/a>,<\/em> a new reality series airing on Viceland. Twiz and Tuck<\/em> follows a bachelor party\/road trip for Tuck Mayo, a trans man known for his roles in pornographic films that Twiz, a gender-variant artist with Tourette\u2019s syndrome, has orchestrated. I interviewed Twiz here about their experience filming and what that means\u00a0for them in terms of gender and disability visibility.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Twiz Rimer (left) and Tuck Mayo (right) | Photo courtesy of Vice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Julie Vick: It\u2019s rare to see a trans character on TV who doesn\u2019t seem inserted for dramatic effect.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Twiz Rimer: Where it\u2019s all talk about surgeries\u2026or some bearded woman.<\/p>\n

J: Or Jared fucking Leto. I really appreciate how the show is kind of like\u2026Jackass<\/em>, but also very intimate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: A bromance.<\/p>\n

J: Yes. So how did the show come about? Is it something you pitched or did someone come to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Basically four years ago I was hired by our director, Elvira Lind, to work on a film, and I ended up being seen by her producers film-bombing in the background with Tuck, and those producers told her she needed to put something together with Tuck and I\u2026”you need to get that guy and that guy to pitch something”\u2026so we put it together and pitched it out. It was my idea to take Tuck on a road trip, but Elvira was the one to say, “Hey let\u2019s film it,” and she pitched it. Originally it was supposed to be a web series for Pulse, but then Vice and Pulse merged\u2026so it never aired on the internet. It got picked up a year later when Vice decided they wanted to make a TV show.<\/p>\n

J: Before this did you ever think you wanted to be on TV?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: I don\u2019t think I ever thought about it as being something that would be able to happen. I\u2019ve never worked in film or TV, and this was supposed to just be a web series. I didn\u2019t know it was going to be on TV. That’s why my ass is all over it. If I\u2019d known it was going to be on national television maybe my ass wouldn\u2019t be all over it! Or my vagina!<\/p>\n

J: The media can be pretty tricky to navigate, especially for members of marginalized communities. Did that concern you at all? Were you worried about how you\u2019d be represented?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: I didn\u2019t really wrap my head around what was going on right away. Tuck and I did discuss what was going to happen, and we were expecting to be hated. We were expecting hate from straight people and gay people alike. And it’s true I\u2019ve seen some pretty messed up comments on social media: everything from \u201cthat dude has the most fucked-up body I\u2019ve ever seen\u201d to \u201cgod hates fags.\u201d<\/p>\n

J: So I guess you really trusted your producer not to make you into a storyline that doesn\u2019t represent who you are?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Elvira was hellbent on making sure that they weren\u2019t going to make us look like shit shows. They can re-edit and make a whole new story out of the footage. They can make you a certain character. Tuck was a little more nervous\u2026<\/em>I wasn\u2019t the one getting married; I didn\u2019t have anyone to protect besides myself and some family members. With Elvira, I 100% trusted her and she told me \u201cyou can work with these guys and you can can trust them,\u201d so I wasn\u2019t scared of that at all. But at the same time if they had done something and tried to make me look like a person I\u2019m not, that would have been fucked up.<\/p>\n

“Tuck and I did discuss what was going to happen, and we were expecting to be hated. We were expecting hate from straight people and gay people alike.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: Yeah, a scary thing about the world we live in right now is how easily a taken out of context thing can probably ruin your life.\u00a0You grew up in Florida?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Stuart, Florida. Its like two hours north of Miami. I went to high school in Jersey and then college in Boston. I moved to San Francisco in June of 2004, and that\u2019s where I met Tuck.<\/p>\n

J: Did your family move to Jersey?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: No I went to boarding school. A lot of kids don\u2019t like boarding school but I did. A lot of kids get sent there because they\u2019re bad or whatever, so there were a lot of weirdos there. There are some funny stories. I could write a whole movie about the shit that went down in my high school. They were not supportive of me being a queer person. Apparently there was a bunch of shit going on, students’ parents threatening to sue the school\u2026<\/p>\n

J: Because of you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Yeah.<\/p>\n

J: So you\u2019ve been out for a long time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Yeah, I told my mom when I was about nine years old. I said, “Mom I love my friends.” And she was like, \u201cI know, honey,\u201d and I was like “no, no, no, mom\u2026I love<\/em> my friends” and she was like, \u2018I know.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

J: She was like, no I get it. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Yeah. I had so many crushes. I liked all the girls at the barn where I had a horse. I liked all the girls on my public summer softball league. I liked all the girls that my twin brother ever dated. Actually, I probably had a crush on them first. It\u2019s so fucked up when you have a twin brother and all the girls you have crushes on are straight and they end up dating him. And you look like him! There\u2019s just one difference. It\u2019s so unfair\u2026.Also I have a short tongue: also unfair.<\/p>\n

\"Twiz
Twiz Rimer | Photo by Ryan Bevans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

J: Wow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: I guess I never really came out<\/em> came out, but I always just thought it was known. I guess my dad didn\u2019t know until I was 18, which is ridiculous.<\/em><\/p>\n

J: That fits into something I know about you, just from knowing you a long time: you don\u2019t seem like the person who needs to declare who they are all the time. That\u2019s really fascinating to me, because I feel like especially in New York and amongst people who\u2019ve dealt with childhood bullying or adversity surrounding our identity, seeing that is rare. You\u2019re very comfortable in your own skin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: A lot of it comes from having Tourette\u2019s syndrome. The more agitated I am \u2014 stressed,\u00a0tense, or bothered, even excited \u2014 makes it hard for me to control my body. So then you add in the bullying, being a gay kid, being eight feet taller than the other kids, and it is a lot. My mom told me when I was about nine years old that I was going to be brutally made fun of. She was like, \u201cYou are going to get your ass ripped up.\u201d And it helped. It saved my life.<\/p>\n

J: That seems like good parenting. This is going to happen and it\u2019s not about you, so fuck \u2018em.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: She didn\u2019t say fuck em, she was like \u201cIt’s up to you with how you want to deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

J: How is your relationship with your family?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: My brothers and I are all really close. I have an older half brother who lives in Poland who I\u2019m not the best at keeping up with. I\u2019d like to be a little more in touch with him.<\/p>\n

J: Has your whole family seen the show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: I don\u2019t know. I think my father\u2019s watching, but my father and I are not very close.<\/p>\n

J: Does your mom like the show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: My mom loves it and wishes it would never end. She wishes it had gotten a little more psychological and a little bit deeper, but there are so many different angles that the show covers. We’re not just trying to show you that we\u2019re just like everybody else, <\/em>you know? That is part <\/em>of it but it\u2019s nice to just be able to be\u2026<\/p>\n

J: Human beings?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Yeah.<\/p>\n

J: Without an asterisk.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: We talk about things, we talk about Tuck\u2019s porn past, his psychological and military issues, about growing up trans\u2026but it\u2019s very personable and relatable. Same with me. I have a disability that I\u2019ve had to deal with that I think has made me stronger. That doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s any less annoying. My favorite part about it so far is stuff I didn\u2019t even think about before we were filming. At first I was just like \u201cYayyy somebody wants to put me on TV!\u201d<\/p>\n

“My mom told me when I was about nine years old that I was going to be brutally made fun of…And it helped. It saved my life.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: Do you get recognized on the street now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Yes, it\u2019s usually cis straight men of color. I think it\u2019s because the show was right before and then right after Desus and Mero<\/em>.<\/p>\n

J: I love them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Yeah. Yesterday this guy in Bushwick was like \u2018Yo bro, you got that show on Viceland?\u201d<\/p>\n

J: Did he like it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Yeah, he said he watches. He was like, \u201cYou guys are funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

J: That\u2019s cool.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Yeah I\u2019ve been getting a lot of cool messages. One kid from the Midwest wrote that they want to transition but they\u2019ve stopped due to bullying because they don\u2019t feel safe. They said that just seeing me has helped them get through their depression. I don\u2019t want to be like I help people <\/em>or whatever\u2026<\/p>\n

J: But this stuff matters!<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: It does. Stuff I didn\u2019t think about at first: my normal is <\/em>trans visibility. I didn\u2019t realize that the entire country apparently needed to see this. I didn\u2019t get it. That\u2019s why Tuck and I were like \u201cwhy do they want to film us?\u201d I think that\u2019s what\u2019s been the most epic realization for me, and I didn\u2019t even realize it the entire\u00a0time.<\/p>\n

\"Twiz
Twiz Rimer | Photo by Ryan Bevans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

J: But maybe that\u2019s what made it so organic, and if you\u2019d been thinking about the whole time it could have felt more message-y.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Right, we would have been going to like every single LGBTQ youth center in the Midwest and asking \u201cWhat\u2019s it like being gay here?\u201d <\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

J: So\u2026let\u2019s talk about gender.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Through my life I\u2019ve never\u2026I mean I struggled the most when I was younger, when I was trying to figure out an identification or words. Then I realized I just don\u2019t care. I\u2019m trying to be me. It started to become really stressful. I was getting a lot of heat, even from the trans community, to transition. But at the same time I get it. I actually have a hard time with they\/them pronouns just because I\u2019ll trip over my words but 100 million percent if you go by them\/them you bet your sweet ass I\u2019m gonna call you they\/them.<\/p>\n

J: I\u2019ve had trans friends since I was a teen, but I never had gender neutral friends until more recently, and it was really shocking how hard using they\/them pronouns was for me at first. Like, I was okay slotting someone into a box, but\u2026I think it\u2019s been really good for me to get over that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: If people want to call me they\/them they\u2019re welcome to: I don\u2019t have a preference. My fiancee calls me she and I like it. I like that sometimes. I also like being called he sometimes. I know what I look like, I get it, and what society teaches us is I look like a man.<\/p>\n

J: You look like Twiz to me.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Well yeah, me too! I\u2019m not on any hormones. I’ve never taken them. I\u2019m not intersex, my hormone levels are normal. This is my genetics. Yes, I did have top surgery years ago, but I had DDs and my clothes didn\u2019t fit right. My life with tits flashed before my eyes and I was like, \u201cYeah, fuck it I don\u2019t need these.\u201d So I got top surgery and I\u2019m happy I did it, but that\u2019s the only alteration I\u2019ve made. It’s\u00a0like when you buy a motorcycle or a car or something and you do a couple little changes to make it yours. I customized my body.<\/p>\n

“…my normal is <\/em>trans visibility. I didn\u2019t realize that the entire country apparently needed to see this. I didn\u2019t get it…I think that\u2019s what\u2019s been the most epic realization for me, and I didn\u2019t even realize it the entire\u00a0time.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: That\u2019s another cool thing about the show, you have two people who aren\u2019t gender-conforming to societal norms, but in very different ways. Because it is a spectrum ::makes rainbow hand gesture::\u2026I\u2019d like for society to ultimately get there.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: That\u2019s never going to happen: it\u2019s just going to be fighting and fighting and fighting until we all die.<\/p>\n

J: Amen, the blessed relief of death.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: My gender, though, I don\u2019t identify. People ask me, \u201cHow do you identify,\u201d and every time I\u2019d get that question in my younger years I\u2019d just feel pressured. Like oh my god I gotta figure this out. So: Gender variant. Genderqueer. Gender nonconforming. Masculine-presenting. Butch. Boyish. Whatever you need to call me. If that\u2019s what\u2019s going to make you feel comfortable then I can feel comfortable, and I can stop twitching and we can all get along. It\u2019s not my <\/em>problem to deal with how you need me to identify. You can identify me and I\u2019ll know who you\u2019re talking about. You cannot offend me by calling me trans, or a girl, or whatever. I\u2019ve had people call me \u2018Elizabeth\u2019 trying to piss me off, trying to get me upset because they\u2019re calling me by my birth name, but it\u2019s a beautiful name. I just go by Twiz because it was easier for me to go into a men\u2019s bathroom without having to worry about someone being like, \u201cHey Elizabeth are you taking a shit in there?\u201d I just want to be able to pee in peace. Having Tourette\u2019s is like living with a passive aggressive, critical roommate who lives inside me. The bully lives inside me, so I can deal with whatever you<\/em> deal me.<\/p>\n

\"Twiz
Twiz Rimer | Photo by Ryan Bevans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

J: What doesn\u2019t the average person know about making a TV show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: It was really cool when I realized why the PAs are there.<\/p>\n

J: Why are the PAs there?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: To get me a Red Bull. And Taco Bell. I didn\u2019t mean to make them run around but before I could even finish saying <\/em>\u201c<\/em>bean and cheese burrito\u201d it would already be in my hand.<\/p>\n

J: They assist <\/em>the production.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Without them nothing<\/em> would happen and I think they need to be paid more. But I also learned I\u2019m pretty natural in front of cameras, maybe because I\u2019m a Leo. Tuck is obviously even more comfortable in front of cameras than I am: naked, and with a strap on.<\/p>\n

J: But nobody ever saw his genitals!<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Yeah that\u2019s his claim to fame.<\/p>\n

J: I think that\u2019s cool.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: I think it\u2019s amazing! What is hard is long days. You\u2019re sitting in a hot tub for eight hours. They’re only going to use twenty seconds of it, but it\u2019s eight hours of freezing cold hot tubbing in December. Getting into it, getting out of it\u2026Our show was a lot of fun, but there are a lot of people involved and they all need to be on time. And nobody is on time. You can\u2019t move forward until everyone <\/em>is there. I\u2019m super on-time; I\u2019m always early. We\u2019d be 30 minutes past call and I\u2019m knocking on producers\u2019 doors. When we were in Vegas? Forget about it. We were in Vegas for 8 days. They asked me to drink the whole time which I thought was hilarious because I had to be the one driving (Tuck doesn\u2019t have a license).<\/p>\n

J: What do you most hope the audience took home with them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Obviously I want people to like me. And the trans visibility and the genderqueer introduction, whatever you want to call it: gender variant, spectrum \u2014 I really want that to spread awareness. Tourette’s awareness is really important to me. Because that is one jillion percent misread in media constantly. It\u2019s made fun of all the time. I\u2019m genuinely excited about Tourette\u2019s visibility, even if it only reached two people, the fact that I have a neurological disorder. Even more than gender shit, the Tourette\u2019s thing was huge for me.<\/p>\n

J: And it shows you have a really full life. That you have friends and lovers and you drive and you\u2019re funny. Things you never see in how the media usually presents Tourette\u2019s.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T: Right, not just some kid shouting \u201cbitch!\u201d and a punchline that he might have Tourette\u2019s\u2026Thanks, Adam Sandler! Thanks Deuce Bigelow, Male Gigolo! Being able to spread trans\/genderqueer visibility on the show has been incredible, more then I could have even imagined. I have received such positive feed back in regards to my existence and how great it is to be myself on TV. I hope that I have also piqued people\u2019s interest towards Tourette’s Disorder (TD). Living with Tourette’s is not an easy life, even if we seem to make it look easy. It is often painful, misunderstood, and cannot be controlled. TD is extremely misrepresented in main stream media\/film and I am always looking for ways to spread awareness because the more people know about TD, the easier it is for us to be accepted in everyday life and society. This means\u00a0a less stressful existence, and let’s be real: less stress equals less twitches. TD is exhausting, it\u2019s impossible to walk outside without people staring at you. Rarely have I ever not been followed by security in stores because they think I\u2019m a tweaker, and if you can believe this, I have even been spit on by people (numerous times) who think I am spreading H1N1 on the subway or coughing on them while waiting in line (it\u2019s easier to travel in packs). I have been refused service, I have had the police try to arrest me, I mean\u2026my gender is is the last thing on my mind\u2026kinda. I’m just trying to live here! It\u2019s impossible not to stand out like a sore thumb\u2026 so with that said I am so stoked that it got to be seen in it true form and all its glory, and I hope that I get to keep spreading awareness.<\/p>\n

Watch the show here<\/a>. Also check out Twiz and Tuck’s Bucket List on Blackpills<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Posture Editorial Credits<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Photography: Ryan Bevans<\/a><\/em>
\n Senior Photo Director: Asher Torres<\/a><\/em>
\n Grooming: Katie Robinson<\/a><\/em>
\n Photo Assistant: Sam McKenna<\/em><\/p>\n

. . .<\/span><\/div>\n

Please support Posture<\/em> by choosing to become a member<\/strong><\/a> for only $45\/year and receive benefits including our 168-page annual print magazine, VIP access to events, personal updates, and more. Please visit shop.posturemag.com<\/a><\/strong> for more information.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s coming up on sunset and Twiz Rimer, 35, and I are facing each other over a giant platter of dollar oysters. Twiz has recently come into the media spotlight as one part of Twiz and Tuck, a new reality series airing on Viceland. Twiz and Tuck follows a bachelor party\/road trip for Tuck Mayo,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":10385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2065],"tags":[1963,177,442,174,82,81,2015,62,352,2120,2123,2119,2121,2122],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-film","tag-gender","tag-genderqueer","tag-identity","tag-lgbt","tag-lgbtq","tag-nonbinary","tag-trans","tag-transgender","tag-tuck-mayo","tag-tv","tag-twiz-rimer","tag-vice","tag-viceland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Twiz-Feature-1.jpg?fit=1981%2C845","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6QBV8-2H9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10363"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10383,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10363\/revisions\/10383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10363"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}