Agency Intel: CAA’s Ryan Quint On Selling Shows For The ‘Chronically Online’

CAA Touring Agent Ryan Quint has an interesting roster. Just a difficult one to define.

He’s not a comedy agent per se (though his first job at CAA was as an assistant to Head of Comedy Touring Matt Blake and he represents plenty of stand-ups). And he’s definitely an agent to some of the world’s top drag queens. But he’s not just a drag queen agent, either. And he might just represent your favorite YouTuber or TikToker.

“The joke I tell is that if you are either gay or chronically online, you think my roster is the coolest thing ever,” he says. “If you are neither of those, chances are you may not have heard of anybody.”

Of course, with the success of RuPaul‘‘s Drag Race, the chances of someone in the general population being at least aware of the name of the some of the top drag queens has increased dramatically. Quint’s client Bianca Del Rio — a brassy, Joan Rivers-esque queen — regularly sells out world tours. Sasha Colby has had touring success. Alaska has a major tour announcement forthcoming and is starring in the national touring production of Oh, Mary!. New client Trixie Mattel DJ’d. Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, Osheaga, Lightning in a Bottle and Capitol Hill Block Party this summer.

Drag queens as touring acts is an easy path to follow. They are live performers by nature. Singing (or at least lip syncing), dancing, telling jokes. DJing. This has been part of drag culture for decades.

But digital creators is another thing altogether. Someone could be great — and financially successful — on TikTok or YouTube. They could do great at a meet-and-greet at a convention. But can they sell a hard ticket?

Quint says the toughest nut is convincing a fan to be become a ticketbuyer.

“Not all of these creators can sell tickets, so it’s really about training the fans to know what the show is,” he says. “There’s hard proof of some of these quote-unquote creators or digital acts, non-traditional acts, who can sell massive theaters and larger rooms and there’s some who have tried and failed miserably because the fans like their content online but now they have to pay to see you. They want to be able to get a show out of it that they want to see and also want to come back and see again.”

Take Trisha Paytas, an online figure who has a YouTube channel for nearly two decades and has produced content that’s all over the map. She sold out the Royal Albert Hall in May and founding touring success in theaters and prestige venues including Radio City Music Hall and the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

“She has proven time and time again she can sell tickets and continue to sell tickets and it’s such a social moment,” he says. “You see clips of her performing and singing and every one of her fans is like ‘I have to see that the next time it’s in my city.'”

Similarly, Nurse Blake, who started out as a humorous (but helpful) health influencer on TikTok grossed more than $3.5 million on a 2025 tour and has a 37-date run in 2026 with more planned in 2027.

“It’s about the quality of the show,” Quint says. “Proving to the fans I’m not just a TikToker or a YouTuber. I can perform and put on a fun time and all of your friends want to come and you can experience it together.

“People want the quality and the full experience. With Trisha, yes, she is singing and dancing and has full choreo, but she’s still so authentically herself when she’s interacting with the crowd. Trixie Mattel has an incredible DJ set that has dancers and numbers, but all of her fans who want to her banter and talk still get that.”

As the market has developed for the non-traditional acts, the art and science of tour timing has developed as well, but it’s very much a work in progress.

“Musicians release an album and then tour the new record. With comics, you put your special out and that material is retired and you never do it again, so you go out with new material and use that as a resource to get people to come see you, discover who you are and what you have to offer,” he says. “But these non-traditional acts? Who knows?”

In music and comedy, there’s plenty of tried and true metrics that help artist teams figure out what level venue and what touring rhythm will be successful — X streams on Spotify means Y tickets — but Quint says YouTube subscribers and TikTok followers don’t necessarily map over to tickets.

“You have a following and clearly it’s there, but how is your engagement and what is your content? Does it translate to a live show?” he says. “It’s about learning and setting them up for as much success as possible. Sometimes that comes with a little bit of learning and learning about the fans. We just don’t know what they’re willing to spend sometimes.”

Quint says so many of the digitally native acts are natural performers who are able to develop a live show and want to hit the road. Others, though, who can make plenty of money on a 15-second TikTok to maintain their lifestyle don’t want or need to grind it out for three dozen nights.

But for those that do, it’s the strategy and the goal is broadly the same as any traditional act.

“We always say we want to stay in arenas, not just play an arena,” he says. “Longevity is most important. You never want to out-price yourself and lose your touring business after a year and a half or two years because your fans can’t afford to go.”