Bianca Del Rio, winner of “Ru Paul’s Drag Race,” Season Six, and crowned “America’s Next Drag Superstar,” in May 2014, returned to Cherry’s on the Bay for one night only, on July 1, playing to a packed house. Tom Branigan was the DJ.
Bianca of course talked about “Ru Paul’s Drag Race,” “the television show that changes your life,” because you get to play “London, Paris—Akron, Ohio.” Her stage show is titled “Rolodex of Hate”—and here she explained to the sweet young things in the audience what a rolodex and a telephone booth were—and in it, “I get to be hateful to people in other countries.” On being about to perform in Asia, she wondered, “Do they think I’m Hello Kitty—or do they feel threatened and think I’m Godzilla?”
“It is a joy to be back on Fire Island,” Bianca said, noting that Cherry’s owners Jacqué and Donna “gave me dinner, they bought me drinks, they got me a room at the Ice Palace,” i.e. the Grove Hotel, which burned down. When she first performed at Cherry’s, they immediately tripled her salary and “Jacqué bought me my teeth.” Her comment on the controversy in the Pines—“The Pines is a show itself”—was that she was relieved that she wasn’t mentioned in articles about Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass having hosted Ted Cruz, claiming that she was the one who cooked that dinner!
Bianca dished Bella, claiming that Bella fucked Abraham Lincoln—“His dick was the size of his hat”—and Danny Logan, the erstwhile Dallas Dubois—“You look beautiful, Caitlin. Your transition is wonderful!” On Ru Paul cleaning shrimp from her nails, Bianca said, “She cleaned Top of the Bay” in order to buy those shrimp!
Bianca spoke at length of New Orleans, where she’s from—“New Orleans is a party town”—and its reputation as a place where people fuck in the streets—she recommends the alleys instead, saying, “Always fuck next to a dumpster—so if it smells bad, you can blame the dumpster.” Bianca’s mother practiced Santeria and, at age 11, Bianca stole one of the red brocade table cloths her mother used in the ceremonies and made it into a dress—which her mother found! Bianca became an altar boy in the Catholic Church at 15—“That’s the fiercest fucking drag show you’ll ever do”—and had to sue the church because “Nobody fucked me!” She started going to clubs in drag and, after some weird experiences, realized, “Drugs were not for me.” She also cited a lesbian fan in New Orleans who sent her a catheter “for long flights.”
An airline lost Bianca’s luggage, containing all her drag, when she went to Wisconsin to do a show. She made do with supplies from Home Depot “and no-one knew the difference.” She did Joan Rivers’ show “In Bed with Joan”—they hit it off immediately, “cackling and talking shit about everybody.” She expressed dismay that the Kardashians are still alive, while Joan has left us and demanded, “Take the Kardashians and give us back Joan!”
It was good to have Bianca back, even if only for an hour.