Bianca Del Rio— comedian, drag queen, and winner of Season 6 of RuPaul’s Drag Race—graced the stage at the Pageant Theater. Before the show, there was a meet-and-greet for fans and the energy was very high. Bianca walked onstage with heels, full makeup, and one of her own t-shirts and the meet-and-greet crew lit up.
During the pre-show activities, Bianca was friendly, taking time to speak with each person in turn. She was genuinely engaged with each person, and I overheard her calming a few excited fans down, telling them how happy she was to meet them, and making sure they were happy with the picture they got. Later in the show, she brought up details about some of the folks she talked to—sometimes to burn them, sure, but it was nice of her to remember. Bianca has been on tour since November and will continue across the country (and the world) until August of this year.
Those in the audience who knew her from Drag Race enjoyed the jokes at the expense of her fellow contestants. Her humor is very similar to Joan Rivers and Don Rickles, and although I loved 99% of the jokes, that 1% surprised me. Not being a viewer of Drag Race, I am not her usual audience, to be sure, but some of the jokes were met with awkward silence—a pretty good gauge of discomfort. To be fair, Ms. Del Rio had a lengthy disclaimer at the beginning of the show, asking the audience to not take anything she said seriously, that this was a show, and a character, and she was going to make everybody cry—an equal opportunity asshole. She certainly lived up to the disclaimer, and despite that 1%, I laughed until my sides hurt. | Melissa Cynova
