Michael Roccia
Staff Writer
Tasty drinks, fun games and great performances described the drag bingo event at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Ironbark Ciderworks in Claremont. The drag king known as Klitus Black hosted and created the event.
About 20 people who attended the event were excited to drink cider and spend a Saturday afternoon playing bingo and watching drag performers strut their stuff to some classic and catchy songs.
“Drag bingo is a fun experience for everyone,” Black said. “What we do is we play bingo, we get drunk and you get to see some queens, some kings and some things in between.”
Black originally got the idea for the promotion after talking to one of his close friends and mentors who is also a part of the drag community.
“Bingo actually was not my idea, I’ll be honest.” Black said. “A very talented queen from Los Angeles by the name of Tiffany Vogue gave me the idea of drag bingo and took me under her wing and basically kind of taught me soup to nuts on how to run this.”
The event started out with just a normal game of bingo with Black on a microphone entertaining the crowd with his comedic timing as well as giving the numbers to the audience so they could try and win prizes. After the first game of bingo the audience was treated to the first of many drag performances of the day. Throughout the event there was a back and forth between playing bingo and wildly entertaining acts from the drag performers.
When asked exactly why people should come and check out the Drag Bingo shows, Black put it in simple terms.
“Because you’re an idiot if you don’t,” Black said. “There’s something here for everybody. Whether you’re gay, straight, bi… whatever you identify as, there’s something for everybody here because it’s just about having fun and unity amongst people.”
An important message that drag bingo shows and Black wants to convey is that drag is fun and does not hurt anyone. With a lot of misconceptions going around in the news lately, they want to try and clear the air.
“A lot of people are like, ‘Oh drag, that’s weird’,” Black said. “If you’ve dressed up for Halloween, I’d say you’ve participated in drag. No, you’re not Batman. You’re not that superhero. That’s drag. People just need to kind of get over their own insecurities and anybody that talks bad about drag is because they’ve never experienced it.”
Many who attended the event were newcomers and were excited to play bingo and see the show that Klitus Black put on.
Leina Greis, a senior at Pomona College, came to the show because of her friend.
“I haven’t been to one of the drag bingo events before, I have been to trivia a lot though,” Greis said. “My friend brought me today, the show was vibes… the cider was really good… and it felt like a staple of queer culture.”
Many of the people who showed up to the event shared Gries’ feelings.
Annie Elliott, a senior at Harvey Mudd College attended the event after hearing about it on social media and really enjoyed the performances put on by the drag kings and queens.
“I think the drag performances were great and there was a lot of audience interaction, which was really fun,” Elliott said. “My expectations were exceeded, we’re gonna come next month with as many people as we can bring along. They deserve a big audience.”
One of the other drag performers at the event goes by the name of Skunky Sweet, and explained how their interest was originally peaked in drag and what inspired them to give it a try.
“I’ve always done theater growing up in high school and liked to perform,” Sweet said. “Then I think when I was in eleventh grade of high school, I saw Season 7 of ‘Drag Race’ and I knew that this was something I wanted to do.”
She said that the audience is her favorite part of doing shows, and they are what inspire her to keep performing.
“I love doing this because I love the audience,” Sweet said. “I feel like I’m changing people’s lives for the day and just having fun. People end up leaving very happy or inspired to do something.”
The event did not just offer entertainment, but was also a celebration of self-expression and inclusivity.
“It’s really hard to find people that accept people in queer spaces,” Black said. “Everybody has a dream, but what makes dreams happen is followers and people that come out to support. We would love your support, come out to a show and laugh at us so that we can keep events like this going for a long time.”
Michael Roccia can be reached at michael.roccia@laverne.edu.
Michael Roccia is a junior communications major with a concentration is public relations. This is his first semester as a staff writer for the Campus Times.
