Jenny Peek
“I’m here to make people feel welcome and open their minds a little bit.” —Bianca Lynn Breeze (aka Brandon Rounds).
Wearing a floor-length mint green gown and her Miss Club Wisconsin crown, Bianca Lynn Breeze exits her dressing room and makes a grand entrance into The Wise. Every open seat — including overflow seating in the lobby — is claimed, and more people flank the walls.
Like any good diva, Breeze makes her way from table to table. More than 150 people are at HotelRED for Drag Queen Bingo, the last bingo night in a four-month series. Breeze, a drag queen who currently holds the title of Miss Club Wisconsin and Miss Gay Madison, is calling the numbers.
After connecting with everyone in the crowded bar, Bianca takes her position at the head table, cranking the bright red bingo cage, to reveal the first three numbers of the game: “I-28 …I-35 … G-46.”
The crowd — an assortment of young couples, coworkers and middle-aged women — jumps to attention. As each number is called, the players meticulously mark corresponding round spots with a marker.
As Breeze puts it, Drag Queen Bingo is “BYOD” or “Bring Your Own Dauber,” a special ink pen used in bingo. But for those who forget, Breeze has extras to share.
In her day job, Bianca Lynn Breeze is the hotel’s sales and events manager, Brandon Rounds.
Earlier in the evening, Rounds transformed into Brianca by donning fake lashes, fake nails, a blonde wig and perfectly applied makeup, straight out of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
It’s easy to see why interest in the event has continued to grow.
“The first one in the series we had about, I counted 99 people, the second one we had about 120, and then last month we had like 140 people here,” Rounds says. “So, this time we were like we need to have more space, so we put round tables up in the lobby.”
The growing number of attendees is encouraging, not just because Rounds and the promotions coordinator at HotelRED wanted to “get people in the door.” For Rounds, it’s also a great example of Madison’s open and welcoming spirit and a way to introduce people to something they may never have experienced.
“I’m here to make people feel welcome and open their minds a little bit, because a lot of times people don’t feel comfortable going to a gay club to see drag queens, so it’s really cool for people to come out here and experience that,” he says.
Drag Queen Bingo draws a diverse demographic, Rounds says. But without fail, there’s always a contingent of women in their 40s and 50s.
“It’s really cool for me to see all these older women who really do love bingo, bring all of their friends and just have a good time,” he says.
While Drag Queen Bingo goes by the same rules as regular old bingo, Rounds uses one word to describe the difference: sassy.
“I’m not afraid to kind of make fun of people if they make a mistake by yelling bingo,” Rounds says. “People come because of the entertainment factor, they don’t come for me to just sit there and call bingo balls.”
It’s one of the reasons she’s incorporated coined responses to certain balls as they get called. After one or two tries, she expects a reply.
When she draws B-11, everybody shouts “B-11, B - B-11” similar to the classic “Be Aggressive” cheer chant. If I-22 gets drawn, the players yell “Quack, Quack,” because when you look at the ball Breeze says, “it looks like two ducks swimming!” On the chance she draws B-9, as in “Benign,” the crowd sighs in relief, saying, “Thank God.” Then there are the more obvious draws.
“O-69 … everyone loves that one, because everyone just…you know,” Rounds says, laughing.
And sure enough, when she pulls the O-69 ball tonight, Breeze cues the crowd, raising her arms to conduct them in a raucous chorus of “Ooooooh, 69!”
“That’s music to my ears,” Bianca coos.
May 10, 2018: The last chance to take part in The Wise’s Drag Queen Bingo for a special Craft Beer Week event.
10: The number of bingo games Bianca leads in an evening.
Dauber: A special type of pen used specifically to mark paper bingo cards.
1929: The year modern bingo was invented.
75: The number of bingo call cards in a given game.
