SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Dec. 20, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — If you need a nice little extra gift to slip into someone’s Christmas stocking, you might want to scoop up tickets to legendary drag queen Bianca Del Rio’s tour stop in Salt Lake City next year.
Del Rio brings her “Dead Inside” tour to the Eccles Theater on April 30; tickets are available here. As she writes on her website: “I’m coming out of my crypt and hitting the road again to remind everyone that I’m still DEAD INSIDE! If you enjoy irreverent humor, like sparkly costumes, and are NOT easily offended… this is the show for you!”
Dubbed “The Joan Rivers of the Drag World” by The New York Times, Del Rio is a dimple-cheeked, larger-than-life drag queen and outrageous comic who isn’t afraid to shock and offend, her bio says. Fierce, funny, and fabulous, she has cemented her place in the pop culture Hall of Fame since appearing on the Emmy-Award-winning “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Thanks to her snarky frankness, impeccable timing, and politically incorrect humor, Del Rio won the show’s sixth season as a fan favorite in 2014. She has since been named one of New York Magazine’s “Most Powerful Drag Queens,” in which they described her as “the queen of all Drag Race queens” due to her dynamic career of comedy, hosting, and successful global tours.
Del Rio’s fifth worldwide comedy tour, “Unsanitized,” wrapped in 2022, playing to sold out audiences in 27 countries. She made history in 2019 on her “It’s Jester Joke” tour by being the first drag queen to headline Carnegie Hall in New York City and Wembley Arena in London, selling out both venues. She’s also a veteran theater actor; she made her West End debut in the hit musical “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,” in 2019, then went on to tour with that show in the U.K. and joined the U.S. cast when the show opened in Los Angeles. She also appeared in the film version of the show.
Among her most notable film accomplishments are her starring roles in the feature films “Hurricane Bianca” in 2016, and “Hurricane Bianca 2: From Russia with Hate” in 2018, the Vimeo original comedy special “Rolodex of Hate,” and the Logo original television specials “Not Today Bianca.” She also had a recurring role as a judge on Hulu’s “Drag Me to Dinner,” where teams of celebrity drag queens competed to see who could throw the most fabulous dinner party. In addition, Del Rio served as host of “The Pit Stop,” the online recap show for “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” where she and a guest discussed the show’s latest episodes after each aired. She has also taken her trademark wit and sharp commentary to the page in her book “Blame It On Bianca Del Rio: The Expert on Nothing with an Opinion on Everything.” Heck, she’s even created her own make-up remover, that’s all-natural and vegan friendly.
Del Rio, who is based in Palm Springs, California, greets me very warmly over the phone by saying: “Well you have a very festive accent for someone in Salt Lake City!” Because this writer is English, I asked Del Rio right off the bat about her successful West End run.
“Honey. It was lovely. I mean, it was in between many years of touring,” Del Rio explained. “So it was a lovely moment. Yes, well, they definitely love to drink there. So I had quite the share of alcoholic beverages while I was there. I mean, you just walk out in the street; stumble into a pub; stumble back to the hotel. A lovely life for me.”
We also asked Del Rio about getting her start in costume design and how that ignited her passion for drag. Del Rio, who was born Roy R. Haylock in Gretna, Louisiana, first started acting and designing costumes in high school, then worked as a costume designer. In 1993, he won a Big Easy Entertainment Award for Best Costume Design for “Snow Queen” at the age of 17. He has been nominated for 13 Big Easy Entertainment Awards for costume design, winning six. He also made costumes for New Orleans Opera. Haylock, who is of Cuban descent on his mother’s side and Honduran descent on his father’s side, moved to New York City after Hurricane Katrina and worked as a costumer for shows, ballet and opera. He began doing drag in 1996 when he appeared in the play “Pageant” in New Orleans.
“Well, I think it [costuming] became useful for drag in particular because I could do costumes, makeup and wigs and I think it was maybe that… fantasy aspect is the word to use, you know?” Del Rio said. “Creating something from words and making magic. In New Orleans, I did a lot of designing, and in my years in New York I did a lot of costume building. So I kind of had always had that side of my life there and I still do it ’til this day for my own self. So it’s just kind of part of the process for me. So it was the beginning, I think, of the drag career, by creating you know, amazing things out of nothing; it helped me out tremendously over the years.”
We also asked Del Rio, because she has done a lot of film, stage and stand-up, whether one of those formats is naturally easier than the others for her.
“I think it’s just about timing,” she said. “You know, it depends on where I was in my life. I have no regrets from all the things that I’ve done. But truly it’s just been this this kind of like, open world. ‘Let me try this, let me try that;’ I didn’t plan to be an actor. I didn’t plan to do theater; I didn’t plan to do costumes; I didn’t plan to do stand-up; but I must say that, for me the most rewarding; not necessarily the easiest, but the most comfortable and rewarding for me is stand-up; mainly because it’s a live audience. It’s probably the thing I’ve done the longest. I think even in the early years when I didn’t know I was doing stand-up; I think it was stand-up. Entertaining crowds, you know, in a bar, in drag. I was usually called a drag queen before a comedian. And that’s when it kind of evolved in my later years; I think I probably was around 30 when it shifted, because my career kind of started by basically hosting shows, and whether it’s hosting bingo or hosting a drag show in a bar for drunk people in the middle of the night on Wednesday; let’s say they’re not your most captive audience.”
She added: “So, that’s where I think the madness kind of began for me. So; I don’t know if comedy is the easiest for me, but it’s definitely the most comfortable and relaxing for me and it’s instant gratification. You walk on stage, you start communicating with an audience, you get an instant laugh. You know where you are with them. You know if it’s going great, you know if it’s going bad, you know, you’re riding the roller coaster. Whereas with film you know, there’s 10 different ways to do it. Depending on the director; depending on the time, and you have to wait months and months and months to see it; you have no say in the final edit. I’ve had those moments when I’m watching stuff. If I’ve had to watch it, because I don’t like to watch myself, but if I’m forced to, and I often think: ‘well that can’t be the best take; I must have done it better.’ Or: ‘oh god why that close-up?’ So I much prefer being on stage because you know immediately when it’s hitting and when it’s not. So that’s my comfortable place.”
We asked if being in a West End show doing eight shows per week is a challenge in itself.
“Well, and also keeping my f—ing mouth shut,” Del Rio laughed. “That’s the hardest part; I’ve got to stick to the script! It’s not often that I get that. You know, with my own shows, there is a script, obviously, a loose script, so you’re kind of guided as you go. But with theater, you’re working with an amazing group of people; that, in my world [in ‘Everybody Loves Jamie’]; I mean, there were so many of them, there were over 20 of them that were on the ball; knew it upward, downward, every way. I’m coming into the show after the show had opened on the West End. So it was difficult because you’re like: ‘I hope I’m doing everything right. I hope I’m giving them what they need, and not trying to ruin their momentum,’ because, you know, it’s fish out of water kind of a scenario. But then once you get into the groove of it, it was wonderful to be in one dressing room. As I said, it’s great to create a family with everyone and when you’re doing eight shows a week, that’s quite a bit.”
We also asked Del Rio about the “Dead Inside” tour; I mentioned to her that it seems as if she’s doing a lot of dates, with 60 shows between February and May.
“Are you kidding me? That’s nothing,” she said. “That’s the first leg of the tour. So the tour that I did a year over a year ago, more than a year ago because I started in America, but it was 129 shows in 27 countries and the United States, so I get around. I get around. So this is just the first leg of this tour, which is quite exciting, to start out again in America. Good timing to get back on the road after the holidays are done; we’ve got lots of shit to talk about; our world is a mess. And if we can’t find a solution, at least we can get together and laugh for a hot minute.”
We asked Del Rio if there will be a second half of the tour in the latter months of 2024.
“The second and third… I’ll be going into 2025,” she said. “You know, I mean for me, I thrive on the road. It’s my favorite thing to do. And once you get the momentum of it, it just seems to run fabulously. You know, I get in my little tour bus and we schlep all across the globe, well, all across America and Canada. And of course obviously, when I go to other countries and stuff depending on where I am. In the U.K. I can travel by bus; in Australia, obviously not because I’m not doing ‘Priscilla Queen of the Desert,’ I do have to fly around there. Which can be taxing when you’re a drag queen because you do have to travel with so much stuff. The best thing about traveling by bus in America, my own little tour bus, is that we can hit more cities in a a faster amount of time without the madness of an airport. That’s a win, win, win for me and it’s only because it’s been trial and error. I mean, this is my sixth world tour that I’ve done, since ‘Drag Race,’ which has now been about 10 years.”
We also asked Del Rio if she finds it easy to pace herself and not get burned out on the road.
“Oh god, yeah, there was a time, I must be honest with you, there was a time, when drinking and carrying on and seeing friends and staying out all night was part of the game; not so much any more,” she said. “At my advanced age I’ve come to realize that the hangovers, and the next day, is not the fun part. So I’ve kind of learned to kind of cut back on all of that. It is a machine. I mean, the great thing is getting to travel and see everyone. The worst part is everyone’s saying: ‘hey, let’s go to dinner and have a good time,’ and you’re like: ‘there’s just not enough hours in the day.’ And you’re also throwing in the drag aspects; you know you have to get ready, you gotta unpack, you gotta comb your wigs, so, you know, the maintenance alone on this old rodeo clown. I often tell people; there’s nothing glamorous about touring, except when you’re on stage.”
We asked Del Rio if her tour bus is fancy.
“You know, we’ve had many different variations,” she said. “I don’t own it personally. We get a new tour bus each tour, and I’m looking forward to this one. They have sent options for me to look at. But I’m not too fancy. The best part about it is I get my own room on the
bus. That’s amazing. You can hide out from everyone else and also they kind of keep me caged. They’re sick of hearing me talk.”
Finally, we asked her what her Christmas plans are.
“I live this life; I think it’s just the best way to deal with it; when I’m on the road, days don’t matter,” she said. “You don’t know what day it is; it could be Monday; Tuesday. Holidays are insignificant. Nothing matters anymore. And when I’m home, because my life is so scheduled on the road; I don’t like a schedule when I’m home. It’s kind of like open ended; I have many invitations from friends that are near or far, because I live in Palm Springs, California now. Now, like, do you want to come to LA? Do you want to go to Palm Springs? Do you want to go down the road and see these people? So I have a list of options and I always always tell everyone that I will decide the day of; ‘cos you don’t want to plan, you don’t want to spend the whole day like: ‘oh my god, I’ve gotta go over there.’ So I just wait ’til that day and see how I feel. And if not; it’s a great day to order takeout and watch Netflix. Now it’s coming up, I’m probably going to take it easy to be honest. There’s just so much to do between now and then. The shoes; and everything to sort and pack; that’s quite the process. So it’s pretty low key as of right now. I’ve had Christmas parties and stuff in the past but that’s the whole production within itself. So yeah, this year I’m gonna take it pretty easy.”
For more about Del Rio and for tickets to all shows, click here.
