The Philippines holds a special place in the heart of drag queen and comedian Bianca del Rio.
Bianca has performed in the country twice, first in 2019 for her show “It’s Jester Time”, and again in 2022 for the Manila leg of her comedy tour “Unsanitized”.
Both times, she was pleasantly surprised by the Filipino audience’s enthusiastic reaction to her performances.
“They’re wild, they’re passionate, they’re electric,” Bianca said of Filipinos in an online interview with Interaksyon and other members of the press recently.
“You got to remember, I’m friends with Jiggly Caliente and Manila Luzon, and they’re not interesting at all,” she joked, referring to two Filipino drag queens.
“So I’m grateful that the audiences have proven them wrong and shown how passion and fun they can be. It’s just amazing energy that I get when I‘m there.”
Bianca is set to perform in the Philippines again as she brings her latest comedy tour “Dead Inside” to Manila at the New Frontier Theater on Jan. 17, 2025.
And for the third performance in Manila, Bianca hopes to interact with the same wild and enthusiastic crowd she experienced in her previous shows.
“The fact that I, as an American, can go over there and there’s an audience that’s interested to hear what I have to say, it’s pretty amazing,” she said.
‘Find the humor in everything’
“Dead Inside”—which has been touring worldwide since January 2024 with over 60 stops—features fresh material from Bianca that, as the press release for the show describes, is “guaranteed to push boundaries and keep you laughing all night.”
It also a demonstration of the drag artist’s iconic comedic styling —a mix of quick wit, biting insults, and razor-sharp humor tied together with her unique theatrical charm—that helped her win the sixth season of the popular reality competition show “RuPaul’s Drag Race”. She is best known by fans of the show for her jabs to fellow “RuPaul’s Drag Race” queens.
Asked why the title of her show is “Dead Inside,” Bianca quipped: “Have you seen me, Chuck? I’m dead on the outside, so I’m addressing the dead inside. I think it’s just where I am in life.”
“I always say expect the unexpected,” Bianca said, explaining what her Manila audience should expect from the show.
Would Bianca’s biting humor change given the shifts happening in the world? The drag queen was on tour when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States last month. Is she concerned about the state of drag as an art form and the impact of political shifts on comedy in the US?
“You somehow have to laugh at all of it, even when the worst things are happening. I mean, this election in America, I had to take a minute to just go, this is it. This is what we get,” she said.
Bianca further explained: “There’s lots of stupid people in the world, but it is what it is. You have to laugh. It’s unfortunate. It’s not what I was expecting. But somehow you have to find the fun in it, you know? And I do that with everything, from something
happening in my day to a death in the family. You’ve got to find the good in it. You’ve got to laugh. You have to find the humor in everything.”
No crazier than before
She is not worried about the state of comedy despite these changes because, Bianca said, “I think everything is always happening in the world… I don’t think that it’s any
crazier than it was back then.”
With that, Bianca knows that not everyone will like her humor.
“When you’re doing comedy, there’s going to be a 50% chance that someone likes it, and another 50% that won’t like it.”
“But that doesn’t mean you stop doing it.”
In the end, Bianca is happy audiences still support her comedy—10 years after she won “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and even after “9,500 franchises” of the show have aired since.
Bianca believes that she has “gotten even funnier” through the years because “getting old is a joke.”
“I never thought I’d be doing this as long as I’ve been doing it,” the 49-year-old drag
comedian said.
“It is a process, getting older. It does get a little harder each time. Travel and putting on heels at my age, putting my teeth back in my mouth, all of that is quite the challenge now, so I do have to find the humor in it.”
“But it is still rewarding to be with the audience. It just takes a little more work to get me to the audience,” she quipped.
Tickets for Bianca’s “Dead Inside” show in Manila are now available for purchase at TicketNet.