Drag queen bingo spices up Sauced BBQ in Petaluma

“Hello! Hello! Hello-o!”

It’s just after 9 p.m. on the second Saturday in August, and Kimba Rosa - tall, red-wigged and stunning in a shiny, opulently-sequined black dress and high-heels - is greeting a full house at Petaluma’s Sauced BBQ and Spirits, where the monthly entertainment extravaganza known as Drag Queen Bingo is about to commence. To a chorus of cheers and whistles, Rose takes her place at the Bingo table, where a classic Bingo cage stands, filled with myriad multi-colored balls.

“Hi! My name is Kimber Rose,” tonight’s hostess begins, “and first things first - does everyone have their bingo boards?”

Dozens of Bingo boards are raised into the air across the restaurant’s bar area, which is filled with patrons ready to participate in what has become a remarkably popular monthly event. Free to play, Drag Queen Bingo is pretty much exactly what it sounds like - bingo games, run by a professional entertainer ... in drag. Prizes tend toward gift certificates to Sauced, or a choice of a free beer or other adult beverages or perhaps one of the eatery’s signature desserts. A show of hands proves that just under half of tonight’s attendees are here for the first time, meaning that over half are repeat customers. The range of ages appears largely to be between mid-20s and early 50s, with one or two tables boasting exuberant senior citizens, all ready to start playing Bingo - and to have a bit of unpredictable, slightly raunchy fun.

“Ready to play?” Rose asks the crowd? “If you’re ready, everyone say ‘Bingo!’?”

“BINGO!” shouts the assembly of partiers with a volume sure to turn the heads of people passing by on the sidewalk outside.

“Wow! You guys have so much energy!” says Rose, flashing an enormous smile, while posing for the first of many photos taken by a parade of phone-camera-photographers. “Your enthusiasm excites me so much,” she continues, “because energy plus energy equals more energy. That’s mathematical. It’s been proven in laboratories. And that’s as scientific as I’m going to get tonight.”

And with all the introductory pleasantries now concluded, it’s time for the games to begin.

“Let’s play Bingo!”

Drag Queen Bingo has been taking place at Sauced, on the second Saturday of the month, for almost two years. It regularly attracts audiences of upwards of 50 people or more, taking place after normal dinner hours. Sauced now offers Drag Queen Bingo at all four of its locations in the Bay Area.

“It’s one of our most popular events,” says Kristina Wullf, Director of Brand Development for Sauced BBQ & Spirits, which is headquartered in Walnut Creek. “We’ve been doing Drag Queen Bingo for a couple of years, and though we do now offer it once a month at all of our locations, the first location we tried it out in was Petaluma. Petaluma was our way of dipping our toes in the pool, to see if it would fly. And given how well it was received from the very beginning, we knew this was something that met a need, somehow. People want something they can’t get anywhere else in the North Bay. It’s just so fun and different.”

Though not technically original to Sonoma County - The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have been running Drag Queen Bingo parties in Guerneville and elsewhere for years - it’s safe to say that Petaluma has never seen anything quite like it.

“I can’t make my balls fall,” says Rose, slowly spinning the tumbler filled with number-marked Bingo balls. “Oh wait, there’s one. Can I get another? I can’t get another ball to drop. Oh well, you really only need one ball to play, right? Well … one ball at a time, anyway.”

Gags like those are about to become the norm of the evening. If there’s a joke that can be made about a number, a letter, or a bingo ball, Rose makes it. Some are hilarious, some are a little on the lame side, some are silly, some are X-rated, and some are delightfully weird. But every new one-liner is greeted by the roomful of players with cheers, laughter and blissful good spirits.

Once the first of half-a-dozen games has gotten fully under way, with Rose calling out the numbers with a sense of glee usually found only at sports events, she spins the tumbler and produces a blue ball - more jokes - with the number B-12.

“B-12, that’s a good shot to take,” she purrs. “It’s very good for you. It comes from pineapples or something.”

A minute later, she calls out another.

“72-O. Wait, I meant O-72! I’m not dyslexic, or anything. I just went to public school so I can’t really read.”

For the next 90 minutes, all through a series of different Bingo games - classic Bingo, X Marks the Spot, Last Man Standing, and Blackout - a playlist of pop tunes blares from a set of portable speakers. Rose occasionally sings along, shows off a few dance moves, or runs her patented goofball commentary.

“This is my favorite song,” she points out, after performing a chorus of The Spice Girls’ “Wannabe.” “I was in that band once, till they kicked me out. No … only kidding! I actually quit. I said, ‘You keep your fame and fortune, you Spice Girls. I’m gonna go play Bingo in Petaluma!’”

“BINGO!” a voice calls out.

“Bingo? Come on down, Bingo winner!” exclaims Rose. “As our first winner, you get to choose between a beer and some deep fried Oreos.”

The winner chooses a beer.

And so it goes. Whenever there are the inevitable ties, the standoff is settled with an impromptu competition of twerking or lip-synching. And, of course, more jokes. After the last ball has dropped and the last winners have claimed their prizes, Rose closes the show with a few final ribald comments, and an offer to pose for more pictures with anyone who’d like to take a selfie with her.

“Come take a selfie with a Drag Queen,” Rose flirts, flashing her infectious smile at the room. “I’m serious people. I did not spend two hours making myself look this fabulous to NOT take a whole lot of selfies with y’all. Don’t be intimidated by my beauty. Let me share it with you. It’s a tough world out there, I know. But there’s plenty of beauty to go around.”