They’re funny. They’re naughty. And they’re fierce.
They’re Southwest Florida drag queens, and they’re bringing laughs, dirty jokes and cash prizes to local bars and restaurants every week for drag queen bingo games.
Here are five of Southwest Florida's most active drag queens and where they do bingo:
LISA RENEE
Real name: Shawn DeSear
Home: Naples
How he got started: DeSear got into drag about 13-14 years ago. “I’m obviously gay,” he says, “and I grew up going to clubs and I would see drag shows and it sparked my interest.”
He eventually entered some small talent shows in gay clubs, and that led to what he does now. “You know, all it takes is someone to tell you you’re pretty as a drag queen, and then it’s all over,” he says and laughs. “You can do everything. That’s kind of how it starts.”
More about the character: “I like to be glamorous,” DeSear says. “I like big jewelry, big hair. Lots of sparkly stuff. … I’m a dancing drag queen, so I dance a lot.”
Lisa Renee mostly wears clothes hand-made by local drag queen Alyssa LeMay. But her elaborate wigs are custom-made in Las Vegas. “They’re very expensive,” DeSear says.
How her show is different: DeSear took over as show director for the long-running Bitchy Bingo at Bambusa Bar & Grille about two years ago. There’s no singing or lip-synching, unlike many other drag shows. Instead, they focus more on the comedy.
Why he’s a drag queen: “Growing up, I always wanted to be onstage somewhere,” he says. “And I couldn’t sing … so I had to find something else.
“It was kind of like my little five minutes of fame. And it became addicting to me.”
Where she performs: Bambusa Bar & Grille in Naples
Learn more:facebook.com/lisa.renee.7186
NICK D’CUPLE
Real name: Dominique Sierra
Home: Cape Coral
How his show is different: Nick D'Cuple is one of the few drag kings in Southwest Florida — a woman playing a man. The costume usually includes glue-on facial hair and pants with a sock in the crotch.
Sierra and partner Lori Minor started doing drag king shows about a year ago. “We noticed everywhere they’re doing drag bingo, so we thought why not mix it up,” Sierra says. “Drag kings are definitely a diamond in the rough… When you see it, it’s shiny and new and different. It’s very unique.”
Sierra says she’s one of only five drag kings in Lee County. She performs with a rotating cast of drag queens for her Drag King and Queen Bingo events.
His act: “I look up ideas online, whether it’s a cowboy or a rapper or a gentleman in a suit and tie,” Sierra says. “I play different personas. It depends on my mood. … He’s confident, definitely confident.”
In between games, she usually lip-syncs to everything from Frank Sinatra to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Where he performs: Victory Lane Café in North Fort Myers, Rockade in Cape Coral
Learn More: facebook.com/allheartentertainment1
ALYSSA LeMAY
Real name: Andy Spaulding
Home: Fort Myers
How he got into drag: Spaulding got started about 11 years ago at a gay nightclub in Ohio, and later learned how to do drag queen bingo by watching local duo Bootsey-Licious and filling on for them at former gay nightclub The Bottom Line.
More about the character: “I’m just a clown in a gown,” he says. “It’s a larger-than-life persona.”
How her show is different: Spaulding makes most of his own costumes, and he also makes them for many other local drag queens. He actually sings during his between-game performances, whereas most other local drag queens either lip-syncor don’t do music at all. He’ll perform 70s and 80s songs, for example, and sometimes even “Baby Shark.”
Where she performs: The Standard Restaurant and Dowd’s Pub & Grill in Fort Myers,Nauti Parrot Dock Bar on Fort Myers Beach
Learn More: facebook.com/missalyssalemay
BOOTSEY CLOVERDALE AND LADY LICIOUS (AKA BOOTSEY-LICIOUS)
Real names: Tim Kratts and Billy Rollins (Bootsey and Lady Licious, respectively)
Home: Punta Gorda
More about their characters: Rollins says he wanted Lady Licious to have a sleeker, sexier look with a short skirt to show off his well-defined legs. “Everybody was always commenting on them,” he says, “and I was like, ‘Well, OK, I definitely have to be a LEGGY girl.”
As for his big blonde hair, Rollins got that idea from his mom. “My mother always had that big brown bouffant hair,” he says. “Except I’m blonde, and she was brunette.”
Bootsey, meanwhile, isn’t quite as sleek and polished. “Bootsey is very refined, but she’s trash at the same time,” Kratts says. “She’s both sides. She thinks she’s a society dame, but she’s never quite good enough. But she tries desperately.”
How Bootsey got her name: It’s hard to find size 17 woman’s shoes, Kratts explains. So he started out wearing big, obnoxious white plumber’s boots that he decorated with gemstones. “I’d always be in these big white boots,” he says. “People gave me my name, Bootsey. They were like, ‘Hey, Bootsey!'”
Now he goes the easy route: He wears Versace slippers.
How their show is different: They focus on the comedyand have developed a full theatrical show with a lot of ad-libbing, flirting, audience interaction and lip-syncing to naughty songs.
“We wanted to be the fun drag queens,” Kratts says. “But when we came here, we realized that most drag queens wanted to be divas. They wanted to be classy divas, and they wanted to be fierce.
“And we wanted to be clowns. We don’t wanna be fierce. We don’t even necessarily wanna be pretty. We don’t care… We don’t have the most fabulous makeup in the world. It’s not important. It’s more important to be funny.”
Where they perform: Moose Lodge 2199 in Cape Coral, Nino’s Italian Bakery and Restaurant in Punta Gorda
Learn More:facebook.com/BootseyLicious
— Read more about drag queen bingo:Everybody say 'O!': Drag queen bingo scores big in Fort Myers, Naples, Cape Coral
Connect with this reporter:Charles Runnells (Facebook),@charlesrunnells (Twitter),@crunnells1 (Instagram)
