Review: Bianca Del Rio: Dead Inside at O2 City Hall Newcastle
Bianca Del Rio – Thursday 12th September
The Queen of rawkus behaviour and evil comedy returns to the North East after a two year break. As one of the most famous queens to hail from Ru Paul’s drag race, she is back with her new stand up comedy tour, Dead Inside which promises to be brutal, dark and utterly hilarious as we can only expect from the self professed ‘Clown in a Gown’. There is a disclaimer for the show however, for those who are easily offended, basically enter at your own risk. This tour follows an enormous 60 date North American tour.
Newcastle’s O2 City Hall was bustling with so many fabulous outfits on Thursday night ready for an evening of quick witted entertainment. It was definitely filled with people ready for a good night as I have never seen the bar so busy! There was a good selection with reasonably priced merch available to buy too with iconic T Shirts with slogans such as, ‘Salty Bitch’.
The support act for the evening was the incredible Scottish Queen, Mary Mac, who is a powerhouse in her own right already having performed on the West End with Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. She opened her half an hour slot with some stunning vocals and went on to make us laugh with her comedy and interaction with the audience. She did state she had been asked to sing more than she talked – the total opposite of Bianca!
She continued her set with a hilarious rendition of Steps – Better Best Forgotten or should I say Better Best Be Bottom as she changed all the lyrics to make the song truly her own. For her final performance we were treated to an eleven minute long performance of FlashDance, Maniac on the Floor which we obviously had to sing along to. She had even renamed and self-titled it Mary Mac on the Floor. During this she performed over twenty different snippets of silly, fun dance routines including lots of Tik Tok trends which we absolutely loved. The whole crowd were getting involved singing and dancing alongside her. Not only is Mary Mac brilliantly funny she has such an incredible singing voice and can’t half work a stage with those impressive dance moves!
We had a short wait until Bianca Del Rio made her way onto stage. The crowd roared as she walked on and she was lit carefully under a spotlight, which even she complained about not being the greatest as she argued with the lighting team during her routine. I seriously wouldn’t mess with her or she will roast you.
The thing I love most about Bianca Del Rio is just how natural she is on stage. I can never tell whether she is reading from a script or not. It seemed like she was going off topic all of the time and just winging it all so effortlessly. She started by slagging off Sunderland, which was instantly brilliant. Her jokes seriously are not for the faint hearted however and she will mercilessly pick on you if you’re in her eyesight, thank goodness I was sat in the balcony.
There were no topics left untouched by the time she finished her set and the whole audience ate up every second. The audible gasps at some jokes had me in creases. I loved how she spoke about the Drag Race fandom, which as a super fan I loved, as she told tales of her travels and time with other drag queens. It was gimmick after gimmick as she retold many interesting tales in her own brutal way.
My favourite part of the whole stand up had to be the Q&A she did at the end where audience members wrote in their questions to her. She had everyone on their feet during their questions and it felt really personable as she roasted them. She is adored by many and you can see why as she clearly loves her fans- even though she jokes that we are just giving her the paycheck.
Bianca Del Rio is an absolute force to be reckoned with and we had such an enjoyable, utterly hilarious evening being entertained by her. Once again, if you’re thinking about going to see her and you are easily offended you may want to think again!