UPB Drag Bingo continues a campy Chapman tradition

Photos Courtesy of Chapman University Program Board

Bingo cards and glittery high heels aren’t often associated with each other — but on Saturday, Feb. 22, they went hand in hand, serving up style and surprises to spare.

That’s when Chapman University Program Board (UPB) hosted Drag Bingo on Memorial Lawn. A longtime tradition — which The Panther first covered in 2021 — drag queens Jiggly Caliente and Plane Jane took to the lawn, laid out with tables, bingo cards and a long runway stage coming down the steps of Memorial Hall. 

The event began with a wait — but a drag queen is never late. Everyone else is simply early.

The speakers surrounding the lawn stilled for a moment as things got into swing — and swing they did, as “Killing Me Softly With His Song” by Fugees came on over the sound system. The crowd erupted, and Jiggly Caliente arrived through the doors of Memorial Hall, strutting down the steps as the music transitioned into Salt-N-Pepa’s ”Shoop.” In a sparkling blue dress with gleaming silver heels, Jiggly Caliente of “RuPaul's Drag Race” and its “All Stars” spinoff took to the main stage. 

“What’s up, Chapman?!” she shouted, and students roared with excitement.

It was an excitement that carried over into introducing the second host, Plane Jane, also of “RuPaul's Drag Race” fame. Sporting a bedazzled angular pink bodysuit with matching thigh-highs and fishnets, she burst onto the scene dancing down the Memorial Hall steps, taking a folding fan from the audience for a moment to cool down before a quick lap dance and a dead fall onto the grass.

Their entrances set the tone for the afternoon. 

“This is not your grandma’s bingo,” said Caliente — and unless your grandma loves raunchy jokes (“nasty, stinky humor” according to Jane), euphoric expressions of sexuality and the pop hits of Chappell Roan, Charli xcx and Troye Sivan, then right she is.

“This was my first time doing bingo and watching drag,” said sophomore animation and visual effects major Sam Seyedhosseini. “And let’s just say I had the best time of my life! The riffs were awesome and the bingo was so much fun!”

The riffs that Seyedhosseini was referring to were the constant string of jokes, bits, banter and innuendos that Caliente and Jane bounced off each other across the four rounds of bingo.

“Do you know how to handle white balls, honey?” Caliente would ask Jane whilst spinning the bingo cage.

As the games progressed, more riffs would banter back and forth.

“I do not want to break up a family — that’s Jiggly’s job,” Jane would jab.

“Have you ever shared a phallic object such as this mic with another woman such as myself?” Jane asked Caliente early on (the answer being no, as this marked the first time that the two had worked together).

The constant banter only made the games more fun. Bingo is a tense game of chance, where anybody could win. Anyone besides, of course, me — I only covered four tiles across the four games, a statistical anomaly I couldn’t comprehend. Nevertheless, it was always a joy when the presenters had so much energy between the two of them. For those with winning bingo cards, that delight could only be compounded.

“It feels great, it was very unexpected,” said junior art history and business double major Forest Delaney, the first of the four bingo winners. “I’ve never played bingo before and I wasn’t planning on coming to this because it was sold out, but I got a place and I’m very excited.”

Delaney showed The Panther her winnings: Liquid I.V., a pickleball set, a Stanley tumbler, a bluetooth speaker and more. And as the games went on, the prizes continued to escalate, all the way up to a brand new iPad for the winner of the fourth and final game.

Every round’s winner was picked from the audience and walked to the stage, instructed to strut — “the fiercest, most sickening, most cunty strut,” as per Jane’s orders. And strut they did, music blaring and the audience cheering as they picked up their prizes.

But a twist came in the final round — a karaoke battle, between the rightful bingo champion and an audience plant, “our secret lip-sync assassin,” according to Caliente, determined who was taking the iPad home. To Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club,” the two duked it out in a dubbed lyrical battle. Energy and tension high, the rightful winner of UPB’s final round of bingo nabbed a close victory and received her prize.

“I’m really glad that UPB still finds it important to have events like this on campus,” said sophomore film production major Karson Case. “For a person who’s a giant fan of drag, it’s also a fun way to get to know other people who enjoy it as well.”

While the energy was focused on the bingo games, with free food, drinks and a space for minigolf in the back by the “Chapman University” signage, this was a drag show first and foremost. Halfway through the games, it was time for an interlude performance. 

“Sit tight and watch us slay, honey!” Jane said, and it was time for Caliente’s routine. Set to “Cinderella” by The Cheetah Girls (from the movie of the same name), she sashayed and slayed through the audience tables to a resounding cheer.

For Plane Jane’s second performance, she took to karaoke, a rendition of “No One Mourns the Wicked” from 2024’s hit musical film “Wicked.”

“Are people born wicked? Or do they have wickedness thrust into them?” she ad-libbed over the original lyrics, hitting a confident falsetto to match Ariana Grande’s vocals. She continued, flying (read: running) through the audience as the song hit its crescendo. Both performances got the audience screaming and hollering.

The morning ended with that fateful final game of bingo and its lip-sync battle for UPB’s prized new iPad. At the decisive moment of victory, Plane Jane came up to the central walkway stage across the lawn to take the winning student’s hand, falling together into a slut drop met with thunderous applause.

Plane Jane has since left for her residency at “RuPaul’s Drag Race Live!” in Las Vegas, and Jiggly Caliente has set off for a personal trip to San Francisco before returning to judge “Drag Race Philippines.” UPB and their fans at Chapman wish them well on their travels.

For more information on upcoming UPB events, check out the Chapman University Program Board’s Instagram page.