Brandon Rounds is a small town boy from Boscobel. He’s also known as the drag artist Bianca Lynn Breeze. When people come to Drag Bingo, they expect the high glamor; they want to see something that’s just over the top. That’s what Bianca delivers.
“I want people to understand that drag is nothing but an art form. You remember when you’re a kid and you always played bingo in school or maybe at your church… like that excitement but amplified by a hundred,” Rounds says.
Drag Bingo has become Bianca’s playtime and Rounds’ bread and butter. Bianca can entertain sold out crowds in venue after venue and always greets her bingo fans with humor and humility. Rounds says Bianca’s humor comes from sarcasm and funny stories from everyday happenings.
“I’m a dude wearing heels,” Rounds says. “I’ve been doing it for 12 years and I still can’t even walk on heels sometimes.”
Bianca also balances the pain Rounds endured growing up. He didn’t come out as gay until his junior year in high school. He recalls the time he walked out of high school and found his car covered in homophobic slurs.
“That was really terrible to have that stuff happen to you,” Rounds remembers. But he wasn’t going to let somebody use those words to degrade or make him feel bad.
So, in high heels and a wig, Rounds uses his small town experience as a catalyst for change. He says moving away was probably the best decision that he made. That’s how Rounds discovered drag.
A lot of his drag events and bingos tend to be in the smaller communities just outside of Madison. Places like Cottage Grove, Cross Plains and Cambridge. Rounds says after a while he realized the reason he does drag is to educate communities.
“When we’re in drag and there’s all this glamour people are going to notice you and they’re going to stop and they’re going to listen to what you have to say,” Rounds says. “And that’s beautiful about drag.”
Many in the crowd at Bianca’s events have never seen a drag show or met a drag queen.
“‘Thank you for opening my eyes.’ I can’t even count the number of times that people have said that to me,” Rounds says.
Kindness is a trait Rounds learned from his mother growing up in his small town. After losing his mother in 2008, and inspired by her kindness, Rounds took her name as part of his drag persona. That tribute brought Rounds closer to his mom and a drag identity that taught him something else.
When Rounds was younger, he says he was reserved. Bianca instills a little bit of confidence in him. Bianca is somebody that people come to see, and all of the attention is on her. She gets to buy all the flashy costuming and she gets to do the fun makeup, the glitter and the sparkle.
Rounds has transformed Bianca into one of Wisconsin’s premiere drag bingo entertainers with a little glitter, rhinestones and a wig.
“It’s made me feel like I’ve really found a place to express who I am,” Rounds says. “We’re all trying to get through this thing that we call life to find joy and passion in what we do.”
