Jimbo of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ brings flying bologna to Austin in inane circus at Emo's

The drag market is saturated. One way to stand out: throw lunch meat at the audience.

There were many such lessons to glean from Jimbo on Saturday night, as she brought the Drag Circus World Tour to Emo’s. The entertainer is a bona fide global phenomenon from the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” franchise. Jimbo became a fan favorite on the Canadian and U.K. versions of the reality competition before winning the eighth season of the U.S. flagship’s “All Stars” edition. The massive line to get into the venue before the show proved that the Ontario performer’s international appeal translates off the screen.

Now, you can find spectacular local drag in Austin almost any night of the week, whether it’s Louisianna Purchase vamping at Swan Dive or Brigitte Bandit shaking things up at Cheer Up Charlies. But the city’s also become a reliable stop on the path of the drag industrial complex that RuPaul built. Multi-queen revues featuring popular “Drag Race” stars play venues like the Paramount Theatre every year. The biggest celebrity queens usually swing through Austin on solo tours, too. Just last weekend, “Drag Race” Season 15 champ Sasha Colby hit up Emo’s, too.

Which brings us back to Riverside Drive. In a crowded field, Jimbo created a drag show that no one can assail for lack of originality. Through playful and puerile antics, the queen also helped fans learn a little something about themselves.

A festival of inanity, equal parts filthy and silly

Jimbo’s style of drag taps into clowning and alternative aesthetics. Before showtime on Saturday, the audience soaked in an elaborate big top set design. A giant inflatable Jimbo maw formed an archway on stage. Black and white tentacles curled around it. A little bit Pee-wee Herman, a little bit Tim Burton.

A song from “The Greatest Showman” played, and Jimbo emerged looking like a demented Mouseketeer, or perhaps a refugee from a Depression-era Fleischer Studios cartoon. O.G. fans knew it as Jimbo’s entrance look from “Canada’s Drag Race.”

Jimbo introduced her sidekick, a mostly mute clown named Jeepers. They demonstrated “the latest and greatest in calliope technology,” which involved a large sex toy. Talk about setting the tone. The night to follow would be a high-concept festival of inanity, equal parts filthy and silly.  Anyone expecting traditional circus acts would be disappointed, though hopefully they allowed themselves to be swept up in the lunacy. 

This wasn’t a simple lip synch showcase — though Jimbo often lip synched, sometimes a bit lackadaisically. Instead, she presented a strange, one-of-a-kind cabaret act full of original songs about friendship and body parts. 

Casper the Baloney Ghost floats again

As a branding exercise, though, it was aggressive. Jimbo structured each number around a memorable character from her various “Drag Race” runs, primarily the lunchmeat-flinging Casper the Baloney Ghost. (It’s best if you just watch a clip online.) Before the white vinyl-clad creature could “throw a slice and make you feel nice,” Jimbo and her company of characters had to find out who stole the ghost’s necessary bologna.

That led to an appearance from Jimbo as an overgrown Shirley Temple, which featured one of the funniest moments of the night (the manchild bursting out of a poster) and one of the most curious musical numbers (a trite hip-hop song that saw Shirley assume a rap persona named “Sweet T”). More successful Jimbo character visits followed from a German criminologist who solves mysteries with her disgusting “schtink finger” and late comedian Joan Rivers, appearing “live from her own personal hell.”

The best parts of the evening came not from trotting out as-seen-on-TV bits, but from Jimbo’s unfettered imagination. Throughout the show, Jimbo dressed her excellent (and incredibly game) backup dancers in a series of outrageous costumes, like giant psychedelic eyeball helmets and unsettling baby doll heads. 

And the Drag Circus ran on air pumps. Beyond the set, Jimbo made hilarious use of several oversized inflatables. Emo’s turned into a zany cartoon as the dancers ran through the audience with giant white gloved hands searching for bologna. 

During a vaudeville-y burlesque number, Jimbo gradually deconstructed a saloon maid costume and revealed a series of comically placed prosthetic breasts, each complete with a tassel. That led to another signature bit. The drag queen and her massive breast plate paraded through the club, spraying whipped cream at ravenously eager audiences from … you can figure it out. 

Jimbo couldn’t have asked for a better crowd. The audience was g-a-m-e. This was no more apparent than at the grand finale. Like some kind of cross between Oscar Meyer and Sailor Moon, the queen transformed before our very eyes into Casper the Baloney Ghost, plastering makeup on her face and slipping into a peculiarly proportioned pair of shiny pajamas.

To the tune of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “My Bologna,” Jimbo danced around and pulled the since-recovered lunch meat out of a zipped compartment. With the panache of an Olympic discus champion, she flung the pink discs of protein into the audience. Grown people who pay federal income taxes burst up from their seats and stretched their arms into the air. They yearned for the meat. 

At the end of the show, Jimbo led fans in a chant. All of us are full of baloney, she reminded the audience. After a deliriously dumb night unlike any drag show that’s ever toured through Austin, it felt like a real badge of honor.  

“I don’t know what we’re learning, but we’re learning something,” Jimbo-as-Joan said earlier in the evening. Not taking yourself too seriously seems like a good lesson. If not that, then at least some folks got to work on their hand/eye coordination through the magic of airborne bologna.

Eric Webb is an award-winning culture writer based in Austin. Find him atwww.ericwebb.me..