When Five15 first opened its doors as a retail store and coffee shop in downtown Royal Oak in 2009, the Detroit area was in a deep economic recession and owner Gary Baglio was trying to come up with ideas to get people in the door.
“One night, I was watching an episode of Sex in the City, and the girls went to a drag queen bingo,” he recalls. “And I thought, ‘Oh my God, that would be so cool.’”
His first show, with the local drag queen Sabin, sold out completely, he says. A month later, so did the second. At first the crowd was mostly from the LGBTQ+ community, but Baglio says soon they were getting bachelorette parties, members of the Red Hat Society, book clubs, and more.
“So we added shows and went to every Saturday night, and then we added a second show on Saturday night, and then fast forward to today where we do six shows a week,” he says.
Now, Five15 is celebrating 15 years of drag queen bingo with a promotion offering free tickets.
For 24 hours on Wednesday, May 15, all seats purchased for drag queen bingo comedy shows will be available free of charge.
(The store’s original address was 515 S. Washington Ave., and it happened to open on May 15 in what Baglio calls “kind of a weird coincidence.”)
The promotion covers shows through Aug. 24, excluding the popular Sunday brunch buffet shows. No cancellations or modifications are allowed, and a valid credit card is required at the time of reservation; the card will be charged the full amount in the event of a no-show.
The shows feature a drag queen comedian host who lightly roasts the audience. Over the years, it has featured many drag queens who have appeared on the popular RuPaul’s Drag Race, including Ginger Minj, Plane Jane, and Jade Jolie.
Baglio says the shows now draw fans from all across the Detroit area.
“The demographic of my audience is made up of everybody — young, old, Black, white, gay, straight, you name it,” he says. “We have motorcycle clubs and roller derby girls. We’ve had 80th anniversaries here. I could tell you stories, we would be on the phone for two days.”
Metro Times readers voted Five15’s drag queen bingo as “the best group night out” for 15 consecutive years.
“People come here because they’re curious,” Baglio says, adding that the show is all about “humor and laughter and just leaving your stuff at the front door and coming in and everybody’s the same here.”
The store moved to a bigger location across the street in 2017. Baglio says the city government has been very welcoming.
“They helped us find a space that would be larger and help us get a liquor license that we could afford, because, you know, drag queens just look better with alcohol,” he says.
“It just brings in tons of people to the show, and then they go to the different bars in the area, the different restaurants,” he adds. “It’s bringing over 1,000 people every weekend.”
Baglio believes the event is popular because it’s unpretentious.
“You’re not going to come here and win a million-dollar jackpot,” he says. “You’re gonna win a mug. But it’s just solid good fun. You will take home a memory that you’ll have forever and probably come back.”
