it's sassy and far out
B-I-N-G-Oh my
By Coley Ward
CWARD@AZSTARNET.COM
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.21.2008
The flier advertising cosmic bingo at Casino del Sol warns, "this is not your traditional bingo game."
But how could bingo, a game played by little old ladies, be risque?
Let us count the ways.
There's loud music, including disco hits like the Village People's "YMCA" and Pseudo Echo's "Funky Town."
There's beer, wine and cocktails.
And there is Larry Moore, aka Lucinda, a drag queen who spouts sexual innuendo.
On a recent Saturday night, Moore, 41, is wearing a blonde wig, long pink dress with matching boa and more makeup than Tammy Faye Messner.
He's bouncing from table to table, searching for the bingo contestant with the most impressive condom — and the courage to share his or her condom carrying ways with the room.
At one table he finds a man with an extra large Lifestyle lubricated condom.
At the next table there's a man with one that expired in 2006. A man at another table jokingly holds up a trash bag.
"This is not your grandma's bingo," Moore says. "We just want a great mix of over-the-top fun."
Cosmic bingo follows the same rules as regular bingo. Each player gets a card. Pingpong balls with one number (1-70) and one letter (B, I, N, G or O) on them are selected, and the first player to have a card where the numbers form a specified pattern is the winner.
But while most bingo halls are often silent except for the sound of a voice announcing numbers and letters, cosmic bingo is alive with music and sex jokes.
There are two cosmic bingo sessions every Saturdaynight. The first starts at 11:30 p.m. and the second starts at 12:30 a.m. In between sessions there's a quickie coverall game, where contestants play until somebody has filled up all the spaces on his or her card. The winner of the coverall game gets to go in the money-grab machine, which looks like a phone booth. The contestant then has 15 seconds to grab as much money as possible. Just to make it interesting, the money is kept moving by fans inside the machine.
Cosmic bingo prizes include iPods, concert tickets and dinner at the casino, in addition to cash.
Before the games start, hostesses in short vintage dresses with flowy sleeves toss T-shirts and glow necklaces to the crowd.
Jennifer Marquez has been coming to cosmic bingo every Saturday since it started last month. She says she also plays the more traditional bingo game at the casino once a week, and that she and her family are lucky.
"I won $1,199 at regular bingo last week," she says. "And last Saturday my brother got to go in the money-grab machine. He won $300."
Elvia Alday is playing cosmic bingo for the first time, but she's clearly no amateur. The Green Valley hairdresser says she plays regular bingo twice a week. Now she's monitoring 12 bingo cards — six paper cards and six electronic cards that are displayed on a monitor on the table in front of her.
Alday is fast with her dabber, and she takes a moment to explain the game to a pair of women who are sitting across from her and playing for the first time.
She says she's learning to enjoy this newer, louder, raunchier bingo.
"It's like bingo for younger people," she says.
Moore, who performed for years as part of a show called "Icons Del Sol," says he hasn't played bingo since he was 9 years old, growing up in a small Iowa town.
James Hairston, 28, is playing cosmic bingo for the first time. He's with his mom, brother, cousin, aunt and a few other friends and family members. He says he doesn't mind Moore's dirty mouth, and he doesn't think anyone else in his group does, either.
"It's just comedy," he says. "My mom's open-minded."
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