Spotlight | Life & Laughs with Beneva Fruitville

By Ryan G. Van Cleave | September 2022

Anyone who’s spent more than a moment in our community has surely heard about—or witnessed!—Drag Queen Bingo which features the off-color antics of Beneva Fruitville, one of Sarasota’s biggest and bawdiest stars. The bingo + comedy + burlesque show has been a hit from the start and has become one of the longest-running live shows in town. My wife, in particular, considers attending one to be an annual pilgrimage of sorts. 

Yet Beneva does more than just host the best bingo event going. She’s also run the “Drag Wars and Talent Show” competition, served as a foul-mouthed, anything-goes docent for a “Remix the Ringling” museum gallery tour, and much, much more. In short, if there’s a crowd to be had and there are opportunities for indelicacy, odds are that Beneva Fruitville might be game to do her thing.

Let’s find out more about the story behind Beneva Fruitville. 

You’ve been in showbiz for 2+ decades. What are some of the highlights?

Starting in an Off-Broadway show, with my name in lights on the marquee and coming out of the stage door after the show and signing a real Playbill program of people who were waiting to meet me after the show.

I was hired to entertain for American Theatre Critics Association’s annual conference in 2020 while the world was in lockdown so I did a virtual show of singing, comedy, and bingo for theater critics from across the entire country. Frank Rizzo, theater critic for Variety, emailed me personally to thank me for my work and called me “…such great fun!”

In 2018, I was hired by the Ringling Museum as a part of their Ringling After Dark series to give a comedic tour of a wing of the museum. After working directly with the museum curator and other professionals at the museum, we created an interactive, ridiculous event that was sold out six weeks before the actual event and was so revered it made the New York Times for its novelty and success.

What initially brought you to Sarasota?

Quite simply, I was a professional musical theater actor, and I was offered a three-show contract at a professional theater here.

That was the Golden Apple Dinner Theater?

Yes. I began working at the Golden Apple in 2004 in a production of Chicago, then continued in Wonderful Town, Cats, Footloose, and so on until 2012 when the theater closed.

Where/when did you get the idea of becoming Beneva Fruitville?

When I first moved here, the theatre I was working for had rehearsal/dance space in the shopping center on the corner of Beneva and Fruitville. I told my friends at the time “Beneva Fruitville, that sounds like a Drag name!” So, my friends nicknamed me Beneva. A few years later, I was asked to do a benefit for CAN Community Health in drag and needed a name to perform under, and the obvious choice was Beneva Fruitville. 

The rest is history.

What’s the story behind Drag Queen Bingo?

I began doing Bingo as a fill-in for some friends way back in the day at a place called the Canvas Cafe. We made national headlines and became the beginning of Sarasota’s sound ordinance issues. After harassment and pressure, Canvas Cafe decided they didn’t want us anymore, so we moved to Horsefeathers. From there we went to the Golden Apple Dinner Theater, The Players Theatre, and finally ended up at McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre which ironically is located where Horsefeathers was located. It’s kind of like we worked our way up to go back to where we started!

What’s your favorite Drag Queen Bingo story?

I think my favorite story from Bingo is when a nun, in her full habit, came to my bingo show and had a blast. Hilarious!

Clearly, you’ve invested a ton of time into becoming a makeup pro. What’s your best tip?

It’s perfectly fine to do a basic neutral look—you don’t need to look like a clown to do drag.

What’s the most important thing people should know or understand about drag queens?

That we’re simply entertainers. Just because you may have seen us in a nightclub or in nightlife, it doesn’t mean that all we’re relegated to that. We’re full-fledged, diversely talented entertainers of varying types and deserve to be treated with respect and not be sexualized. Drag queens belong in the library, the classroom, and in the political arena—there are plenty of clowns there already!

What’s your dream Beneva-Fruitville-headliner event?

Beneva Fruitville: My Show Called Life—One Woman Broadway Show! Partly Biographical, Partly Mythological, Partly Theoretical, and Fully Hysterical! Coming soon to the Great Broad Way!!!!

You recently announced you’ll be moving. What did you like best about Sarasota?

The people and the community. I love my community and all the amazing humans I’ve met here in Sarasota.

Got a favorite saying?

Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.