New York Burlesque Festival
So, I’m definitely pushing the extents of my memory by not recording this sooner, but last Friday I had the pleasure of hitting up The 4th Annual New York Burlesque Festival that kicked off with a night of all sorts of barely there shenanigans at Studio B on the north end of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
To be honest, I’m usually ready for a variety of levels of quality at any burlesque event due to the wide range of people who decide they, for whatever reasons, want to entertain others by removing their clothes in unusually elaborate fashion… but last Friday saw things go from mediocre to amazing to decent to indecent to down-right I-can’t-belive-I’m-watching-this freak show!
When we first got there, the first act we saw was a semi-annoying snore of barely choreographed girls in white afro wigs. It seemed like the night would see us leaving early for some other locale, but the next few acts entertained and of course the blue bunny is always a welcome master of ceremonies. Then things took a bizarre turn when a troupe from Boston performed some over-the-top, goth, interpretive dance thing that included a guy dressed in a full body home-made albino gecko outfit complete with paper-mache head. Luckily, we stuck around because soon afterwards we were rewarded with an amazing, but traditional, high-energy act involving perfectly placed feather fans and Brazilian music.
The most memorable part of the night turned out not to be such an exquisite one however. In fact it was such a bizarre performance that featured one… uhm… person of indeterminable gender, plenty of bare… uhm… bits, and a large liquor bottle being at first gripped and then lifted through unconventional methods only to be drank from afterwards… that… uhh… I sometimes think it would be better if I had never seen such a feat. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), I had to leave town for the long weekend and missed the other nights of the shows, but there’s always next year.
Next time I just hope I remember to look away rather than allow myself to be emotionally scared for life.
One highlight I should note is Gigi La Femme. She danced between acts and was amazing. I should remember to catch Gigi’s dancing again some time.
Image via Jen McC on Flickr
October 1st, 2006 at 6:20 am
[...] The main idea behind it was to try to fill all the time I previously spent playing games with some traditionally more fullfilling tasks like going out at night, being more creative, and just plain experiencing more of the city I live in. Just using this site as my main source of memory retention, I’ve been to this years New York Burlesque Festival, a wedding in Connecticut, The US Open for the first time, enjoy an Absinthe filled evening, and gone to a “secret” free Gnarls Barkley concert where I caught a glimpse of David Bowie… and that’s just the nights I wanted to remember. Additionally, I ate out a lot more. (I shouldn’t forget running into Justin Timberlake at Cafe Habana.) [...]