Archive for April 20th, 2007

The Freak show is alive and well in Brooklyn, really. At Sideshow by the Seashore lives the last bastion of the vaudeville scene that once defined Coney Island. It’s a classic venue offering mentalists, magicians, burly’q and an old fashioned 10 in 1 show.

I went for a visit on a Friday afternoon when they were holding an open casting call for anybody to come out and break world records. I was immediately won over by the congenial, good humored, fuck all attitude of the salt of the earth people who showed up.

Paul Nardizzi: A stand up comic and soccer player he holds two world records. The first is doing a standup routine that lasts 8 minutes and has 73 punch lines in it. The second is juggling a football with his feet, getting upwards of 40 bounces. Today he attempted to break his juggling record. He didn’t succeed, but was still met with warm applause and encouragement.

Paddy Doyle, “The World’s Fittest Endurance Athlete”: This dude holds over a hundred world records. Last week he broke ten records in an hour. Today he strapped a backpack filled with 40 pounds of sand to his back then did step ups using two cider blocks stacked up as his step. He did this for an hour! He beat his old record, of 716, by doing it 911 times. A true gentleman, he thanked everybody for coming and shook all our hands.

Pete Tino, “The Human Floor”: For this one the entire crowd had to go out to the street where Pete took off his shirt and lay down on his back. Then 15 people, collectively weighing 2,313 lbs, stood on him for ten seconds. Pete told me he’s very big in the S&M and B&D scenes. I totally want to party with this guy.

Jared: He is a Blockhead. A Blockhead is somebody who hammers long pointy items into their sinuses. He also dresses like a vampire. Jared took a tootsie roll pop, with a scary long stick, jammed the handle in his left nostril then touched the pop with his tongue.

Thomas Blacke: A magician looking to break his own world record of being the fastest man on the planet to tie a balloon into a poodle. Victory was his as he performed this feat in 4.18 seconds blowing the minds and winning the hearts of all in attendance.

The Great Throwdini: Attempted to break his own record of catching 25 knives thrown at him by International Knife Throwing Hall of Famer Dick Haines. Long story short: The ENTIRE audience fled the theater as Throwdini took a shot to the palm and disappeared backstage in a spray of blood. Good times!

Paul Carpenter: Attempted to regain his world record for the quickest escape from a strait jacket. It took him three attempts, but in the end he triumphed, setting a new record of 10.94 seconds.

Take the trip out to Coney Island and check this place out. It’s a chance to catch a rare glimpse at artistry that most people will never be lucky enough to experience. Also, it’s a blast.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Upcoming shows click HERE!
• Take the F, N, D or Q to the end of the earth
• This Weekend is Alumni Weekend - Adult Tickets ONLY $6
• Sign up for SIDESHOW SCHOOL or take a BURLESQUE WORKSHOP
• THEY SERVE BEER!

John Vanderslice lets his fans get up on stage and sing with him. That’s how much fun he is. More about that later. Now for the review. The lineup for the evening was Chris Mills, St. Vincent, and John Vanderslice at The Mercury Lounge and it was possibly the best $12 I have ever spent. What a f-ing amazing show and I’m not a big cusser so that means something…something awesome.

The show kicked off with the weak link in the lineup: Chris Mills. He was kind of a dramatic 80s pop/rock singer/songwriter/guitarist and he played with a piano player and so it kinda reminded me of The Boomtown Rats, though just not as memorable. If you had a tape of theirs in your car and you knew all the words, you would sing a long and have a good time, but that’s about it. He was good, but when St. Vincent came on, I completely forgot about him.

By the way, St. Vincent (Annie Clark of Polyphonic Spree fame) is my new obsession. I can’t remember the last time I fell so hard for a musician that I had never even heard of before. She sings, plays guitar, bass, piano, synth, and does all this cool programming stuff. She’s charming and delightful and a seriously skilled and interesting guitarist. She was like…I don’t even want to insult her by comparing her to other female singer/songwriter types. Do yourself a favor and check out her myspace page or better yet see her live cause I don’t think she’ll be playing tiny venues for much longer. Look for her album coming out soon on Beggars Banquet.

Anyway, as I was saying, John Vanderslice lets his fans get up on stage and sing his songs karaoke style while he plays along. Seriously. If you go to his website, you can email him and tell him what song you want to sing or play bass with and he picks one person from each show to come up and do just that. Tonight’s lucky guy was Kevin and I was so jealous! Later in the show, he brought up five audience members to sing backup on “me and my 424″. He was the funnest and so down to earth and he really wants to be friends with his fans and include them in the show. He took requests, he charmed the audience, he gave away a Seiko watch! The audience loved him and he loved us and he didn’t want to leave; so he just kept coming up with more songs to play. Surprise guest Erik Freilander even made an appearance on a couple of tunes and he brought back Annie Clark for the finale. And that’s not all!! At the end of the night John announced that they would be sticking around for a dance party! Yay! He’s doing a show at Union Hall in Brooklyn on Sunday and I already have my ticket. If you can’t make that show, he’ll be at the Mercury Lounge again in September. Please for the love of all things musical do not miss this show. I love music so f-ing much (there I go again with the cussing) and this night reminded me why and I would tell John Vanderslice that right now if I could, but he’s probably out having breakfast with his fans.

Hats can either make you look really cool or really dorky. Picture, for instance, the following celebrities in hats:

There was a time in the not-so-distant past that going out without a hat would be cause for scandal — despite what you looked like in them. Fortunately, Lilly Dache entered the fashion world in the 1930s to save the world from frumpy hats.

Lilly Dache knew how to wear a hat. Not only that, she knew how to make other women feel fabulous in hats, too.

Self-deprecatingly referring to herself as an “ugly duckling” in childhood, Dache confessed, “More than anything else, I wanted to be beautiful.” By the 1950s, she was called a “beauty expert” and named one of the best-dressed women in America. The sappy, uplifting story gives us all hope that we, too, can go from uncool to cool.

Dache set out to transform other women into swans, as well. She knew that outward appearance does in fact play a role in how people are viewed and perceived. She said, “A hat is an expression of a woman’s soul. It is something she wears on her head but it belongs to her heart.”

The French-born milliner built an empire out of designing hats that stretched beyond mere headwear and into the realm of art. The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology pays homage to the milliner with its current exhibit Lilly Dache: Glamour at the Drop of a Hat. If you hurry, you can catch it before it closes this Saturday.

There you can see such signature pieces as:

These certainly are a lot fancier than that rag MK’s been sporting on top of her head.

Also on exhibit at FIT right now: She’s Like a Rainbow: Colors in Fashion

Lilly Dache: Glamour at the Drop of a Hat is on view from noon to 8 PM on Tuesday through Friday and from 10 am to 5 pm from now until April 21 at The Museum at FIT (Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, NYC). Admission is free.

I sheepishly wandered into the room and there she was… Dottie Lux- a poised vision in her false eyelashes and her little cap-sleeved cherry red top with dainty white buttons, effortlessly emitting a lovely, timeless quality as if she just stepped out of a picture book from another era.

The Red Hots Burlesque School of Shimmy is “the only school where you can get your PHD in Take-it-off-ology!”. On April 18th I attended the first class in a series of 4- called Burlesque 101, hosted by Dottie Lux (who has 6 years of burlesque experience under those pasties).

We started with a little historical lesson on Burlesque through the ages including The Golden Age of Burlesque (30’s - 50’s) and Neo-Burlesque (80’s - today), which led to a dialogue about the role of Burlesque in society and how it is compared with some other forms of entertainment such as stripping and dance; and talked about some influential female personalities throughout art and pop culture.

There were 10 of us in the class, and we all went around and shared our insecurities about our own bodies. Dots explained that we should embrace our bodies and celebrate our quirks. It was fun to hear what all the ladies LIKED about their bodies, too- everything from eyes to smiles to boobs and everything in between.

After choosing our fancy Burlesque names, Dottie showed us the fabulous five Burlesque movements: The Bump, The Grind, The Shake, The Shimmy and my personal favorite- The Showcase. Then it was our turn to try out the moves- lots of giggling ensued and everyone felt more comfortable when we donned some of Dottie’s extra costume pieces such as sexy long gloves and fluffy feather boas.

Burlesque is playful, it’s truly an artform that can be empowering to women! Thoughtfulness, creativity, purpose, costume and music as well as a slow and deliberate tease are all key ingredients for a successful performance. For some it’s a genuine way to live their lives. “I have to bump while cleaning the house”, Dottie says with a smile, “otherwise I just can’t clean.”

Believe it or not- all clothes were left on for this first class (except for the extra added pieces). I’m totally checking out the next classes in the series! I DO hope we get to learn that tassel twirl- I just can’t figure out how to make my girls swing like that!

UPCOMING CLASSES IN THIS SERIES:
April 25: Burlesque 201
May 9: Burlesque on a Budget
May 16th: Finishing Touches
End of May: School of Shimmy Showcase
Classes are at the Den of Cin (now if that ain’t a play on words!).

Next Full Class Series: TBD
Private individual or group classes also available upon request.