Pound Sign

New York City, pop culture, art and nightlife. Because nobody else is blogging about those things.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

The Devil's Own Mistress comes to town


I wanted to write about this last night but after an after-work group outing to the Bohemian Hall Beer Garden in Astoria, I was in a beer-and-keilbasa induced coma by the time I got home. But anyway; Thursday night we went down to see Starshine Burlesque, because legendary performer Satan's Angel was in town, and headlining the show that night! We're friends with Angel from Vegas, and it was fabulous to catch up with her; she was in town to shoot an episode of the Maury Povich show (seriously.), a segment about being a sexegenarian stripper, and regaled us in raunchy, hilarious fashion with the behind-the-scenes story. And of course, seeing her perform was fantastic. I've seen her on stage at Exotic World, but never as close as the second row of Rififi's little back room-it was intense! Seeing this woman in her 60's, working the crowd, shaking and shimmying, swirling the huge cape and the 8 foot boa, and finishing off by twirling flaming tassels, she absolutely brought the house down. You can see the joy in performing, and she thrives on the energy of the audience; she simply inspired everyone who was there. After the show she happily held court sitting on the edge of the stage, swearing like a sailor, laughing and sharing stories of working the burlesque circuit at the end of its heyday in the 60's and early 70's, surrounded by adoring fans, friends and awestruck young performers who had come out to see her for the first time. It was a pretty fantastic night; any contemporary burlesque performer in NYC who didn't make it out to any of her performances while she was in town should be kicking themselves, because this is what it's all about!

Angel's classic headshot at the top of this post is available on her website, she'll even sign it for ya!

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