Anita Cookie Gets Baked Under St. Marks
Going to [Anita Cookie's Underground] burlesque game show is a lot like hot boxing (the art of getting stoned in an enclosed space.) Anita's comedy fest takes place in a cellar-like space below St. Marks Place and, much like smoking a joint, it induces a silly amount of mirth. Burlesque aficionados can gather on the second Thursday of every month and, after handing over $10 at the door, watch Anita Cookie take off her clothes and challenge audience members to guess the price of the various kitschy, edible and (most importantly) drinkable artifacts she produces from backstage.
Last Thursday, Cookie's band, the Kindergarteners (Ariel Levine and Zach Abramson) twanged their guitars alongside the banter as Cookie introduced her guest star of the month, Peekaboo Pointe, a member of the "World Famous Pontani Sisters" burlesque troupe (who can currently be found in Murray Hill's neo-burlesque show at Corio in Soho.) Throughout Cookie's show, Pointe sits calmly in the corner, hand-crafting a pair of nipple concealing pasties with a pastel-pink glue gun.
These pasties were the grand prize of Anita?s fleshly version of The Price is Right. Cookie picked on three audience members to guess the prices of, among other things, a bottle of vodka (only $4surely coma-inducing,) and a box of mac & cheese. Part of Cookie's shtick is that she acts like she's a little tipsy as she performs. You kind of figured that the drink she was sipping was just colored water, though, until one of the contestants, Megan, took a gulp and looked visibly shocked as she swallowed a mix of backwash and tequila.
Cookie's a pretty hot woman, and (praise the Lord) she does a lot of bending down as she arranges objects for the game show, and a lot of tassel-twirling and flirting. She's also very touchy-feely with the contestants, a fact that was shamefully wasted on two of them (Megan and a guy called Chris, whose wedding ring may have been the reason he was on his best behavior.) Both looked to the side and gave Cookie a chaste pat on the back as she embraced them. Only the winner, Isaac had the good sense to look Cookie firmly in the pasties instead of her eyes, and grasp her firmly as he took his victory hug.