Bash Compactor: A Thrill a Minute

Thrillist—the email guide to life in NYC— brought its lad mag sensibility to eco-friendly nightclub Greenhouse last week. A thousand suits—sans ties—and aging sorority girls in minidresses squeezed into the shrubbywalled venue to swill free tequila and beer. Entertainment was hired: A woman in an octopus suit waving her arms around; a short person (child, midget?) in a rubber suit without eyeholes and a Coney Island carnie with a python wrapped around her neck. “Here, watch this,” Mark the Magician told me, plucking a pen from my grasp. His two assistants—wearing fishnet stockings and tight bike shorts—each lifted a leg and rested it on the table in front of us. Mark unfurled the pen from the blonde one’s patent leather boot. “Isn’t he amazing!” the other one—a brunette—exclaimed. Liz, the blonde, told me they had lost count of the pick-up lines coming from the partygoers. “If one more of these dudes tells me he likes my hat, I’m going to scream,” she joked. “They usually just take mine off my head,” the brunette added. Two girls in their early 20s were giving off a friendly vibe so I made myself comfortable at their table. I asked Amanda, a Business- Week writer, how Thrillist managed a holiday party when so many media outlets are canceling theirs. She answered with a boozy shrug: “My magazine is having its first Christmas party in years. The economy makes it a great time to be a business writer.” “Material Girl” played over the speakers. Heading out—where a mariachi band played on the sidewalk—I saw Ben Lerer, Thrillist’s founder, arguing sales figures with a Gawker employee. He had a beer in one hand and an empty rocks glass in another. He put the glass down, patted the guy on the back and turned to me. “Everyone’s obsessed with the crash, end of the world, economy crumbling, yadda. We’re feeling bullish,” he said. I asked him if he felt weird blowing up cool spots with his daily updates. “We’re in the hood, we know what’s up,” he replied, referring to being born in Manhattan. “I don’t think being in a room with these people is such a painful experience,” he added. One of the partygoers interrupted to ask for a cigarette. “What was I saying?”