Saturday Striptease
For the past three years on Saturday nights, Le Scandal has provided amazing cabaret performances at the Cutting Room. The sexy cirque du cité is hosted by burlesquer Bonnie Dunn and is inter-spliced with standards like Minnie the Moocher and Is You Is Or Is You Aint (My Baby) along with originals like Koo Koo Land by the New York City Blues Devilsfronted by sexy wildman Danny Biondo and backed by former Throbs drummer Ronnie Magri (with a variety of other talented musicians). On a recent evening, one woman did a reverse striptease, feigning wedding-day jitters, and another bellydanced and swallowed a 25-foot sword. Men arent exempt from the act: one lassoes and somehow manages to keep his cowboy hat in front of his pants; a contortionist is able to squeeze his entire hand into a glass and put his body through a (net-free) tennis racket. Dunn also performs songs and holds contests with prizes like her own homemade pasties, even calling grooms-to-be onstage for much-needed humiliation. Table service is slow, and its clearly not fun for the whole family, but it sure as hell is a way to entertain the out-of-towners as well as the locals whove seen it all.
Every Saturday night. Cutting Room, 19 W. 24th St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-388-2988; 10:30, $20.