More cool Southern Decadence events that didn’t make the Advocate story

Posted on September 1, 2016 by davidleesimmons under festivals

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While the New Orleans Advocate ran my perfectly adequate round-up of familiar and offbeat events for the 45th annual Southern Decadence weekend, there’s sooo much more that could’ve gotten in there.

That said, here’s that more part, including some really offbeat stuff:

Decadence ExtravaGAYnza featuring Violet Chachki
Fri. (Sept. 2)
Masquerade, Harrah’s New Orleans Casino
No cover
That Advocate roundup includes Atlanta drag queen Violet Chachki’s appearance at Bella Blue’s New Orleans School of Burlesque, but there are key omissions, including her appearance on Saturday at Bella’s “Dirty Dime Peepshow” Saturday night (Sept. 3) as well as this fun Decadence-themed show. So the Season 7 winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has a chance to own the evening on this one. More acts will perform as well.

“Glitter Tits Is a Drag: Southern Decadence Addition”
Sat. (Sept. 3), 10 p.m.
Sidney’s Saloon
$5 cover “(with drag/androg/glitter/costume/weird)”
$10 cover (“basic”)
You should go to this party that’s moved over from the Voodoo Lounge if for no other reason the creators make the weirdest-ass videos in the New Orleans social-media world (and that’s saying something). But yes, as one can glean from the dress-code possibilities, this party is about as genre- and gender-bending as Decadence gets (although “CREAM” is in the ballpark, too). Music will be provided by DJ Rusty Lazer and DJ Nice Rack. (Pro tip: Bring and/or wear glitter, because you are probably going to be wearing it by the end of the evening anyway, one way or another.)

“Horse Meat Disco”
Sat. (Sept. 3), 10 p.m.
Ace Hotel
$20
The folks at Club A present the New Orleans debut of popular British disco party DJs with a mix of “underground disco, Italo and rarities that have been rocking crowds from their base in Vauxhall, London, to dance floors worldwide since 2009.”

Am I missing something? (Or at least something that’s at a club not already listed in the Advocate story — for fairness?) Holler at me at dlsnola@gmail.com and I’ll add to the roundup.

BONUS CONTENT FOR BONUS CONTENT — Check out the trailer for the pilot of “Atlanta’s a Drag,” starring Violet Chachki.

“High Maintenance” dance party brings spirit of Voodoo Lounge to One Eyed Jacks Feb. 7 for Mardi Gras

Posted on January 25, 2016 by davidleesimmons under nightlife

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Ever since Lori Tipton and Andy Overslaugh took over the management of the Voodoo Lounge, the Rampart Street bar has turned into the host for one crazy dance party after another, blurring lines of sexuality, gender and genres. But sometimes the party can outgrow the venue, which is why “High Maintenance: A Celebration of Humanity” will find a larger home in the form of One Eyed Jacks on Sunday (Feb. 7).

The inspiration for this particular party came from Bobby Carrasquillo, who worked with Tipton at the now-defunct Lucky Pierre’s and approached her with the idea for a huge party where they could showcase friends and performers. Really, she said, the whole night, which will be hosted by Beverly Chillz and comedian Corey Mack, is a group effort.

“We also have a few other friends who have been instrumental in helping to create and contribute to the overall concept, which is a party that is all-inclusive, with performances that flow into the music as opposed to breaking up the dance party with separate, announced acts,” Tipton explained. “One Eyed Jacks has always been my favorite performance space in the French Quarter, and Ryan and Marcy (Hesseling) are nearly extended family to us, since Flanagan’s (which Overslaugh and Tipton previously managed) was around the corner from Fifi Mahoney’s for over a decade.

“We are creating a sensory experience, from the art displayed, to the music and the performances,” she said.

Beats will be provided by several DJs, including Carrasquillo (aka DJ Survibe) as well as DJ Rusty Lazer and Bennett Hendricks, with drag, burlesque, aerial and erotic performances woven into the party. Performers include Charlotte Treuse, Indica Torture, Athena, Nicole Lynn Foxx, Ilaynnah Eve DeLorean, Neon Burgundy, Wednesday Bonet Iman and Eureeka Starfish, and Dara Quick and Markus Davis.

Tipton also said the evening will feature representatives from BreakOUT!, whose mission is to support LGBTQ youth in New Orleans.

“Most importantly, we want all people to feel welcome and to have fun. This is a celebration of humanity. We are just very lucky that the humanity in New Orleans tends to be more debaucherous than other places.”

Make it a burlesque New Year’s Eve with parties in New Orleans and beyond

Posted on December 31, 2015 by davidleesimmons under burlesque

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Considering what a big year it’s been for burlesque around New Orleans, it only makes sense to mark its end with a party, and a few of the area’s top performers and producers are sending off 2015 with burlesque-themed New Year’s Eve parties. And they’re not confining themselves to New Orleans; Roxie le Rouge’s Big Deal Burlesque will take their show to Marksville for a party, in keeping with her practice of exporting burlesque to the Southeast area. I asked some of the producers for their thoughts on their shows and their work in 2015, and will continue to update.

Here’s a roundup of the shows. Please feel free to add any others you know about tonight in the comments section, and they’ll be added in with the relevant information.

Also: Voting in the “best of New Orleans burlesque” polls will close today, Thursday, Dec. 31, at 5 p.m., with results posted Wednesday, Jan. 6.

House of Mayhem presents “A Gatsby Affair”
Thursday, Dec. 31, 8:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Mag’s 940, 940 Elysian Fields Ave.

Description: “Looking for a way to ring in the New Year in style? Want to have the decadent atmosphere without the decadent price? Then join May Hemmer for a New Year’s Eve bash that will bring you back … back in time to the 1920s. Join us as we transform Mag’s 940 into a speakeasy complete with music, booze, and burlesque! At midnight join us for the champagne toast and a different spin on the balloon drop. But before the festivities kick off, Mag’s Coffee House (which is right next door) will be having an hors d’oeuvres and cocktail hour before hand! Between 7pm and 8pm for only $12 you can get some tasty finger foods and two complimentary drinks on the house!! Be sure to get there early because space will be limited for this mix and mingle event.”

Lineup: New Orleans performers Nikki LeVillain, Roux La La, Grand Mafun, Persé Fanny, and touring performers The Baroness and Gabriella Maze

Dress: Cocktail, with 1920s-style attire encouraged. Tickets:

Tickets: $11.24-$82.99. Visit event website

From May Hemmer: “I feel that taking on a bigger production so early in my production career is a big step for me. After working in the corporate world for so long, I have become pretty keen on how to put out fires and handling tense situations. And trust me… I’ve put out some fires with this show. I’ve made mistakes and I will continue to make mistakes but that’s part of the learning process. The main component that I’ve learned is to ask for help; my production assistant on this wild ride, Tsarina Hellfire, has been there to hear me ask and express frustrations. This show is also going to be a catalyst of seeing whether I can to just do smaller regular shows or compete with the big dogs and focus on just a few events throughout the year. All in all, I plan on providing a fun environment not only for my patrons, but for my entertainers. I want them to feel as fabulous as they really are and I think I’m really stepping up the game when it comes to that for ‘A Gatsby Affair.’ That way people can walk away and say that they enjoy working with me not just because they know they will get paid … but that they are treated like the top-notch performers I know they are.”

Bella Blue Entertainment presents “New Year’s Eve at the Social”
Thursday, Dec. 31, 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Gravier Street Social, 523 Gravier St.

Description: “Join us at The Social for a fun and sophisticated evening of drinks, dancing and burlesque this New Years Eve. Burlesque presented by Bella Blue and sounds from DJ Otto. Great music to dance to in an eclectic venue with a cool crowd! 9 p.m. until late. Reservations: info@gravierstreetsocial.com or 504-941-7629.”

Lineup: Angie Z, Meredith Mon Archm, Charlotte Treuse, emcee Stevie Poundcake

Tickets: $45-$60. Visit event website

New Year’s Eve with Slow Burn Burlesque and Debauche
Thursday, Dec. 31, 9 p.m.
Hi-Ho Lounge, 2239 St. Claude Ave.

Description: “Ring in 2016 with Debauche and Slow Burn Burlesque on Thursday, Dec. 31, at The Hi Ho Lounge!”

Lineup: Sarah Duprix, Ladee Lucerne, Porcelain, Natasha Fiore

From Ben Wisdom: “The Slow Burn Debauche show will be an unforgettable way to bring in the new year. No where else will you be able to dance to a live DJ playing Balkan dance music, see a troupe of professional and sexy belly dancers, experience the hell fire of one of New Orleans most recognized burlesque groups Slow Burn and party with the wildest band in all the land Debauche! It’s a night of unique alternative entertainment unlike anything else in the city.”

“Mon Cherie Amour” featuring Roxie le Rouge & Big Deal Burlesque
Thursday, Dec. 31, 10 p.m.
Bailey’s on the Square, 113 E. Ogden St. Marksville, 318-240-3495

Description: Champagne toast, balloon drop, party favors, breakfast buffet. Benefits the Avoyelles Arts Council.

Tickets: $75

From Roxie le Rouge: “My number one goal since starting Big Deal Burlesque over four years ago, has been to broaden our audience bringing top notch burlesque, sideshow and variety acts to new audiences. I do enjoy performing in big cities and often do as a soloist but, it is so rewarding to give smaller cities a first time experience and build an ever-growing fan base. The level of enthusiasm is really on a whole another level and all the performers remark how great it feels connect with the audiences. We have met some of the loveliest people on the road. These trips are reminders of why I do what I do. It’s pure joy. I’m really excited for 2016! I have many things I would like to accomplish for Big Deal this coming new year including a new group act, new concepts, collaborations and an expanded tour. Personal goals include polishing up my business skills, a new act with a fantastic costume is in it’s infancy stage and the always and ever present lesson of balance between work and personal life. I’m finally getting the hang of it.”

Do dive bars in New Orleans still matter?

Posted on December 29, 2015 by davidleesimmons under nightlife

The Black Penny on Rampart Street — formerly The Ninth Circle. (Photo by David Lee Simmons)

There’s a pretty funny, sharply observed and snarky post from Munchies making its way around the Internet thanks to a re-posting from its original 2014 publishing titled “The Slow and Painful Death of the Dive Bar.” Basically it’s a barfly’s screed against the gentrification that’s occurred all over the land in which former dive bars are taken over by a kind of hipster management awash in cleverly disguised bourgeois trappings such as IPAs and craft cocktails and digital jukeboxes. Here’s but one witty shot across the bow:

Does your daytime bartender have full arm-sleeves? That’s cool. Do ALL your new bartenders, barbacks, door men, regulars, and social-media coordinators have full arm-sleeves? That’s bad. See, tattoos are meant to indicate individuality. If everyone is uniform in their individualism, then this place is no better than Hot Topic. You can’t mass-produce an identity. In fact, you shouldn’t even have a social media coordinator. That dumb new mustache logo isn’t helping, either. The only logo a proper dive bar should have is that cold look a regular laser-beams at you when you open the door at 11 AM and it lets in too much light.

Indeed, New Orleans, having in its post-Katrina population boom embraced many national trends including a certain strain of hipsterism in its nightlife (often for the better), has experienced an almost tectonic shift in its seemingly myriad dive bars. You can see it most evident in the French Quarter, especially with several divey gay bars being converted into such spiffy and shabby-chic joints as the Black Penny (pictured) with its impressive canned-beer selection as it sits perched on an ever-transforming Rampart Street. And if the French Quarter is the canary in the coal mine for New Orleans bars, what do these conversions mean for the rest of the city?

For the article’s author Josh Androsky, it’s the end of an era: “Remember the good times? Back when it was that other place, the good place? Before you bought it. Before you ruined it. Before you renamed it something along the lines of an ‘eco friendly neighborhood pub SERVING IPAs ONLY, Bring Your Kids!'”

This reminded me of the days managing the bar guide at the previous publication, and painful — I mean PAINFUL — 2014 debate we had in deciding on the top five dive bars in New Orleans. It was painful not just because of the slow death of the dive bar, but also the crazy criteria for what constituted a dive bar in the first place. There were the obvious ones, like a locally owned spot primarily embedded in a neighborhood, and maybe with its fair share of “characters” along with cheap drinks and beer and an organically well-worn feel to it and a jukebox that didn’t try too hard to be cool but was anyway. Stuff like that.

But also, as I believe some commenters may have pointed out, it just felt unseemly to “promote” or “rank” dive bars to begin with, to celebrate something that very much seemed to want to operate exclusively under the radar and didn’t need your help, thankyouverymuch. (Certainly not from a corporate-owned publication, but that’s another discussion for another day.)

So what do you think? Do you believe New Orleans’ dive bars are going the way of other bars nationally, as Josh Androsky has suggested (twice now, LOL)? Do you also agree that they have an intrinsic value, or should we even care anymore? For me, the beauty of New Orleans bars do lie in their ability to become a treasured part of a neighborhood, and identify with it. I’d wager some newer New Orleanians, for example, might be surprised at how just you Finn McCool’s is. While a true neighborhood bar, it’s barely more than a decade old, yet feels very much a part of Mid-City while not being a dive bar at all. And there are other bars that, while renamed and under more recent ownership, that still have that divey feel — like JJ’s Sports Lounge in Bywater (Bywater!).

And so, as we approach New Year’s Eve, I’ll repeat the question: Do dive bars in New Orleans still matter?

Lucky Pierre’s, Bourbon Street nightclub for drag and burlesque, to close

Posted on December 3, 2015 by davidleesimmons under nightlife

Yarinez Mercado

Dante the Magician

“Flim Flam Variety Hour”

Ruby Rage

“Blue Book Cabaret” when it was at Lucky Pierre’s

Bella Blue

Lucky Pierre’s, which over the past year tried to blend drag shows with a variety of burlesque-themed shows, will close, an employee at the club confirmed Thursday (Dec. 3) night.

“It’s really true. We found out last night,” said Yarinez Mercado, who performed under the drag name Yari Dumar. (She commented on a story I did on the transgender community’s response to the Caitlin Jenner news.)

The nightclub seemed to have a rocky time while trying to blend drag and burlesque shows during its brief time on the Bourbon Street strip. Hawkers outside the club constantly encouraged locals and tourists to come inside and witness a shows such as “The Real Drag Queens of New Orleans” in the main bar and “Drag Cabaret” in the patio bar inside a courtyard.

The burlesque programming was a little rockier. Popular burlesque performer Bella Blue established her “Blue Book Cabaret” show at the club for several months before one of the performers in her lineup, Ruby Rage, was forced out by management in February in which she said was because of her weight. Following a public-relations nightmare that played out on the club’s Facebook page (with messages defending the move being posted and pulled as commenters erupted in anger), Bella Blue ended her relationship with the club and eventually moved the show down the street to Bourbon Pub and Parade. On Thursday, Bella Blue expressed disappointment about the club’s closing.

“I’m very sorry to hear that Lucky Pierre’s is closing. It’s bittersweet. There are a lot of good people who continued to work there after The Blue Book was pulled and no one deserves to lose their income; no matter what the reasons,” Blue wrote. “I don’t know why it’s closing. It doesn’t matter at this point. It was fun while it lasted. We had some of our best shows there and made so many wonderful friends in the process. What happened earlier this year was truly one of the most difficult things I personally had experienced and it affected a lot of people. But now there are a lot of talented drag queens who need spots in shows. So, let’s support them and hire them as they figure out what’s next.”

Dante the Magician began presenting “The Flim Flam Variety Hour” as well as “Dante’s Dirty Tricks,” at the club earlier in 2015, entertaining customers with a mix of magic, human tricks and boylesque performances featuring, among others, Donny V.

I’ve reached out to management for comment and hope to hear back soon. Come back here for more details.

Krampus Gras 2015 once again offers a holiday party on the dark side, Saturday (Dec. 5)

Posted on November 29, 2015 by davidleesimmons under nightlife

Elizabeth Zibilich can’t help herself. While most folks understandably have been held in the sway of St. Nicholas and the whole “He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake” side of Christmas, the devilish costume designer and spooky ghost tour guide long has been favored the darker impulses of the alter-ego Krampus.

This is the horned little fella who’s a little tougher on naughty children during the holiday season than St. Nick — we’re talking scary-tough. And so, in the tradition of Mardi Gras and Halloween, Zibilich will return her Krampus Gras party for the third year and at third location: Saturday (Dec. 5) at 10 p.m. at the Voodoo Lounge on Rampart Street.

“Don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against the cheer that the Christmas Season brings along with the glee children get out of Santa,” Zibilich said. “I loved it as a child myself. Krampus, however, is a lesson or a warning about being good. Good little boys and girls aren’t taken away by the Krampus. They are left oranges in their shoes by St. Nicholas, according to the lore. Kids now have the elf on the shelf which “is always watching you” and in my opinion is almost more terrifying than Krampus.

“Though as adults we all have a naughty kid side to us, and this party is a way to break loose from their everyday nice kid side.”

In previous years the party’s included live music, but this year, as Zibilich has had to focus on recovering from an accident suffered earlier in 2015, is slightly scaled back. Instead of a band there will be DJ Andy Average spinning punk, lounge and rhythm and blues music. Also, the party will feature a fun little tune-up: Around 8 p.m. a fire engine ride on the Gator 1 Premier Party Fire Engine, with as many as 25 people taking a two-hour ride through the French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny and Bywater. (That ride, however, already has sold out.) Also: Holly’s Tamales food truck is expected to park and provide the food.

“We will make a few stops, but keep your eyes peeled for Krampus and naughty children,” Zibilich, before adding, “We also have a spanking area planned for naughty boys and girls and a few odd surprises thrown in.”

It’s also a great opportunity for a costume party; guests are encouraged to dress up either as Krampus or as a naughty child — which, as with all things downtown, can get a little weird.

“As a costume designer I am ecstatic to see what people come up with,” Zibilich said. “Some people don’t come in either Krampus or a naughty-child costume, but they’ll be there in their festive Christmas garb, which can get incredibly creative as well.”

This year’s Krampus Gras is particularly well times: The movie “Krampus” opens nationally on Friday (Dec. 4). The movie is directed by Michael Dougherty and stars Adam Scott, Toni Collette and David Koechner.

Admission is $10 general, $5 with a costume. Proceeds benefit Planned Parenthood. Check out the Facebook event page for more details.