Galapagos Art Space weekly smites with The Floating Kabarette
Event Date: January 29,2011
Venue: Galapagos Art Space
Performers:
Jenny Rocha and Her Painted Ladies, the Red Hook Ramblers, Maine Attraction, Miss Tickle, Cole Zocca, Amazing Amy, Bastard Keith.
While looking for wedding venues for my sister I stumbled on an NYC gem – Galapagos Art Space, a performance space housed in DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), Brooklyn. Although I realized that my idea of what a wedding could be didn’t really match with hers, I did decide to check out their weekly occurring Floating Kabarette. First of all, because I wanted to know if anyone would actually be nearly nude and in their 1600 square foot lake, or was it to be aerial acrobatics, again, nearly nude?
Well, turns out it’s mostly the latter, which is still totally fine by me. The indoor “lake” I was so excited about is actually more of a pond, with wooden decks covering a great portion of it and housing tables and booths for guests who were wise enough to show up early and claim the lower level of the building. For the rest of us, there was still plenty of space up on the mezzanine, where we were at least mostly outside the sphere of Bastard Keith, that night’s host, who kept testing the level of drunk in his audience by requesting that people engage in something “retarded.” Aside from Bastard Keith’s rampant use of that word, the only other unfortunate thing about the whole night is that I had to play Spiderman crawling around the mezzanine trying to get the most complete view of the stage and endlessly failing.
The show started around 10pm, by which time I was already served a moderately priced drink and felt myself relaxing in the dimly lit atmosphere. Bastard Keith entertained/insulted the audience and himself, then introduced Jenny Rocha and Her Painted Ladies (I can provide no pictures, as I didn’t bring my camera and am actually unsure of their policy on photographic evidence). They are a dance troupe, part sexy, part hilarious, and surely whimsical. Though that last adjective would mostly describe a later performance where sumo wrestlers and cannibalism were involved, rather than in this opener, where the main focus was on menacing the audience with large rubbery dildos.
The Red Hook Ramblers played us some blues and some excellent jazz, occasionally merging their performance with a burlesque act, such as Amazing Amy’s performance, which was admittedly somewhat unnerving. Amazing Amy is at minimum 60 years old, and a contortionist. I certainly wish that my body was as obedient when I get up in age like that, but watching her on stage, smiling, blowing (seemingly) toothless kisses, and twisting herself into a pretzel was sort of jarring, but also completely mesmerizing.
The following acts, those of The Maine Attraction, Ms. Tickle, and a few others whose names I couldn’t remember/later look up, were somewhat more of what was expected: fun music, clothing falling and falling, all the right parts jiggling. Art, full of rampant eroticism, without overstepping the line that leads to porn.
The Floating Kabarette is an excellent variety show, with some mainstays, but which incorporates new artists and new hosts each week. Galapagos Art Space itself is an exceptional venue, which hosts a variety of events, from speed dating, to pop science talks, parties, movie nights, and of course weddings. The best part is the cover price, which is usually about as much as it would cost you to go see a movie. So, it’s gorgeous, fun, affordable… go already!
Apologies for the offense….I can get carried away with the r-word when I’m heavily, heavily drunk. Which I tend to be at the Floating Kabarette. Glad to hear you still had a good time.
Hey! You were responsible for my ability to get a strong, yet moderately priced drink (named after you in some way). All is forgiven.