CONDOMS & COOKIES at LUCKY 13

Lucky 13 Saloon "New Monday Night Burlesque"

By Roger B

Monday, July 20th, 2009 - Park Slope, Brooklyn 

I love when I can walk into a hole in the wall bar and find the kind of character (and characters) that I stumbled upon at the Lucky 13 Saloon in Park Slope, Brooklyn this past Monday! The nature of my visit: Monday night Burlesque, which marks my third Monday Night Burlesque barhop in as many weeks.

This particular incarnation, however, is cool in ways I had never imagined. For starters, if you need condoms (and most of the people there look like they need at least a few), they have three candy jars of free NYC condoms which my buddy (he’ll remain nameless) almost emptied into his pockets. As if to get you into the mood, these freebies hint at things to come...but, of course, this is a family entertainment type venue so no need to panic. If you believe that all the oddities, models of sci-fi characters and grind house posters covering the walls and Halloween-esque shrunken heads hanging from the ceiling actually make for “family” entertainment.  

Original Cyn, produced by an enchanting young burlesque performer called Miss Mary Cyn, is a very basic line up of several performers, a sword-swallowing host, and the occasional audience participation. On a stage that is literally a wooden door on several cans of paint, these lovelies will strut their stuff with the same passion and conviction as if they were on stage in Carnegie Hall (assuming Burlesque ever makes it there).  Even the lighting is “Little Rascals.” At one point some dude dressed all in black (no doubt the “technical director” or someone’s good sport boyfriend) climbed on a rickety barstool and adjusted a clip on light just so that the barely visible 75 watt bulb could highlight those dangly tassles just right!

Headliner Miss Mary Cyn is as hot in a black pair of glasses getting ready at the front of the bar (there’s no dressing room so they prep right there by the bar if you pay attention) as she is in tassles. It is almost as if an impromptu strip tease just happened at your local bar and all the hot women in the place somehow started to dance and undress. How can you not love it. 

The show itself, the line up and the performances are your standard stuff in the burlesque realm, but the nature of the venue, that zero cover-charge and the fairly priced bar offerings make for an entertaining evening that can brighten any drab Monday. If I lived nearby, this would be where to find me on Burlesque Mondays (first and third of every month). 

To make some money, the lovelies raffle off unlikely things like tickets to other burlesque shows and home-made chocolate chip cookies made by Miss Cyn herself (purportedly baked in the nude). The cookies were won by my nameless friend who no doubt ate them all in the nude at home (though I try not to think of that). You can also wait till the end of the show and tip them as they twirl around the brass pole on top of the bar. 

Real simple: go to the Lucky 13 Saloon and have some Cynful cookies and condoms.