Desir at Spiegelworld

All I can say is that was some crazy sh*t. How to describe it? - an R-rated Cirque Du Soleil on acid and ‘shrooms. Sounds awesome, right? Well, our older brother Gerry is visiting town from down under - at least down under NYC - Austin, TX. Since we hadn’t caught anything at the Spiegeltent and he wanted to see something “he couldn’t see in Texas,” Desir seemed perfect.

The evening off started mysteriously enough. We couldn’t find it. I knew it was down at the Seaport, but the entrance and tent are appropriately hidden down a back alley behind the old Fulton Fish Market. Now when I say tent, I’m not talking Ringling Brothers. It’s a one ring affair with about six rows of chairs all the way around. Everything’s draped in red velvet and stained glass and it instantly made me think of a French whorehouse - not a nasty Las Vegas chicken ranch, but a very expensive, exclusive French boudoir. It was all very rich and sumptuous. And to top it off, there’s a fully stocked bar in the tent. They actually encourage you to buy drinks and take them back to your seats.

The show is equal parts cabaret, circus, burlesque, theatre and acrobatics. Imagine if the US men’s and women’s gymnastic team got drunk, stripped down to their underwear and got jiggy on a trapeze. I mean, there wasn’t any actual nudity, but they didn’t really leave much to the imagination. And did I mention they serve beer?

For me, the highlight was the female Russian acrobats who performed an extremely “intimate” - read lesbo - routine while suspended above the tiny circus ring on a square, steel bar. And by “ring” I mean a circular bed the size of an average dinner table. The novelty here (aside from the sexual innuendo and half-nude bodies) is being able to sit literally fifteen feet from the performers while they dangle above your heads contorting and spinning. And they serve beer.

Trish’s favorite moment was a scene in which a boxer-brief clad hottie laid on a bed surrounded by half-naked (sense a theme here?) buff guys and gals. To Prince’s “Cream,” they sprayed whipped cream all over his body and seductively down their throats. Then the whipped creamed hottie smeared it all over his chest and mounded it over his genitals before one of the gals neatly topped it off with a jewel-studded apple. Definitely not Ringling Bros. And did I mention beer?

Anyway, we had a great time hanging out at Spiegelworld after the show. Spiegelworld is a super-hip, temporary complex of bars, restaurants and outdoor seating areas surrounding the tent and overlooking those crazy manmade waterfalls under the Brooklyn Bridge. So we spent the rest of the evening relaxing by the water, slung back on temporary hammocks, digesting images of naked gymnasts; not a bad way to spend a Monday night. We’ll definitely be back to catch Absinthe, the tents other erotic-flavored show before the season ends in November.