Meet the Burlesque Bingo Bango Show
You’ll be warned before the bingo game starts by one of the many regulars, and you’ll also be alerted—graphically, in a profanity-laden rant—by co-host Dorgan Muncie not to say “the F word.” (Spoiler alert: It’s not the one you’re thinking.) Alabaster Betty (a.k.a. Debra Silveus, owner of the White Rabbit) sheds spangles on stage but is never the only exhibitionist among the crowd. And that crowd! You’re as likely to run into your staid great-aunt as your raucous nephew.
Don’t plan to show up later than a half-hour before show time; pay your $5 and get your card. Wonder when you last saw this many smiles. Talk to strangers. “Get weird and shit,” as Muncie says. Just don’t utter the F word.
The bingo moves quickly and the prizes are lame. (Sony Watchman, anyone? Banana candle?) But the entertainment delivers. There are the clowns running the thing, of course, and their audacious, frenetic humor is as likely to be highbrow as low, amid interludes of sassy striptease (the bango?).
Find yourself with a winning board, and you’ll have decisions to make. Like whether to choose as your prize what’s under the turkey or under the table, and whether to take a bite of Muncie’s sandwich. Consider the White Rabbit a capital-F free space … like on a bingo card. There. I said it.
Update: The next show is
