Great Nights Out: With a Group
White Rabbit Cabaret
Not every night at this Fountain Square burlesque club brings out the tasseled pasties.
The monthly “Spilling Bee,” coming up next on February 23, tests your ability to spell while drinking practically free beer (you know, just like college). You pay five bucks for a half-cup of brew and the right to get on stage and spell a word doled out to you by cheerfully zany hostesses Frau Heifer and Little Janie. If you’re right, you get another half-cup and a trip to the next round. The words start out innocently enough (“liquor,” “hangover”), but it’s uphill from there; at one Thanksgiving-themed bee involving Native American tribe names, a coworker fell prey to “Passamaquoddy.” Last one standing gets a prize package from local businesses and $50—nothing to S-N-E-E-Z-E at. 1116 Prospect St., 317-686-9550, whiterabbitcabaret.com
Punch Bowl Social
Because you don’t want to drink an entire bowl of punch all by yourself, do you?
Sharing wee glasses of cocktails from one big basin feels instantly festive yet intimate. We’re partial to the Bachelor’s Bowl (bourbon, Pimm’s Blackberry Elderflower liqueur, and pineapple-guava tea), which is ferried out to your table with enough to go around for eight drinkers. And we have mad respect for any place that dubs the gin-and-absinthe-driven Corpse Reviver #2 a “Breakfast Drink” on its menu. No need to constantly round everybody up to hop to the next bar, either—your gang can easily while away an entire evening at this downtown funhouse, filling up at the high-class diner, then exploring the myriad games (including an outsized eight-person foosball table), bowling lanes, and private karaoke booths. 120 S. Meridian St., 317-249-8613, punchbowlsocial.com
Midnight Movies
Throwing stuff at the screen, then driving home at 2 in the morning, is best done among friends.
See if you can guess the unnamed “Midnight Picture Show” screened once a month at the Irving Theater. It’s a “campy cult classic,” says the Irving’s website. Prop kits are available at the show, and include rice, a newspaper, and toast. And you’re encouraged to come in costume—maybe as Riff Raff or Magenta. If you’re still in the dark, be warned: You’ll likely be part of the “virgin sacrifice” performed by local group Transylvanian Lip Treatment before the movie starts at midnight on February 11. Come summertime (and October), Landmark Keystone Art does midnight flicks, too—everything from gems like The Shining to the so-horrible-it’s-good The Room (spoons are handed out for hurling at the screen). attheirving.com, landmarktheatres.com/indianapolis/keystone-art-cinema
