Sexxy

Finally I hit the Las Vegas strip on Saturday night, well, almost the Strip. I was at the Westgate, which used to be the Las Vegas Hilton, which is not precisely on Las Vegas Boulevard but close enough. I was out on the town with my girlfriend (we're back together again, though not living together). Her friend had free tickets to a show playing there called Sexxy.

I may be wrong, but I think Las Vegas is the only place in the world that has what is called the "topless revue." Not even New York has this sort of entertainment, which is basically a very fancy strip club act. The difference is that there is no stuffing dollar bills into g-strings, no private rooms, and no lap dances. Also, the performers are far more talented. But they do go topless. The Venn diagram of the women in this show are, good dancers, willing to show tits.

The show was conceived and choreographed by Joanna Ramos, who is one of the dancers. She shows just how athletic pole dancing can be. Usually girls at strip clubs just kind of swing lazily around a pole, but Ramos, who is sleek and muscular, did some things on it that defy gravity. Another woman, called Svetlana, with long red hair, was even more acrobatic, pulling herself aloft on two red silks, winding herself in and out of them, all while suspended some thirty or forty feet off the ground. It made me nervous to watch.

The music was part old-style Vegas, with numbers like "Hey, Big Spender," and some more interesting choices, such as Veronica Marrero dancing to Bjork's "Oh So Quiet" while wearing a French maid outfit (which eventually came all the way off). Ramos' other big number was performed in a bathtub full of water, which she treated at times like the parallel bars in gymnastics.

Another highlight was a singer, Gabriella Versace, who I thought was going to stay fully clothed, but in her last number she proudly displayed her ladies. She has a great voice, and sang the hell out of "It's a Man's World."

The show was also interesting in that it didn't have any other performers, such as a comedian or hypnotist or ventriloquist. There was a comedic break when a guy was pulled out of the audience--in the show I saw, a bearded heavyset guy who looked like William Gaines--and he of course is put in a chair and teased by the dancers, and given a light whipping with riding crops. He was having the time of his life.

It's an interesting hybrid of a show--certainly without the toplessness this show would not be as popular, or even exist, but most of the audience was couples. Clearly, what happens in Vegas does stay in Vegas, as women get a little more adventurous when they come here.

I liked the show quite a bit, even after considering the boobies.