Truth or Dare with Pepe

Terry and I went to The Peacock Room to catch Pepe. We entered and paid the five dollar cover to Mike Maples who had on a very stylish fedora. At the bar we sat next to Devin Dominguez and Shannon Lacek who was just getting up to leave. Devin and Terry talked about the various boards they work for. Rob Ward was greeting people up and down the bar. I ordered a Corona and relaxed.

I decided not to sketch until the show started so I sat back and enjoyed the social interactions firing up all around me. We waited for quite a while since some of the guests for Pepe’s show hadn’t arrived yet. Aradhana Tiwari breezed up to the bar and ordered a cosmo. The bartender wouldn’t accept any of her credit cards so she had to go out to her car to get cash.

Terry and I were some of the first people to enter the backroom performance space. I collapsed into a beanbag chair at Terry’s feet. The set had gotten much more elaborate since I had been on the show many months ago. A gorgeous red patterned couch filled the stage along with Pepe’s giant red pump chair. Pepe’s co-star for the night was Blue Star from VarieTEASE Dance Company. Megan Boetto dressed in a tight red corset was the evenings Jello shot girl. Guests of the show were Beth Marshall and Mark Baratelli.

Mark arrived late and sober so he started sucking down jello shots one after the other. When asked by Pepe if he wanted to pick Truth (gasp from crowd) or dare. Mark picked Truth. Everyone was very disappointed. He related a story about someone who stole a show idea intending to use it as a fundraiser for a cause but then the individual pocked the money. It was a true arts community scandal. Beth Marshall was asked to pick someone from the audience to some on stage and she picked Air who had to be just about dragged up on the stage. She complained, “I have been up since 7:30 this morning, this isn’t fair.” She was offered the truth or dare challenge and she picked dare. Pepe explained, “I have a privacy screen behind this chair and I will allow you to sit behind it and then verbalize your best orgasm.” She asked, “Do you want the whole thing or just the ending?” He pulled the screen out and set it up in front of her. She gave a performance worthy of that deli scene in “When Harry Met Sally.” I was shocked and amazed. Directors are mighty fine actors.

Two men were pulled from the audience and one was told to do a lap dance for the other. Mark kept shouting out, “Take off the shirt!” When the shirt finally came off the crowd went wild. The two men were then given a slip Jim meet stick and told to chew from either end until their lips met in the middle. his was another hilarious moment. At the same time Beth and  Blue Star were doing something involving a banana on the other end of the couch. A woman at the back of the room started to dance to the song, “Put a ring on it.” She shouted out that her name was Snipples. Megan started doing the dance on stage with plenty of hip action. When jello shots were thrown out to the crowd again, Pepe offed a toast, saying, “To the arts community in Orlando, may it thrive!” I raised my shot high in the air and sucked it down by shoving my tongue all around the rim dislodging the tasty jiggling mass.