Truth or Dare with Pepe

Posted on by Thor

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.

From Dust to Life

Posted on by Thor

I went to an art opening titled, “From Dust to Life” which featured the work of Jason Lee. The art was hung in the Peacock Room (1312 North Mills Avenue). The work will stay on display through August 15th. The Arts Hub and the Peacock Room sponsored the event. When I entered the bar, I immediately looked at all the paintings on the wall and then found myself a seat at the end of the bar so I could get an overall view of the room and bar patrons. Toni Taylor was seated right next to me on my left and next to her was, Jen Jacobson, a friend and fellow artist who has turned to Tony for painting advice. That is right just like in renaissance days, this artist has asked Toni to take her under her wing and share her working secrets. Together they are working on a huge 5 foot high canvas that will be on display at Tu Tu Tango’s on July 30th.

On the ceiling of the bar Doug Rhodehamel had perhaps a hundred brown paper bag mushrooms suspended upside down. On the far wall of the bar an Andrew Spear mural was staring straight at me. I started my drawing by focusing on that beautiful face. All the perspective lines point straight at her. Toni’s apprentice took an interest in my sketch so she sat next to me and watched for a while. I discovered she works at the Animal Kingdom training the birds that are in the shows. We talked parrots for a while, since I have a pet cockatoo. She lost interest and then she and Tony started talking girl talk.

Carl Knickerbocker, an amazing local artist is in the left hand side of the sketch. He noticed me sketching and came over to see my progress. I asked him about the idea of sketching him at work on one of his larger pieces. He agreed so I might visit his studio soon. Brad Briggs who helped organize the evening came over to say hi, he was with his partner Linda Brandt. I had sketched Linda as she worked with her pet dog, Otis, at Hip Dog Hydrotherapy. Brad checked back a few times and I felt he might be impatient with my slow progress. A group of artists stood behind me talking about various shows. Part of me felt I should be socializing more myself. I honestly know little about the Orlando Arts scene but I figure if I just keep doing my sketch a day, the rest will work itself out in time.

The Singing Menorah

Posted on by Thor

Brian Feldman had been ribbing me for some time about all the Singing Christmas Trees sketches I have been posting here on Analog Artist Digital World. At an 8 AM Meeting of MOOM (Meeting of Orlando Minds) on Friday, Brian suggested he might stage a performance of the Singing Menorah at the Track Shack which is at 1104 North Mills Avenue right in the area where I planned to host an Artists and Writers Crawl. He pointed out that Track Shack had one of the few storefront Hanukkah displays in Orlando. The Crawl was only a day away but Brian managed to throw together a stellar performance. He had help from Omar Delarosa who co-wrote many of the lyrics and performed on guitar. Knowing the times of the stops along the Crawl route we agreed that he could start his performance around 8PM when the Crawlers were moving from the first stop, The Peacock Room to the Second stop, Wills Pub.
The Crawl developed a glitch from the start, when Tisse Mallon and I arrived at The Peacock room to find that it would not open for another two hours. I wrote a note and stuck it on the door so other Crawlers would know to go to the second stop, Will’s pub. Because I wandered around and introduced myself to all the people who arrived at Will’s, my sketch was not a very focused. When it was time to wander up to the next stop, I was still splashing watercolors on the sketch. Other crawlers headed out but I kept working. When I arrived at Track Shack where Brian was to perform, there were a crowd of Crawlers sitting in lawn chairs on the sidewalk looking into the storefront window. Omar was playing guitar. At the appointed time Brian walked out having to squeeze in the space between the plate glass and the display wall.
The performance was hilarious and fun. New Hanukkah lyrics had been written for a number of pop tunes. The Menorah that Brian was sporting consisted of cardboard tubes wrapped in tin foil. There were Hanukkah cards leaning up against the storefront window and for some reason a small Mickey Mouse sat watching the audience. Emma Hughes handed out dreidels to everyone in the audience when Brian sang a dreidel song. For the final number, Brian called in his back up dancer named Willoughby Mariano. It seemed most appropriate that she had a cast on her left leg from her foot up to the knee, but she still performed and gave a new meaning to the saying, “Break a leg”. Later, Emma handed out sparklers and when the performance was over everyone lit them up and the lights and sparks danced. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a sparkler since I was still scratching away in my sketch book.
Several times, cars stopped dead on Mills Avenue to see what the excitement was about and several cars honked. However, my attention was sharply focused on the show. This is without a doubt the greatest Singing Menorah performance I have ever seen. Well, yes, it is the only Singing Menorah performance I have ever seen. For the remainder of the Crawl I heard people commenting on how surprised they were that Brian had such a good singing voice. Brian truly gave the Singing Christmas trees a run for their money.

The Peacock Room

Posted on by Thor

Before getting on stage for the Pepe and Miss Sammy “Truth or Dare” show, I ordered a Heineken and sat down to do a sketch of this couple sitting at the front table. The Peacock room decorates the place with a real flair. High quality demons and monsters along with cobwebs, were everywhere.
I started the sketch because I couldn’t help but want to read into what they might be talking about. Based on their body gestures and attitudes, I guessed that they are friends but not particularly intimate. I separated them with the centerfold on purpose to indicate that subtle divide. I also love the fact that they both have monsters lit with complimentary colors, lurking behind them acting as psychological indicators that all is not right. For me the scene has all the elements of an Edward Hopper painting with the added flair of horror.
At the bar I bumped into Matt McGrath and he introduced me to Alexis Jackson who is playing the roll of Molly in the play “Love Song” now at the Mad Cow Theater. She told me a bit about the play and the cast and now I really want to see, and sketch it. The show runs through October 25th.
Matt said he will hook me up with information about a cool Irish bar with live music that should make for a good sketch down the road. I finished up the painted aspect of this sketch after I was done sketching the Truth or Dare Show then I headed home.