Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad
The Alfred I. DuPont Building
Saturday, May 31, 2008
I dig bawdy. And I dig burlesque. Lots. In fact, the bawdier the burlesque the better I dig it. Those of you who know me know I was back in a booth for more than a few episodes of Spiegelworld when the troupe pitched their tent in town. Hell, I even ended up a sideshow at one of The Gazillionaire’s Late Nite Lounges.
I’ve had my run-ins with nice Jewish girls too (just ask Gwen Cooper), and I’m usually down for another. So are they, despite what they may say. In my, er, considerable experience, the nicer a Jewish girl is on the outside, the badder she is at her core. And I’m really good at bringing out that inner badness.
So it was with much excitement that I slipped downtown to catch Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad at The Dupont. I mean, a bevy of potential dream dames staging in one of Miami’s most magnificent rooms? How could I go wrong?
But I’ve been warned before about great expectations, and last night was one night when I probably should’ve heeded the warnings.
Still, I like to stick to the old dictum that if you can’t write something nice, don’t write anything at all. So, no matter how bad a certain Jewess claims to have gone, you won’t hear anything nice about her from me.
I will tell you that Mindy Raf is hilarious – sly, self-deprecating and utterly on target, with herself, and with men. Much, I’m sure, to many of their chagrin. If “What Was Going through My Head as You Attempted to Pleasure Me” doesn’t give you pause next time you descend then you’re either don’t dig chicks – or you weren’t listening.
Think Flight of the Conchords by way of Sandra Bernhard and you’d get an idea. Imagine a grown-up daughter of Tina Fey and Will Farrell had they both been born in the backlots of Michigan and you might get another. Mindy’s bio blurb says she writes “a widely-read relationship column” on collegehumor.com and can be seen on VH1’s Best Night Ever. I don’t know about either, but I believe both. How she found time to squeeze Miami in between one of Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre’s High School Talent Shows and a Dykes on Mics night at Ruby Fruit is another matter entirely, and I, for one of many, am damn glad that I got to consider it.
Just as I was damn glad I got to catch the first of what I hope to be many nights beneath Miami’s Open Tent. Kudos to the kittens and cats for giving me more nice girls to go bad with and for doing so in such a swell setting.
– John Hood
