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Blood-Soaked Burlesque Show Adds Splash of Horror to Striptease

By Serena Dai | August 26, 2014 11:40am
 Kings County Saloon, 1 Knickerbocker Ave., is hosting a bloody, horror-themed burlesque show Friday.
Bloody Bloody Burlesque
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EAST WILLIAMSBURG — This burlesque show is not for the squeamish.

Kings County Bar is hosting a fake-blood-soaked burlesque show this week, in which women and men will strip down in performances involving plenty of carnage.

The bar, in its new location at 1 Knickerbocker Ave., is hosting "Chuck's Bloody Bloody Birthday" show Friday for those who prefer to watch their striptease performers looking like they stepped right off the set of a horror flick.

"It’s so fun to bend the concept of, 'Here’s a sexy woman or man, stripping for you,' and then they’re disgusting at the same time," said 27-year-old burlesque performer "Charles Stunning," who dreamed up the show to marry her two favorite genres, burlesque and horror films. "It’s blending the concept of titillating and terrifying."

Stunning — who declined to give her real name — grew up watching gory horror films like "The Evil Dead" and "Hellraiser" with her mom, she said.

She said she expects "multiple gallons" of fake blood to be shed on stage during the show — adding that audience members can actually pay extra to sit in the "splash zone," where they can be soaked by it.

"The hope is to get everyone looking like "Carrie," said Stunning, who said the performers will make their own "blood." Her own recipe comes from combining cocoa powder and Karo syrup.

Once Stunning started performing burlesque more than two years ago, she itched to combine the two loves. But it's difficult to find a space that will allow performers to drench a stage in fake blood, she said.

So she pitched the idea to Kings County Bar manager Bobbie Chaset, who agreed to host it, saying it was "right up our alley."

Then she brought in several other performers who shared her proclivities, including host and emcee Miss Cherry Delight.

Acts include a set where the performer will be eating a steak and one where the woman will be doing a "psychic surgery number" that will be "incredibly disgusting," Stunning said.

Chaset hasn't gotten a preview of the show yet, but has seen Stunning perform burlesque before.

"It’s going to be adorable. It’s going to be sexy," Chaset said. "And at the same time, covered in blood."

"Chuck's Bloody Bloody Birthday" happens Friday, Aug. 29. Doors open at 8:30 p.m., and the show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets cost $12 at the door or $15 for advance, VIP "splash zone" tickets.