The Viper Room

About a week ago, Corey called me up while I was at work and told me that she had big plans for us on Saturday night. A few minutes later, she sent me a link to the website for the Viper room with a page-full advertisement of The Pussycat Dolls’ burlesque act on February 14th. She had gotten us tickets, stating confidently that there was no better way to spend Valentine’s Day in LA. She couldn’t have been more right.

Heading up to Sunset Boulevard, we found a nice little place called Isla to sit down, eat dinner and have a few drinks before the show. The food was excellent, with Corey ordering a vegetable fajita and myself enjoying a lime-marinated chicken breast with Spanish rice and an assortment of grilled vegetables. Following dinner we walked across the street to the lower entrance of the Viper Room, where we spent some time hanging out in a small little lounge while we waited for the show to begin upstairs.

Around 10:00, they opened up the stage room, which is actually a lot smaller than either one of us had expected, and we took our positions just to the right of the main catwalk that extended from the stage. Within minutes, one of the girls climbed up on a trapeze swing that hung from the ceiling on the other side of the stage where she actually stayed for the majority of the night. Men in sailor outfits started filtering into the crowd and after a fairly long jaunt of another dancer inviting members of the audience up on stage, lights erupted from behind the curtain, and the wall screamed “Pussycat Dolls” in full pink neon.

They sang, they danced. They splashed around in over-sized martini glasses and bear-claw tubs in only the way that true women of burlesque can. Corey was right; this was the only way to spend Valentine’s Day in LA and I was having a blast.

The show ended around 1, and after talking to a few of the girls from the show, we left the Viper Room and its legends behind and headed home, signaling the close of the last night of my vacation in Los Angeles. I’m not sure when I’ll see Hollywood again, but I can’t help but think that at least I’m able to leave with some of the better memories I’ve collected from this town. With the company of some of my oldest friends, and one of the more memorable Saturday nights I’ve had in recent memory, everything about this vacation defined mental health. It might actually be difficult to head home.