wordplay: JJ

images: Sean Hartgrove

dancer: Orchid Mei

            Like a giant pink elephant standing in the corner of your living room, the Pink Elephant Room - located on Colfax and Madison across from the infamously suave P.S. Lounge - is impossible to ignore.
            But this Pink Elephant is no hallucination. Because whether it’s a sensory overload caused by the beautiful babes of Burlesque As It Was (led by Denver’s vivacious Vivienne VaVoom), or by the sweet and spicy fresh-squeezed cocktail menu, the Pink Elephant and its Shimmy Shaker Show will certainly leave you seeing pink. Though, in coordination with both troupe and city standards, you’ll see only the pink parts allowed by law, of course.
            “The essence of burlesque has always been a lesson in self-expression and self-acceptance,” Burlesque As It Was fan-favorite Fannie Spankings says, explaining the common misconceptions concerning “burlesque” in comparison with “stripping.” “It’s about finding out what you think is sexy and not what society tells you.”
            And unlike the plastic and drastically misshapen figures often wrapped around poles in seedy strip joints throughout town, one look at Fannie’s classic and kitsch costumes and her more prominent ass-ets (if you will) quickly clues the patron into the kind of sexy that the Pink Elephant promotes.
            The brainchild of Anika Zappe (one third of the Denver rock band Hemi Cüda), the Pink Elephant Room is a good, old-fashioned burlesque house that occupies the spacious P.S. 1515 Thursdays through Saturdays from 4:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. Zappe came up with the idea of a burlesque club while bartending at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret, where the Burlesque As It Was troupe performs at 8 p.m. every Thursday night with naughty, little Frenchman, Pierre St. Jean St. Pierre.
            “I think there’s a greater need for burlesque and a bigger demand for it,” Anika says. “I saw an opportunity to do something in this space and so the Pink Elephant Room was born.”
            But the real birth of the Pink Elephant Room happened five years ago when P.S. Lounge owner Pete Siahamis bought the property, taking over the antiquated Normandy, a French restaurant that occupied the location for nearly 40 years prior.
            “The P.S. Lounge started making the Colfax look good,” Pete says. “The 1515 and the Pink Elephant Room will keep Colfax looking classy.”
            And with its charming Rat Pack décor of black and white movie star prints amid a warmly lit interior filled with plush leather couches and classic wood settings, the Pink Elephant Room has more class (and @$$) than any Colfax club to date.
            “The Pink Elephant has really captured the feel of Colfax in its heyday,” Fannie says. “Picture 1950s smoky jazz bar supper clubs with men dressed to the nines and women oozing glamour in their silks and furs. The Shimmy Shaker Show, with its gorgeous gals, blue comedy and variety acts, is just the kind of entertainment they would
have enjoyed.”
            But the real kicker for your ticket price may very well be the Pink’s wide array of exotic and spicy cocktails, which are a perfect match to the exotic and spicy onstage antics.
            “Originally, the idea (for the Pink Elephant) started with gourmet cocktails,” Anika says. “I wanted to bring along some of the things I’d been tasting in my travels. I just felt the two (gourmet cocktails and burlesque) complimented each other.”
            Among some of the specialty drinks offered up by Anika and her staff are The Johnny Fu (vodka, ginger, sake & lemon), The Nutty Sidecar (Korbel brandy, Cointreau & Nocello liqeurs & lemon) and the Pearacuda (pear vodka, lime, jalapeno & cilantro). (The latter is a creation of Karen Exley, one of the Pink’s ultra-hip and ultra-hot staffers and fellow Hemi Cüda band member, thus lending to the pun-derful name of the delicious and twisted pear cocktail.)
            The Pink also offers a number of variations on old classics that include a strawberry Old Fashioned, a kiwi Mojito, the Moscow Mule (Colfax style) and New Orleans standard, the Sazerac (appropriately named The Colfazerac, but minus the traditional absinthe).
            And while the Pink’s massive selection of fresh-squeezed fruits (including oranges, lemons, limes, kiwis, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries) certainly add a distinct and flavorful quality to their cocktails, it’s their variation of simple syrups that add the kick. Infused with elements such as jalapeno, habanero and ginger (to name a few), these simple syrup drinks form a complex combination of the classic hot and sour concept that makes them anything but simple. Those with delicate palates best beware.
            But the truth is, like its moniker would imply, the Pink Elephant is anything but delicate. Whether it’s the fiery flavor of the infused intoxicants or the fierce and finely tuned dance of the burlesque divas, the Pink Elephant will leave you dizzy with lust, laughter, life and liquor.
            “We long to live in a happier time and burlesque brings us just that,” Anika says. “Now let's go get happy.”
            Come to the Pink Elephant Room Fridays and Saturdays at 10 p.m. for the Shimmy Shaker Show featuring Burlesque As It Was. Tickets are $10 at the door. Must be 21 or over and provide valid I.D. The Pink Elephant accepts cash only.

1515 Madison

(303) 394.1515

Burlesque As It Was Fridays & Saturdays @ 10 p.m.

myspace.com/PinkElephantRoom