ICE PALACE

 So... this weekend was a treat. While on Fire Island our host had tickets to the Ice Palace's weekend show...featuring none other than Patti Lupone!!!

 Right there on Fire Island. In the Ice Palace in Cherry Grove.  You know Patti Lupone. The Broadway diva, the three-time Tony winning performer, star of Evita, Gypsie and Company...She's fabulous, and gave an incredible concert. Her voice at 74? FLAWLESS! Anyway, the Ice Palace is a very long dance club in a big barn like, cavernous venue. Throughout much of the week it is a venue for many drags shows and strippers. And they perform on the very stage where Patti Lupone performed. And you know drag queen make most of their money with tips, so they are always passing that tip bucket around and everybody shows up with dollar bills and bigger bills to tip... and tip the strippers too. And trust me the strippers shake and shimmy to get those bills. On Friday nights there is the underwear party where most of the boys show up in underwear and jock straps and dance the night away. At the one end of the dance floor there is a curtained off area where it acts as a back room where the boys can get pretty frisky... huh, so I hear from a friend. This is where the stage for the night was. Anyway, midway through the performance, this guy walks up on to the stage right when Patti Lupone finished a song. He's holding his arm out and holding what appeared to be a rolled-up bill in his hand. Everyone took a collective sigh of breath, with, what is this guy doing, not to mention Patti Lupone is notorious for stopping a show for people talking, taking pictures and video and will chastise audience members. Everyone was like my god what is she going to do? Well, she looks at the guy and says, "Excuse me?" He says, "This is for you."  "What is this?"  He said "This is for you". She said "This is a $100 bill, what is this for?" He says, "You're doing great, this is what we do here." The audience erupts to laughter because the guy was out of it and though it must have been a drag impersonator. It was funny because she was getting a tip like a drag queen or stripper, and then she laughs, takes the bill, walks up to the piano and puts it in a fishbowl. Then she laughs and picks up the fishbowl and then starts working the audience for tips, passing that bowl, while singing. The audience is going wild, and they are tipping her like crazy, and she is laughing more, and starts running her hands through the fishbowl and says, " OMG,If you guys keep this up, I'm going to come back and see you!" And the best part? As we know she didn't need the money, she passed it off to a lesbian with a buzz cut and gave all the money back and donated it to the Cherry Grove Fire Department. About 30 minutes later after the show, the Lad and I were good and tight and were getting frisky, making out and playing slap and tickle. All of a sudden, we heard a woman say ," What is going on over there?" We turned to see it was Patti Lupone herself...on her way out. I replied, "It's what we do here.!" Still can't believe I said that. The best memory of summer so far, hands down.

Meanwhile the Lad still has no idea who she was.