A club with a twist (and some turns)
A mere half block from loud and obnoxious bars on Bourbon Street, One Eyed Jacks is an elegant throwback to another era (in a faded-splendor way). Now a music and performance space, the venue passed through several previous lives as an entertainment hub. Opened in 1970 as a movie palace, it later became the epicenter for the rebirth of burlesque in New Orleans.
In the 1960s, an overzealous DA, Jim Garrison, nearly destroyed NOLA as the burlesque capital by driving out merely risqué acts like Rita Alexander, the Champagne Girl, who balanced full glasses of bubbly on her breasts. But rather than cleansing the city of bawdy vaudevillian entertainment, Garrison created a void later filled by much raunchier live sex acts.
Info
Address 615 Toulouse Street, New Orleans, LA 70130, +1 504.569.8361, www.oneeyedjacks.net | Hours Mon–Wed 7pm–2am, Thu 8pm–4am, Fri and Sat 7pm–3am| Tip The New Orleans Bingo! Show started in 2002 when front man Clint Maedgen found bingo game boards in a thrift store and was inspired to create a new performance piece. The act merges theater, rock music, burlesque, comedic skits, and short films, and, in the middle of the set, everything stops while the audience plays a round of bingo. If you win, for God’s sake don’t tell anyone, unless you want to be dragged up onstage and utterly humiliated before getting your prize.
In the 1990s, drummer Ronnie Magri—who possessed a love of retro-kitsch burlesque, but not an ounce of knowledge—rented old B movies, interviewed retired dancers to recreate historic routines, and formed the Shim Sham Revue, New Orleans’ “first burlesque revival troupe.” They became a mainstay of the former movie palace, known then as the Shim Sham Club. The club provided a link between the burlesque stars of yesteryear and the modern wave of performers like Trixie Minx, Bella Blue, and troupes Fleur de Tease and Dames D’Lish.
In 2002, the club came under new ownership and reopened as One Eyed Jacks. The front bar, the original lobby, sports ornatechandeliers and gilt-framed paintings of nudes that line red-flocked damask wallpaper. The spacious main room features the stage and a large horseshoe-shaped bar. Upstairs, the balcony is a discreet lounge called the Matador, with velvet bullfighting paintings. In addition to burlesque acts, the club is known for showcasing emerging indie bands like Hurray for the Riff Raff, and deviant musicians like Quintron & Miss Pussycat. It also hosts the not-to-be-missed Bingo! Show and the ever-popular Fast Times 80s Dance Night.
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