Nasty Canasta performing in Pinchbottom Burlesque.   (Photo: Ted D'Ottavio/Courtesy of Pinchbottom Burlesque)

• Pinchbottom Burlesque

  Collective Unconscious, 279 Church St.; pinchbottom.com

  In its most classic sense, burlesque should incorporate three elements: striptease, dancing, and ribald comedy. Of the many acts that grace New York stages right now —from the deliciously twisted and avant-garde to one-girl-after-another revues—Pinchbottom Burlesque follows the model to a note. It’s sexy, campy fun with just an insinuation of nudity (thanks, in part, to creative costuming). But this is hardly the same old song and fan dance. Each month, co-hosts Jonny Porkpie and Nasty Canasta script a new show featuring many of the city’s top performers, whose betasseled numbers leave enough to the imagination to make for an uproarious evening. Tickets costs $15; beer are wine are sold inside.

From the 2007 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine