Bette, Bathhouse & Beyond’s Seth Sikes
After 9 years, Bette, Bathhouse & Beyond has become quite the Southern Decadence tradition. Inspired by Bette Midler’s legendary performances at New York City’s infamous Continental Baths, this immersive celebration produced by NYC impresario (and erstwhile part-time New Orleanian) Daniel Nardicio returns on Sunday, September 6, beginning at 9:00pm at Café Istanbul.
For its first eight years, Bette, Bathhouse & Beyond featured the fabulous singer/comedienne Amber Martin performing numbers associated with or inspired by Bette Midler throughout the evening. Last year, Martin was appearing on tour during Decadence so Nardicio brought in Ada Vox as the headlining singer and she slayed.
For Decadence’26, there’ll be two vocalists, Seth Sikes and Tim Young, who’ll recreate the magic, humor, and musical brilliance of one of La Bette’s iconic shows at that notorious gay bathhouse in a series of three 20-minute live performances (10pm, 11pm, & midnight) plus special guest performer Jimbo, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, who’ll bring clownish chaos and larger-than-life personality to the festivities.
I’ve recently been e-chatting with Seth and he seems like one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet. Which, I guess, is not surprising as he’s a Southern boi, born and raised in Paris, Texas, the son of two educators. With his ever-youthful physiognomy, Seth looks as though he could’ve starred in the title role of the musical Oliver!–and since his Dad’s name is Bill Sikes, they could’ve kept it all in the family (tho I’m sure Mr. Sikes is nothing like Dickens’ meanie).
A self-described “Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli enthusiast”, according to a New York Times feature on him, he had a childhood obsession with movie musicals like Summer Stock and A Star Is Born but a videotape of Liza Minnelli: Live From Radio City Music Hall led to a shocking discovery when he was 10 years old: “My aunt told me that Liza was Judy’s daughter, and I nearly died!”
After graduating from high school, where he acted and played trumpet, Seth moved to New York City and attended theater school. Roles off-Broadway and cabaret appearances followed as well as working on Broadway as Assistant Director for The Nance, which starred Nathan Lane, and Associate Director for the Tony Award-winning The Band’s Visit, imho, the best American musical of the 21st century.
Asked how he would describe his style of performing, Seth replied, “In the fashion of Broadway Dames like Judy, Liza, or Barbra, I am a belter — definitely more of a belter than a crooner. I guess you could say I am a boyish Ethel Merman.”
Seth Sikes
Seth has been to New Orleans only once before “and only for two nights for a wedding. I was only able to see a little of the city, and I can’t wait to see more of it this time. I’m most looking forward to hearing the music everywhere — I just love that style of music.” He adds, “Since I have to sing, I don’t want to go too wild, but I’d like to see the gay bars and some of the Decadence events, eat well, and drink up!”
I wondered what his thoughts were about coming to Southern Decadence for the first time. “Frankly I’m a little nervous about it!” he responded, perhaps only half-jokingly. “I have heard such tales, and I surely do want to emerge from the trip alive!”
To my query “What can we look forward to in your Bette’s Bathhouse performance?”, Seth answered “A few Bette Midler tunes, and maybe some other dames sprinkled in, and of course, my costume: a towel. I hope it doesn’t fall off!” And, hey, even if it did, as Ethel Merman might say “Anything goes!”
Having known Daniel Nardicio for over 20 years, I was curious as to what Seth thought of him. He replied with a winning, and cheeky, candor, “Completely out of his mind – in the best possible way!”
This adorable cabaret performer lives in NYC’s Hell’s Kitchen, and claims to be “an avid reader of serious fiction.” Still, I don’t expect to find Seth down here reading The Brothers Karamazov. Rather, he is “hoping to channel my inner Blanche DuBois on this trip, but I hope it goes better for me than it did for poor Blanche. Maybe when I’m not singing I will wander around the bathhouse party saying ‘Stella, Stella for a star!’” Anything goes indeed.
In between Seth’s & Tim’s sets, renowned NYC DJ Johnny Dynell will be playing “Bathhouse Disco” classics from the era while the Continental Go-Go Dancers add to the atmosphere. The audience will be required to wear only towels, bathrobes, or underwear (bring your own towel, or rent one from the Bette staff for $3) to recreate the raunchfest vibe of the famed bathhouse, tho clothing is optional, so all Bette’s are off! Tickets are available at https://redeyetickets.com/events/the-10th-annual-bette-bathhouse-and-beyond
Matthew Broussard at Sports Drink
Matthew Broussard is a Cajun/Jewish former financial analyst with a degree in computational mathematics who’s now a stand-up comedian. I happened to see a clip of him online a month or two ago and found him to be truly funny, something that I wouldn’t say about most so-called comics. I’m happy I got to see him recently at Sports Drink, my first time there, when he was in town with his Educated/Amoral Tour.
Tall and good-looking–picture John Davidson’s grandson–Broussard offers genuinely witty takes on a variety of topics without resorting to cursing, potty humor or trite insult comedy, a refreshing approach in these 4-letter times. He’s the kind of comic you could take home to meet the parents, grandparents and even the kids.
Alas, unlike taking notes at the theater, doing the same thing at a comedy club is a little more challenging–the patter is steady, it may not be funny out of context, and, oh yes, I was sometimes laughing so hard I nearly choked.
But among Broussard’s varied topics were vampires, St Jude’s Children’s hospital on YouTube, biking as a metaphor, Luigi Mangione & socialized medicine, farting in elevators, and having kids, all much more entertaining than the laundry list here.
Broussard delivers jokes that are casually, slyly funny. So, after a bit about Charlie Kirk and parallel parking (a metaphor, wink, wink), he said “No more assassination jokes.” A beat. “Elon Musk.” Brought the house down.
Matthew Broussard at Sports Drink
Broussard also excels at physical comedy. After a bit about cat versus dog people, he acted out how cats like to be petted with such precision that he seemed to turn into a teasingly voluptuous ball of fur. Which, naturally, segued into poodle sex jokes.
Broussard’s academic background came out towards the end (“I love math”, he said) with some admittedly “nerdy humor”. For instance, he draws lines through his “7″s to “let people know I’ve been to Europe.” And then he compared and contrasted “69″ vs. “86″. Hopefully, the Justice Department wasn’t surveilling him and his wonderfully transgressive humor.
I have only two quibbles with Broussard. One was that, throughout the routine, the weakest moments seemed to involve gay humor or, rather, references to gays. Not that it was bad or offensive, but those moments just weren’t as sharp as the rest, more observational than funny. For example, as he told of his and his wife’s IVF treatments, he mentioned that the doctor was “gay, black and from the South” and what a challenge that must’ve been (not to mention the irony of the field he wound up in); fair enough but he never spun that thread into the comic gold that made up the rest of the act.
Also, I wish he had included some of his classic bits that have popped up on my Facebook stream such as his hysterical routine about French vs. English and how lazy the letters are in French that just appear and don’t make any sounds; it was like going to a concert and not hearing the star do their #1 hits. Guess I can’t blame him for that, though–had he included all of those moments, we would’ve been at Sports Drink well past midnight (as it was, the 9pm show ended at 11pm after opening bits by Cyrus Cooper, Sean Patton and Dan Yang).
Clearly, Broussard did the right thing to eschew the world of finance for comedy; Sports Drink has only 54 seats but Broussard’s original 4 set engagement was enlarged with 2 more shows added to the run. And while there’s much to admire about Broussard’s unconventional career trajectory, he seemed most proud of his volunteer work with BEAM (Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics; https://www.beammath.org/), a NYC-based organization that “helps students from low-income communities study advanced mathematics and thrive in STEM.” Bravo!
[For more information about Sport Drink and their upcoming shows, go to https://www.sportsdrink.org/]
