SybilSez...

Sybil Bruncheon has been performing on stage, radio, TV, film, and in various Vaudeville, burlesque, church basement, county fair, and sideshow....uh..."venues" for most of her 29 years. She is available for bookings for just about anything and can be reached at bruncheon@hotmail.com and on her website sybilbruncheon.com. She is a proud member of the Actors Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild. Her erdo number is 16.

July 14th… BASTILLE DAY... I'm remembering (very fondly!) the Bastille Days I was honored to have hosted down in the "Meatpacking District" in Greenwich Village when Florent Morellet owned the iconic Restaurant Florent, an all night diner that attracted drag queens, movie stars, rock icons, artists, politicians, and millionaires. The place hopped, literally, 24 hours a day, and frankly was more animated in the middle of the night than it was during the somewhat sleepy midday lunchtimes with local businessmen… and maybe Keith Haring and a gaggle of his pals at table 11.

Florent asked me to host the "Marie Antoinette Contest" which came at the end of the 12 hour-long shows that featured brilliant downtown talent like Joey Arias, Raven O, Basil Twist, Ethel Eichelberger, and an endless array of ventriloquists, apache-dancers, accordionists, mimes, jugglers, knife-throwers, fire-eaters, mesmerists, fortune tellers, palm readers, phrenologists, daredevils, contortionists, and can-can girls.

And the next year, Florent had me emcee the entire day... a 13 hour marathon that will always remain one of my very favorite memories of my entire career. Thousands of people moved through that section of the Village as the show unfolded and the food and drink flowed at the tables both inside the restaurant and out in the open-air sidewalk cafe that was set up on the blocked off all of Gansevoort Street from Greenwich Street to Washington Street. (The steak au poivre et frites was the very best and my favorite!)

The entire staff of the restaurant was costumed accordingly and the cobblestone pavement was so perfectly evocative too with straw scattered everywhere and a guillotine set up for photo-ops! The place was a success from the day it opened in 1985 (long before the High Line was even imagined!) till it finally closed in 2008 when the Village truly became the yuppie, corporate-driven hangout of the junk-bonders, dot-com-ers, heiresses from Omaha, Carrie-Bradshaw-wanna-bes, and the rest of the 3 card monte, banking and Wall Street scam-herd. All the magic, eccentricity, creativity, and uniqueness has been replaced by Babbity, Gloria Upson pretentiousness that smells of brewskies, frat-boy aftershave, and the backseats of BMWs that have been wiped with Clorox Clean-ups... oh well. Thank you, Florent, and the entire staff of Restaurant Florent for the great food, friendship, laughter, and memories of a much more frisky, fantastical, and fabulous time!

(Sybil's gown by the Gefil Tefish Hefty Highness Hideaway)

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