What a delight Varla Jean Merman was last night. The fun began before she hit the stage as she played some of here popular YouTube videos. Of the three, the one that cracked me up the most was where she saved a man from choking in a restaurant and the proceeded to stalk him because she fell for him in those moments of rescue.
Once she arrived on stage the performance mixed a bit of comedy with a whole lot of songs. Merman was accompanied by Tom Judson (a.k.a. Porn star Gus Mattox) on piano as well as by the occasional backing track.
While all the songs were great, three really stood out.
First “Holding Out for a Hair Fan” done to the tune of Bonnie Tyler”s “Holding Out for a Hero.” Merman went from having her hair blown by a small table fan to having it blown off by a weed blower.
Second was Judson and Merman deuting on the Carpenters classic “Close to You.” This was a pretty straight forward rendition of the song, with Merman going over the top at times because she isn’t in a relationship right now. Their vocals blended together beautifully though and I liked it a lot.
The completely crazy and awesome number of the night was Merman playing the wicked queen from The Magic Flute but instead of singing something from the opera she sang Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” in the style of opera and even accompanied herself with her iPhone’s flute app. I thought I might explode with laughter. I need to see if she’s done a video of this bit because I’d love to see it again.
Before the show we chatted with Miss Coco Peru. She was hyping her show to the line waiting to get in to see Merman. Since she didn’t need to hype to us we chatted about New York real estate and her sparkly dress.