On Monday, an unusually warm night, the Macao Trading Company opened its doors to invitation only guests for its annual Drunken Dragon Festival. A 1940’s colonial and Chinese themed party, men arrived in fedoras, cotton shirts and suspenders. Many women wore creamed colored tops, or Chinese silk dresses and victory rolled hairdos. Notable guests included Aziz Ansari and Nik Zinner. The bartenders, in kimonos and black-rimmed glasses, delighted guests with champagne and specially prepared cocktails, which included Kaffir Jimlets, Bee’s Knees and Blood Peach Bellinis. The event’s designer, Adam Aleksander, ambled through the crowd while orchestrating the restaurant’s atmosphere of dimmed red stage lights, beaming disco balls, and an occasional plume of smoke.
Around 10 pm, burlesque dancer and party host, Calamity Chang, stood with a large white flower in her hair a red silk dress to announce the evening’s first performance. The lights dimmed, the drums rolled, and a 40-foot dragon traversed the crowd, ending at the foot of Dushan Zaric, a performer wearing black kung fu pants with a white painted face. Zaric poured an enormous bottle of champagne into the dragon’s mouth and the room exploded with confetti. Subsequently, dancer Perl Lin shocked guests with her swords and flexibility, and Nikki Le Villian, performed a belly dance while enveloped in an albino snake. Calamity Chang drew the evening’s performances to a close with a burlesque number atop the bar, in which she eventually poured a gigantic glass of champagne down her nearly naked body. (Kelly Robbins)
Photos: Fletcher Lawrence
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