Celebrity panelist — with Dana Ellyn

Full text

Complete text from the City Paper website. Saved copy on the AI drive (_GROK_BOT/SHARED/citypaper).

Julianne Brienza doth protest too much during her Friday-night MATCH GAME appearance. It was all for charity, folks. Charity. Image (c) Andrew Bossi, Flickr. A fun game to delight ladies and gentlemen both young and old, if of a sporting disposition: Try to match Andrew Bossi‘s must-see photos of Friday night’s Julianne Brienza-starring edition of The Match Game DC to each moment of gameplay, as faithfully reported by Fringe and Purge. (If you were following us on Twitter @FringePurge, you’d know ALL ABOUT this already. Keep up!)

Lindsey Boyle was the Fringe & Purge Action News and Commentary Squad‘s deputy on the scene—her review is here. The game show’s celebrity panel included Red Palace “tenured freak” Mab Just Mab, Bond 45 Executive Chef Enzo Febbraro, Miss Pixie’s proprietor Pixie Windsor, drag-queen-about-town Queen Bambi, and artists Dana Ellyn & Matt Sesow. But ’twas Brienza who emerged as the evening’s uncontested scene-stealer, despite the fact that Mab Just Mab either swallowed or very convincingly appeared to swallow a four-foot balloon at the top of the show.

Remember, folks: This is a game wherein the panelists are encouraged to overindulge and to comport themselves in a NSFW manner. It was all in good fun, and all proceeds generated by the items auctioned during the “commerical breaks” benefited worthy DC nonprofits: the DC Film Alliance, Food & Friends, and the Washington Literacy Council. So: Do not censure Brienza for her participation, which was both vigorous and honorable.

That said, Brienza has since ordered onstage drinking banned at The Match Game‘s remaining Fringe installments on Saturday, July 23 and Sunday, July 24, which is regrettable even though we can kind of see her point.

Oh, Bossi has also posted great shots of Pinky Swear Productions‘ Cabaret XXX: Les Femmes Fatales and Mark Pagan & Justin Pruvis‘s Z: The Apocalypse Improvised. Give those a scan, too. He’s got some game, does Mr. Bossi.