The Puritans get a lap dance

By Matthew Lysiak
The Brooklyn Paper

Lets face it: Bay Ridge has long had a reputation for being an uptight, prudish community, but all that is about to change.

That’s because four women were kind enough to help local straphangers pass the time by doing erotic pole exercises complete with lap dances, and lots of flesh — and it was all caught on video.

But it wasn’t just for fun. The clip, titled “Sexy Pole Dance Girls in NYC Subway,” started getting noticed after it was submitted to Darejunkies.com, a Web site that bills itself as “Jackass” meets MySpace, and offers cash prizes for contestants who perform dares on camera. The perpetrator(s) of the craziest stunt can win $10,000.

The footage on the Web site (also available on YouTube) shows four scantily women, straddling various subway poles and grinding up against several guys who look like they are enjoying the ride (the subway ride — get your mind out of the gutter!).

Mouths drop to the ground as the girls show off their moves before a packed car of stunned commuters — including small children. At one point in the video, NYU theater student Marissa Lupp, 20, even performs a lap dance that would make the strippers at Scores blush.

The ladies — who call themselves the “Pole-ite Girls” — say they got their warmest reaction right under the streets of conservative Bay Ridge.

“The R-train got held up in Brooklyn so we were on it a long time and we were surprised that the passengers were so friendly and kind,” said Lupp, 20, who along with Isis, Jessica Wu, and Laura Lee Anderson hatched the scheme for the two-hour ride last March. “Everyone was so engaged, they were cheering us on and giving us lots of encouragement.”

Our community is known for many things — but wild and crazy times it is not.

After all, Bay Ridge is the place where a poster for the Showtime series, “The L Word,” which featured snuggled-up lesbians, elicited mass protests from state Sen. Marty Golden.

Of course, it wasn’t just Bay Ridge that got treated to a free show — straphangers on the N, Q, and L lines also got their two bucks’ worth, and it is hard to say exactly how many commuters were actually local residents.

But no matter how many of them were real Ridgites, it was evident that the pole girls certainly had their share of local fans — the end of the clip shows the entire car of commuters applauding, with one woman even dropping some cash in a hat.

“We missed our stop about six stops ago,” one smiling man told the camera. “We stayed on for the show.”

But don’t look for this to become a trend — Bay Ridge isn’t about to become one big strip club anytime soon. It is, after all, still Bay Ridge.

“These girls aren’t performing artists,” one woman who saw the video said. “These girls are a bunch of damn whores!”

OK, maybe the community isn’t in for a big change, but that doesn’t take away the fact that for at least one brief moment in time Bay Ridge and risqué went hand in hand, or at least lap in lap.

Matthew Lysiak is a freelance writer who lives in Bay Ridge.

The Kitchen Sink
On Sunday morning, pedestrians walking in front of Paneantico, which is located on 9124 Third Ave., were greeted by a severed pig head glaring down from a top of a telephone booth. …

Someone must have slept in on Tuesday morning: workers at the Rite Aid on Third Avenue and 79th Street were having a breakfast picnic on the sidewalk as they waited for almost an hour for their tardy manager to show up. … Blogger Right in Bay Ridge may call it “the typographical topography of Bay Ridge,” but The Sink just calls it plain stupid. Whatever it is, “Joy Perfumes and Styels,” which is located at 410 86th St., needs some help with the spelling on that big red sign of theirs. …

Congrats to Susan Romero, who was just appointed to Community Board 10 by Councilman Vince Gentile (D–Bay Ridge). …

Spotted, by a reliable Sink source, CB10’s land-use committee Chairwoman Joanne Seminara tasting a free sample of chips and salsa at Fairway supermarket in Red Hook — and double-dipping in the communal salsa! …

Congratulations to the Xaverian High School Choir that traveled to Washington DC to sing for President Bush. We hear that “W” was, in fact, a no-show, but the only president that matters to The Sink — Borough President Markowitz — was there a few days earlier to pin the boys with his famous “Brooklyn” lapel tags (see photo below).

Subway pole dancers enrage MTA

By BRENDAN BROSH, MATTHEW LYSIAK and BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Monday, December 10th 2007, 4:00 AM


Giancarli for News

Talk about a steam train! 'Pole-ite girls' Marissa Lupp (l.), Laura Lee Anderson and Jessica Wu (kneeling) are burning up Web with subway strip show video.

Video still from girls dancing on train on a dare.

Video still from girls dancing on train on a dare.
The N train may need to be changed to the NC-17 and the L could be dubbed the lap dance express.

That's because commuters on the lines got their two bucks worth - and then some - when four leggy New Yorkers set out to turn the subway cars into strip-club Champagne lounges.

On a dare from a Web site promising $10,000 for the best pole dancing in public, the quartet took a ride on the wild side and their winning video has become a rage on the Internet.

"It was literally get on the train and go," said Laura Lee Anderson, 24, of Queens, one of the vivacious vixens videotaped performing Scores-type moves on a Manhattan-bound N train.

Gal pals Jessica Wu, Marissa Lupp and Isis Masoud joined Anderson for the hip-grinding stunt that had male riders ogling and skipping their stops, females smirking - and the MTA fuming.

"The last thing we want is for anyone to turn our subways into roving burlesque stages for crude exhibitionists," said NYC Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges.

"While the rules don't specifically state lap or pole dancing ... what is depicted here is disorderly conduct," Fleuranges added.

The N train divas had no regrets and saw their cleavage-baring act as a golden opportunity.

"Strip dancing in public can be a little nerve racking, but we were all broke and in between jobs and it seemed like a good way to make some cash," said Masoud, an aspiring actress and choreographer.

Armed with a boom-box blasting Prince's "Erotic City" and bolstered by shots of vodka, the self-described "Pole-ite" foursome stood clear of the closing doors March 1, stripped off their coats and got jiggy with metal aisle poles.

Dressed in a skimpy mini dress and leotard, Lupp, 20, a New York University theater student, gave new meaning to the word straphanger.
Dangling from overhead handrails, she lowered herself on a male rider, who eagerly accepted a lap dance.

Dangling from overhead handrails, she lowered herself on a male rider, who eagerly accepted a lap dance.
In a midriff-revealing blouse and short plaid skirt, Wu, 25, of Queens, punctuated her acrobatics with a leg split. "Don't tell my mom," the NYU grad said.

Filmed with a Sony Handycam and edited by Masoud, the women submitted their video to Darejunkies.com and collected the grand prize.

When it was downloaded on YouTube, the four-minute clip - titled "Sexy Pole Dance Girls in NYC Subway" - became a four-star hit, attracting more than 61,000 views.

"They won because sex in a public place always sells," said Darren Niermerow, 29, co-founder of the Web site.

But Lupp's parents said they never dreamed their daughter's celebrity would hinge on her subway pole dexterity.

"We're traditional conservative people and I was a little chagrined when I saw her do a lap dance on that guy," said Marshall Lupp from his Essexville, Mich., home.

whutchinson@nydailynews.com

With Pete Donohue and Clare Trapasso