Sometimes it seems like every bar, club, and Laundromat has an
amateur burlesque night, with dilettante dancers who are as supple and
sexy as a paper bag full of coat hangers. But the subterranean,
candlelit Can Can remains a haven for the genuine article. You
won’t find any desultory shimmying here: These dancers are strong,
limber, and explosive. They swing from chains, slam each other
against walls, and generally steam up the almost-too-intimate
stage. The Castaways are the soul and flower of burlesque. (Can Can,
94 Pike St, 652-0832. 9 pm, $5, 21+.)

Brend an Kiley has worked as a child actor in New Orleans, as a member of the junior press corps at the 1988 Republican National Convention, and, for one happy April, as a bootlegger’s assistant in Nicaragua....