Gekko, mistress of the Lower East Side Tesla coils
Gekko, inset, with the larger
of Collective Unconscious’s two Tesla coils.
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By Lincoln Anderson
It was a recent show of the self-proclaimed Downtown Art Babes at Collective
Unconscious on Ludlow St. Anna Montana, a performance artist from Europe, had
done a strangely mesmerizing “alternative burlesque” in the buff with
a mop as a partner. Faux Maux, another Babe, who has a condition that is forcing
her posterior backwards, held flash cards on said bum, which was as naked as
Montana — the artist, that is, not the state. A dancer in burlap writhed
on the floor as if possessed, while another woman hummed into a tape-loop device
to create overlapping tone patterns.
But the highlight came after emcee Gekko announced it was time for a little
Tesla coil fun. The smaller of the theater’s two Tesla coils was wheeled
out, along with a trunk-sized transformer — manned by Jamie Merceness,
Collective Unconscious’s technical director — which is needed to operate
the Tesla.
Suddenly, it was as if an electrical storm had broken out in the darkened room.
Shooting off the Tesla were bolts of electricity several feet long, complete
with sound effects — staticky crackles, bursts and pops — just like
in the laboratory in a Frankenstein movie. The electricity danced and whirled
around the top of the coil in a crazy pattern.
Dressed dominatrix style, in skin-tight black PVC, Gekko did Tesla tricks, like
standing a few feet away and making a fluorescent light bulb glow by holding
it out in the coil’s direction. She placed some anatomical objects, not
suitable for printing in a family newspaper, on the Tesla, channeling its charge
through them — each time Merceness first cutting the power for her to set
up.
For those who stayed, Gekko treated them to a demonstration of the big Tesla
coil. This time the bolts were much larger and more powerful looking. It was
easy to imagine one flicking out and zapping an audience member. As with the
smaller coil, Gekko warned any performers or techies walking between backstage
and the audience to keep 7 ft. away, outside the “Tesla zone of death.”
Despite the lightning sizzling all around her, she showed no fear. At one point,
though, she thought of executing a move where she gets the electricity to go
directly from the coil to a fluorescent bulb in her hand, then thought better
of it. The last time she attempted it, she explained, a bolt had jumped to the
bulb and then — attracted to the nearest metal — went straight to
a piercing she has in an extremely sensitive spot.
Gekko, last name Saccomanno, who lives on the Lower East Side, has been a fan
of inventor Nikola Tesla since she was a kid. When she joined Collective Unconscious
six years ago, she was thrilled to find they had their own Tesla coil, which
Merceness had built. They subsequently bought another.
“I’ve always had a Tesla fixation,” Gekko said in an interview
after the show. “And when I joined the group I was like, ‘Here I am
with one of my idols.’ ”
In grade school, “I was kind of a geek and I just discovered him,”
she said. She wrote a paper on Tesla, but her teacher didn’t believe the
inventor existed.
“There’s Tesla technology in every radio and TV — it powers Niagara
Falls,” continued Gekko, who describes her onstage persona as “sci-fi
cyber chick.” “Tesla coils create ozone and are used to get the funk
out of the air in sewage plants.”
Her birthday is even the same as Tesla’s. Of course, she’s already
been to Philadelphia to see the new opera on his life.
Collective Unconscious’s Tesla coils are likely the only recreational ones
in Manhattan. As far as she knows, Gekko said it’s legal to operate them
in a theater, though, of course, with caution.
“ ‘If you’ve got a pacemaker, stay away’ is a joke we always
use. I’m the only one that’s brave enough to perform with it.”
However, she has been injured, such as when she was shocked in that painful
place.
“I was onstage so I tried not to show it hurt,” she said. “I’ve
been shocked by the little one on a big level — and it hurt — and
by the big one on low level.”
When she holds objects towards the Tesla she uses her right hand, so if she
is shocked the charge won’t cross her heart.
“It could kill you, the large bolt, I would think,” she said. “If
not, you would be out of commission for a long while…. Don’t try it
at home.”
Also, “it gets a little loud; it makes that firing sound,” Gekko added.
Yet, the only one who seems bothered by the noise, according to her, is a Ludlow
St. resident whom she declined to identify other than as “the woman who
hates everything.”
Collective Unconscious’s building will be demolished for new apartments
and the theater must vacate by July. They are looking for affordable space,
with help from Councilmember Alan Gerson, so far without luck. And while they
probably won’t need a place that takes terriers, they will need one that
takes Tesla coils.