For the past several months, Detroit burlesque performer Roxi D’Lite and her husband Charlie Champagne have been hard at work bringing what they’re calling “Foxy Roxi’s Disco Roulette” to life.
“It’s a ’70s game show where the audience spins this giant glittery wheel, the roulette wheel that my husband’s building right now,” D’Lite says by phone. “It’ll determine what games the audience plays to win prizes, but it also determines the songs that the performers dance to. So it’s a little bit of improv for the performer and no show is the same.”
The show is set to make its debut on Saturday, Sept. 27 at the Tip-Top Showbar, a new performance space in Greektown that opened this summer.
For years, D’Lite and Champagne have produced parties through their production company The Whoopee Club, which she describes as “an immersive cabaret.” The shows typically feature audience participation, live music from six-piece house jazz band The Whoopee Cushions, and lots of confetti.
“There’s a backstory behind it,” D’Lite explains. “We basically throw parties throughout the decades. The shows take place anywhere between the 1920s and to the ’70s. And it’s always a party.”
But for Disco Roulette, they wanted to try something different. DJ Tony Foster will be spinning disco and house tracks, with Jerome Bell-Bastien from Detroit singing duo the Disco Daddies and drag by local queens Bentley James and Mimi Southwest. It’s hosted by D’Lite and Champagne.
“Charlie’s the host — he’s like your quintessential party boy,” D’Lite says. “And I’m going to be like Vanna White with the wheel.”
She adds, “Game shows are just fun. It’s campy, it’s silly, and it’s very ’70s. Think The Gong Show mixed with The Price is Right, is kind of the vibe of what we’re doing.”
A dance party will immediately follow the game show.
“The audience is just as much of a part of the show as we are,” she says. “It’s one big party, and everybody’s in on it.”
D’Lite says the Disco Roulette was originally envisioned for the Apartment Disco, a disco-themed bar on the east side, but those plans were scrapped after the building was damaged in a fire in 2024.
“When it burnt down, we were sad,” D’Lite says. “Like, we couldn’t see our friends anymore, we couldn’t go there and dance and dress up in all these crazy outfits that we used to wear there. So it was definitely a loss to the community.”
But when D’Lite and Champagne first saw Tip-Top Showbar, “we looked at each other and said, ‘Disco Roulette, this is it,’” she says.
The Tip-Top Showbar opened in June in the former Dream nightclub attached to Niki’s Lounge. Business partners Erron Reed and Gary Arnett, who worked with D’Lite at the annual Dirty Show at the Russell Industrial Center, say they were approached by Niki’s to reimagine the space. The Niki’s and Russell Industrial Center buildings share the same owner.
“The owners reached out and asked us if we wanted to rebuild the place and turn it into our own, because they knew we could do something kind of different,” he says.
Reed says the space had been unused for years. “It was kind of floor-to-ceiling broken speakers and tables and things like that,” he says. “So we gutted it, ripped it out, built a new stage … and lighting, sound, and everything else.”
Located on the third floor, Tip-Top has a capacity of about 200, making it an intimate performance space. Every seat has a small table, and there are cheetah-print lined booths for VIPs. Two chandeliers hang overhead.
Reed says the space has mostly hosted burlesque performances from his and Arnett’s production company The Keyhole Club, though he says he also plans to bring in comedy nights as well. He also plans to open the space to other local producers like The Whoopee Club.
D’Lite says she hopes to make Disco Roulette a regular event at Tip-Top Showbar, and already has plans for a New Year’s Eve event. She also has dreams of getting big sponsors for the prizes.
But most of all, she just wants Detroiters to have fun.
“I just feel like things these days are super heavy,” she says. “You can’t even open your phone without seeing some insane headline. There’s so much division … So that’s why it’s important to us to provide a night where people can literally dance all that away — no negativity allowed, come as you are, get a little wild, express yourself, and help us raise the energy. We feel that’s what disco is all about, anyway.”
D’Lite even plans to ban cell phones during the show.
“I don’t want people on their phone, I want them in the moment,” she says. “Besides, they didn’t have phones in the ’70s.”
She adds, “Disco brings everyone together and has always been an escape from the chaos of the world. It’s meant to unite people. I feel the world needs more of that right now.”
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