Adult-rated ice sculptures heat up local party scene

SOMETIMES PARTIES get a little crazy.

Whoa. Check out the risque double-entendre on that guy's T-shirt.

Yikes. Someone just knocked over that vase while singing karaoke to Bon Jovi.

Hey, there. Nice two-story beer bong. The hosts must have gone to the nation's No. 6 party school, Randolph-Macon.

In my naivete, I thought I had been to some slightly wild parties. I've seen beer pong played with tequila and couples who lock everyone out of the bathroom for hours.

Oh, those childish shenanigans. I've been sheltered.

Earlier this month in Ocean View, partygoers paid $25 at the door for a casual fundraiser. Over the past couple of years, the event has generated more than $60,000 for charity. This year, the party was expected to raise money for a local hospital and nearby Catholic school.

More than 600 people showed up.

But the reason I heard about the party was because its trademark ice sculpture was something you won't see on the society page.

The ice sculpture doubled as a liquor luge - so far, so good - but this one depicted an anatomically correct woman, naked and on all fours.

In case you don't know how a liquor luge works, someone pours the booze into one end of the sculpture. As it works its way down the ice, a second person waits at the other end of the block with mouth agape, ready to drink it up.

In this case, the liquor was poured into the icy woman's mouth and came out at the, uh, bottom.

That face you're making now, with your mouth open? That's just how people on the receiving end of the luge would look.

But this is what's going on right now at some private parties, the kind that wouldn't make Flavor Flav blush and that end with NSFW photos on your co-workers' digital cameras.

Andrea Latham at Ice Art in Virginia Beach told me the company she co-owns with her husband usually makes about one of these so-called X-rated sculptures a month. A male torso for bachelorette parties. Naked women. Stuff like that.

That's a small number considering they carve about 800 sculptures a year, most of them school mascots, dolphins and military emblems. But it's a large number for a region that is offended by Boots Riley, posts no-swearing signs at the Oceanfront and covers up breasts on art exhibits at Waterside.

"It's the interactivity. It's something different," Latham said. "It's the wow factor."

Yes. Wow.

Wow. And I thought birthday candles that can't be extinguished were fun.

Liquor luges have been around for years. And while ice sculptures have long been the hallmark of lah-dee-dah outings, when the Granby Street scene exploded in the past three years, so did the amount of statuesque ice at bars and parties. The carvings are popular because they're fairly affordable for a big bash. The average bill is between $300 and $400 but can run as high as $10,000. As demand expanded, people's inhibitions melted.

So you're hosting a party and want everyone to have a good time? Don't worry about the food. Everyone will be talking about the ice.

Mike Gruss, (757) 446-2277 mike.gruss@pilotonline.com