Mistress Profits From Illicit Pleasures
FEBRUARY 13, 2008
NEW YORK (TNA) – When an adulterous relationship is unmasked, its after-effects can often hood two moonlighting lovers in deceit, discomfort and shame for a lifetime.
David Kassel Lisa Faith Phillips has turned a 5-year tryst with her married boss into a one-woman show, '7 1/2 Habits of Highly Effective Mistresses.'
But there’s hope. There’s always the possibility you can turn your naughtiness into art. Take it from a New York woman whose 5-year tryst with her married boss led to her new onstage theatrical production.
Lisa Faith Phillips is the creator and star of “7 ½ Habits of Highly Effective Mistresses,” a one-woman show currently playing off-Broadway. And she credits the inspiration to her former employer, who gave her all the sneaky sex and lavish gifts that come with a forbidden love.
However, she never expected anything this good to come of it.
“Who knew he would inspire my new career?” she said of her past lover, who has seen the show and liked it.
In “7 ½ Habits,” Phillips uses song, dance, spoken word and visual aides to entertain and inform her audience on life, love and sex – including all the foibles, such as adultery. The show runs through Feb. 16 at The Reprise Room at Dillons Restaurant & Lounge in New York City -- even on Valentine’s Day – a day mistresses often have open.
Phillips suggests aspiring homewreckers see the show so they can make the most of their sordid situation.
“This is where the mistresses go for a refresher course since their man can't get free to see them [on Valentine’s Day],” quipped Phillips, who refers to herself as the “Martha Stewart of Mistresses.”
The idea for the pro-mistress production stems from the 5-year period during which she dated her married boss. After the fling ended in 1998, through her open discussions about the affair, Phillips discovered that she wasn’t the only woman guilty of bedding a ringed man.
David Kassel Phillips has worked as a stripper, a phone sex operator and as an executive for Random House Direct.
“It opened the floodgate of people sharing their stories,” she said.
Phillips incorporated those erotic tales into her production when it started in 2001, and still does. After shows, people will walk up to her and thank her for the performance, then rattle off tales of their own illicit hanky-panky. For instance, Phillips met one employee at Tiffany’s who admitted to being a mistress for 30 years.
Along with songs and dances to tunes like “How To Be A Bad Girl” and “The Fellatio Tango,” Phillips also awards prizes to the audience member who most deserves the title of “America’s Next Top Mistress” (and, yes, men do sometimes win the dubious honor).
She also asks the audience to join her in sing-a-longs, and even has her co-composer, Ellen Mandel, prance around the crowd in leather bondage-type clothing while menacingly waving a riding crop around their heads.
“It seems like people get satisfied from that thrill,” Phillips said.
Some may wonder how Phillips’s bawdy past and on-stage presence can come from a woman who currently resides as the vice president/general manager of publisher Random House Direct, Inc.
The answer is simple: Phillips admits that she’s always had a naughty edge, which is probably part of the reason she turned to stripping in Boston’s Combat Zone – Beantown’s now-defunct adult entertainment district – as a summer job during college.
David Kassel Although Phillips enjoyed being a mistress, she no longer practices adultery.
She took a break from her lascivious professional life after earning a graduate degree from the London School of Economics and then working in various theatre companies in London, Barcelona and New York.
But her lust for naughtiness didn’t stop. At one point, she pumped up her raunchy resume by accepting a job recording her voice and writing scenes for a Penthouse Magazine phone sex line.
She’d play characters like the “girl next door” or the “buxom blonde” on the line, panting and groaning in between five minutes of smutty dialogue, which Phillips says was right up her alley.
“I’ve always enjoyed sex and kissing,” Phillips said. “The reality is that women who enjoy sex – it is a great joy in our life.”
Despite Phillips’s fondness for a lewd lifestyle, she says she’s learned the lessons of being a mistress and has been careful not to dip into adultery again, but that her show may have had the opposite effect on some people.
After one particular performance in Dublin, Ireland, a 70-year-old woman approached Phillips and praised her for the show. But the fan, who was married for half a century, expressed a bit of mistress envy.
“She said, ‘I wish I could have seen your show 50 years ago,’” Phillips laughed.
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