Nobody went to Ernie K-Doe’s legendary Mother In Law Lounge to actually lounge. Except Tee Eva Perry.

Tee Eva was K-Doe’s back-up singer and dancer, and best friend of K-Doe’s wife, Antoinette. Some of Tee Eva’s fondest memories are of the nights – every night of the week they weren’t performing – spent lounging around in the back room of the club with Ernie, Antoinette, and “Mom” (Antoinette’s mom).

Revealing a little know fact about life behind the scenes in the world of the self-styled “Emperor of the Universe,” Tee Eva tells Margo and guest host Poppy Tooker that each of them had their own couch to lounge on in the lounge.

Not that Tee Eva has spent much of her life lounging. She’s mostly a ball of kinetic energy, making up batches of pies and pralines in her current Uptown corner street-front kitchen, or delivering the live Tee Eva experience. This comes in the form of regaling a never-ending stream of tourists seeking a taste of home cooking and baking they’ve seen on TV with tales from the rivers and bayous of childhood, or performing as a Baby Doll – a tradition that according to Tee Eva dates back hundreds of years in which grown women parade around dressed as a baby’s doll.

Among the stories of fun, self-professed declarations of being one of the world’s greatest dancers, and the romantic tale of Katrina romance and marriage to her +1 guest, husband Lou Adams, are the tales of working in some of New Orleans’ famous restaurant kitchens and the disillusionment with the politics and economics of the restaurant business that prompted her to leave behind the security of a paycheck and launch out on her own.

Though she can’t compete with the hair and tattoos, Poppy does a fabulous job sitting in for Ray who, according to Poppy, will “be back next year.”