A HALFBACK WHO REALLY TAKES OFF
SOUTHERN'S CABELLA ALSO A STRIPPER
By TED SILARY, Daily News Sports Writer

    Superman, a cop, a pimp, the Statue of Liberty, a gorilla, Rocky and a banana.

    When Anthony Cabella starts an evening of work on his part-time job, those are some of the costumes he wears. By the end of the evening, what he wears is one step removed from a birthday suit. A scant step, at that.

    As a running back, Cabella is a member of the starting football lineup at Southern High. As a stripper, he's a member, once a month, of a crowd-pleasing lineup at Palumbo's, the famed South Philadelphia nightclub.

    "It's a real trip, a great job," Cabella said, laughing. "I would recommend it highly."

    Anthony got his stripping start at Palumbo's last February, after passing an audition for dance instructor Bob Antonelli, who has a studio on Passyunk Avenue.

    "I was at the YMCA, working out, and Bob walked over," Anthony said. "He said I had a nice physique and he asked if I could dance. I said, 'Yeah, I can dance pretty good.' Then he said I could come to an audition and, when I did OK, he asked me if I wanted to do a strip as part of his show at Palumbo's.

    "I had no experience, but I'm always up for a challenge. 'Go for it,' I told myself."

    Then the music started. Then the lights flicked on. Then   eased his way onto the stage. Then . . pretty much nothing.

    "When I walked out, I was really nervous, had the sweats pretty bad," Anthony said. "I don't know if I was blushing, but I certainly felt light- headed.

    "The first 10 minutes, the ladies were kind of silent. Then they got into it all of a sudden and it really made me perk up. It was crazy. They were yellin', screamin', gettin' all kinds of radical. I was thinking to myself, 'Wow, this is, like, the ultimate.'

    "The next show, before I went on, the ladies were screaming, 'We want Ann- tha-nee, we want Ann-tha-nee.' I got high off their yelling before I even
went out on the stage."

    The 18-year-old Cabella, who's listed at 5-10, 180 pounds on Southern's roster, has stripped his way into ladies' hearts roughly 20 times total, equally splitting his time between Palumbo's and a New Jersey-based singing telegram company.

    That's where the wacko costumes come in.

    "I don't know what goes through ladies' minds, but I dress up the way they want me to dress up," said Anthony, who, as you might imagine, is extremely personable, although rather soft-spoken. "One lady wanted the Statue of Liberty and that's what she got. Another time I was a banana. You know, peeled it off. That was my favorite.

    "I went to one house and a couple was having their 50th wedding anniversary. I went to another house and there were about 25 ladies there, along with a couple husbands. The ladies - hey, they were in a frenzy. The men got a little upset, went into another room. I could understand that, but I was just doing my job.

    "I've seen female strippers, but what goes on doesn't compare to what happens with male strippers. These ladies go nuts! It's all very respectable, though."

    Cabella developed an interest in building his body from his father, Eugene, a former powerlifter in the Marines. He got an interest in showing it off from two (of six) brothers, Angelo and Gene, who preceded him into the business.

    Gene still is active, performing with Anthony as part of the Palumbo's shows, which often last for 2 1/2 hours and feature 10 to 12 male and female performers.

    "We just don't go out there and take our clothes off," Anthony said. "We sing a little, do some skits, tell some jokes. We've got one skit where I'm a pimp and the girls are prostitutes. That one's pretty popular. In another, my brother's The Godfather. Sometimes we're a motorcycle gang."

    Once every show, Anthony performs by himself.

    "A G-string or bikini underpants. That's all I've got on by the last song, and by then I'm down in the audience," Anthony said. "That's tip time. Wild time, too. We've got 500 ladies, up to 95 years old, in the place. Believe me, the older ones are the worst."

    Since places to stick the tip money are, by design, limited to one, Anthony often is accompanied by two waiters as he makes his way from table to table.

    They're there for two reasons: to maintain control and pick up the bills that fall to the floor when ladies jam them into the sliver of cloth with a little too much exuberance.

    "When they stand and wave the bills, you better get there," Anthony said. ''If the song's too short, you can't get to everyone and they get disappointed. You can't move from place to place like a zombie, though. You have to talk a little, show some personality.

    "Afterward, we get showered and changed, but when we come out, it's like no one has left. All the ladies want to have their picture taken with you, or they want your autograph. It takes a half-hour to get out of there. It's crazy."

    Back to tips. "I've made $125 in tips in one night," Anthony said. "The usual? About $75 to $100. One time a lady gave me a $20 bill. Lots of times, the ladies write their names and phone numbers on the bills."

    Anthony paused. Well, do you call them?

    "Sometimes," he said. "A lot of them are twice my age . . . not that I mind. I don't give out my number too often. My mother (Lucille, who attends all of Anthony's performances) says the phone ringing off the wall drives her crazy."

    "The California Kid," as Anthony is called by his teammates because of his light hair and show-business inclination, has been playing football for only two years. Injuries and illness have held him back (he just last week was in the hospital for kidney stones), but his speed appears to be in the 4.7-for-the-40 neighborhood.

    "The kid can be a helluva running back," Southern coach John Pendino said. "He's by far the fastest kid on the team."

    "I guess the dancing moves aren't too different from running moves," Anthony said. "I can shake my hips, do a quick spin. Before long, if we get to around the 2, maybe I'll get a chance to take a leap into the end zone."