It made perfect sense that "Magic Fingers" -- a new experimental art space in the East Village -- would make its debut on Halloween given the theatrical cover this holiday provides, but the opening had been postponed twice because of Hurricane Sandy. Instead, the pop-up gallery hosted an intimate inauguration last Saturday night with "Questionable Beliefs; Part 3," an exhibition by the artist Danny McDonald. The evening began with various set pieces trickling out from the diminutive storefront: first a fortune teller, then Turkish delights dispensed from an emergency rations box, black light manicures administered curbside, a purple question mark funerary wreath was brought forth. McDonald is a veteran on the downtown scene having worked under Colin de Land at his American Fine Arts Gallery in SoHo during its '90s heyday. The artist intended his presentation at Magic Fingers to read as a "tableau vivant in the form of a theatricized political cartoon." As darkness fell, the curator Alison Gingeras emerged sweeping a witch's broom, presumably to clear the area for McDonald's alter ego Mindy Vale, who masquerades as a Gypsy horror drag queen. Minutes later with a dead megaphone in hand, Vale popped out of the front window lamenting the loss of electricity and the kinds of hardships many New Yorkers have suffered of late and then, sitting on step stool, proceeded to cut up $100 bill doormats and toss sections into the crowd as a symbolic Robin Hood gesture. The event's crescendo was Vale's karaoke performance of the Oliver Twist song "Who Will Buy?" before she ran up the block with three pink balloons headed for the after-party at The Pyramid Club. As Gingeras obliquely summed up the performance, "Mindy is the perfect ambassador to preside over this return to the East Village." The installation at 220 East 10th Street is on view through Dec. 2 with irregular hours (and by appointment). More information is available at MFNY.org.