Dear Constant Reader,
Friday morning Scratch, Betty, and I piled into the Babydoll-mobile and headed for the frozen North. And I’m not kidding — it was well below zero in Burlington. We arrived with just enough time to have a little rest before our tech rehearsal at the evening’s venue, a nightclub creatively called Venue.
I know you were all worried about the whole decency ordinance and my g-string. When we checked in, they summed it up as “No penis, no vagina, no sex on stage”. No problem.
Performers all got goodie bags — these chic Monday Night Tease packs filled with useful items for keeping warm, like books of matches and snazzy Vermont Burlesque Festival scarves.
Tech was running late and there were some lighting issues that slowed things down further. As it was approaching 6 o’clock, I was getting worried about getting into hair & makeup (my April March transformation takes a lot longer than my usual face & ‘do) and getting something to eat and getting back in time for call at 7. Scratch squared it with Kyla, the stage manager, that we would be there by 8pm, without fail. That extra hour was a godsend.
Back at the hotel, while Betty and I got ready, Scratch ran out to get us dinner. He is so good to us. By now the 2nd shift of Babydolls had arrived in Brigitte’s zippy little car and got ready to head over to the venue (Venue) and get their drink on.
A brief digression: One of the things I love about The Expo and BurlyCon is that they all happen under one roof. This festival, like most I’ve been to, was in multiple locations. Granted the evening venues were walking distance from the hotel — if it had been June (remember the negative temperatures?). So it was lovely that the event eased the burden of transportation with the “Tassel Taxi”, a couple of large vehicles shuttling between the hotel and other sites. It really made things easier. Especially if you wanted to get your drink on.
We arrived a hair before 8, as promised, and headed backstage. There was a small but toasty warm dressing room and a spacious green room with a huge spread of performer snacks: a vast variety of cut fresh veggies and fruit and a little candy. Just about perfect.
First up was the short film “It’s All That Glitters”, which is a companion to the book of the same name. The performers who were photographed were also asked, on camera, to define burlesque, in their opinion. I was rather disappointed. I know there were about 100 interviews but only tiny number made in into the film. And there was a *lot* from the same few performers. Not that they didn’t have valid and interesting things to say, but I would have liked to have seen more breadth.
I’m not going to recap the entire show, because that’s boring and I spent a lot of time in the dressing room or green room getting focused and ready, so I missed a whole bunch of acts.
Some memorable moments:
Betty closed out the first act of the show with “Betty, It’s Cold Outside” and she just killed it. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her and Dino do it better. The audience was going absolutely nuts!
Scratch performed in the middle of the second act with his “Martini Time” magic trick. Again, it was as good as I’ve ever seen him do it.
I was starting to get nervous about living up to the expectations my troupe-mates were setting. And I was starting to wonder, given the large number of neo-burlesque acts, how well a Legend Tribute was going to go over with this audience.
I was 3rd from the end. So, when the performer before me (I think it was Merrique Hysteric) started, I headed for the icy-cold waiting room. Kyla came in on her way to the dressing room to get me and realized that I, like my comrades before, was at places. We’ve been trained well. She brought me into the wing (such as it was) to wait, which was so much warmer, thank goodness.
Lili gave me a very nice (and serious) intro. My music started, I channeled The First Lady of Burlesque, and stepped out on stage. I know I had fun. I hope the audience did too.
Afterwards, Scratch said “You looked like a headliner.” And that was all I needed to hear.
And here we all are:
(Photo by Greg Gouwens @ G-2 Photography)
It took me a little while to strike my prop and pack everything up. Although there was an after-party, we were pretty beat and headed back to the hotel. No rest for Babydolls yet! Despite it being 1AM, we had a little rhinestone party to give the costumes for our group number a little more sparkle.
And I’m awfully grateful to the hotel for having hot beverages available in the lobby round the clock. That hot cocoa was just what I needed.
Still to come: brunch, bowling, classes, and another show!
Oh, The Glamourous Life! 
Mina, You killed it! All three of you brought it. xo, Lili
PS, that was the short of “It’s All That Glitters” not the full movie. The full movie will be over 2 hours and feature a lot more.
Thank you! And that’s good to know about the movie. I’m looking forward to it.
I appreciate the feedback on the It’s All That Glitters short. It’s taking me longer than expected to figure out what this wants to be as a documentary, so getting input along the way has been helpful. It could easily become 100 people in a row each having a quick soundbite, but is that really interesting for 2 hours? Or perhaps something along the lines of what you saw where not everyone in the book gets screen time, but those that do have the opportunity to share some thoughts at more depth than a soundbite.
I certainly don’t think all 100 interviews have to make it in to the long form film. After all, we do say a lot of the same things. I think my problem with the short was that it was unbalanced. It was dominated by a couple of people, so much so that one of my troupe-mates later thought that there had only been 3 performers in the film (and I think there were at least 3 times that number). I understand the problem with having hours of interesting footage and only 30 minutes in which to explore it, but for a while it felt like the Inga Ingenue show (not that she didn’t have interesting and valid things to say, but I hope you see my perspective). And for a short, the sound bite approach might have been better, especially as a teaser for the book and longer documentary. Just my thoughts.
Best of luck on the full-length film and I’m looking forward to seeing it!
I do see your perspective and it’s very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to share and I’ll keep all of this in mind as the project continues.