Dear Constant Reader,
If you come to The Teaseday Club tomorrow evening, you will see an act I call The Faerie Queene. I’ve been working on it for a long time and it’s gone through some changes, big and small, over the years.
I don’t remember exactly when I conceived of this act, but I know it was after I saw video of magician Jeff McBride‘s dancing butterflies. I was absolutely enchanted. I wanted to learn how to do that and incorporate it into a burlesque act.
Scratch encouraged me by buying me the magic trick, which came with all the equipment and an instructional DVD. I practiced and practiced, but wasn’t making much progress. I didn’t really have any concept of an act yet; I was just trying to learn to make those butterflies dance.
In May 2010 Dusty Summers invited us to Las Vegas for a preview of a show she was in called Play Dead, created by Todd Robbins and Teller*. While we were out there, Scratch arranged for me to have a private lesson with Jeff McBride (It was an amazing trip!). I told Jeff about my vague ideas for the act and he worked with me on the butterflies, but also taught me a flower production and made some suggestions on how to incorporate them. It was a very intense two hours.
I worked pretty diligently on learning the flower production and practicing the dancing butterflies for a while, but I still didn’t have an act to put them in. I wasn’t getting much better at the butterflies, which was frustrating me no end. And there were always other projects that were more important.
Still, it was always in the back of my mind. I was starting to think of the act as “Titania” and it was beginning to have a structure.
We decided that our February 2013 show would be The Bod of Avon, a Shakespeare-themed romp and that seemed like a fine time for Titania to have her debut.
Up next: The Faerie Queene, part one.
* I admit that I was an idiot because my first reaction was “Oh, no, I can’t take the time to go to Vegas, I’m going to Chicago for a wedding later that week.” Fortunately I came to my senses and realized this was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity and “Yes!” was the only right answer. I have no regrets whatsoever.
Oh, The Glamourous Life! 
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