Dear Constant Reader,
If you’re just joining me, read about our Friday here.
We began our Saturday with Bloody Marys and bacon at the Performer Brunch. There are so many Babydolls that we filled a whole table, but we managed to find a little room for Ray Gunn to join us. I just loved Lili Von Schtupp’s classy breakfast attire — a union suit, complete with butt-flap. Miss Astrid was in her Kate Valentine guise and I didn’t recognize her at first.
Then off we went to the Burlesque Bowling charity tournament. We discovered that as bowlers we are excellent burlesque dancers, but we had a lot of fun. This was the first time Betty experienced “real bowling” instead of candlepin (Massachusetts born and bred!), but she turned out to be one of the best bowlers on our team. Betty won the first game and Brigitte the second (with a last minute strike!), coming ahead of Scratch, which was unexpected. I wasn’t half bad myself. I got a spare in each game — the first I’ve ever scored. Still, the absolute highest total score was 84, so “best” was completely relative.
You can read local news coverage of the tournament here.
Our proudest moment was winning the world’s most unprestigious trophy for “Best Dressed”. And this is why!
And from the back:
(Photos taken by Cha Cha Velour)
It’s not so clear in the photo, but the shirts say “Dolls with Balls” and have huge rhinestone bowling balls. Scratch, not being a Doll, has the devil on his shirt, of course, also enhanced with some rhinestones.
Then back to the hotel. Stella and I opted for naps. Betty headed off to take class with Lili Von Schtupp. Scratch, Brigitte, and Devora went downtown to go shopping and came back with some great finds.
Then it was time for tech. Higher Ground, that night’s venue, is practically next door to the hotel and a really easy walk if it wasn’t ridiculously cold. Thank goodness for the Tassel Taxi. No surprise, but tech was running late. They were trying to move it along with “tops & bottoms” — just the beginning and endings of each act. Scratch pulled rank as headliner and had us not only jump the queue, but run the entire act. I felt like a diva going ahead of other performers. I hope no one was too resentful.
Then Betty and I rushed off to Ray Gunn’s class which was supposed to be starting right that minute. The Tassel Taxi wasn’t going to be coming for half an hour, but we fortunately managed to catch a lift (but I’ve been sworn to secrecy as to with whom). Class had not yet started when we got there. The first class had started late and everything dominoed from there, getting later and later.
Soul Fire Studio is lovely with mirrors and a wooden dance floor, but I wish the classes had been held in a conference room at the hotel, just for logistical purposes. One less place to travel to might have been easier on everyone.
Eventually Scratch caught up with us. He’d been ferrying the other Babydolls back to the hotel. Class started with a light warm-up, then moved into some Bartimieff exercises (no, I’d never heard of it before either), which were awesome in their evil focus on the core. We were split into 2 groups for this and I will point out that our instructor did everything with each group plus the demonstration, which means he did something like 5 or 6 sets of ratcheted push-ups to the students’ two (that is, if we could manage even two sets).
This was followed with some across-the-floor exercises to practice walking like a man. A bunch of the women had trouble, but so did some of the men. We ended with a short combination. I knew I was in over my head dance-wise, but if you play it safe, you’ll never learn anything.
Then we took Ray back to the hotel and began getting ready for the show. Again, Scratch had okayed it with Kayla that we were going to miss call, but we would absolutely be ready well before our number. Considering that the show was going to last many hours and we were 4th from the end, that was an easy promise to make.
I think I’ll save the show itself for my next missive.
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.
(Photo by Greg Gouwens @ G-2 Photography)
Matt Donaher opened the show with a little stand-up. He’s a very funny guy and I’m glad he returned to the Teaseday Club stage.
Corinne Southern brought us a classic balloon pop act to the classic song 
Sally the Altar Boy presented a beautiful glow-poi spinning act. It was one of those cases where the audience sat in an appreciative silence at the loveliness. He later told me it had been created for Zehara Nachash’s show Animus where he took the role of fireflies.
I was particularly excited to see this act. Lucie Luxe is an instructor at B.A.B.E. and this was her burlesque debut! She had a lot of friends in the audience and they were loudly approving for her first strip on stage.
Sally the Altar Boy, in honor of the day (it was Election Day), campaigned and spun poi to 
Lucie Luxe returned with a chair dance. I recognized most of those moves from the chair dance course at B.A.B.E. and I was delighted to see how she put them all together.
Corinne Southern, dressed as Eve and adorned with a snake, tempted the audience in all sorts of ways before succumbing to the apple. Corinne has some mighty slinky floor moves.
Samantha Farrell, last month’s winner of The Great Teaseday Cookie, performed the entire last set with her band and a little burlesque from The Boston Babydolls.
She opened with an original song “Trouble You Need”, which she wrote in tribute to Benjamin Franklin. It’s much sexier than that sounds. Stella Diamond certainly thought so.
Oh, The Glamourous Life! 