Los Angeles: Burlesque Bingo 1/20/19

Dear Constant Reader,

I know this is the missive you’ve been waiting for — all about the House of Knyle graduation show at Burlesque Bingo!

I was extremely grateful for this opportunity, not only to share a stage with all the women I’d gotten to know through Egypt’s program, but I can’t imagine otherwise performing in one of Audrey DeLuxe’s shows.

The venue was Harvell’s in Long Beach. Lili VonSchtupp had given me some advance info like that the dressing room was good but narrow and that the stage was carpeted and a couple steps up, which allayed a little of my nervousness. The space has a great speakeasy vibe and I can see why there’s a lot of burlesque there.

I was the first to arrive. Scratch volunteered to do whatever was needed and that turned out to be running the follow spot. All the other ladies were staying with and therefore traveling with Egypt. I kind of regretted missing out of the bonding time (and more, as it turned out), but I’m not sorry I chose to spend time with Kitten Natividad. Our Legends are so important. When everyone else arrived they briefed me on the plan for the curtain call and after, whihc they had worked on the night before at Egypt’s. That did have me a little nervous because improvisation dance is not my strength.

Burlesque Bingo works thusly: On the floor perpendicular to the stage is a bingo board, like a very low runway. At the back of the stage is a number board (see photo).
When the performer discards a costume piece, she tosses it onto the board on the floor. One of the Lucky Charms (Audrey’s adorable assistants; also see photo) turns on the light for the corresponding number on the big board and everyone marks their bingo cards accordingly. After the act is over, if no one has bingo, the Lucky Charms begin to disrobe and toss out their garments until bingo is achieved. The bingo winner then comes onto stage to claim their goodie bag of prizes. If more than one person has bingo, everyone gets a chance to roll a giant pink fuzzy die to see who claims the prize. It’s a lot of fun. It was also clear some audience members are all abut the bingo, while others are just there for the burlesque.

I wish I could do a blow by blow of the other acts, but I was more than nervous and rather in my own head most of the night, so I don’t recall a lot of the show. The line up, however, was:
Bebe Bardot
Lilac SaintClair
Dulce D’Jour
CoCo Rose
Crocodile Lightning
Nadia Lotte
Briq House
Mayo Lua de Frenchie
Mina Murray
Twirlisha Devine
Egypt Blaque Knyle

After we each did our acts, Egypt joined us on stage and presented each student with a certificate of completion.

After Egypt’s performance, we each came out in reverse order, still in our pasties, and improvised on stage for a few measures. Eventually we moved into our assigned places, arrayed around the runway, while Egypt performed again. By the end we were all over her. We wouldn’t let her leave the stage until we had presented her with our gift, a large engraved diamond.

I was very touched when Bebe Bardot, who had to race off to the airport immediately after the show, took a few moments to say some kind things about my books. I feel a kinship with this lovely lady — she’s also a scholar of burlesque history, a writer, and a classic sort of gal — so it meant a lot.

All right, I won’t make you wait any longer. Here’s my act:

What did I think? It’s still a little rough. I’m not happy with my facial expressions and I can see all the tension in my shoulders. Those shoes were giving me such trouble, especially with the turns and lunges, and you can see where I so gracefully stumble off the edge of the bingo stage near the end. However, I’m really happy with parts of it and I can see there’s some power there. I’ve since performed it three other times and it just keeps getting better as I’m more comfortable with it and I’m not stressing about trying to impress a mentor (and I got new shoes)

This act, probably more than any other one, had a lot of feedback from a lot of people. Egypt suggested the lunges after the turns (as well as other things). It was Ava’s idea that I start with the back panel draped in front. Originally I dropped to my knees for the floorwork, but Betty said “Can you drop into a plank? You do planks all the time.” Scratch came up with the belt remove. He also edited my music so there was a strong ending instead of a fade-out.

I’m so grateful to Egypt for giving me the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone, to perform in this great show, and to work with these amazing women.

Performance photo by Jason Kamimura Photography
Video by Cliesha

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page.

Published in: on 9 April 2019 at 4:46 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy Friday! Before we get to your tip, I just want to mention that Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. One of my Little Books would be a wonderful gift for the burlesque lover in your life. Also, The Boston BeauTease are presenting Valent-Tease Day at Thunder Road that night. Not only will we be presenting our usual burlesque delights, but some of my students from B.A.B.E. will be making their burlesque debut. AND you’ll get to see the act I debuted in Los Angeles. Right now the only way to see it is to support me on Patreon.

With no further ado or commercials, here’s your tip!

If you have pets with fur, keep a lint brush in your show bag.

No matter how carefully you keep you costumes away from your fuzzy family members, somehow fur is still going to make an appearance — and of course it will contrast as highly as possible. Albert just loves to cuddle up to dark clothing…

Scratch points out that if you’ve forgotten your lint brush, there’s still hope, “you’re a burlesque dancer — you’ve got double-sided tape!”.

M2Like this tip? There are lots more in Miss Mina Murray’s Little Book of Better Burlesque.

These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page.

Published in: on 8 February 2019 at 2:52 pm  Leave a Comment  
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2018 in Review

Dear Constant Reader,

2018 was quite a year. A lot of travel for me. A lot of learning. Many high points, but a few big lows.

January
The year starts off with our trusty Element being the 5th car in a seven-car accident as we return from our New Year’s Eve show. Neither of us is hurt, Dear Reader, but the car is totaled. Certainly not what we need a week before The Expo. We also don’t need a massive winter storm the day before The Expo. It is the smallest attendance ever as flights are canceled all over the country. Scratch swears he’ll never have a winter Expo again.

February
We have a clever show at Deacon Giles for Groundhog Day. We also perform once again at The Mardi Gras Ball.

For my birthday, Scratch takes me to my favorite restaurant for brunch. I’m stunned to see a couple dozen of my friends, a special menu, and a giant cake.

March
I attend the first ever NOLA burlesque retreat, organized by Bella Blue. I meet some great people and learn a lot. Upon my return to Boston I go to a screening of a documentary about Tempest Storm. The audience attendance is underwhelming.

April
We hold the first BeauTease Slumber Party!

We perform at two new venues, Far from the Tree Cider and the Castle on Charles.

At the end of the month I go to Stripper’s Holiday. I’ve been wanting to attend this for years, but never could get in. In hindsight I don’t think I was in the best headspace to be there and spend a lot of time feeling lonely in a crowd. On the other hand, my act has improved.

May
We all go see Dita. As always the show is inspirational. Everyone falls in love with Zelia Rose. We’re all prepared to finally present Brigitte’s dream show, The Boston BeauTease Go Bananaz!, but the city tells our venue that our performances aren’t covered under their entertainment license. We’re pretty bummed, but the venue decides to fight for us.

Stephanie Schorow, a guest as the Expo, has a signing for her new book on the Combat Zone. We take the night off rehearsal to attend. There’s a cake decorated like the book cover, so I get to eat a bit of Satan’s Angel.

June
Scratch, Artemisia, and I spend a day at Ikea doing promo for the new Cirque du Soliel show. They wear swordfish heads and clown around. I explain to the confused passersby what’s going on. It’s exhausting, but fun and we get Cirque tickets out of it.

Continuing with our theme of performing at places that produce alcohol, we present Burlesque Roadshow at Down the Road Brewery. It’s a little more exciting than we expected.

July
We take on a temporary student. Miss Pepperblossom is traveling with the Cirque du Soliel show, Luzia, and wants to do burlesque while she is in town. She gets us backstage access to Luzia. I see the show three times, once on a monitor in the artists’ tent, while the performers warm up around us. We even have dinner in the Cirque dining hall (Miss Pepperblossom’s husband is one of their chefs).

August
Scratch thinks it would be fun to add some more classic comedy bits back into burlesque and creates a show we call This Guy Walks into a Bra…

The long delayed The Boston BeauTease Go Bananaz! is finally scheduled. It just happens to be when I’m performing at the Winnipeg International Burlesque Festival. Oh well. I don’t like bananas anyway. (I was going to perform to “Peel Me a Grape”.)

Albert A. Cat has a scary medical crisis. He’s ultimately fine, but The Manor’s coffers are down several thousand dollars.

September
A quiet month, prepping for upcoming shows.

October
We perform a lot in October! We are the main entertainment at a Las Vegas-themed birthday party, we bring Bad Luck Burlesque back to Deacon Giles, we perform again at the Castle on Charles, and finish things off at The Fenway Pub.

Scratch and I are working furiously to get my next book ready for BurlyCon. It’s a lot of long nights and hard work, but he does it!

November
On Halloween I get sick with a bad cough. It won’t get better. It gets even worse. At the last minute I make the heart-breaking decision not to go to BurlyCon. I might have been crying a little as I package up books I was planning to hand-deliver.

By the end of the month, I’m feeling better and go to a book event for Feuding Fan Dancers.

December
We have our annual winter show, Brrrlesque at Deacon Giles and some BeauTease alums show up. We invite Ava to join the troupe. It’s a great way to end the year!

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page.

Published in: on 15 January 2019 at 9:17 am  Leave a Comment  
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Brrrlesque 12/15/18

Dear Constant Reader,

Saturday we presented Brrrlesque, our winter holiday show, at Deacon Giles Speakeasy Lab. Most of us have a number of holiday- or winter-themed acts, but we didn’t want to just do the same show as the years before, so each of us created a new number. I was a bit anxious as act development is not one of my strengths. But Scratch found just the right song, I had the perfect costume already, and it all came together quickly.

Here’s the show! All photos by Scratch. Some of our audience members took some good ones that I hope to be able to share.

This was Betty’s new act — a reverse strip to “Winter Wonderland”. The picture was taken at the beginning when she’s in her robe and her clothes are strewn about the stage.

Devastasia danced to “Warm in December”. She’s got a great costume surprise near the end of the act. Venues will remember this one forever because the tissue paper snow she brushes off her coat will linger, despite the best efforts to sweep it up.

Technically this wasn’t a holiday number, but I’m sure Scratch gave it an appropriate intro. Artemisia had only done this Las Vegas-inspired act once before, at a private show, and it deserved a little more exposure, so to speak. Although this is a lovely shot, you really should see the costume, created by Artemisia and Burluxe.

Tahni tapped her talented toes to “Gift-Wrapped Boy”. I’m sorry we don’t have a picture right now of her adorable gift-wrap costume (which she made) and jingle pasties.

Here’s a few moments of my standard for the holidays — Duke Ellington’s “Sugar Rum Cherry”.

As a palate-cleanser from the striptease, Artemisia sang “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.

Betty brought back “Blue Christmas” — a perennial favorite. No pictures, but you can see a clip from last year.

Scratch stunned the audience with a Christmas miracle. No picture of that, since he was the one manning the camera.

This was Devastasia’s new piece to “Marshmallow World”. She really hates Christmas music, so she went for something wintery instead. We were all stunned when she showed up with this snow-white showgirl look. Not a scrap of black to be found!

Artemisia’s new act used a beautiful blue and silver cape (which she made) and some balletic dancing. Very wintery, very graceful.

I closed out the show with my new act, to the PMJ version of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve”. I’m sorry I don’t have a picture of the glorious champagne-colored gown I wore (a find from Scratch — if you even have the chance, go shopping with him), but you get to see my beautiful Catherine D’Lish boa.

After the first show, we had a surprise treat! I was expecting Brigitte would be at the show since she’s local, but she brought some special guests, D.D. and Evie! Here we all are, BeauTease Classique!

It was so good to see everyone and catch up. I wish we’d had longer, but we had to get ready for our second show.

And that was our last performance of 2018! See you next year!

M2
These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page.

Published in: on 18 December 2018 at 1:39 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Winnipeg International Burlesque Festival 2018

Dear Constant Reader,

I’m sorry this has taken so long to write, but several crises interrupted my life after I returned from Manitoba, Canada to perform at the 3rd annual Winnipeg International Burlesque Festival. It was a great time.

First of all, I love to travel to perform. I especially love to go places I’ve never been before and Winnipeg was definitely on that list. I’m delighted to be able to say I’ve now performed in three Canadian provinces (and visited a fourth).

I realized this was going to be a bit of a whirlwind trip, just under 48 hours, so I decided I could do the whole thing with a carry-on. It was only one costume, albeit a very full gown and a fur wrap, and no props. And bonus, I didn’t have to pay to check a bag.

I arrived Friday morning after a disgustingly early flight and was really grateful that the hotel not only let me get into a room before check-in time, but they upgraded us to a suite to do so. My roommate for the weekend was the delightful Ruby Mechant, who also played tour guide a bit, as she had been to the festival before.

My performance slot was Friday night. It was early in the first act, so I didn’t have too much time to fret as I waited to go on. The venue is very nice — raked seating, real dressing rooms with lots of mirrors, huge stage, great lighting. It’s called Gas Station Arts Centre, so I assume it was once a gas station, but you couldn’t tell.

My performance (Mina in Furs) drew lots of cheers during and lots of praise afterwards. The audience was so great and I was so into performing, that I completely forgot the moment early in the routine when I scoop up my fur stole (I enter with it dragging behind me) until the moment that I was supposed to fling it off myself again. I was really kicking myself and I can’t bear to watch the video. However, I do love this action shot from Dano Tanaka.

After intermission I slipped into the theatre to see the second half. My favorite act of the night was Delilah’s Le Morte de Corbeau. It’s a simply stunning performance and circumstances have prevented me from seeing it from the audience until now.

I know it’s a cliche to say that Canadians are nice people, but everyone I met at the festival was SO nice and welcoming. We got these cute handmade swag bags with useful little items, like a notebook and glitter. Oh, and a performer badge! I love those. There’s something about having that round my neck and flashing it to the ushers or security that makes feel like a rock star.

Saturday afternoon were the workshops. I’m really grateful to Dixie Cups for rearranging things so that I could teach “Who’s Who in Classic Burlesque”. She went out of her way to get me on the schedule and to make sure I had a projector. Communicating about these arrangements was hampered by the fact that apparently my email no longer likes to talk to Gmail, so I doubly commend her patience with me when it seemed like I was ignoring her emails.

We had a great turn out and I was so thrilled that my slide show worked perfectly. I mention this because I agonized over it. I had upgraded my slideshow to include video clips of the performers, which worked great on my computer at home. However, I run the presentation off my tablet when traveling and no matter what I tried, I could not get the videos to play. Thanks to a suggestion from Scratch, I saved all my slides as images and dropped them and the videos into a photo album resident on the tablet. Not only did it work, but I was having data issues, so I wouldn’t have been able to reach anything cloud-based anyway. Oh, technology!

Saturday night I got to relax and just enjoy the show. Best of all, I got to catch up with Delilah, whose company I always enjoy. The show was, as usual for festivals, a mixed bag. There were acts I liked very much and some that were not to my taste at all. I’m always happy to see the different styles and get some inspiration. I was a little surprised that several of the performers, particularly the invited guests, did the same acts on Friday as on Saturday. It seems like an odd production choice when encouraging the audience to buy tickets for both nights. The audience did get their money’s worth, however. The shows were good and long with, as I said, many different styles of performance.

I reluctantly skipped the after-party, since Ruby and I had to get up pretty early the next day for our flights back to the States. And before I knew it, I was home.

I’m glad I went. Not only was it a lovely experience, I can’t think of any reason I might have otherwise ended up in Winnipeg. It’s great to experience new places. I’m hoping to continue traveling in the year to come. (Hint, hint — book me…)

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page.

Published in: on 27 November 2018 at 3:48 pm  Leave a Comment  
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This Guy Walks Into a Bra… 8/4/18

Dear Constant Reader,

This show was a little different from our usual fare. Instead of having Scratch between each act, we did some vintage burlesque comedy sketches. The show was very fast paced and a lot of fun.

Burlesque comedy is rather challenging. Much of the original material is problematic in various ways. First off, most of the lines were meant to be delivered by a Straightman and a Comic, although some sketches had even more male characters and some had a female role or two. We only have one guy, so the sketches had to be adapted for women to play some of the roles. Unlike the 1940’s, no one is going to think it unlikely for, say, a straightman cop to be played by a woman.

The real problem is that much of the material is incredibly offensive to a modern audience. It’s often horribly sexist, basically misogynistic, it’s racist, it’s violent (many sketches end with one character shooting the other), and sometimes the humor is so dated that a modern audience just doesn’t get it.

Scratch searched though tons of authentic burlesque and vaudeville comedy bits to find stuff we could edit and adapt. Sometimes the characters were made all female (as mentioned above). Sometimes the language needed updating (but not too up-to-date; we didn’t want to lose that vintage feel). Sometimes Scratch pulled bits from several different routines and strung them together into a single sketch. And occasionally he stole bits from later sources (like Airplane and Laugh-In).

Something else we did differently for this show — title cards! Back when we did Madame Burlesque, we had title cards for all the acts, which the stage kitten would place on a lovely easel. We wanted to revive that, but it starts getting expensive to create new cards for every act. Devastasia had a great idea — chalk boards. So Scratch took a bunch of thin board covered with chalkboard paint, cut them to size, and Devastasia went to town with her chalk markers. She made these beautiful cards for each performer. The cards add a nice vintage touch, but for this show they served a practical purpose. We didn’t have traditional MC introductions before each act because of the comedy sketches, so the cards gave the performers their due credit.

The show itself was quite lively and our audience, though small, was enthusiastic, despite the heat. I don’t know about them, but we were all wilting backstage. We got a lot of nice compliments, but none better than the woman who could only stay for 15 minutes but said she couldn’t miss the chance to see The Boston BeauTease. Perhaps we’ll return to Brattleboro, when it’s cooler.

Next up, I go to Winnipeg International Burlesque Festival to perform and teach and The BeauTease present The Bananaz Variety Hour at Deacon Giles Speakeasy Lab!

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page.

Published in: on 9 August 2018 at 2:05 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Upcoming

Dear Constant Reader,

July was a quiet month, but things heat up in August.

On Saturday The Boston BeauTease will be making a rare appearance in Brattleboro, VT with our new show, This Guy Walks Into a Bra…. We’ll be performing striptease, magic, and singing as usual, but we’ll also be adding in some old-fashioned burlesque comedy sketches. We’ve been describing it as “modern women and vintage comedy” and we’ve been having a lot of fun with it. You’ll see all your favorite BeauTeasers plus our apprentices stripping *and* talking.

Next I’m off to the Winnipeg International Burlesque Festival!

I’ll be performing Friday night and teaching “Who’s Who in Classic Burlesque” Saturday afternoon!

If you’re not going to be in Winnipeg on Saturday the 18th, why don’t you join the rest of the BeauTease for The Bananaz Variety Hour at the Deacon Giles Speakeasy Lab in Salem? There will be bananas, singing, dancing, comedy, magic, bananas, and more. (Due to my well-known hatred of bananas, I’ve been forced to flee the country.)

 

 

 

I hinted about something fabulous that I was given at our last show. This picture is just a tiny taste of the glorious ensemble. I may blog about it someday, but for now you can see pictures of the whole thing and read all about it at my Patreon page if you are a Patron, of course (and why aren’t you?).

B.A.B.E. will be back in session in September after our summer break! Devastasia will be teaching Introduction to Burlesque and I will be showing the intermediate students fabulous things to do with a boa. In October, I’ll be teaching a bewitching choreography that’s perfect for Halloween.

I’m sure there will be more to come!

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page.

Published in: on 31 July 2018 at 4:08 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Burlesque Roadshow 6/29/18

Dear Constant Reader,

At the end of June we presented the first ever burlesque show at Down the Road Brewery in Everett. Credit to Devastasia for suggesting the venue. It was, shall we say, an eventful show.

True confessions first, I was very worried about the show. Ticket sales were rather slow. But, as it turned out, the house was pretty packed.

Although they have a big stage, it’s not a theatre and we had to bring in pipe & drape and some lighting. We also brought our own vintage-style microphone, but didn’t have enough cable to connect with their audio, but fortunately they provided a wireless microphone. If you were at the show, that’s why Scratch was having trouble with the volume levels. The lighting wasn’t wonderful — next time we’ll try something else. And the stage was mighty slippery. I was worried about the tap dancers. As it turned out, they were fine.

Before I get into the show itself, I want to share these great promo images Scratch created. I believe all three photos were taken by Charles Jones (correct me if I’m wrong, please).

  

The show was alcohol themed (because why not) and it went a little something like this:
(Act one performance photos by Jo Oltman)

Devastasia, Mina Murray, Stephanie: Poison
We’ve performed this one before, with three sexy, but rather stupid, murderesses who don’t seem to notice that EVERYONE’s glass is poisoned. New for this show were the matching pasties. I made the skull & crossbone bases and Devastasia did the gorgeous rhinestone job. They look amazing, but I was having a heck of a time twirling. I could only get one tassel going at a time.

Brigitte Bisoux: Alcohol
Brigitte created this act for The Wrathskellar as The Broad. It’s too good to save just for once a year, so she has a slightly more cheerful version for general audiences. I hope audience members noted the bottle from which she was drinking. There was nothing special about it at this time. We’ll get back to it. It was great that the stage had steps down so Brigitte could get into the audience to steal drinks and crush people to her bosom.

Artemisia Vulgaris: Scotch and Soda
Artemisia has such a lovely voice and we like to give her a chance to use it at least once a show. This is kind of a slow, smokey song, but it was livened up during the musical bridge as Artemisia chatted with the audience. 

 

 

Betty Blaize, Tahni: Absinthe
This one hasn’t seen the stage in a long time. I think the last appearance was French Kiss back in 2010. Betty, as an old school Goth (which she is), mourns her lack of absinthe. Suddenly a giant absinthe bottle runs onto stage and starts tap dancing! Tahni the Green Fairy pops out to continue her dance and offer Betty some absinthe. Betty in her delight begins stripping and the horrified Fairy rescinds her gift. Tahni made that lovely gauzy fairy costume herself. Our new bottle was constructed by Scratch and made beautiful (as usual) by Devastasia.
   

Devastasia: Love Potion Number 9
Okay, this wasn’t quite fitting the theme, as the love potion in evidence is a perfume, not a drink.

Scratch: Magic
Scratch did something impossible with a bottle of vermouth. This was just a little something to kill time while the stage kittens were setting up for…

Mina Murray: French Champagne
This is one of my signature acts, last seen at ABurlyQ last August. It requires a lot of set up and potentially some clean up, depending on how well I’ve positioned myself for the climax of the act, so it only works for certain shows, but I love it. People are usually surprised to see me as a blonde.

Intermission

(There are some nice pictures of Act Two by Jo again, but they’re on Instagram, so I can’t make them show up here.)
Brigitte Bisoux: Oh, So Quiet
This is a brand-new act from Brigitte. What would a show about booze be without a hangover. And Brigitte is wearing tap shoes. Fortunately a little Gatorade gets her back on her toes. Ultimately it’s the hair of the dog that revives her completely. Observant audience members will note it was the same bottle that did her in in “Alcohol”.

Betty Blaize: Cocktails for Two
Another number from Betty that hasn’t been seen in a very long time. It was created for Dewer’s Repeal Day celebration back in, I think, 2008. Betty took this opportunity to completely revamp her Statue of Liberty costume and refine the choreography.

Artemisia Vulgaris: One For My Baby (and One More for the Road)
This is a new act from Artemisia and I love it! It’s so slow and slinky and she sprawls on a fur stole in such a classic style.

Devastasia: One Mint Julep
Another debut act — a flirty dance with a parasol. The remarkable thing about this one is the costume. When we presented Wrathskellar Tales I went to Savers and bought a whole bunch of gowns to fill the Diva’s armoire. One of them was a fairly boring mint green probably bridesmaid dress, with no embellishment at all. Devastasia thought the color was perfect for this act and ransacked the troupe trimming box to make it into a stunning costume. I wish I had a before and after picture to show you the amazing transformation.

Scratch: Martini Time
One of Scratch’s signature magic acts.

Mina Murray: Am I Blue
This is a new fan dance and I got to wear my new cage thong from Burluxe. Remember that slippery stage? I was the one who almost wiped out. I was going down to one knee and my foot slid out from under me. Fortunately I just ended up sort of ungracefully on my butt. Devora had surprised us by showing up in the audience and she said she thought it was “very sincere”.

Artemisia Vulgaris, Betty Blaize, Stephanie, Tahni: Puttin’ on the Ritz
Scratch asked Betty for a new group number and gave her some parameters. She exceeded all expectations with the choreography and the dancers did an amazing job with it. It’s one of the best group numbers we’ve done recently.

After the show we talked to audience members (one of who gave me something amazing that deserves its own post) and got a well-deserved drink. It was maybe 15 or 20 minutes all told, plenty of time later to strike, pack up, and load out. Then the fire alarm went off.

We all went outside. I figured this would be a short interlude since it was clear there wasn’t actually a fire. Then the fire truck showed up. The firemen went inside and eventually the alarm went silent. We continued waiting. Next thing we knew, the ladder extended from the truck to the roof of the building and a couple of firemen headed there. Uh oh.

Then the brewery announced that they were shut down by order of the fire department. It was the CO alarm that had gone off. We were incredibly flustered — all our stuff was inside, not just our costumes and other gear, but personal items like purses, phones, and car and house keys. Eventually the firefighters escorted us inside in small groups to get our most important stuff. Of course, I grabbed my fans as well as my purse. And the above-mentioned amazing thing.

If you want to hear all about this right after it happened, become a Patron and you can watch a video where I babble all about the incident after I got home.

Early the next morning, when we would have rather been sleeping in, most of us returned to Down the Road to sift through the chaos that was our dressing room (we were using the back hallway and the firefighters had to move a bunch of our stuff to get to the alarm panel) and pack and to strike the tech.

At least the alarm hadn’t gone off until AFTER the show was over.

I always hope we’l have an exciting show, but this wasn’t exactly what I meant.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page.

Published in: on 12 July 2018 at 10:23 am  Leave a Comment  
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Going to Canada

Dear Constant Reader,

As the title says, I’m going to Canada. Not permanently. I’ve been accepted to perform at the Winnipeg International Burlesque Festival on August 17-18.

Honestly, I applied on a whim without any expectations. I don’t have a very high festival acceptance rate and this year I scaled back my applications. But the application was free and I had just received video of my act (thanks to Scratch), so I said what the heck. I was stunned to get an acceptance letter that very night!

I’m very excited to be returning to Canada and particularly to a province I’ve not visited before (I previously performed in Montreal and Toronto). I’m also exciting to be presenting the act I worked on at Stripper’s Holiday. Hopefully I’ll also get to teach.

However, it’s not cheap to fly from Boston to Winnipeg. Well, that’s technically not true. It was perfectly affordable to fly TO Winnpieg; it’s the return flight that was spendier than I liked.

So, help a traveling showgirl out! Buy a book! Book me to perform or teach! Become a Patron! I’m going to come up with a Special Something for everyone who supports me on Patreon between now and August 17th. Stay tuned to learn what it is…

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page.

Published in: on 18 June 2018 at 2:41 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Far From Our Clothes 4/15/18

Dear Constant Reader,

In continuing with our penchant for performing at creators of alcohol in Salem, we had our first show at Far From the Tree Cider. As with our shows at Deacon Giles, Brigitte Bisoux made the connection for us. In this case, because she’s a brand ambassador for the cider, so it seemed like an especially great fit.

We did two shows, as is our wont for small venues. The first audience was good, but the second one was fantastic! They were super enthusiastic and a joy to perform for. It was also the birthday of one of our long-time supporters, so we got the audience to join us in a non-dire rendition of “Happy Birthday”. Far From the Tree is very welcoming to dogs and babies. I don’t remember if there were any for the former there for the show, but there was a two-month old who (we’re told) enjoyed the show.

Because of our location, we threw in a couple of apple-themed acts. Brigitte did her infamous “Still Life” performance with a bowl full of apples instead of mixed fruit. Scratch mystified (and perhaps horrified) the audience with “Urban Legend”, involving an apple stuck wth double-edged razor blades. Artemisia sang the PMJ arrangement of “Criminal” because it’s by Fiona Apple (we amuse ourselves). And Betty closed out the show with “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree”, backed up by apprentices Ayo and Stephanie in their first show!

It was a bit logistically challenging to make a dressing room for ourselves. We were given the accessible restroom and the space in front of it. The challenge was that there were two doorways open to the tap room. We brought drape, but all the pipe is currently in The Expo trailer. Some very creative engineering was done with conduit, painter’s tape and even some ribbon to curtain off our space. It was cozy quarters, but we made it work. I made a backstage video for my Patrons.

We tried an experiment with this show. In New Orleans at the Legs and Eggs brunch, there were tip envelopes on every table printed with “tips” for enjoying the show. That seemed like a good, low-pressure way for the audience to tip if so chose. We included a piece of paper in the envelope so people could leave a note if they liked, and some of the results are in the photo.

The staff at Far From the Tree was terrific and we’re grateful to them for having us. We hope to do it again! We’ll be back in Salem next month at Deacon Giles with The Boston BeauTease Go Bananaz! (I still can’t believe I’m writing that). But our next show is this Saturday at The Castle on Charles in Rochester, NH.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page.

Published in: on 19 April 2018 at 4:11 pm  Leave a Comment  
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