Friday Tip!

Dear Constant Reader,

It’s Friday tip time! One of the great things about The Conference at The Expo is that I get inspired with all sorts of new tips. Here’s one for both taking and teaching movement classes:

For students:
Put down your notebook. Let your body learn as well as your mind.
Trust me, I am a compulsive note-taker, but you won’t get as much out of the class if you’re frantically scribbling instead of moving. Take a few minutes at the end of class to jot things down while they’re still fresh.

For teachers:
Create a cheat-sheet or aide-mémoire for your students so they don’t have to take notes.
Tell them you have it at the start of class, but don’t hand it out until the end. If you want to be super-awesome, make a video of your combination or choreography and give students the URL.

M2

Published in: on 21 February 2014 at 10:55 am  Leave a Comment  
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Expo 2014: The Bordello

Dear Constant Reader,

On Friday night at The Expo, after The Rhinestone Revue, we retire next door to what will become the Vendor Hall for The Bordello, a cabaret show with refreshments. It’s great because not only do we get to relax and socialize, there’s entertainment too. And it’s also an opportunity for more performers to get on stage, particularly ones who didn’t want to compete and/or are too experienced for The Original Newcomers’ Showcase.

It was also the one chance all weekend The Babydolls had to wear our uniform, here slightly obscured:
(Photo by David L. Byrd)

The show was expertly hosted by The Mad Marquis of Critical Hit Burlesque and contained so many fabulous acts. A few that stood out to me:

  • Lili VonSchtupp: Of course. She did her dirty, frustrating number to “I’d Like to Come”. Probably even funnier than when I saw it in Vermont because I knew what was coming (or not…)
  • Ms. Red Snapper: I followed the creation of this costume on her blog and it was great to see it in the flesh and in motion.
  • Matt Finish: Sexy, smooth, and a great dancer.
  • Vikki Fahrenheit: She sang “Peel Me a Grape” while stripping. She has a lovely, sultry voice and the bit with the rose petals is a sweet trick.
  • Dahlia Fatale: She just gets better and better every time I see her perform. Her chairwork is simply breath-taking.

    • And then I had to be up early the next day to teach!

    M2

    Published in: on 20 February 2014 at 11:46 pm  Leave a Comment  

    Expo 2014: The Rhinestone Revue

    Dear Constant Reader,

    The Great Burlesque Exposition kicked things off with The Rhinestone Revue, a showcase of past Howard Award winners and special guests. It’s really quite an amazing amount of talent on one stage.

    Unless otherwise noted, photos are by Kristin Chalmers Photography.

    Scarlett Letter, Most Classic 2007, Best Solo 2010: Scarlett performed to “Love for Sale” in a green & black vintage-style lingerie. Fun fact: she hand-sews many of her costumes and never uses rhinestones.

    Scandal from Bohemia, Most Humorous 2010: Scandal, known for her comedy, presented a more serious and poignant act about body image. It was interesting foreshadowing for something the next night.

    Dot Mitzvah, Best Hybrid 2012: Dot is famed for singing while stripping. And not just singing, singing opera — yes, arias while removing her clothes. She wanted to change it up this year and presented a Creepy Doll number. Totally unlike Devora’s Creepy Doll, but just as disturbing.

    BettySioux Tailor, Most Beautiful 2010: BettySioux also has been known to sing while she strips, as she did when she became a Howard Award-winner. And she makes all her own costumes (as well as creating the Costume Exhibit every year). In this case, not only did she make her own costume, the costume inspired her song. “Friendly Conversation”, written specifically for this act, was inspired by the conversation hearts on her corset.

    Bobby Burlesque, Mr. Hollywood Burlesque: The Expo has a sister festival — The Hollywood Burlesque Festival — and the winners from their inaugural event got to come to Boston! Mr. Hollywood gave us a fabulous bit of film noir burlesque.

    Sheila Starr Siani, Miss Hollywood Burlesque: Sheila has been coming to The Expo for a couple of years now, but never performed. Oh, was it worth the wait! Her harem-style dance was so sensual, especially her use of the chain ’round her throat.
     
     

    April March, The First Lady of Burlesque: What a treat and a delight! April wasn’t at The Expo last year because she broke her ankle shortly before. Not only is it all better, she lost an enormous amount of weight in the interim year. She looks amazing! Several Expos ago she performed for the first time in over 30 years and then said “I’m never doing that again”. Well, she made a liar of herself! In a rhinestone-bedecked showgirl outfit by Grant Philipo with a robe from Alexandra the Great 48, she teased the audience by barely taking off anything and they loved every minute of it.

    Intermission

    Angie Pontani: Scratch has been wanting Angie at The Expo for a long time, but since it was always on Easter and she’s a good Italian girl, that wasn’t going to happen. But with the change in dates… What a stunning performer! I never get tired of watching her.

    Perle Noire: The only other time I’ve seen Perle perform, she did her Josephine Baker dance — high-energy with lots of splits and kicks. This number was slow and oh-so-sensual. I could practically feel the whole audience simultaneously holding their breath and drooling.

    Femme Brûlée, Most Beautiful: She reprised the act that she won with last year, as a sad cloud that transforms to shimmering rain and finally dazzling sunlight.

    Dangrrr Doll, Most Humorous: In a departure from last year’s polar bear act, Dangrrr Doll presented a dramatic number with one of the stunning costumes she’s become known for. With the black hair and Kabuki-style make-up, I would not have recognized her! Unfortunately, I was dragged away to go backstage before the end and I’m dying to know what happened.
     
     

    Donna Denise, Most Classic: She also reprised her award-winning act. No photograph can capture the power of her pectorals, so you’ll just have to see her live.
     
     

    The Boston Babydolls: True confession time — for various reasons, none of them good, we only had about a month to create and rehearse this act. Scratch knew he wanted to use “Feelin’ Good”, but none of the extant versions were just right, so he did a little editing wizardry and created exactly what he wanted for us. Betty has always choreographed our big Expo numbers. In fact, she’s choreographed every group number since, oh, I’d say 2008. In this case, she teamed up with Brigitte and they created a thing of beauty. Much of it came to Brigitte in a dream. No lie.

    (Photo by John Bilotti)

    Like I said, we only had a month, so we hit it hard. It was a challenge, especially the group stocking removes. Here I have to give a big thank you to Dorothy’s Boutique for staying open late for us to pick up stockings for our final dress rehearsal when the ones we’d ordered failed to arrive in time. Also, lighting was very important to this number, so thank you to Hunter for making it work.

    (Photo by John Bilotti)

    Brigitte’s theme was Babydolls United. Everyone entered in the order in which they joined the troupe and then we stripped one another. Together we are greater.

    And too soon it was all over, but then it was time for The Bordello!

    M2

    Published in: on 19 February 2014 at 10:18 am  Comments (2)  
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    Love Actually (not actually)

    Dear Constant Reader,

    The Boston Babydolls usually do 4 big productions a year, a month-long show in February, The Expo on Easter weekend, our summer tour (June-August), and The Wrathskellar for the month of October. Due to circumstances beyond The Expo’s control, it had to be moved to the weekend before Valentine’s Day. No big February show for us, but we couldn’t just ignore Valentine’s Day. After all, it was a whole week after The Expo. And wouldn’t it be fun to have live vocals for all the songs?

    And it was fun! We had two shows last night, which were *packed*, and all the acts were romantic. Sort of.

    Before I get into the details, I wanted to give you one of those backstage peeks. When we do a show on a weeknight, Scratch arranges for a staff meal for the cast & crew. Many people are hustling in from their day jobs and we’d rather not have cranky hungry dancers or people running out to grab food when they should be preparing for the show. Sometimes we get a local restaurant to sponsor the show by providing the catering, sometimes Scratch cooks, but usually he just buys it, preferably from some place that does party-size orders. Last night’s dinner came from Amsterdam Falafel and it was just the right thing: tasty, not heavy, lots of veggies. And very generous portions. There’s a ton of left-overs at Babydoll Manor.

    On to the show!

    Act I

    Betty Blaize, Devora Darling, Mina Murray: “Jilted”, sung by Alissa Coates and Stella Diamond
    The song was written by The Puppini Sisters for their 3 voices, but we did just fine in two-part harmony. Betty, Devora, and I were jilted women who realize it’s much more fun flirting with one another than moping about men.

    Brigitte Bisoux: “Black Coffee”/”Sugar in my Bowl”, sung by Alissa Coates
    It’s the morning after and Brigitte is savoring her coffee before she gets dressed. Then she realizes she’d rather be in bed with him and undresses again. During the first show, the audio mysteriously cut out half-way through “Sugar in My Bowl”, so Alissa continued singing unaccompanied, which involved winging it during the instrumental section, until the end. The joys of live theatre, folks!

    Stella Diamond: “Moonglow”
    We call this one “Date Night” and it’s one of Stella’s favorites. You can see her get molested by a jacket again at The Mardi Gras Ball on March 1st.

    Devora Darling: “Embraceable You”
    A lovely romantic dance en pointe with long-stem roses.

    Mina Murray: “Too Darn Hot”, sung by Stella Diamond
    A fan dance. How could I not have one? The fans are brand-new, made by me, and I was very excited to use them for the first time. I wasn’t thrilled with how the dance had turned out. It was kind of boring and that was bugging me. Friday morning I decided to throw in a little striptease and was much happier with the results.

    Betty Blaize: “All of Me”
    As Betty removed her clothes, she tied the object of her affection, Stella, to a chair with them. And then abandoned her on stage.

    Act II

    Brigitte Bisoux, Devora Darling: “Old Folks” and “Makin’ Whoopie”, sung by Scratch
    This is a brand-new duet, with Devora as an adorable housewife and Brigitte as her hubby. We were all a little surprised to discover the additional verses to “Makin’ Whoopie”.

    Betty Blaize: “Someone to Watch Over Me”, sung by Alissa Coates
    One of Betty’s signature numbers with her swirling white silk cape.

    Brigitte Bisoux: “Let’s Misbehave”
    Brigitte, as a saucy flapper, tap dances her heart out.

    Devora Darling: “The Man I Love”, sung by Alissa Coates
    Devora seems so sweet and innocent, but occasionally she gets obsessive…

    Mina Murray: “In a Sentimental Mood”, sung by Alissa Coates and “Big Town”
    This is the act I call “Champagne on Ice”, with “In a Sentimental Mood” replacing “The Exciting Life” (because of what backing tracks were available). I changed the ending a bit and I think it was well received. At least, during the second show, I heard someone say “She’s not going to…” right before the climax.

    Stella Diamond, Brgitte Bisoux, Betty Blaize: “How High the Moon”, sung by Alissa Coates
    This is a fun three-person fan dance with lots of mischief and one-up-manship.

    And now we get a little chance to relax before our next scheduled show, The Mardi Grad Ball on March 1st. It’ll be a fabulous time!

    Next up, all about The Expo. I know you just can’t wait.

    M2

    Published in: on 17 February 2014 at 8:30 am  Leave a Comment  
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    Friday Tip!

    Dear Constant Reader,

    Happy Valentine’s Day! The Boston Babydolls will be celebrating by presenting two performances of Love Actually (not actually) at The Davis Square Theatre tonight. I know, a full-production show less than one week after The Expo, what were we thinking? We were thinking it would be fun!

    Your tip today comes from the wisdom of fictional tough guy Joe Pike, written by Robert Crais:

    Love is not so plentiful that any of us can afford to reject it when it’s offered.

    M2

    Published in: on 14 February 2014 at 8:47 am  Comments (1)  
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    The Great Burlesque Exposition of 2014

    Dear Constant Reader,

    The Expo has been and gone and I’m exhausted! Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be giving you a recap in bite sized pieces, but today I wanted to give some thank yous.

    Everyone who worked on The Expo deserves big thanks and if I tried to list them all I’d surely forget someone. However, there are some people who helped me out personally and I want to make sure you all know who they are.

    Thank you to:

    …Brigitte Bisoux, Devora Darling, Stella Diamond, Lucie Luxe, and Mandy for running the B.A.B.E. drop-in classes all weekend long and for packing up the classroom at the end of each day. And special thanks to Lucie for toting all the gear back to B.A.B.E.

    …Donna Denise, Femme Brulee, Gorejess, and Scandal from Bohemia for judging the Main Event and making it one of the fastest, easiest, and most conflict-free deliberations ever.

    …my tea party ladies: Brigitte Bisoux for getting MEM Tea Imports and Runa: Clean Energy on board as sponsors, Mimi Mischief for making the adorable centerpieces, and Blaze for helping with set up and making sure the tea pots stayed full.

    …the backstage crew at The Original Newcomers’ Showcase: Claire, Linda B., Lia, and Diamond DeVille. You guys were fabulous at keeping everything running smoothly, even with all the messy acts.

    …Betty Blaize and her Web Guys, Marcus DeBoyz and John K. The casual user of the event site has no idea what useful features they created on the back end. It made my life so much easier when I was prepping for judging and hosting shows.

    …a stage kitten whose name I never caught who cheerfully pinned me into my tea dress when the zipper was failing.

    …and of course, Scratch, without whom none of this would have happened.

    M2

    Published in: on 11 February 2014 at 10:53 am  Leave a Comment  
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    Friday Tip!

    Dear Constant Reader,

    Today is the first day of The Great Burlesque Exposition of 2014! I can’t wait to see all your shiny faces and sparkly other body parts!

    But, first, your Friday Tip!

    When in doubt, point your toe.

    M2

    Published in: on 7 February 2014 at 10:00 am  Leave a Comment  
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    Review: “…A Kind of Life.”

    Dear Constant Reader,

    What a snowy Wednesday! How about a book review? Today’s book is continuing in the vein of Carnival Strippers, but it’s set in Boston!

    “…A Kind of Life.”: Conversations in the Combat Zone by Roswell Angier (1976).

    The Combat Zone* was the section of Boston where the adult businesses moved after Scollay Square was demolished. Washington Street between Boylston and Kneeland Streets was the home of peepshows, adult movie theatres, bookstores and venues such as the Teddy Bare Lounge, The Pilgrim Theatre, the Naked I with girls, girls, girls. Some of our Legends remember performing in those clubs and theatres.

    These days the Combat Zone is pretty cleaned up, although there are a few hold-outs (particularly on LaGrange Street, once notorious for the streetwalkers).

    Like Susan Meiselas, Angier took photos in the 1970’s of performers and others associated with The Combat Zone and accompanies the photos with quotes. His photos are taken on-stage, back-stage and on the street, all neatly captioned with the subject’s name (if known), location, and year. He also does an in-depth study of two performers: Melanie and Coty Lee. He seems to have a lot of affection for all these performers.

    For me the real selling point of the book, beside that it captures of Boston burlesque history, is a portrait of Tiffany Carter opposite one of Hedy Jo Star.

    Some of the text is the author’s own and it’s opinionated and a bit crude. I was struck by a bit in his introduction that specifically mentions burlesque, when he’s comparing “strippers” and “showgirls”:

    The differences between the two are subtle and possibly specious. But to women who are in the business, the distinction is an important one. In part, it has to do with age. Strippers are often older women in whose memories burlesque is still very much alive, or younger women who have picked up the extravagant style of the old queens. They are real cockteasers. Showgirls, who tend to be younger, are less melodramatic. They get just as naked, but they are less genital. Their sexuality is polymorphous and familiar, a kind of aura. You can tell showgirls from strippers, sometimes by their stage names: Jeri, Deirdre, Melanie, Coty Lee; and on the other hand, Devil’s Delight, Satan’s Angel, Blaze Starr, Tempest Storm, Honeysuckle Devine. The effects they are calculated for are miles apart.

    An interesting perspective, which is contradicted by some of the performer’s quotes. The 70’s seem to be a time of transition for our industry and I’m interested to learn more.

    M2
    * One of my tag lines is “The Ivy League mind in the Combat Zone body”, but only particular audiences get the reference these days.

    Published in: on 5 February 2014 at 4:30 pm  Leave a Comment  
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    The Expo is Coming!

    Dear Constant Reader.

    It’s almost time for The Great Burlesque Expo of 2014! I’m so excited. It’s going to be so much fun! I hope I’ll see you there.

    I’ll be teaching Friday afternoon and Saturday morning and then taking all the classes I can! B.A.B.E is sponsoring drop-in classes all day Saturday and Sunday (included with any ticket), so even if you’re not attending The Conference, you can get some burlesque basics.

    The Boston Babydolls are performing in The Rhinestone Revue Friday night, I’m judging The Main Event on Saturday, and hosting The Sunday Night Showcases.

    And finally, I’ll be hosting a Tea Party Sunday afternoon!

    Not to mention shopping, watching The Pontani Sisters’ movie, going to the fashion show, pool party, Friday Night Bordello and the costume exhibit!

    And of course, seeing my burly-friends from all over the country.

    I’m exhausted just thinking about it all!

    A lot of people work really hard to put in this great event, but they can always use more help. It you want to make a fabulous event even better, volunteer. It’s fun!

    And in all the Expo excitement I don’t want to forget that tomorrow is Teaseday! And you should get your tickets now for the spectacular Mardi Tease on March 4th. They’re only $10 until tomorrow!

    Busily Yours,
    M2

    Published in: on 3 February 2014 at 1:50 pm  Leave a Comment  
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    Friday Tip

    Dear Constant Reader,

    Saturday night at the Vermont Burlesque Festival, Ray Gunn dropped by my room to borrow a needle and thread for a costume repair and managed to sweet-talk me into doing it for him. It took me no time at all. It’s not for nothing that I’m known as The Fastest Needle in the East (also The Martha Stewart of Burlesque), but part of the reason I was able to reattach the snap so quickly was that I use this trick:

    1. Cut a long length of thread and double it.
    2. Now thread the needle with the doubled thread.
    You now have 4 strands of thread in your needle.
    3. Knot all the ends together.

    Thus you can make 4 stitches with one pass. And the thread won’t slip out of the needle. I’ve got to give credit to Schwartz, who worked on our costumes for The Rhinestone Revue last year for teaching me this tip. It’s ever so helpful when sewing on snaps, buttons and other fasteners.

    M2

    Published in: on 31 January 2014 at 10:11 am  Leave a Comment  
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