Jo Weldon
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Kitten on the Keys at Tease-O-Rama and Exotic World many times, and she is one of the most endearing people on the scene. She’s fierce and funny, and has incredible glamour and style. I’m performing with her this coming weekend at Tease-o-Rama, and I can’t wait!
I found a video of me performing my International Lover number at the Zipper Theater in Shelly Watson’s Interarts Variety show. It’s the same number I performed in Margaret Cho’s Sensuous Woman show. Although I’ve performed it in a few cities, I haven’t yet done it at festivals because it’s seven minutes long, and most festivals have a 4 or 5 minute rule.
With the New York Burlesque Festival almost upon us, this seemed like a great time to nab a quickie interview with producer / entrepreneur / all-around hottie Jen Gapay! Jen is the owner of Thirsty Girl Productions, which produces the NYBF with the Pontani Sisters, and I’m happy to have a chance to tip my pastie to one of the most charming and hard-working producers in the scene. What would we do without her?
I adored Waxie Moon the minute I met him. He is one of the people, along with Indigo Blue and Paula the Swedish Housewife, who makes Seattle feel like my home away from home. And he’s in the news!
It’s Gal Friday!
The Miss Coney Island Pageant of the Millenium is a burlesque of a beauty pageant with sideshow performers and burlesque dancers. The first one was created by Bambi the Mermaid, co-producer of the Burlesque at the Beach series, and of course she won, and received her crown while all the rest of us had a catfight on the stage behind her.
I’ve been conducting a series of interviews with Dick Zigun, and I’m going to give you just a taste of what we’ve been discussing. If you’re a fan of New York burlesque, you might find the timeline interesting; if you’re not a fan, you may at least finally understand why New York Burlesque is so far from being simply recreationist.
It’s my birthday, so I got myself an interview with Catherine D’Lish. As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m crrrrrrazy about Ms. D’Lish.
How did you get interested in burlesque?
Well, I was born with a dirty mind, I’m pretty sure!
When I was very young, I spent plenty of time holed up in the garage, enjoying my daddy’s Playboy magazines. There were stacks of them- hours of fun! While growing up, I was fascinated with all things sexual.
There are several velvet-rope bars on Christie Street in Manhattan, in a section of the city formerly reserved for lower-income working class immigrants, especially Ukrainians, Italians, and Germans. The Europeans gathering on the outside of the ropes are hardly working class, however; everything they’re wearing is either designer or ironic, and the price they’ll have to pay a for bottle of champagne or vodka in the club is about what it would cost to have that bottle flown in singly in its own airplane seat.
Although I missed the first Tease-o-rama convention (I was in San Francisco for the Sex Workers’ Film Fest, where Erochica Bamboo performed), I did make it to perform in TOR 2002 and I am very fortunate to know Baby Doe, one of the true pioneers of the burlesque community. I love the way she and Alison Fensterstock and Alan Parowski have worked to enable the burlesque community, and what amazing resources they’ve provided for it. Baby Doe has a beautiful, generous, fun-loving spirit that’s irresistible onstage and off, and I’m happy to have an opportunity to present this interview with her!
In fan workshops, once we master some of the hand positions, we talk about the conceal/reveal opportunities afforded by fans. Although of course we play with the bigger ostrich feather fans, we also play with several different sizes and types of fans.
Fan dancing has a history outside of burlesque fan-dancing, as well, and a search for “fan dance” on youtube locates videos featuring Asian and Spanish dances having nothing to do with burlesque, as well as bellydance videos. I’ve seen all these translated for a burlesque audience, as well as fire fans and fighting fans!
“Selene Luna lives in a building once inhabited by Lucille Ball, and whatever magic Ball left in the walls seems to have rubbed off. Luna radiates old Hollywood glamour, and it’s not just the kitten heels or the torpedo bra. She’s got a quirky humor reminiscent of the red-haired comedian, made naughty by a touch of Bettie Page sensuality and the girlish charm of Betty Boop. It’s that kind of presence that has made Luna one of the most recognizable faces in the city’s burlesque-revival scene.”
New Yorkers often bring their most inventive A-Games to Coney Island’s Burlesque at the Beach, a series which has been taking place at Sideshows at the Seashore for nearly fifteen years. A theme show at Coney Island is a whole other kind of magical world.
Bambi the Mermaid, for many years the co-producer of the BOTB series, has created some outrageous theme shows there, and one of my favorites so far was the Blacklight Spectacular. She begins planning some of her theme shows years in advance, and they’re just not like anything else.