We're back and have soaked up an abundance of burlesque. For those responsible for NYBF, congrats on a successful festival and a number of well produced events.
To those in attendence and those who performed - any thoughts from the weekend? Favorite acts? Surprises? Shout outs? Overall impressions you are left with about burlesque? Topics for discussion (send these to the forum email, please)?
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4 comments:
I had a great time and met a lot of cool people (Hi, Jo Boobs!).
There were a few acts that absolutely blew me away...
-Diamondback Annie
-Imogene Kelly
-Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey
-Lukki
-Lux LaCroix
-Kellita
-Bloody Belle
-Fanny Tastic
-Vivian VaVoom
-Little Brooklyn
The first two, Diamondback Annie and Imogene Kelly, blew the doors off the place on Saturday night. Diamondback Annie is my new favorite burlesque performer. Just frikkin' AWESOME!
All in all, I enjoyed the Friday night sets at Element better then the big show on Saturday. Why?
Well, some constructive criticism... that Saturday show was WAAAAAAAAY too long. I clocked it at 4 hours and 20 minutes. First off, it was supposed to start at 8pm and started somewhere closer to 8:45. Secondly, if you wanted a seat in the VIP seats, you had to get there before 7:30. And even though we got there at 7:30, we still had seats with obstructed views... which we weren't expecting at $50 a ticket. But c'est la vie.
Any show that goes longer than the Academy Awards needs to cut some acts. That show would have been perfect at 3 hours. And some of the acts were way too long in and of themselves... clocking in at 10 minutes. That just seemed selfish. And honestly were some of the numbers we liked the least. Also, I know they were a sponsor, but that loooooooong commercial for the lingerie company was not only unnecessary, but when it came that late in the show, the audience actually started to get a bit ugly.
The only thing the whole weekend that actually was pretty negative for me was Tigger. I'm sorry, but that number Saturday night was actually pretty offensive. I'm no prude, but did I need to see that much erect penis? And a simulated rape act? And a condom being pulled from his ass? I need someone to explain to me how that act was even remotely burlesque... because it actually left me with a bit of a bad feeling for the evening.
I had a wonderful time, and I'm thrilled to see you mention two of my favorite LA Babes in your favorites! But when it comes to Tigger I think it's important to remember that a lot of New York Burlesque is based in performance art. I thought his act was hilarious, and I was delighted to see the kind of thing we could never possibly get away with in LA.
Speaking of things we can't get away with here: Bless the performers who lost a pastie and went with it. From a performance background where it's always been drilled into me that you don't stop even if you're bleeding from the eyes and have snot shooting out every orifice, it was nice to see a more casual "fuck it" attitude about these kind of glitches.
The fest was a wonderful experience. I'm glad to have met so many people from all over the country and community.
Friday at Element my highlights were:
*Bloody Belle & Fanny Tastic (hooray for an excellent showing by the Windy City!)
*Ruby Valentine
*Nasty Cantasta
*Lukki
and
*Rose Wood - I was very impressed with her act. Very classy and polished.
I also liked the club very much. I thought it was a great venue for the party.
Saturday night highlights for me:
*Diamond Back Annie is quite frankly the hottest thing on two legs. I nearly punched my non-burlesquer friend in the head in a fit of joy when she pulled that guitar cannon out.
*Imogen Kelly was a delightful surprise. I had no idea of what to expect from her, but it turned out to be many shades of awesome. Cake filled awesome.
Also:
*Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey
*Vivienne Vavoom
*Little Brooklyn
*Miss Saturn
*Tigerlil
*Lux La Croix
I also liked Murray Hill. I think I'd like him better in his usual habitat of his talk show rather than emceeing an epic night of burlesque, but his energy and enthusiasm was fun.
I think the one thing I missed with all the burlesque-ing about (and I don't know how it can be incorporated into a festival environment) is that there are a lot of girlie acts on the stage, but the variety/comedy aspect of our community is missing. The emcees do provide a bit of this, but their main job for the night is to introduce acts and move the events along (something that Scotty the Blue Bunny did like a champ, by the way, kudos to him). I don't know how everybody else's burlesque shows work, but here in Chicago, we have comics and magicians and novelty acts and singers and all sorts of other things on our stages as part of our shows. They're not always ladies, either. And the men that perform them aren't remotely boylesque. It seems like we're leaving a big group of people out of the party in not recognizing and including them. I don't know how that would work at a festival - and I understand that there are comedy festivals and magic conventions that are separate from our little community, too. But we include them in our world, so it seems like we should include them in our fests and conventions, too.
That is, of course, not to say that acts aren't funny or have strange and wonderful things going on in them. They do. And I feel like there was an attempt in the Saturday show - with the Miss Saturns and Spampales sprinkled in - to mix things up a bit with some variety and comedy - but maybe a few more things like these and a few less straight up striptease in the cards? I dunno. That is a quibble for convention planners and fest producers to ponder, if they feel like it...
... I'm off to find a proper place for my Lukki prayer card. (Why don't I have prayer cards?)
I've no problem with the length- 4 hours of eye candy is fine by me! At least we started earlier this year! Gotta write myself a note tho, to bring comfy shoes to change into- I forget every year, and every year I suffer!
Beautiful venues as usual, gorgeous performers, and all of my Denver kids had an absolute blast!
Vivienne VaVoom
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