Vegas or Bust, with a Cherry on Top

•05/28/2010 • Leave a Comment

The final push to get Seattle’s glitterati to Vegas for the 20th Annual Burlesque Hall of Fame Pageant and Reunion takes place tonight at the Oddfellows Building (West Hall). Vegas Or Bust! features a peek at the Vegas-bound performances of Miss Indigo Blue, Sydni Deveraux (competing this year for “Best Debut”), Evilyn Sin Claire, The Shanghai Pearl, and Polly Wood. The evening will be hosted by previous Exotic World contestant Ravenna Black, and proceeds help these performers, plus burlesque “friend of the family” Wild Cherry, hit the road with a little brass in pocket.

Recently Miss Indigo Blue took the time to explain how the New Orleans legend came to be one Seattle’s favorite spitfires- here’s what she had to say:

“I met Wild Cherry in 2001 at TeaseORama and took classes from her. She has always been a fabulous dancer. And even then, at 63, the lady could MOVE! Over the years I’ve gotten to know her a bit better, so when Kitten La Rue asked me to re-create Wild Cherry’s signature “Temptation” act for the Atomic Bombshells, I was delighted. Kitten and I collaborated on bringing Cherry out to Seattle, and she stayed at my house during our show, where she performed! Over coca-cola and iced oatmeal cookies, I became enraptured with her. She is a tough cookie, true to her name. In any case, since then I’ve been her co-escort at the Pageant.”

*Vegas or Bust!” 8:30pm, West Hall (915 10th Ave @ E Pine, in the Oddfellows Building)

Posted in Written by Jessica
Tags: , , ,

The bewitching adventures of Fuchsia FoXXX

•05/26/2010 • Leave a Comment

Click to see Fuchsia featured in this week’s Stranger:


Photobucket
*photo by Shena Lee

Posted in Written by Jessica
Tags: ,

Private Parts: start your Vegas engines

•05/24/2010 • Leave a Comment

The ladies of Porcelain Promenade with shiny co-star

Friday night’s Private Parts benefit to get the ladies of Sinner Saint to Vegas for the 2010 Burlesque Hall Of Fame Weekend was a success by all accounts, and a sweetly personal evening with one of Seattle’s best troupes. Jesse Belle-Jones disentangled herself from a skin-hugging straitjacket; Dona Dei Cuori unleashed some sizzling footwork with delectable dance partner Jerome. But the evening’s most squishy moments were reserved for the sharing of personal notes, melodramatic journal entries, and bad poetry. Polly Wood revealed her secret fantasy of becoming an Egyptologist- complete with earnestly drawn blueprints. Evilyn Sin Claire read a pensive teenage letter declaring “I don’t admire anyone. Except maybe myself.” Though clearly independent and headstrong since birth, she’s equally affectionate- concluding with a heartfelt note on being deeply touched when people selflessly offer help.

More on Seattle’s glitzy road to Vegas to come over the next few weeks…

*If you’d like to come to the aid of Porcelain Promenade, Paypal your love via beamismansfield@gmail.com; another benefit for BHOF-bound performers (including adopted matriarch Wild Cherry) takes place May 28 at West Hall: Vegas Or Bust!

Posted in Written by Jessica
Tags: , , , , , ,

Tinseltown Tarts

•05/22/2010 • 1 Comment

Tempting Tart: hostess SheFreaka McGee

When the red curtain swishes back and the unmistakable scent of Thierry Mugler’s “Angel” fills the air, you know you’re in libidinous company. The slinky (and delightfully fragrant) Madisun Avenue wriggled around The Jewelbox in a spot-on tribute to Jessica Rabbit during Wednesday’s monthly revue by Tempting Tarts Burlesque. “Tinseltown Tarts”, a cheeky love letter to Hollywood, featured a coterie of characters from TV’s past and present. Morgan La May – Olive Oyl- yanked off her bejeweled bloomers to reveal a barely-there anchor bodice and spinach pasties. (Anyone that recognizes the unhinged, off-key beauty of Shelley Duvall’s “He Needs Me” from 1980 Altman flop/cult classic Popeye deserves an award for innovation alone). There was spy-style boylesque with Disgrace Jones peddling a two for one, um, porking, a bit of belly dance, and finally, the embodiment of every Star Trek fetishist’s dreams- “Trouble with Tribbles”. Curvaceous redhead Sailor St. Claire’s cheeky take on what exactly one does with those small, purring bundles of fur with no discernible features was eye-popping and hilarious.

Tempting Tarts, now produced by Morgan La May, originally formed in 2007 under the direction of Ms. Trixie Lane (co-founder of Kindergarten of Burlesque and Old School Pinups with husband and photographer Lance Wagner). These days, the 14-16 core members, all graduates of the school, take turns playing with whatever monthly theme they dream up. The performances aren’t implicitly built around narratives, but draw on pinup appeal and classic striptease posturing. Core member Roxy Ruby credits Trixie with aiding and abetting the neo or classic character development. “It’s a puzzle,” Roxy said, “and in the end it all fits together for one hell of a show.”

*Tempting Tarts Burlesque’s next show guest stars Tamara The Trapeze Lady, June 24 @ The Jewelbox, Seattle.

Posted in Written by Jessica
Tags:

Tamara The Trapeze Lady returns to Dr. Sketchy’s

•05/16/2010 • Leave a Comment

Tonight an old friend of Dr. Sketchy’s Seattle returns- Tamara The Trapeze Lady will strike a pose (or many poses) at West Hall, Oddfellows Building. If you missed her all dolled up and hanging from the rafters at downtown’s cozy Jewelbox Theatre, tonight you can make amends.

Here’s what the March 2 2010 issue of The Stranger had to say on Sketchy’s Seattle chapter:

The half-naked woman in the gray ballet slippers, ruffled clown collar, glittered décolletage, and silver pasties looks a little uneasy standing still. Pyra Sutra is a ballet dancer and performance artist, but at the moment, she’s supported by the outstretched hand of Ernie Von Schmaltz—host of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School—as she poses en pointe for two minutes. Sutra ordinarily shimmies as the cofounder of Scandalesque Revue in Phoenix, where she’s performed by request for the likes of Dave Navarro and Tommy Lee. But tonight, with her back to the mirrored wall of the West Hall, she’s surrounded by Seattle artists perched in folding chairs while a flurry of scribbling and the rattling of cocktail ice mixes with the sounds of Nouvelle Vague and Goldfrapp. All she has to do for three hours this evening is be still, look pretty, and inventively rearrange her limbs on the red velvet chaise every 2 to 11 minutes.

Dr. Sketchy’s is a renegade life-drawing movement that began in Brooklyn in 2005. Now in over 80 cities nationwide, scores of burlesquers, drag queens, contortionists, and roller girls regularly strike poses for artists and audiences. Seattle’s branch was founded nearly three years ago in the basement bar of the Rendezvous and now lives beneath the luxe chandelier of Odd Fellow’s West Hall. Models pose however they choose, while pocketing some extra money and fueling some hot artist action—on paper at least.

No cameras are allowed, but there’s plenty of pretty pictures to peep at. For your artistic pleasure, I’ve snagged a few drawings of former guest model and burlesque starlet, Kitten La Rue:

Kitten 1

20 second sketch by Joanna Price

14 second sketch by Joanna Price

For more info on Seattle’s monthly Dr. Sketchy’s gatherings,
visit them here

Posted in Written by Jessica
Tags: ,

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »