Beauty of backstage

What is it about backstage that is so magical, so inspirational? It's clearly not just me that feels this way as it has been documented in photography, writing and art for such a very long time. This painting called Almost Ready is by an Italian artist called Pino.

Stop...Pajama Time.

Image by Neil Leonard: http://getrealpaid.bigcartel.com/product/oh-dear-i-really-ought-to-do-something-but-i-am-already-in-my-pajamas

This does fairly much summarise my feelings this evening. I could clean the house, do some research or practise vintage hairstyles but the honest truth is I will most likely be curled up on the sofa in the next 15 minutes watching Gentlemen Prefer Blonde's....again.

“When I say, "I love you," it's not because I want you or because I can't have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I've seen your kindness and your strength. I've seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You're a hell of a woman.”

Joss Whedon

Well said darling!

Image source: Unknown (If you know who created this image please let me know)

Burlesk ROCKS!

Well it does...

For such a small audience these guys had big hearts and big voices and it reminded me why I love this so much. It was real, raw, live entertainment in the upstairs of a pub with a quintessentially Brighton student audience. It was brilliant.

The event was at The Lectern. As always, utter bliss not to sit on a train for an hour and a half. Hosted by Sally Monella the most fabulous drag queen ever with an incredible talent for getting the audience 100% involved.

I was headlining and somehow ended up getting ready way too early. I was panicking because my usual trusty trick of mixing my loose glitter into body moisturiser hadn't worked and I was trying frantically to get the moisturiser to soak into my skin before I got dressed. I think I may give up and buy the canned glitter spray. Much more reliable. Although I'll never forget the time that one of the girls at the NYE show couldn't get the can to stop spraying! In the end she had to stick it in a sink.

The upshot of getting ready so early however was that it was so relaxed at the venue I could watch in full costume from the door which meant I caught nearly all the acts! Fay la Foe and her high energy dancing, Coco Deville (again! It's like we're stalking each other)where I FINALLY got to see her peacock act, and Domino Burlesk from Burlesk in Hastings doing Hasta La Visa (which somewhat summarises my feelings on shopping!).

I enjoyed every minute, never mind also getting a surprise visit from Infinity Favour before the show. We were all getting ready when ta da! There she was, her fabulous self in a fabulous dress as usual.

Danny and Kim from Pulp Press were there, along with an old friend and a fellow Brisbanite. The girlfriend of the owner and I got chatting and were astounded to realise we were from the same city (because you never really meet other people from Brisbane overseas) and got talking about tap, burlesque and performing solo.

All that and I still got to bed at a reasonable(ish) hour. Fancy that!

Pulp Press Party!

Danny Hogan, big daddy of Pulp Press Brighton had contacted me months ago to tell me about this party they were planning for the launch of three of their new books. Let me die a woman, Die Hard Mod & Windowlicker Maker.

As you might know I'm the official Burlesque Dancer for Pulp Press so there was no contest as to whether I would get involved.

The only problem was finalising the line-up. We already had Kitty Peels on board but we needed one more to seal the deal, so I got in touch with Bea Devile to see if she wanted to join the party. A most definite yes!

Unfortunately, a volcano in Iceland had other plans for our little shindig. Kitty got stuck in Barcelona for over a week so I was left to find another burlesque beauty who could fill her shoes.

The thing about the Pulp Press night though is that it had to be someone with the right style to suit the Pulp Press ideal. I'd just done Smooch with Coco Deville and knew she would be perfect so I sent her a message and waited with baited breath. When I text Danny to say we'd found a replacement - Coco Deville, he squealed like a little girl in the middle of a trendy London market.

Phew! Back on track.

Kim (Danny's fiance and Brighton Rollergirl) and Danny rocked up in the Pulp Press mobile on Saturday afternoon and we bundled all the girls in and off we went, into the endless monotony of weekend traffic to get to The Horse Hospital, as it's still called, in London.

The show went well, besides some technical difficulties in the first half it was a great fun, a nice venue and a great party. My hat goes off to Bea Devile as I helped her into her costume for her geisha act and realised quite how much work goes into that costume. Layer after layer!

After a bit of a dance and packing up we bundled back in the car for Brighton. The brilliant part of which was having the time to actually talk to Coco, Bea, Kim and Danny about performing, Burlesque, feminism, art and studying. Usually it's so loud in clubs and there is so much going on before and after a show that it's impossible to have a serious (well it's never that serious) conversation but we had a couple of uninterrupted hours on the way home.

Well except for the stop off in Acton for food when we thought the car might get jacked.

A successful party all around!

And here come the waterworks....

So...I'm reaching back into my memory banks here. I'm usually quite like a goldfish in terms of memory length but this is important so I will share it with you.

My final Club Smooch was April 9th and what a show. We were dogged by poor lighting, terrible sound and a sparce audience. But nothing could dampen our party spirits and I most of all was determined to P-A-R-T-Y? Because I gotta!

Bea Devile and I had been working on a special double act, a one-night only affair that we'd been considering for such a long time. The WI cake bake. We are both almost obsessive about cake and had long said we needed to combine the two passions - cake and burlesque, in an all out food fight extravaganza. I got to play the ultimate in trophy wife stereotypes while Bea tried every possible way to sabotage me. It was slippery, it was messy and it was so bloody funny!

The Vegas Showgirls (me and Therese la Tease) and our gimp rocked it Pulp style and I got to debut my new balloon pop I mentioned such a long time ago. It worked so much better than I thought it possibly could and I've decided that I make a damn good blonde!

But the moment I was not expecting came when I was dragged onto the stage, like the oscars and given the most enormous bunch of beautiful pink flowers before Bob, Zerrin and the cast played me a leaving video of all my Club Smooch highlights. There were tears aplenty and it felt so surreal it just didn't feel possible that it was my last CS night. BW, who so rarely comes to my shows also shed a little tear.

I missed most of the performances unfortunately, including Marianne Cheesecake who was on straight after me. Also Coco Deville who I did end up seeing twice more over the next few weeks!

After managing to catch the last couple of acts we pushed back the tables and got down to dancing. Given the rare opportunity to cut loose being in my home town (I never drink much if I've got to catch the last train from god knows where), BW and I finished off a small bottle of whisky and boogied on down!

I don't know where the future of Club Smooch lies as the organiser looks to other creative ventures. What I do know is that the group of women involved in this night are the most fabulously creative, interesting, different, powerful and supportive group as I could have possibly had the pleasure of knowing.

I take my hat off to you ladies.

Holy Moly!

I just realised how long it's been since I posted. I mean, are you guys still there! Still reading? Wow. Thank you for your patience.

While I gather my thoughts about the last couple of gigs I've done and my wrap up of my time in the UK I'll give you a little taster.

A very little taster. The adorable little sweets in the picture are cake pops. How did I not know about these sooner?! They're even cuter than cupcakes! In fact they are mini, mini cupcakes and it doesn't get much cuter than that.

Now there is absolutely no way I'd have the patience to make these suckers (pardon the pun) but my hat goes off to the baker who does. Who is incidentally called Bakerella. Could I be any more in love with this woman? http://bakerella.blogspot.com/