I've got 12 new friends!

On facebook I mean, well, 10 if you discount my 2 actual real life friends. But they feel like real friends!
Everyone in the shiny happy world of burlesque is so super sweet! They really have welcomed me with open arms. It seems to be a case of the sum is greater than its parts in the burly world, everyone is so supportive to each other, there's no competitiveness, no cliquey-ness , no-one looks down on you because you're new or 'amateur' because almost every one is> It's not easy to make a living from being a burlesque performer and only a few super stars manage to do so.

And speaking of which... I just bought my tickets to Delicious Burlesque in Derby! I'm totally excited about seeing some of the UK's best burlesque performers... Kitty Klaw, Natsuni Scarlett and Vicky Butterfly to name but a few. Hopefully I'll pick up a few tips from watching their shows...

Unfortunatley it comes a little too late to help me with my stage debut in June. Gulp! But, luckily the London Burlesque Festival is but weeks away and I have tickets to the Battle Royale, where future burlesque stars battle it out for the ultimate prize of best newcomer! Maybe I'll be on that stage next year...!? Then again, maybe I should just concentrate on trying to win the Newbie show in June first..!

I've already accrued two perves!!!?

I was quite happy to see that I had my first friend request on facebook! Yay! A somewhat random polish sounding guy wanted to be my friend. Yippee! Right? Well..! I figured this guy must be a burlesque fan, since he was a mutual friend of another performer I was friends with on there (probably my only friend at this point I must add). I had a bit of a snoop around his FB page, just to try to understand why he might want to be my friend, I mean, I'm sure there's nothing untoward going on here, but I have only existed in cyberspace for one day! Ah, he has a wife, he can't be weird! Ah, a picture with a kid, how sweet! Oh, he's a film maker? He's arty! Well that explains it! He appreciates the arts, that's all. Oh.. Hang on a minute, his friends all seem to be girls, with little clothing... What's that girl doing!? Ugh!!! Who does that on their profile picture?!?! Oh. Oh I see. THAT kinda film maker are you!? Well. B-Bye now!
The next guy I haven't snooped. I daren't. Is this what I have to expect now? Odds?weirdos and perves?! I mean, I like burlesque and I'm not a perve! Plenty people do! Is this the image that burlesque has to some people? We're the same as porn stars?!? I mean, I have no problem with porn stars, hell I even admire some of them! But I don't wanna be one! I don't want to be considered a 'sex worker'! IT'S REALLY NOT THE SAME!!! Is that what people think?

Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea...

I am beginning to wonder what on earth I'm getting my self into... I decided to set up a facebook page, which of course, required at least one picture. So, I set my boyfriend the ominous task of photographing me on a home made photoshoot. I set up the kitchen for a tea party and styled my self as a 50's housewife with the desire in my heart to create a Gil Elvgren style pin up shot. Well... the results were no oil painting I'll tell ya!
Feeling somewhat... naked (I wasn't) and exposed I was less than nice to my poor boyfriend, who though is no David Bailey was super sweet to try. Being somewhat UNphotogenic, posing doesn't come naturally to me so I definitely wasn't in my comfort zone. The whole thing made me wonder if I was really cut out for this...?

And so it begins...

I have long been a burlesque fan. I have admired and appreciated the beauty, wit and creativity of burlesque performers and loved being part (albeit as an audience member) of the increasingly popular, but still somewhat underground, burly world.

Even during a brief fling with the idea of becoming a make up artist, and assisting on a photo shoot of upcoming starlets, I never thought I'd want to be one of them. An admiring assistant, that's what I thought myself to be. Yet, a couple of years later, I just booked my first performance slot... in less than 2 (2? oh shit, I hadn't even counted till now- June seemed much further away! Fuck!) months time. Eeek.

Just to make it clear, I have never, not in all my 30 years, taken my clothes off, or even put them on, on any kind of stage, or in front of any more that one person at a time. Eeek again.

I did for about 6 weeks go to Burlesque evening classes, and although my house mate, P, and I had fun, and learnt the basics of Burlesque movement and posing, the class was somewhat amateur and unproductive. Saying that, the hour long sesion every Monday at the YMCA did definitely make me fantasise that this could be something I might do. And up until yesterday, when I emailed someone I'd never met before to request a slot in an upcoming 'newbie' show, a fantasy was all it was...! Eeeeeeek!!!