I'm on Youtube! AND... I just applied for London Burlesque Week! Eek!

Eeek indeed! I was so excited when I pressed send on the email...! I really, really hope I get picked, though the chances are slim to none...


http://londonburlesquefest.com/about



This year the newcomers competition is only open to London based performers, so unfortunately, I can't apply for it that. Which is a real shame, because last year, Frank & Phoenix did it, as did Felicia and I went to see it and it was amazing!


Last year's winner was Ginger Blush, this is her doing her winning

Laurel & Hardy act. So, as I can't apply for the newcomers competition, instead, I have to apply for a normal performer slot which is why I fear my chances of being chosen to perform are slim to none!! Every other performer in the world will be applying for stage time!

This application is also the reason I finally uploaded a Youtube clip. I'd been avoiding doing this yet as I was hoping for a better vid, as the act has improved a little since Tournament of the Tease. Also, I had wanted to snip the judges comments off the end, but having finally mastered an editing programme for video (I have learnt so many new skills since I took up Burlesque!) Youtube won't accept the file type! So, I've left them on, they're all positive afterall. See for yourself...!

Oh for god's sake! This video has been 'uploading' for hours!!! Forget it, here's the youtube link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XFFHsUoxUw

Talulah's Hollywood Glamour Party, the After Party!

The second half went without a hitch! Yippee! Ginger's magic act was spellbinding! (see what I did there?!), the audience loved it. Valerie's 'Afterdark' routine was literally mesmerising, I couldn't take my eyes off her. And Sophia's finale, well, u saw those pics. That's the kinda performer I wanna be! She was really amazing. This was me, hanging out with Wynston in a rare unbusy moment!



My maid outfit didn't really work out! Maybe next time. My time as a maid was relatively easy, but thats because no one gave me any complicated instructions! I did find it had not to try to steal the spotlight when I was on stage picking shit up though, I wanted to break into a cheeky routine. One time, involving a magic wand, I heard a slight titter in the audience.. It was all I could do to stop myself from milking it. Now we're letting our hair down in Firebug, hurrah!


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Tallulah's Party! Part what are we on? 4 now?

It's the burlesque final.. In crouching by the side of the stage watching the AMAZING Sophia St Villier.. Why do I feel like David Bellamy suddenly?!
Here's what I can see...









Wowsers!!!

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Talulah's Hollywood Glamour Part 3!

So the band, the Boucaneers, are on again now, they're playing GoGo Bordello's Start Wearing Purple :)
Then the girls are on for their second acts.. I'll be ready this time, I will! As soon as I hear the band do their last song.. In fact, they've only just started their 2nd set but I might just go hover now... We don't want a repeat of earlier....!
This is Talulah Blue btw, she got through to the second round of Britain's Got Tallent! (She's got talent in spades!) Look out for her on telleh!


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Talulah's Hollywood Glamour Party Part deux...

Nooooo! Disaster! Failed at my first stage maid duty!!! First act, Valerie, needed a chair on stage, that's all, one chair! I was at the back of the room, on the door, all of a sudden Valerie's on stage - no chair!! I ran, but wasn't fast enough, the poor girl had to enlist the help of her photographer friend to get a stool! There was a slight mix up you see, there was supposed to be a gap between the band (The Boucaneers pictured!)


& the burlesque, but there was some back stage panic and the compere announced Valerie a little too soon. Valerie dealt with the mishap like a true pro though and rocked the stage. See, the perfect peach :)



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Talulah Blue's Hollywood Glamour Party

Tonight I'm helping Talulah at her Hollywood Glamour Party! I'm stage maid. Luckily none of the girls performing have very complicated staging requirements like mine often are!!



To my delight Ginger la Rouge turned up just after me, she's performing tonight with Valerie Vegas and Sophia St Villier. I'm on the door stamping people right now, will post again once the show starts!


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Testing... Testing...

I'm testing a new blog app, BlogPress.. If it works, I'll live blog from tomorrow nights show. I'm not performing this time but stage maiding.

Oh, ps, I had a haircut! Like?




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Claude's back!!

Here he is! Claude mark II!

Gerard (the cardboard cut out of Gerrard Butler I snagged from work!) was a bit..stiff, and didn't have Claude's movable arm. So, he got the chop! Literally, I cut him into a Claude shape. He's better than the first one now and stands up easily, yippee!

I had a show last night, Sunday, at a cute little cafe/bar in Leicester town centre called The Crumbling Cookie, organised by Talulah Blue. I did the Boodles act and Hard Heated Hannah.

It was a great night and had a really cozy atmosphere despite being super cold in the 'dressing room' (read disabled toilet!).

The wonderful Paul Needham was there to take pictures, as you can see they are super!

Next.... I'm planning more acts; I have one super dream style way out budget act I literally dreamt up, one totally do-able cute act, improvements on Boodles, and of course the secret show girl style act I posted pictures of my costume for.

And.. I'm applying for a pretty big show next year.. We'll see..!!

Costume making and tassel twirling..

Ta-da! Ok, it might not look like much, yet, but this is literally hours of gluing and stitching! I think I've added about 100 pearls and a thousand sequins! Wait till I've added more sequins, more pearls and loads of rhinestones! It'll be beautiful, and imagine how it will sparkle on stage under the lights! Ooooh!

This is all for my new act, I'm going for all out show girl. I'll add more pictures as it develops, but I'm pretty excited about it!

Also, I bought a new AP corset... oops. But, I do need one, and it will fit beautifully with this act! Honestly! ...see? Mmmmmazing isn't it!?

The girl in the picture is not me, I must clarify, that's from the AP online catalogue ;)

Also, today I've been practising shimmying and tassel twirling... Yeah, I'm really not good at it! I can only do the graceless jumping up and down at the knee style of twirling, not the effortless-looking shimmy style. I think I'm gonna need some better pasties with heavier tassels to master that... Maybe I need to go do a class and learn from an expert!

A new act..

It's Thursday night and I'm in bed, kinda, it's 9.30!! And I'm doing research.

I'm working on a new act. This one is gonna be all out! I'm making the most amazing costume, well, hopefully! I am sewing pearls, sequins and gluing rhinestones on to some pretty white lacy underwear (no, it's not AP, unfortunately), and I made some new pasties. Ta-da! Cute huh?!

And this act is going to be funny, a little, and poetic, kinda. I shan't say exactly what the act is yet, but I will soon!

So, I'm researching how to be more graceful, because this act calls for it, in parts. Basically my 'dance' will be made up of a series of poses that make the female form appear its most beautiful, for the act is about beauty and femininity, be it in an abstract way. Ha! I'll keep y'all posted on how that goes! But in the mean time, enjoy looking at how its really done, by Michelle L'Amour..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTOlblz_xjE&feature=related

I had to cancel a show... and I have a fan!

I really hoped I'd never have to pull out of a show at the last minute, but this weekend, I had to do just that.

This weekend was due to be my busiest (and most exciting) ever! I had 3 shows booked, Lincoln Thursday, London Friday and Liverpool Sunday, all Halloween shows, my favourite time of year! But on Thursday I got ill.

I did the Lincoln show Thursday night, as I posted below, Friday I was sofa-ridden. I couldn't face the train journey to London, let alone actually performing. I felt dreadful, about having to cancel. The promoter understood, luckily I was a last minute addition anyway, so wasn't on any of the posters etc, which would have made me feel worse, but I still felt really lousy about it.

Sunday I was doing a show in Liverpool with Phoenix Snow and Frank Lebeau Diaablo. Later on, Phoenix would tell me that if I had pulled out she would have to have cancelled the whole show!

I tried to make sure I was better by Sunday.. and, well, I wasn't worse, but I still felt awful! But the show went ahead, and it was a great success. I did the Corpse Bride act, and it was 400x better than the debut at the Lincoln show on Thursday, the audience were seated, and giving their full attention, and this time I managed to get my dress back on before the track ran out haha!

I did Hard Hearted Hannah too, messed up the timings a little and did a sloppy stocking removal that I was annoyed about afterwards but on the whole it all went well.

And the best thing about the whole night? As I was running, robed, back to the dressing room after my vamp act, I was stopped by a nervous looking audience member, "Miss Lola?" she said, "You were amazing!" Ah! Miss Lola! How quaint! "Thank you!" I breathed. The dear, sweet, adorable girl went on, "I saw you at the Canary Cage.. I'm a big fan!" A fan?!?! A big fan!?! Wow! I was floored! I gushed a thank you, I think I blessed her! And disappeared up the stairs! I have a fan!!!!!

I forgot my teeth!!!!

The other day, when I was packing my things for Birmingham, I was worrying that I'd forgotten to pack something. I hadn't, but it's the same old niggle I have everytime I go somewhere. P said to me "What's the most important thing you need to have packed?" I said "My teeth".

Yesterday, after work we drove to Lincoln to do a Halloween themed show at a night called Break your Socks. I did two acts, my new Corpse Bride act, and the Hard Hearted Hannah act. My Corpse Bride act came first, it was the first time I've ever done it. I wasn't completely happy with it either. It went down ok, but it needs work. It didn't help that I was super nervous (and feeling ill!), I could actually feel my legs shaking!

Hard Hearted Hannah was much better, I wasn't nervous at all, it feels like coming home, I know it so well. I love to do that act. However.. about 10 seconds in, all going well... shit! I forgot to put my teeth in!! This was the thought process in my head (whilst on stage actually performing); Oh no! My teeth! I HAVEN'T PUT THEM IN! They're still in the box backstage... I wonder if I could go back and get them...? Have I got time..? No. Could I stop and start again..? No! Would the audience would notice if I just nipped back for them..? Um, yes! Ok.. I'll just carry on as if they are there and there's no problem. Ok.
It was all because I had a backstage panic about 30 seconds before I was due on, I couldn't find my fan! I found it, I was so relieved I forgot to put my teeth in! Haha! It didn't really matter. Once I'd drank the true blood the audience got what was going on, just the couple of teeth reveals before then didn't really work quite as well as usual!! :s
Thanks for having me Jamie!

Phew!

I've just spent about an hour in the bathroom scrubbing, conditioning, waxing and generally cleansing after a really hectic weekend of shows!
I had so much fake blood stainage on me in needed a good scrub! And next weekend is gonna be even more manic!
On Friday night I had a show in Birmingham, Saturnalia at The Jester, a great venue and an absolutely amazing show. The cast were all wonderful, Felicia Noir was there (yay!), Lexi Sexx, Delilah Lilac (the best catwoman I've ever seen!), Mr Kiss (SO cute!), Candy Carnival and all skillfully compered by the truly amazing Fred Bear - I actually love him!
The night was great, but my act went off with a slight hitch... I did 'Hard Hearted Hannah', my True Blood parody act... All was going well until the music started to skip! I took it in my stride, as much as I could, even when it began to loop over and over! But when it completely stopped mid way through I was left standing in silence on stage...! Eeeek! THAT was not fun! Luckily the DJ had the Jace Everett 'Bad Things' track on cd so a quick switcharoo and I was able to carry on with my act!! I hope that NEVER happens again!!!
So... that was supposed to be my only show this weekend, however, an urgent plea on MoB for emergency acts to step in to do an Oxjam charity show in Leicester (3 acts had dropped out last minute!) sent me off course on my way home to help out. I had all my Vamp kit in my case so I went straight there. Here's a pic of me mid act! See why I'm pleased to finally have some edible blood..? That stuff tastes yukky! The show was great, and I met some super lovely gals so I'm glad I went. And I managed to stock up on some more fake blood (edible yay!) from the amazing fancy dress shop in Leicester on the way home.
Next weekend... it's a mini Halloween Tour!
Thursday: Lincoln ,Kind Bar
Friday: London, Dirty Dicks
Saturday: Nottingham, Bopp @ Spankys (for fun!)
Sunday: Liverpool, Philharmonic
I'm tired already!! :s

This is the one I've been worrying about....

I have another show tomorrow, in Birmingham, it's Felicia (who helped me book my very first show!) Noir's Cosplay Burlesque show in West Brom, and it's a big deal.

You may wonder why this one is any more a big deal than any other.. Well, I'll tell you...

As I mentioned, it was Felicia who I approached, back in April, via the Ministry of Burlesque, about my very first show. And the show I asked her about was this one! Yep, that is a long time to be planning a show!! There's reason to be fearful #1.

#2 Felicia didn't book me for this show (Robin of Black Country Burlesque did later on), but she did point me to BCB's newbie shows, which became my actual first show back in June. Which kinda makes her my Burlesque Fairy Godmother, she gave me a big leg up, whether she knows it or not.

#3 Referring back to point 1, Felicia has put some seriously hard work into this show, and has been uber excited about it for months. Originally I was intending to do a Tank Girl act, but I just couldn't work in out the way I wanted so I ditched it and decided to do the Tru-Blood act. Now, after the success and positive feedback from Hard Hearted Hannah's first outing at the Canary Cage I have some confidence in the act, however, as it's a Cosplay show (with most acts being comic book based), I am worried it's gonna stick out a little. Yes.. I'm scared my act will be the crap one. Which leads me to reason #4, it's at The Public in West Brom... it's a fucking great massive theatre!!! Eeeeeeeeek!

Anyway.. I'll update after the show.. Gulp. In the meantime, here's a preliminary pic from the Zak Tyler Liverpool shoot... Cool huh?! :)

First ever real life photo shoot! with a real life photographer!!!

So yesterday I did many many fun things, taking what feels like a huge step forward towards being a real burlesque performer, one of which was a photo shoot, in an actually studio, with an actual photographer!! In Liverpool!

Zak (Tyler, the photographer) was so lovely, I was completely at ease, not even slightly nervous, not at all tense like I was with my boyfriend the time I made him try to shoot some promo pictures. We spent a good couple of hours in Zak's Liverpool studio doing lots of different photos, but all pin up style. I got to wear some of my favourite AP underwear (whoop!), and did my hair in an (almost) perfect rockabilly fringe roll. Now just fingers crossed at least some of the pics turn out to be not too grotesque ha! Not that I doubt Zak's ability behind the camera, far from it, its the other side of the lens things may fall down! The results should be back in a couple of weeks, So we'll just have to wait and see....

I took my boyfriend along for moral support, he took some back stage shots, so here's a sneak peek...

I'm back!!!

Gosh, how time flies when you're super busy!! In real life, I got a promotion (yay!) and have been supremely busy!

In the time since I last posted, I've been to lots of burly shows, including Delicious @ Derby, which was A-MAZING!!!

This is a picture of Natsumi Scarlett closing the show in spectacular fashion, all the performers were absolutely astonishing and I left feeling completely inspired.

Somewhat unbelievably I actually took this picture myself, I tend to be about as good behind the camera as I am in front! :s

Beatrix von Bourbon was awesome, as ever, and when it snowed on stage in her Winter act I got goosebumps!

Joe Black was hilariously macabre, Roxy Velvet was breathtaking and Mademoiselle Lili La Scala was like nothing I've ever seen before - stunning! Oh! I want go back! The whole night was magical!

Unfortunately me & the mister missed most of the newbies, which was the part I was actually looking forward to the most and only caught the final two, which just happened to be Bella Donna Berry and Jeu Jeu la Foille, my two favourites for the title of Delicious Newcomer of the Year. Neither Bella nor Jeu Jeu won, but both of their acts were great and I got to see Jeu Jeu's wildly imaginative Mary Poppins act from the front, unlike at the Dirty Dicks show where I had to watch from backstage!

The winner was Elle Amour, who won a bucket of prizes, with her sexy cake act.

So.., the plan is, next year, I'll be on that stage competing for the Delicious Newcomer Title 2011!

Next show - SATURDAY!

So Saturday will be my 2nd show.. and this is no newbie show, BEATRIX VON BOURBON will be gracing the very same stage that I will be performing upon! OMG!
It's at Dirty Dick's, London, AND, I didn't even have to beg to be allowed to perform, they asked me! Yay!
http://www.timeout.com/london/cabaret/event/194154/elysian-nights

In the meantime, since my last post I've been looking for shows here there and everywhere! I have another in Liverpool in September and I've been planning lots of other exciting acts!
I'll be performing my Boodle's act on Saturday, unfortunately none of the others are quite right yet, as always, they require near-impossible props!!
Hopefully I'll have some wonderful new pictures from Saturday to post, but in the meantime, check out Beatrix in action... http://vonbourbon.com/?page_id=26 ....Gulp!

C x

The Tournament of the Tease!

I am SO excited! I just booked Tournament of the Tease! http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=360957&id=112157078799481#!/pages/The-Tournament-of-Tease-2010/112157078799481

TotT is a monthly burlesque show/competition, held on the 1st Thursday of every month at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club. The winner of each month's heat goes on to the final in December. My show is October 7th. There is also a male Tournament, held the last Thursday of the month, and the standard, for both, is set super high by the likes of previous winners Felicia Noir, Betsy Boudoir & Lucy Long Legs.

I think I'm gonna do my Boodles act but I'm gonna have to seriously polish it up to be in with a chance of winning! Gulp!

Meanwhile, I'm looking to book as many other shows as possible. My next one, so far isn't until September, at the Public in West Brom. I'm a little worried that with 3 months in between my 1st and 2nd shows, it'll feel like my debut again!

So on that note, off I go to trawl the internet for upcoming shows that may have a space for Claude and I...

My first show was a great success!! Yay!

I was on 3rd, but actually ended up being 2nd as the first act didn't turn up! I didn't win the competition, but I really couldn't have asked for a better night.

My act went without a hitch, my corset came undone, my pasties stayed put (more than can be said for some acts...!) and my trousers fell down! I did find myself somewhat too naked too soon, as expected though, but all that practise paid off as I knew my song so well I knew how much time I had to 'fill' till the finale.

The audience laughed when they were supposed to, mostly, whooped when clothing was removed and clapped at the end... what more can a gal ask for!?

The best part of the night though was the support from my friends, and their friends! No less than 12 of them turned out to witness my debut and all of them (if their compliments were to be believed!) truly enjoyed the show. Two of my friends were even inspired to give burlesque a go themselves!

Yay! A successful first show indeed! Now... to start planning the next one... : )

Tonight's the night!

So... It's finally here! My 1st ever show!!! Eeeek!