Judging Tassles and the Lizard People

If there was ever a drive for one thing, one solitary activity for me to thrive off of, it's performing live. And it may happen sooner than I had planned.

Last night the household went to get some awesome Mexican cuisine and Margaritas. We then traversed to the gothic splendour of Ground Zero to see a burlesque show starring some of our close friends. The venue was freezing, though. It was as cold inside as it was outside, and this affected the show and crowd. Things were mighty awkward. The MC fell onstage, singers forgot their lines, routines were just blah at times.

I've become so infuriated at some of the lackluster lameness that I've grown so accustomed to with these amateur burlesque shows. There is so much dead air between acts, MC's don't know the setlist, dancers at times don't seem to care about giving it their all. They're just happy to be involved with one of their passions.

Burlesque is a funny thing, I've found. It's a personal endeavor. Women (and men, I suppose) embrace their bodies, their power. You put your own individual touch to your routines, to take something out of the overall burlesque entity and add in your spice. So when some Joe Schmoe comes in saying "These dances are lame" it can almost be taken as a smack to an individual's personality. That's why I feel I'm even balancing on a fragile edge with this blog.

I've seen a lot of burlesque in my day. I was going to even start a troupe for a year, the Doppelganger Dandies, which was themed primarily on a darker, more raunchy, more disturbing and dada-esque form of freak show burlesque. It wasn't campy magicians, striped tights, lay on a bed of nails freak show (not that there's anything wrong with those shows). This was pop water balloons full of blood, dildo clowns, Dominatrix soldier routines (I had choreographed a vast dance routine featuring Marilyn Manson's "Para-noir" with one of these), huge group swing dances featuring almost slam dancing partiers, questionable transexual teases. It generated a bit of interest through the University of Minnesota's theatre department when I was planning on putting it on. Unfortunately though, higher-ups decided to shut it down (to my advantage, it turned out) due to time constraints and so that I could properly do some more research on the subject and gain more insight to the frailties and personal nature of burlesque dancing and Body Art in order to make the show more vital and successful. Knowing what I know now, I would still put on something akin to the Dandies idea, but everything would be justified and not for the sake of just grossing an audience out. It would be empowering and gratifying for both performers and audience members by taking the boundaries of burlesque and pushing them to almost untouchable realms, dealing with risque fetishes (that most people have) of all sorts.

I'm not getting anything out of the Minneapolis shows anymore. There are some awesome dancers (Tomahawk Tassles, Musette, Katinka, Cherry Poppins), but the shows they usually find themselves in lack overall "GRANDNESS" to me. It makes me want to start the "Dandies" up again, to show people that someone can put on a show with that "GRANDNESS", the organization, the rehearsing. Show the awesome power burlesque can have over an audience and it's performers. It really just made my want to perform ever greater.

So, coincidentally, and on another realm of performance, Taylor wanted to start up his "Lizard People" band this weekend with me playing drums. We could conceivably go live within a couple of weeks if we wanted. The high is starting to come back. Creativity is pouring through my head.

The junkie shivers are subsiding, and I'm closer to getting my fix . . .

Marilyn Manson -- "Para-noir"