Rhinestoning is my life now!

So, my life is no longer my own. I am merely a facilitator for bits of cut glass. I covet them, must have them, must stick them onto costumes, must contain them in gorgeous containers.

 

The Vista containers are a two-day-ago innovation, the perfect size for the 1440 count of most rhinestone orders. SO many colours, SO SPARKLY!!! Also, I might add, SO much less likely to bust open than bags...

Rhinestones give me wings!!!! These grey wings needed gold input big time. The reason is further on. So, four of them are now covered in gold and Light of Heaven rhinestones. LoH btw is a gold coloured stone with a flash of mauve in it. SO GORGEOUS. It is currently my favourite and will be stuck onto everything.

 

Look, this is a sunshine shot and it looks metallic but it isn't. But OMG!!!! The bolero this is going on is going with a dress in the same sequin fabric. No spoilers but it is NEXT LEVEL gorgeous.

It's really exciting to be making a whole new costume -not pimping a RTW garment. I have a photoshoot for a new product that is being named after me, WAAAH!!! It was my idea but the genius that made it happen from my shitty sketches is going to launch it and I am SO EXCITED.

So, new costume for product photoshoot!

Gigs keep on slippin', slippin' slippin' into the future...

Here's me in Tucson Arizona! That was then!

 The Steve Miller Band song, "Fly like an Eagle" is on my mind right now.

Life keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
Gigs keep on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
I wanna fly like an eagle
To the sea
Fly like an eagle, let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle
'Til I'm free
Right through the omicron

OK so maybe not my best work? But that's life right now. Because New Zealand kept the virus at bay for so long, until our population was well vaxed and boosted, we are late to the omicron party, and it is sweeping the country.

But soon it will peak and start to wane.

In the meantime, every gig I was booked for since the end of January has been postponed. Some for the third and even fourth time.

But you know what? I'm so lucky. Lucky and blessed to be well, to be alive, to have an income and a home. So many have had it a lot harder. 

I hope you and yours are faring well too <3

Step-Pose-Ium 2021

 

Labour Weekend 2021 brings Step-Pose-Ium, NZ's burlesque symposium.

This is its unlikely online home (free!) 

For more information, click here

For a list of the workshops on offer, click here

To register, click here

Leo, Clever and Constance (that's ME) in The Menagerie

 Alright, stop me if you've heard this one: What's huge, terrifying, and hangs out in an alley?

Us!!! Photo of Clever Hansel pointing to a poster of us on the day of The Menagerie. I thought I had posted about it already, but as I didn't here we go!

 

The original photo by Aden Meser Photography. Colourful!!! Somehow in every photo from this photoshoot, my legs were hidden and it became quite a running joke. 

 And here's proof it actually happened!!!!! The stage is huge -the venue has 1500 seats and 1100 of them had bums on.

We ran away to join the Clothesline Circus!!!

Friday 13th March saw Clever Hansel and me heading up to Palmerston North, to be in the fabulous butterfly show, Lola and Friends - Clothesline Circus. A butterfly show exists only for one night, it is partly improvised, partly rehearsed and even if we did it a second night it would be different butterfly.
We thought our show was to be in the smaller Globe Theatre but it was in the big, 200 seater one with a large stage and all the cool things of a properly spec'ed theatre. Look at the amazing set! I love how different it looks in different lights.
Well, who was the star of this ensemble piece? Me? Hans? Lola? Nope. It was Chase, the Circus Dog. A rescue Pomeranian of extremely even temperament (a polite way of saying he simply can't be arsed doing anything but sit)

Blue wash for mystery and magic

With the working lights on, it's still gorgeous! That's our amazing producer on stage talking to someone...Doug? Can't tell.

Chase!!! He is the cutest fluff ball and was amazing. He did NOTHING, which means Lola had to fake all his stunts and it was hilarious!

Dressing room selfie - I never got one with Hans - trouble with running around in your undies is there's nowhere to put a phone so I only took a couple.

I took this one to show Jack my eye makeup, which is the living embodiment (in my mind anyway) of the line from "Ne me quitte pas", which I translate as: "When evening falls, does not the dark make perfect love to the sunset's spark?"

It was a beautiful, delightful, magical show and a huge tribute to our darling friend Lola Illusion.
I am really busy, I've had four shows this month already and one big one to go. The year is filling up, but who knows what will happen with this awful virus though. International travel is required later in the year but we can't book yet so we'll have to see what happens. I wish the world all the best with love xo.

The Arizona Burlesque Festival

 The AZBF was amazing!!
Tucson is amazing in itself. Hot, dry, sunny, gorgeous vistas of desert and those giant cacti, friendly people - and I have good friends there I stayed with in luxury, with a pool!
I spent a fair bit of my time there hunting down pink feather boas to repair this gown, which after so many wears looked like it had some kind of bird mange.
My darling Stevie patiently drove me all over town until we found what I needed at Jo-Ann, and SAS Fabrics. The latter was amazing. If I didn't already have enough sequin fabric to last me three lifetimes, and a full suitcase, I'd have dropped some serious currency there.
Anyway it was worth it. As you can see I'm all pink and fluffed up! I performed Perhaps on Saturday night, which meant I could watch the rest of the show. Great show.

Someone called me Ursula that night. i was a bit miffed but after seeing this photo, I think it's a fair call.

Talk to the Hand!!!

What was happening? Maybe the microphone was giving me an electric shock, not sure. LOVE the lighting and the haze.

Thanks so much to Matt Finish and his team for putting on such a great festival. And to Tiffany at 48th and Pixel for the great photos!

Run up to December

After the Tease on Tour show in Queenstown last night, we experienced an unprecedented amount of audience curiosity and fandom! Over several hours around a fire pit, I got asked a lot of questions and got given a LOT of amazing compliments, which was lovely. It was an amazing way to round out a fantastic night and it got me thinking about what I will have achieved by the end of this year.
This includes:

• performing and hosting about 40 times in seven New Zealand locations! - Queenstown, Dunedin, Christchurch, Hamilton, Te Mata, Tauranga and Wellington;
• four countries: New Zealand, Canada, US and Australia (next week!);
• hosting 20 events from shows to a conference dinner, a carol service, some private corporate events;
• hosting in venues from an intimate 45 to a sold out 400 seat theatre, 400 dinner delegates, and everything in between;
• winning the Golden Garter Award 2019 for Favourite Emcee for the second time of three consecutive nominations;
• increasing my musicianship considerably from three guitar chords to 11 in a whole new type of performing for me;
• being invited to perform in the Menagerie in 2020 with my precious partners in crime, Leo and Clever.

One of the things I am proudest of is that Debbie and my DIY Burleskiwi show has jumped the ditch to Australia! To be known there as DIY Burleskoala, the inaugural show is on Thursday 5 December. Debbie and I are going to judge and host respectively. Jack is going to kitten, Artem his lovely boyfriend is going to be generally useful and amazing. A family busman's holiday! This year's DIY Burleskiwi winner Amourous Ava is also coming over.

Random encounter in a bar in Queenstown at 1am with Jason, it turns out we know lots of the same people! "Only in NZ"

 One of the cutest things that has come out of the stats is this. In 1983 I went on a tour of NZ with a show we would now call burlesque. I had made the costumes and was operating the spotlight. The show went to Queenstown and Dunedin among other cities and having hosted Tease on Tour in those towns I realised it was the first time since that tour I'd been to either of them! And two of the cast of that show now live in Sydney and I get to hang out with them next week when I am there.
How's that for a full circle.