Festive Fun to come!

Very soon! May 9-12, I shall be in Auckland attending, performing at, teaching at, socialising at, squealing at, the New Zealand Burlesque Festival.

When the framed publicity photos are released, THEN we get excited! It's really happening!
And I get to share a chunk of stage time with my favourite Grumpy young Man, Clever Hansel. We are building up our set, turning solos into duets and generally having as much fun as two freaks, a ukulele and a guitar can have on a week night (that's a surprising amount!)
If you'd like to come and see us as well as all the other amazing humans performing, the show I/we are performing in is on Friday 10 May click here for more information.

 

2 out of 3 ain't bad!!

This will take pride of place on my Wall of Bling

On 23rd March at the Phoenix in Auckland, I had the awesome job of co-hosting the NZ Burlesque Industry Awards (also known as The Golden Garters).
It was an amazing night! Performances by Pixie Twist, Lilith LaLune, Anglebert Humpermink and the Roaring Antoinettes. Co-Host Mae de la Rue from Sydney and I did a fun duet version of Razzle Dazzle 'Em.
It was so much fun collaborating with Mae - we had dinner together during the previous week and planned shenanigans! Photos will be forthcoming soon we hope!

The fabulous Mae de la Rue from Sydney won Honorary Kiwi!

 And I am very, very honoured to receive the award for Favourite MC 2019. It will join the 2017 award for the same on my Red Wall of Bling. And the 2018 award Clever Hansel and I received for Favourite Non-Striptease Routine. I was nominated for favourite MC that year too, so two out of three ain't bad!

The 2019 award for Favourite Non-Striptease act went to my darling friend Mr Lola Illusion for his delicious Lola in Love.

The whole schedule of winners is here on the NZ Burly Awards website.

Hosting a BIG Dinner!

On Thursday 21 March, Leo and I got to Emcee at the ILGA World Conference dinner. When we walked into the venue and saw how big it was, we had a giggle! 450 delegates, 40 tables of gorgeous humans from all around the world! It was so much fun to get up on stage and look out at them.

Leo and I hosting the ILGA World Conference Dinner

 Me before the show in the shade hence the blue tinge. Prize for best use of a $2 lawn ornament? ;-)

$2 lawn ornament head piece!!!

 This is me with Ross Weistroffer! Who is Ross Weistroffer I hear you ask? (Unless you know him and Googled his name and this came up in which case HI!!!) He is a Research Analyst from UCLA who hunted me down at dinner time to sit and chat because he loves drag queens. What a poppet! I adore gorgeous Gay American men so we're a match! Ross took the photo of Leo and me on stage, bless him.

Ross Weistroffer and me

We had an amazing night with incredible food, dancing, speeches, food, dancing.

Dessert Unicorn!!!

What a great organisation it is. So much love and acceptance in the room. <3

A weekend away and a wedding

Hi there! Life has ratchetted up somewhat over the past few months and that makes it hard to find time to write. Plus most of the busy is very, very dull.

Relaxing at a friend's wedding recently

A few weekends ago a bunch of us headed up to Auckland for a wedding. It was lovely to hang out and not have to do much - usually we are madly producing shows. Clipboards were swapped for glasses of bubbles for the day. SO nice.
I bought this little off the shoulder number to wear as most of my clothes are too sparkly for even a formal wedding. It wasn't really my kind of dress but its softness and the serendipity of the flower placement on the bodice pleased me.

The Caburlesque Family - son Jack, me, Pinot Sister Debbie and everybody's Daddy, Soundbitch!

What a glamorous lot we were! I do feel that we are one Timmy The Dog away from being The Famous Five here however. Or perhaps the Narnia children. I wouldn't put it past Jack to dob us all in - not for Turkish Delight but possibly jersey caramels!

A lovely day was had by all - a couple who are meant to be together got to be together and it's always an honour to witness that.

Savage Times in Whanganui

On December 8th, Leo, Clever and I performed the moving feast that is "At Home" in Whanganui. It is a charming town about three hours from Wellington with the joy of a river running through it (I do love a river town) and some humdinger vintage architecture to boot.
As is our way, we had an idea about losing the Family Money in a series of unfortunate investments, mostly a Taxidermy Theme Park. With Vollercoaster, Furry Go round and Furris Wheel.
and thusly between our Napier debut and this show, I got to work on an appropriate gown. Leopard print trimmed in fake fur, with this fetching hair piece. Matched at the back by the butt end of the wee stuffed toy sacrificed for Art. I love it so much I am going to try to find smaller ones to make sets for people with less hair real estate then I have.
We had a mad evening where it became clear early on that the audience wanted to hear songs not banter, and preferably not too risque. So at half time a whole section of songs got cut in favour of a couple of fun but safer options. This is what I love about live entertainment!

Them as loved it LOVED it. Them as didn't appreciate the nuances of digging up one's dead bride or political commentary about the patriarchy, left. Yes, it was like that!
But we had a great time as we always do, nailed a new number which is a mash up of three angsty songs from three decades, and we were upstaged by a possum. Refer the video at the end.
Happy Days!

Tasteless Fake taxidermy is my theme!

The Savage Club - weirdest place ever! It's like the Maori equivalent of a Tiki bar. Terrible but it has historical significance. And Possums.

Aren't we dapper!

Yup, possums. That's what everyone is looking at!

Royal Vauxhall and the Glasgow Festival of Burlesque!

Well I've been and done it and I'm back home! What a whirlwind it all was.
On 6 November I made my Royal Vauxhall Tavern debut in Bar Wotever. This is a weekly cabaret show featuring new and experienced performers alike, and what a thrill to meet some of London Cabaret's stalwart stars! I was made so welcome and lots of people wanted to know if I was going to be around for longer. It was so hard to leave them wanting more as I was on the train to Glasgow the next day.

Pinch me! Photography by Lea L'Attentive

SO many feathers! Photography by Lea L'Attentive

Such a darling back scratcher! Photo by Lea L'Attentive

Still my beating heart - Mercury and Maxim performed a preview from their new musical!

Thursday night show at The Glasgow Festival of Burlesque.

What an amazing time. Catching up with dear friends, meeting new ones, and I am very, VERY proud of Botanica and Fanciforia Foxglove who also performed in Glasgow and did NZ proud.

Team Kiwi!!! 

Here's a video of my show at the RVT

Four more sleeps before the UK!

I am pinching myself - only four sleeps to go. A week ago the planning board was crammed with jobs to do, and now most have a black line through them. Very satisfying.
Packing is fun. I need day time clothes as well as costumes and all of the paraphernalia that goes into making hair and face look the part. But things are looking good for a two suitcase only situation, which will allow me at the other end to only need to take one anywhere with me at a time.
It's a plan anyway.

This cross stitch pattern on Etsy is designed by a Wellington based student teacher - I love his work!

So deep am I in the details, I have really only just started to realise what is happening - when people say, see you next week and they are in Brighton!
Now for a day of trying to get my mobile phone to be set up with Roaming, which is far more complicated than anyone will admit!