2010-07-24 Mon Cherie's Rockabilly Lounge

This past Saturday was Mon Cherie's Rockabilly Lounge.  With Uncle Daddy and the Kissing Cousins as the band and Chad Sanborn and Ursula Undress performing as part of their b-day celebrations you knew the turn out was going to be massive!  Vendors for the evening included Throne Jewelry, Loysville and Libertine who had some super cute Rockabilly items for purchase.  The evening got a later start then normal as The Masquerade had double booked Purgatory and of course the event before ran late because that's how these things happen.  It was jam packed with people from the first show and people filtering in for Rockabilly Lounge in no air conditioning...so it was an rocky start to the evening, but it turned into a great night!


Mason was our hostess extraordinare for the evening!  She was alluring, funny and did an amazing job introducing the band and the burlesque!  Uncle Daddy kicked off the evening with a wonderful set, it was so packed I could not get close enough to the stage to take any photos but the music was fun and it was overheard, "Man, they're good! That singer, he sounds just like June Carter. He sound JUST like June, man."  That lead singer was Dickie Hickey, better known as Dickie Van Dyke of Blast Off Burlesque, so yeah, HE sounded just like June Carter, lol.


The burlesque show opened up with Chad Sanborn doing his detective routine.  Though I've seen it hundreds of times it never gets old.  He picked a beautiful assistant out of the audience to be his crime lord accomplice as he popped his balloons all the way to the big house!  Then came a new performer Kitty, who I am told has been shaking it in Oregon before taking it off here. She was a pocket sized pile of cute and sexy with some amazing ink and amazing moves.  Mon Cherie does have an eye for talent!  Then came Gesche Anneliesa with her gold and peacock fan dance.  Her corset, panties and pasties were all a nude base that made the tantalizing reveals from behind her fans seem even more naughty.  Then Rebecca DuShon hooped her way around the stage with an amazing light up hula hoop.  She was a high energy, adorable swirl of light and color. After her was Dahlia Danger who looked like a 1940s movie star in her shiny silver dress. She called it her Jiffy Pop dress and I have to say, the audience was very excited to see her pop out of it to Shake Your Lovemaker by Cherry Poppin' Daddies.  Then came The Sultan of Soda, Chad Sanborn again with his Tiny Bubbles routine.  Full of soda, theft and hilarity!  It's a crowd favorite no matter how many times people have seen it.  Closing out the show was Ursula Undress with a Bettie Page Tribute to Wild Cat.  I was especially excited to see this number as I helped with the costume and frankly, Ursula is always wonderful to watch.  She shimmed and shook her way out of her clothes and into the audience's hearts.  She was definitely the audience favorite of the evening as it was the first time many of them had seen her perform since they followed her across the country to see her compete at Viva Las Vegas this past April.  After she brought the house down Mason brought everyone back out for curtain call with special birthday cupcakes for Ursula, Chad and New Orleans Jon who was in the audience. 


After the burlesque show there was a raffle for fabulous prizes from Sour Puss Clothing before Uncle Daddy and the Kissing Cousins hit the stage one more time to wrap up the night.  The whole event was a who's who of Southern burlesque with people like Talloolah Love, The Chameleon Queen, Tupelo Honey, Lala Lucious and Big Mamma D all the way from Charlotte in the audience.  It was an amazing event and I can't wait to see what else Mon Cherie has up her sleeve!    

2010-07-18 Speak Easy Sunday

This past Sunday present the first Speak Easy Sunday at Friends on Ponce.  I have to admit I came out for a multitude of reasons; 1: to support a new venue willing to have burlesque performed in it's walls, 2: my amazing friends Talloolah Love and Fonda Lingue were both performing, and 3: NO COVER!  That's right kids, Friends on Ponce's claim to fame is that they never ever charge a cover!  Free entertainment, how can you go wrong with that?

So I wandered out on a school night at 9pm.  It was not overly attended, but I think that's because it was the first one and I didn't see a lot of advertising for it. Also, it rained and we all know that Atlanta shuts down the moment water falls from the sky.  Well, for all of you that stayed in for fear of melting you missed a great FREE show!  I just don't feel that I can emphasize enough the fact that it's a free show.

To get us in the mood Dr. Q was spinning some tunes that varied from swing, to 80s remixes and mash ups to things that just made my brain itch with confusion.  It was a fun mix of random music that got the energy going for the audience.  The first show started a little late with a great Drag King routine by Devin Liquor who was also the MC for the evening.  Devin has amazing facial expressions and passion for the art form, you forget it's lip syncing and just fall into the performance of it all.  Devin then introduced Fonda Lingue who performed a beautiful and elegant fan dance.  It's so obvious that Fonda has been taking and teaching ballet for the past (edited as to not imply age) years with the smoothness and grace of her performance.  The Mistress of Illusion definitely had the audience magically mesmerized!  After the grace of Fonda came the amazingly high energy dance routine of K.E.V.I.N.  Amazingly skilled at dance styles I haven't seen since late 80s early 90s hip hop videos back when MTV used to play music.  It was fascinating to watch.  The first show closed out with Talloolah Love doing her Lil Red Ridding Hood routine.  It goes from sweet to naughty, from picnic to pickax and back again!  It was nice to finally get to watch the whole routine as I've been trying to get a peak from back stage of it for almost a year now, lol.

The second show was just as amazing as the first show with the same line-up but different acts.  Devin did an amazingly hilarious James Brown followed by Fonda Lingue doing one of the funniest and most entertaining drag routines I've ever seen.  It was to Everybody's Girl from Steel Pier.  Shock of shocks, a musical I hadn't heard of, but the song was hilarious and knowing Fonda and watching her made it even more so.  After Fonda got everyone rolling in the floors K.E.V.I.N. came back out with another amazing dance routine.  Talloolah closed the show with her feeling good routine.  I don't care how many times I see her do that routine, it will never get old and never not be amazingly sexy.  I think the crawling on a pool table definitely added to the naughty thoughts of some of the audience members.  It also didn't hurt that this was also the only routine that went down to pasties during the evening.

There was supposed to be a twenty minute intermission between the 9pm and 10pm shows, but the second show didn't start until almost 11pm.  I have to admit, was I not committed to being there to show my support I would have left.  I think that if they can get the schedule to run closer to on time in the future that this will be a great way to end the weekend and enjoy a nice show before having to go back to work on Monday.  If it continues to run late I fear that the second show will end up not having much of an audience, but again, the first time you do one of these events they never run on time because people are late and get lost.  So I'll reserve judgement until they've gotten a few more under their belt.

Friends on Ponce really reminded me of being in a club house.  The bar is located in a little beach style shack on top of MJQ.  As I said, there is no cover, but they do make up for it in the drinks.  There were, however, Jello shots for only $1 made by the performers which helped off set the bar.  The slanted ceilings are over pool tables, exposed air conditioned pipes that are painted to look like dragons, and Christmas lights just to give you an idea.  Over all a very nice and relaxed environment and a fun way to spend a Sunday night!

Enjoy my photos from the show!

2010-07-17 Mechanical Masquerade

Syrens of the South held it's Mechanical Masquerade: A Steampunk Ball on July 17 at Bart Webb Studios.  Vendors included Venusian Airship Pirate Trading Co, Kyoto Song Designs and author Emilie P. Bush.

Dr. Q had an amazing selection of music playing through out the evening.  It induced much dancing and merriment!  Don't believe me about the dancing?  Well, as I was working at the bar I was able to whip out my handy dandy flip camera and sneak a peak at some of the activity on the dance floor!

Opening the performances of the evening was Tupelo Honey doing her Jack the Ripper Routine.  It was full of knives and naughtiness!  After her routine we had a reading from Chenda and the Airship Brofman (a Steampunk Novel)  by the author Emilie P. Bush who was dressed as a steampunk tooth fairy.  She was amazing and it was a really fun reading.  The performance by Kira Lang of Cross Cultural Dancing Co closed out the acts of the evening.  She shimmied and shook up the audience with the bounce of her hips!

At the end of the evening  there was the costume contest in which I think the guys entered out numbered the girls who had entered for the first time.  You can see photos tagged with Mechanical Masquerade on Flickr in the slideshow below the dance floor video!

2010-06-17 and 19 Blast Off Burlesque Future of Tomorrow

Blast Off Burlesque decided to go back to their roots with an all Sci-fi show.  I was honored to perform my Dr. Who routine as part of their Future of Tomorrow at 7 Stages in Atlanta, GA.  The preview show was Thursday, June 17th with the main event being two shows back to back on Saturday, June 19th.  The evenings included all of the amazing talent that Blast Off Burlesque has to offer in addition to special guests like Hoopsy Daisy doing a very provocative tribute to Clockwork Orange, Flight of Swallows doing an amazing live musical performance with aerial work in the tradition of Brazil complete with fabulous shoe hat, Ursula Undress showing the world her Pon Farr in a tribute to the original Star Trek series, and Regent St Charles as Tina Turner circa Thunderdome.

Blast Off Burlesque never ceases to amaze me with their creativity, teamwork and shear awesomeness!  With amazingly choreographed group numbers and duets to beautiful solo acts by the individual performers.  Some highlights include Ferris Hilton as Steven Hawkins, Melanie Magnifique did an awesome job as the Diva from The Fifth Element , Sadie Hawkins doing an amazing tribute to Donnie Darko (which is one of my personal favorites), as well as Barbalicious as Barbarella!  The end of the show had all of the members of Blast Off Burlesque come out as all of the planets to Monty Python's Galaxy Song, and yes, they included Pluto!  Local celebrity, journalist, radio DJ and rock star Jon Waterhouse did an amazing job as the show's MC and as The Sun!

I was only able to do backstage video during the preview show since we had to reset and such for the second show.  Below you'll find my video and a slideshow of pictures taken at the shows!