Ten Things I Wish I'd Known as a Beginner Burlesque Performer

Dear all,
I am now just over two weeks away from beginning the six week burlesque course I will be teaching, www.nottinghamburlesquelessons.weebly.com (plug, plug).  In the run up to the class I thought I'd write a couple of blog posts with my teacher hat on and share a few pearls of my (dubious) wisdom.

In my first blog in this series I thought I would look at ten things I wish I had known (or that some wise burlesque mama-bear had told me) when I started out as a shiny new performer. This list is a relatively personal one for me, and it is by no means exhaustive but I'd love it if experienced performers would use the comments to tell me about other things they wish they had know when they started out, and for newer performers to tell me about the things they wish they knew about now (assuming you know what they are!).

So, shimmying straight in with the list:

1. Watch Other Performers

This one might sound obvious but you'd be amazed at how little burlesque I had seen when I first started! Between coming up with concepts, choreographing routines, creating costumes and trying to get booked I didn't watch nearly as much burlesque as I probably should have in those early days. It's useful, though, to watch as much burlesque as you can (live for preference, but if time and budget don't permit, then Youtube is your friend). By watching other performers you become familiar with the tropes, clichés and standards of the genre, the different sub-styles (such as showgirl, comedic, gorelesque, etc), costuming tricks, how performers work an audience and all sorts of other vital nuggets. It stops your work becoming too generic because once you know the standards, you'll get a feel for where you can play with them, and it also gives you and insight into how many different way a basic idea can be interpreted. 
Watching other performers is invaluable, I didn't do it enough when I first started out and I feel it slowed my progress to becoming a more well-rounded performer.

2. Wear More Makeup 


When I first started out performing I would always look at photographs after a performance and think how plain I looked, especially alongside the other burlesquers. I came from a background of amateur dramatics so I knew that makeup was important for the stage, but it never really dawned on me how much slap you need to trowel on for your look to be striking in burlesque.

This picture is a shot of me performing at the Pitty Patt Club back when I was a newbie performer. As you can see, under the stage lights it looks like I am wearing makeup, but perhaps only about as much as someone might normally wear to a daytime engagement such as work or a lunch.  In the photo, it looks reasonable enough, but imagine what the people at the back of the room can see! Probably not much.

For the stage, especially for burlesque, as an exaggerated, over-the-top kind of art form you could probably benefit from wearing a little more so that the audience can read your facial cues clearly (and that you look good in photos!).

Now as a stage performer, I wear a LOT more makeup. In fact, I probably wear a lot more than many performers out there. Stage makeup has become something of a passion of mine! So I'm not suggesting you have to wear as much makeup as I do, and of course, you need to ensure that the makeup you wear is appropriate to your character, but the important thing is to highlight the areas that will help you express emotion and character.

Usually eyes and mouths are a no-brainer. If the audience can clearly see your eyes and mouth you can't go far wrong. As I got to know more about myself as a performer I came to realise that I express a lot with my eyebrows so I now always ensure that they are clearly visible when I am onstage.
You may also choose to contour or use other stage makeup tricks to help change your face to fit a certain character. In the picture to the right (me performing as young Baba Yaga at the Blue Room Burlesque, 2011) I chose to contour my cheeks as I have quite a flat face and I pictured this character having sharp cheekbones. Also, when wearing a wig I tend to shade a little at the temples to make the join between the head and the wig more natural looking. I have also found that when wearing wigs (especially ones in bright colours or big shapes), wearing a little more makeup can stop it looking like the wig is 'wearing you'.

3. End your act and edit your track.

This was something I learned very quickly but it is still a pet peeve for me now when I see it in new performers. If your music finishes when your act does, it looks complete and professional. If your performance finishes before the song does, it leaves the audience with questions such as, 'Did she get the timing wrong?' or  'Is there more to come?'. I have seen dozens upon dozens of newer performers conclude an act part way through a song, or sometimes even part way through a verse or chorus! It never looks great. This leaves you with two options, you either need to build an act that lasts the entire length of the song you are working to, or you need to edit it to fit your act
I am a big fan of using mixed tracks, so I pretty much always edit my music to fit what I'm doing. There are some very easy editing programmes out there, or you could pay someone to edit your music for you if you need something more complex. Even if you just want the music to fade out, it is much more professional to edit the fade into your track than to ask the DJ to do it blind on the night of the performance.

4. Always customise your costumes

In this picture of me, performing an early incarnation of my first ever solo act, Emerald's Cupcake (back in 2006) you can clearly see that customising my costume items had never occurred to me. Apart from my hat (it was meant to be a big cherry) and my pasties, both of which I made myself, everything was shop bought and not customised. It didn't even cross my mind that I needed to do it.

A large part of burlesque, however, is showmanship, and having an exciting costume is part of it. There's nothing worse that removing an outer costume layer only to hear a voice in the audience remark 'I've got that bra' (which happened to me, while performing this act!). Customising costume items need not be expensive and you don't have to be a whizz at sewing either, I know many performers who swear by a hot glue gun! And by using ribbon, sequins, beads, lace, crystals or even more unorthodox items (I have seen rubber gloves, cuddly toys and badges to name a few), or by dying items or cutting and re-making them you can make your costume items really express you character, and give the audience something exciting to look at. You can also think about changing clasps, closures and fastenings, as well as how garments come off, to help you create a smoother striptease.

Personally, I am pretty poor at dressmaking or creating an item from scratch but my customisation skills have come on in leaps and bounds since I started performing burlesque. For example, in this promo for my Jackalope act I started out with a plain bra, corset, bloomers and a plain white bridal underskirt and I customised them using tea dying, lace and ribbon, home made appliques, raw wool and tons and tons of strips of calico (on the skirt). I also changed the bra from a back to a front closure and changed the straps. It was time consuming, but the basic skills were easy enough to learn.



5. The audience want you to succeed.

I remember how nervous I was when I first started performing, especially when I first broke out from the troupe I started in and began working solo. I got really worried that people wouldn't like my performances and wouldn't like me. Then, a more experienced, wiser performer reminded me that burlesque audiences (in the main) come to have a great time, to be entertained and to have fun. They want your performance to be good and they're rooting for you. Burlesque audiences, for me, have been for the most part, the most generous, upbeat, welcoming audiences I have ever performed to, and any lone negative voices get lost in the crowd. Nerves are healthy but as long as you offer the audience your best, they will treat you kindly.


6. Choose your music carefully (or Everybody has a copy of Striptease Classics)

When I first started performing I felt that there were particular expectations about what sort of music I should be performing to. In my mind I thought Rockabilly, 50s rock n roll, Swing, Big Band and at a push a Charleston would be acceptable, with perhaps metal or rock music if you were creating acts for a neo-burlesque or alternative themed event. This can be rather limiting and it can lead to lots of performers doing routines to the same few songs. The 'Take it off - Striptease Classics' album is one that most burlesquers have in their collection and I would say that a large amount of us have used a track from it at one point or another.
While there's nothing wrong with using a standard, especially if you really make it your own, you shouldn't feel restricted to only use this sort of music. You can use music from any genre you like, from any era and from any source; just pick something that inspires you and that you won't get sick of. And you don't have to stop there, you can perform to dialogue, sound recordings, silence - anything! Don't believe me? If you've never seen it before, check out this video of Nasty Canasta performing her Car Alarm Fan Dance.

7. Go at your own pace

One of the things that threw me when I was new, and that still throws me now if I let it, is watching what other performers are getting up to and making comparisons. It's easy to get downhearted when it feels like other performers are putting out an exciting new act every week, or that everyone is picking up great gigs except you. It's important though to remember that everyone feels like they are lagging behind sometimes, even that person you really look up to. Online especially, a lot of performers will promote themselves by talking about their gigs, their new projects and their achievements but remember this is only half the story. You aren't seeing all their hard work, their frustrations and disappointments and the times when real life gets in the way. Just try to keep going at your own pace and things will come together. If you get too caught up with keeping up with what everyone else is doing you'll take all the fun out of creating and performing burlesque.

8. Don't get distracted by drama

Occasionally in burlesque, like in any other walk of life, things can get a little bitchy. With so many creative folks all crammed together in small dressing rooms and close knit local scenes it is inevitable that occasional dramas and spats will erupt. Its very easy to get drawn into drama and burlesque politics and it is pretty much always a waste of time. Focus on your own performances, avoid the backstage bitching and skip the cryptic Facebook statuses slagging fellow performers off. And most importantly, ignore anyone who threatens to ruin your reputation, stop you getting bookings or stunt your chances as a performer. These people rarely have as much reach as they think they do, and if your performances are good and your manner backstage is friendly, these things will speak for themselves.
(PS. Apologies. I know GIFs can be rather annoying but I just couldn't resist this one!).

9. Follow your passion

If you look at the most successful performers in burlesque they all have strong, distinctive on-stage identities and performance styles and this is important even for newer performers. In my early days of performance I fussed about whether something 'fit' what I thought was 'burlesque' style, whether that be sounds, visuals or movement. The problem with this is that it makes for a lot of fairly generic burlesque. Burlesque gets really exciting when performers begin to shape the genre to fit them, when they follow their skills and passions and create something personal. When I first started experimenting with the genre and how I could make it my own a little more I did receive a voice of dissent from an audience member who stated 'That's not burlesque, Dita von Teese wouldn't do that' and I felt a little deflated, but then I had dozens of people tell me how much they enjoyed my take on the form. People will enjoy your take on burlesque too, so learn the rules and conventions of the genre and then learn how to break them, or at least give them a little bend here and there!

10. Take a bow!

It might sound daft, but when I first started performing I would think nothing of leaving the stage as soon as my music finished and my final pose was over. When I watch early videos of myself back I can see how odd that looks. After your performance has finished, take a moment to enjoy your audience. Look out over the crowd and take a bow, curtsy or wave, or do something in character if you like. Either way, acknowledge your applause and enjoy it. It will make your performance look more complete and finished, the audience will feel acknowledged and it gives you a moment to drink in the rewards of your hard work. 

So these are ten things I wish I had known when I was a new performer. I hope you've found them interesting. Now I'd love to hear what you wish you had known when you were new (or now, if you're new now). Please add your own thoughts to the comments section below.

Until the next time,
x
Emerald 

The Creative Block

I’m not sure what happened. I used to be a little power house of creativity when it came to burlesque. I didn’t create the best, the most glamorous or the most innovative acts, and I didn’t make them as quickly as some of the other performers out there but I was always bubbling away with useable ideas and ways to execute them.

Then everything changed. Almost a year ago, my life changed drastically. I had been working a job that had turned into a dead-end drudge, and so I left to embark on a new adventure – training to teach drama for Further Education (that’s teens 16+ and adult education). So, I decided that for a year, while I went back into full time education, I would put performing firmly on the back burner and not work on act creation either. This turned out to be a sensible decision. My teacher training year was exhausting, with a heavy workload and I don’t know where I’d have found the time to squeeze in any performance commitments. As for creating acts, my mind was on essays, research projects and lesson planning. Very occasionally I’d have a tiny proto-idea which I’d jot down in a note book or my diary, but there it would stay. They never got much further than that; my mind just wasn’t in that place.

My teaching style (please note any potential employers who may be reading this: not my teaching style.)


So a year passed and I was only peripherally involved in the world of burlesque. But I was still there in the background. On the internet. Facebook, to be more specific. I went on Facebook every single day. Twice a day absolute minimum. Usually more like ten times a day. On days when I was lesson planning or working on assignments at home I kept it open in the background the whole time, checking it between bursts of work. Hell, it’s open in the background right now as I write this. I told myself I kept online in case I got booking enquiries; it would be rude to keep people dangling. I told myself it was to keep up with the friends I had made via performing. I told myself that having some sort of an internet presence was necessary for when I returned to performing properly, otherwise people would forget that I had ever existed. What I actually did on Facebook was saw status after status about my fellow performers’ creative endeavours. This person’s new costume piece, this person talking about a creative breakthrough with an act idea, this one had just had a great time at this show, that one can’t wait for that show. What I actually ended up doing on Facebook was just seeing everyone else getting on with it. Getting on with the business of creating and performing. And even though I was getting on with something myself, my teacher training, I still felt a little sad and left out that I wasn’t getting on with it (in terms of burlesque) too.

So everyone else was getting on with it. But by this point, I was getting on with my teaching practice. Teaching drama to 16 to 24 year olds was possibly the most fun I’ve ever had with my clothes on; I really felt like I’d found my spiritual home. I had awesome, inspiring colleagues and the students were by turns, hilarious, clever, strange, wonderfully talented and completely welcoming. At first, I didn’t even miss not creating myself. It was so enjoyable facilitating creativity in others, being the person to give suggestions and critique and seeing the beautiful, strange flowers these new vines produced. On more than one occasion I had seen something they had produced and said to my friends at work, ‘I wish I’d thought of that’. And it was a good feeling, these kids had the talent, they just needed showing how to unlock it. It was a joy. And I was learning new things too. I was unsure of myself at the start, but I think I left my teaching placement confident that I could be a Good Teacher.

But at some point, teaching stopped being so hard. It was still a pleasure and a joy, but I had learned some of the basic skills and I was finding there was a little of myself left over at the end of the week, in a way there hadn’t been at first. And that little bit of myself started wanting to create again, but it didn’t really know where to begin. Before I had gone into teacher training I had sort of lost my way with performance. For the longest time as a performer, my strong suit had always been silly, manic, comedic burlesque with a minimum of sex appeal and glamour. Then, I had a big idea. I decided to produce a serious, theatrical, highly costumed act around a strange creature that had fascinated me for a long time. My act ‘The Last Jackalope’ was born. I had been so nervous about this act, it was very personal and revealed my vulnerable side in a way that felt a bit risky, but in general, it seemed to be fairly well received. After working on another comedic act (a quick project that ended up working quite well) I decided to revisit my idea of strange, quirky but decidedly non-comedic characters. This is where things started to go wrong. I planned to create two more acts which could be viewed as companion pieces for the Jackalope. One was based on the legend of Baba Yaga, and the other on the idea of sea sirens. I finished the Baba Yaga act but although I was quite pleased with the costume, the actual body of the act never quite worked. It involved a huge amount of loose feathers and it was messy, inconvenient to perform and never had the striking visual effect I had hoped it would. Not to mention, the dark, bewitching, strong willed character was something I didn’t feel I could portray convincingly enough. I shelved the act, with the hope of coming back to it to rework but I never really found a way to make it come to life in the way the Jackalope had. As for the other act, I made a costume for it. You can even see an image of it from an amazing shoot I did with Candee Photography, but the creation of the meat of the act stalled. It began to feel like it should be a dancerly act, full of flowing waves of sensuous movement. And a sensuous dancer I ain’t. Again, I shelved it. I hoped I would come back to it again with fresh eyes and ideas, but I never have.

'Foam' my sea siren character, by Candee Photography.


Both of those acts felt as though they were made for somebody else, somebody not very much like me at all. The Jackalope was serious and sad, but it really felt as though it belonged to me. Dumpy, lonely, awkward me. Looking back, the other two acts feel like they might have been made for someone I thought I wanted to be. I feel like the ideas were fairly good, they might have worked, I would have enjoyed them with the right performer at the helm. But they weren’t for me. Not really.

In this year, I have come to realise what I really want to be doing, in terms of performance. I want to make people laugh. I don’t want to try to be something I’m not. I’m not sensual, seductive, alluring, vampish or exotic. If I could find a way to get back to making people laugh, that would be amazing. If I could find some of the tenderness I used as part of the Jackalope to counterpoint that humour, that would be good too. But mainly, I should be making people laugh. Leave the glamour to those who do it well. Being funny is more rewarding for me.

So, with a better idea of what I want to achieve, I started thinking about form. One of the things I had been finding harder and harder with comedic burlesque was how to fit the striptease element in, or, if I wasn’t going to include striptease, what should happen in the act in its place. Striptease was starting to feel a little arbitrary for me; I didn’t feel that a pastie reveal counted as a big finish. This isn’t a criticism of what other performers are doing. We all have our own obsessions, passions and things we get excited about and mine aren’t going to be the same as yours. But I had stopped feeling excited about striptease. I had been watching performance from various genres, burlesque included, both for my teaching practice and for pleasure and I think I identified a common factor for all the performance that really spoke to me. I think of it as ‘Surprise and Delight’. Something you weren’t expecting that makes you go ‘Oooh!’ That ‘Oooh!’ might be if someone does something really skilful, or sexy, or funny, or weird, or talented. But what really spoke to me was that feeling of something unexpected happening that makes you go ‘Oooh!’. For me, that explained the striptease problem. ….

In June, despite having a plan in place, I found myself unemployed. As boredom and desperation started to set in I hoped that I would now have the time and lack of distractions to get creative again. I started a log book for burlesque related musings, I went to a practical workshop to improve my skills and I started trying to actively mind map ideas, even using the techniques I use with my learners in the classroom to try and generate something workable. Perhaps I am putting too much pressure on myself, because so far I have come up with a big fat nothing! Oddly enough though, creativity seems to work in mysterious ways. Although I have made nothing on the performance front I have started drawing again, and learned a ton of new songs on the ukulele, and got about half way through writing a short story, and almost finished writing my first song on the organ. I don’t know what this means. I’m not sure why performance, the thing that consumed so much of me for so long will not come, when apparently everything else is willing to drop by. Perhaps I am putting too much pressure on myself. Perhaps it will never come back. I worry that that might be the case. I loved performing burlesque so much, but now I feel so ambivalent about it because I can’t make it happen. Perhaps I have to learn to let it just come naturally again.

- Edit – Since I wrote this back in early July, I am now working in a call centre with little hope of getting a teaching job any time soon. Due to some difficult stuff in my personal life performing and creativity have slipped even further onto the back burner. But I’m still hanging in there. I never posted this at the time because I felt afraid to, like people might judge me or think that I’m just useless, but the last few weeks have made me realise that if you don’t reach out to people you just end up isolated. So I’d love to open up a conversation about what people do when they lose their creative muse, or when they feel pulled in a different creative direction but they aren’t sure what that direction is, or when they block themselves from creating. If anyone would like to comment on their experiences about creative blocks I’d love to hear what you have to say, either here on my blog, or on Facebook or wherever.

Faves from the Art Monkeys!

Dearests,
Back in late February my adventures in burlesque took me to my old University town and Dr Sketchys Manchester. I had a lovely time there and can't recommend it enough if you're in the area.
Here is a link to their Facebook Page if you want to attend one of their events.

I have just recently seen that they have some images up of my session with them so I thought I'd share a few of my faves with you all!

I have tried to credit all of the artists accordingly but if any of you are reading this and would like me to post up links to your website/feacebook etc just give me a shout!


Photo by Air Adam Photography - Visit his website here!


Also by Air Adam Photography


Drawing by Chris Doherty


Drawing by Courtney Maddison


Drawing by Dave Merrell


Drawing by Dave Merrell (left handed in this one! Wow!)


Drawing by Mark Hibbert

So these are some of my faves - it's so fun to see yourself drawn in so many different styles - plus the photographs are lovely too!

'Til next time
x
Emerald

Follow me into the dark forest...

For a few blogs now I have been talking cryptically about the ‘new act’ that I am working on and I’m quite aware that I’ve not given much away. There are a few reasons for this, it’s nice to come out and surprise people and there’s always the worry that someone more talented will see the idea and end up producing a better act than me on the same theme (I know this is unlikely as, as much as people huff and puff about act stealing it seems to happen very rarely, in reality). The biggest reason for holding back on my ideas though, is that I have many more of them than I ever have time or money to bring to a finished act. And not all the ideas are good. Some of them are totally unworkable, or boring or generic and a lot of the time you don’t know which is really going to be a goodie until you get to a certain point in the process. In the past I talked on this blog about the idea of doing a crash fetish themed act and this is one example of an act I was really keen on, but which has ended up being shelved (at least for the time being). I just didn’t have a strong enough concept to turn it into a viable act and, although I could have kept flogging the horse, I ended up being consumed by other ideas which I felt more passionate about because the concepts were stronger. That’s not to say that the idea couldn’t resurface if I found myself inspired by or interested in it again. But at the moment it is one of many little seeds of acts that are hibernating until something kicks them into germination (or they just get forgotten all together).

With this in mind, I really didn’t want to jump the gun and talk too openly about my new act in the works until I was sure it would get past the preliminary stages, but it looks like it has. Aside from the concept (which is usually where I tend to start act wise, but I know other people work in different orders) I have my music selected and the best part of my costume finished. The choreography is loosely blocked but still needs work. I am hoping that this act will debut in the spring. In reality, if it wasn’t for Oddball taking up so much of my time and money I would probably have it ready by the end of February. So, I figured it’s time to stop being so secretive and to let you, my dear readers, know what I have been pottering away at.

I mentioned a few blogs back that I was considering making my performances more split down the middle as I love doing funny, bright coloured, silly acts but I also really loved the emotional process of creating the Jackalope and was blown over by the response to it. I didn’t want to have to pick a team and stick to it as I can see common factors to both styles, even if they are more to do with the way my imagination works rather than things that are immediately obvious. So rather than have the two styles together under one umbrella I have decide to mine the same rough area of influences that spawned the Jackalope and make two more in a similar mood/style so that the set can be viewed kind of as a triptych. That way, they relate to and make sense with each other for promoters booking me and audiences viewing. Or people can choose to contrast and pick one from that set and one from my more comic repertoire.


The idea of the triptych came to me in a surprisingly organic way. After producing the Jackalope I was bubbling to do something else in a similar style (once I had got over the initial exhaustion) so the idea for my new one sprang out of that and the third soon followed. They all had a strong running feel to them, in my minds eye I pictured a dark, murky wood or forest with little characters living little lives that were neither mundane nor particularly special. I have always been a huge fan of fairytales (the proper ones with blood and teeth and feathers rather than the sanitised versions modern parents offer their children), I even did my degree dissertation on the different forms and psychological interpretations of the Cinderella story, so it was these old stories that I found calling me to produce my next act. The act will be quite abstract, rather than the more narrative approach I used for the Jackalope and it is inspired by the Slavic and Russian folktales about Baba Yaga.


Depending on which sources you read Baba Yaga is sometimes used as a generic term for a hag-like witch but more often the stories refer to a particular character. And old witch with an impatient temper (in some stories cruel, in others more like a sage) and iron teeth who pushes herself along the forest floor in a pestle and mortar and lives in a hut that walks around on chicken’s legs. Ever since I first heard about Baba Yaga she haunted my subconscious mind and suddenly, like when I began working on the Jackalope act, I found I saw her everywhere (I don’t mean literally in the flesh!). I ran through many different ideas, even at one point toying with the idea of seeing if I could get a hut on chicken legs made (I didn’t go for this for obvious reasons!). In the end I decided I wanted to look at Yaga in terms of the woman who would become her (as I felt it would spill out from burlesque and into performance art if I played an old hag with none of the sensual qualities that I feel are an integral part of burlesque). I wanted to explore the idea of a woman having the power to see glimpses of her future and the powerful but terrifying creature that she would become. Essentially, the act is as much about the idea of destiny and bitter acceptance of oneself as it is about my folktale heroine.

I won’t go into all the details as I don’t want to spoil it and give it all away too soon, but I can say that the mood of the act I am hoping to create will be oppressive, slightly creepy but with a stubborn strength to the character. I want to make reference to Baba Yaga’s future in a metaphorical way and the hope is that, if people know my starting point, they will understand why I have used that particular imagery but if they don’t, I’m hoping they’ll still get a sense of the feel of the act and that it will stand as something interesting to watch even without that frame of reference.

At the same time as I am working on this one I have started work on the third and final piece of the triptych. I normally only ever work on one thing at a time but it has happened quite organically this time that while I have been working on costuming and choreography for Baba Yaga I also found my inspiration (and the perfect music track) for the third part of the puzzle so I have started loosely working on choreography (budget constraints mean the costume will come later!) and, as I mentioned in my last proper blog, filming it as I go. It’s amazing how much this is helping me and I’ve only been working this way for less than a week! I won’t say what the concept behind my third piece is just yet, for the same reasons I mentioned above. It’s still possible it could change or evolve so I’ll keep it under my hat until it gets closer to fruition.

So, with all this work on my dark forest of characters, what’s happened to the funny, silly, rubber-faced Emerald that you all know? Well, I’m still going to be making funny acts. In a way, I wanted to produce these three so that I am free to make my other acts as silly as possible, rather than trying to shoehorn the two styles together to make an amalgam which could end up having the best points of neither. I am working on an idea for my next comedic act, although it’s still in the very early stages of development, where it is still a funny thought in my head and some different ideas about how to progress it. It’s actually an idea I came up with ages ago but then abandoned because I had got fixated on all the props and kit I’d need for it and lost the point of why I originally wanted to do it. Now though, the character has re-emerged in my mind and this time I can see ways of making it funny without all the unnecessary bells and whistles, using my performance skills instead of leaning too heavily on big props. This one however is definitely a way off yet so there’s still a world of room for me to change my mind or move on to something else. One thing’s for certain though, I never want to completely abandon doing comedic acts. They are my wife (or should that be husband) and these dark and more artistic acts are more like a long standing mistress.

If you’ve read this far and waded through my wafflings then I must commend your fortitude. I have missed writing my blog and it’s great to get back into it properly.

‘Til next time
x
Emerald

Goodbye 2010 - Hello 2011

Dearests,
2010 has been a funny old year. As a burlesque performer it has probably been one of my better years; the acts I am producing are stronger, I am driving so getting to gigs is less of a stress, I have had some great bookings this year and I feel I am gradually learning more about what sort of work I want to produce. Unfortunately, outside of the world of burlesque it has been a tough, exhausting and frustrating year and this has encroached into my life as a performer, leaving me with less energy to do the things I love.
Still, 2011 is a new year and a new start, and I thought it might be apt to look at some of the interesting goings on in my burlesque world and to talk about a few of my hopes for 2011. Plus, I get to do it in list form! (I love lists)

The Good
- Finally debuting the finished and updated version of my Jackalope and realising that I CAN do straight acts.
- Driving to gigs. Or more importantly, driving home. I really cherished those 1am drives home listening to Radio 2 on a quiet road. It gave me time to think about my performance that night and really became a little ritual for me.
- Seeing some truly amazing acts from other performers I admire. Some really special ones that stood out include Vicky Butterfly, Joe Black, Missy Malone, Amelie Soleil and Ed Muir, Beatrix von Bourbon, Owen Niblock, Lexi Sexx and Marnie Scarlett (to name the ones that leap to mind right now - there are definitely others that were just as awesome).
- Making my first performance in front of the folks from Ministry of Burlesque. It inspires me how much they have built and I really feel there is a lot I can learn from them. Plus it was a hilarious, boozy night and I had a wonderful time.
- Creating my Emotional Strip act on a tight deadline and realising that it forced me to cut out procrastination, rather than lowering the quality of my work.
- Spending time with some amazing, inspiring and above all fun members of the burlesque community. I'm not a social person by nature but I have had fun being around other burlesque bods this year.

The Bad
- Real-life constraints meant I had to leave my ballet class, at least for the time being. Even though I was the worst in the class I really enjoyed it and I do hope I'll be able to get back to it when my situation improves.
- A lot of people seemed to fall away from burlesque this year. It made me sad to see some familiar and friendly faces move on. I wish you all the best in whatever you do next, if you're reading this, folks.
- The big one for me, especially in the later half of this year has been the result of the resurgent interest in burlesque generated by the film of the same name. It is nice that the media is interested in our artform, and I feel the film could be positive and draw people in, even if it isn't entirely accurate of what most of us here in the UK do. What has upset me is all the sniping, snarking articles online (including on online versions of major newspapers) - 'is burlesque just stripping?', 'is burlesque just middle class stripping?', 'is burlesque really empowering?' etc. These articles more often than not seem to be just an excuse to not watch burlesque, not be involved in that community, but to speak with authority about what a damaging non-artform it is. And that's just the original articles. The comments that follow are usually worse. This year I have found myself getting sucked back in to these debates, even though I know that it is a losing battle. I have decided that in 2011, rather than getting sucked into these slanging matches with people who don't care and just like to troll, I will put what I have to say on this blog instead. That way anyone who gives a bibble can read it and everyone else doesn't have to.


The Inspiring
- Taking a workshop with Beatrix von Bourbon. While officially about branding it felt more like a cross between going to confession or therapy and working with a mentor. I left that workshop with a stronger sense of who I am (and can become) as a performer and with new vigour and excitement for what I do.
- Khandie Khisses. This woman is always on the go! I haven't had the pleasure of working with her this year but her online presence is a constant inspiration as someone who holds down a nine to five but is still one of the best in the game. I swear to god, she must never sleep! Plus, she is one of the nicest people in burlesque.
- My pal Cherryfox, who lives the dream by making a living doing burlesque, photography, costuming and other creative things. I'm not sure I could live that way but I sure do admire it.
- Promoters out there putting on top notch nights like The Wet Spot, Dr Sketchy's Nottingham, and Carnival Divine (all the others I forgot to list). As I will be putting on my own show in February I have been carefully observing how the shows I love performing at most make the experience so pleasant for performers and audience alike.

For 2001
- I hope to make my show ODDBALL BURLESQUE as much fun and as professionally ran as possible.
- I want to finish my new act and possibly release two more besides in 2011. One more straight one (to make a triptych with the one I'm currently working on and the Jackalope) and a funny one. At the moment there are two possible contenders for this but I am unsure which I will choose.
- I want to improve my costuming skills and my grace and economy of movement onstage. Some of my acts still have parts that feel a little 'fannying about-ish'. I hope to go back and tighten and rework these parts.
- To see more live performance in burlesque and other genres.
- To blog more. This year my blogging has come in fits and starts, it would be nice to get this more consistent.
- To enjoy burlesque in 2011!

So that's my rundown of 2010. Wishing you all the best for 2011.
'Til next time
x
Emerald

Slinking Back with my Tail Between my Legs

Dearests,
like a wayward tomcat I return to you, slinking back, somewhat guiltily, with my tail between my legs after being away for so long. Where have I been for three months? What have I been doing with myself? Sadly, the Real World (yuk!) has been holding me hostage and making me devote all my time to inept landlords, day-job related dramas, keeping my finances in check (a full time job on its own!), a long weekend in Norfolk and more day-job related dramas.
On the more positive side though, burlesque has still been a huge part of my life during my period in blogospheric limbo.

Firstly the most exciting thing I have to report is my adventures performing three big, exciting shows over the months of September and October. Firstly, there was Enchanted Burlesque's 'Sirens and Scoundrels' event in Birmingham. This show is held at the Old Rep (kindly corrected by James - where is my mind!) Theatre and is the first real proscenium, theatrical venue I have performed in since I began burlesque. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and found it a thrill to be on such a big stage in such lovely surroundings.
This was my first outing of my re-tooled Jackalope act and my slightly re-tooled Emotional Strip act. In my last blog I mentioned that I might add an extra funny bit to my Emotional Strip and I have to say, I'm glad I did. It caused such a reaction! The second I saw how the audience responded, I knew it was the right decision. With the Jackalope I had made some more structural changes. When I debuted the act I had felt it had a bit of an element of 'fannying around onstage' to it. By fannying around, I mean that it had parts that seemed not to add anything narrative or mood-wise, despite my best efforts. I knew what I was trying to say, but I didn't feel I was saying it effectively. This was mainly in the opening part of the act, before I start putting my costume on. So I looked at the act and tried to nail down what I was trying to convey, and how to say it more clearly. What I was going for was 'at home in the forest' and also, I wanted to show the character's shyness and timid curiosity. In the original version of the act I do this by moving around the stage in character but I never felt neat and clear enough. It just looked like fannying around. So I ended up adding in some fan work with fans made to look like autumn tree branches. The idea was, to show that the character was in the forest and also to show her shyly at play in her world. Peeking out from between branches and shrubs. I made the fans myself using regular fan staves, artificial leafy twigs and a LOT of hot glue. I'm quite pleased with the result and feel that it's a real improvement on the original version which, if you read my earlier entries, you will know I was not entirely happy with. Have a look at the video (if you haven't seen it already) and let me know what you think! I have also made a few tweaks to the costume since this video was made - what you don't see in the video is that the fastening on my skirt is not strong enough - right after the lights came down, so did my skirt! Nobody saw it, but imagine if it had happened part way throught the act!


A photo of my Jackalope at Enchanted Burlesque in September
(copyright James Thorpe - www.photoburlesque.com)


After performing at Enchanted Burlesque I also had the pleasure of bringing the Jackalope out again that weekend at Darkteaser's Leamington Spa extravaganza 'The Garter Lounge Grand Show'. The venue, the Assembly Rooms, is a 1920s Art Deco building that has been restored to its heyday's glamorous decadence and it was one of the lovliest places I have performed in to date. I also had the pleasure of being able to watch the majority of the show from the wings and, an extra special treat in a sea of fabulous performers, I finally got to see Vicky Butterly's rocking moon performance in the flesh. I make no secret of the fact that I stood at the side of the stage with tears in my eyes (and I was not the only one!). I felt so inspired watching that act and it was a privilege to get to see it up so close.

In other exciting performance news last month the Ministry of Burlesque came to my home town of Nottingham and I brought my Jackalope out as a 'Battle of Burlesque' guest performer. I felt very privileged indeed to be on the bill with MoB Mother Kittie Klaw and her very talented team of super burlesque and cabaret bods and I found everyone to be immensely friendly, inclusive and fun. The show, by all accounts, went down very well indeed and it looks like MoB will be coming back to Nottingham in December. I am going to try and organise to come and watch this time as the show was so much fun but I was so nervous that it went by in a bit of a blur!

So, with the Jackalope and the Emotional Strip now firmly placed in my repertoire I can start turning my thoughts to new and exciting acts for the future. I tend to always have a handfull of ideas bubbling around in my brain but usually only a couple of those at any one time are in a position to leave the brain and begin work on. A bit like the Jackalope and the Emotional Strip, I have ideas for one funny act and one straight one. It's weird, despite how hard the Jackalope was to produce, something about the way I feel performing it, and something about the way audiences have reacted has made me feel a strong yearning to do more performance in a similar vein. Not exactly burlesque acts per se, but more acts that are lonely and strange and slightly other-worldly. In my mind I picture a dusky forest in which all these oddities live, a kind of Grimms fairytale kind of world where peculiar people live tiny lives. But, when I perform the Emotional Strip I feel like I am getting closer to the heart of British burlesque that makes people laugh and is so much fun to watch and perform. The two aren't really the most obvious fit for eachother but I don't think I could step away from either at this point. So part of me has been wondering about whether I should market the two sides more separately. Perhaps, when I have more performances like the Jackalope under my belt I should group them off under another label, so that I offer people burlesque acts OR these other things, that aren't quite burlesque, but fit in that sort of lineup.
Either way, I am hoping that in the New Year I should be coming out with a new one that comes from a similar place to the Jackalope, and after that I hope to begin work on another funny one. At this stage that's all I'm going to say about my ideas but be assured, dear reader, that you will hear about it here first when I decide to say more.

So, that leaves me with just one more exciting bit of news: I am putting on my own show! It will be my first time doing this and I'm very excited indeed. The event will be called ODDBALL BURLESQUE: More Fruitcake than Cheesecake (click the link to join the Facebook Group) and it will be showcasing the oddest, weirdest and funniest burlesque in the UK. The idea was, that often a funny act or an unusual performance will be just one point in a night of very traditional and classic acts. With this show I wanted to put funny, silly and weird burlesque centre stage and hopefully people will come and enjoy something a little different.
The show will be on February 18th as part of Nottingham Light Night and wil be held at The Central on Huntington Street, Nottingham. Keep your eye on this blog, my website or the ODDBALL BURLESQUE Facebook group for lineup information, ticket prices and other tidbits.

On that happy note, I am going to shuttle off to get on with a few show related bits and bobs!

'Til next time!
x
Emerald

Delicious and a New Act

Dearests,
Like a fair-weather friend I am back again after promising my blogs would get more regular and then getting distracted as life got in the way. Over the last few weeks many occasions have arisen where I have found myself exclaiming – ‘I must blog about this!’ but between issues with internet access and busy times at home and at work it just hasn’t happened. Now I have so much stuff to blog about that I figured I had better get my act together and make a start – even if I don’t get it all down. So – here goes!

So, the first thing of note worth mentioning is that I have now completed the new act I was working on in the last-but-one blog (and it’s available to book – hint hint!). Incase you can’t be bothered to go back and read the past post, the idea for this act (or at least its working process) was to rest all the areas that had been stretched (almost to breaking) when I worked on the Jackalope and stretch different areas instead. The focuses of this act were: using music to convey emotion; physical performance and comedy; conveying mood through mime/clowning techniques; and in the costuming area – improving my grasp of colour theory and working quickly and simply without getting too bogged down. It was always meant to be a quick project and the goal was to finish it (once I got into the actual working stage) in a month. In reality I probably took a little longer than that but not much!

The outcome of this little experiment is my new act ‘The Emotional Strip’. I trialled it out at an event about a week and a half ago and I can safely say that it looks like it is going to be one of my favourites to perform. I didn’t allow myself to get bogged down or stressed out by it and I really feel that shows in the final product. It’s not the deepest or most complicated narrative or character work but it still feels like it fits within my repertoire and has an essential me-ness that I wouldn’t have expected with something that came together so quickly. Also, although I did not in any way want to be slapdash with the costume, I tried just to make it look fun and pretty but not to be too precious, it seemed that I didn’t make too bad a job as more than one person complimented me on it. I was most flattered that my friend and fellow performer (and photographer, and costumier, and all round busy boots!) Cherryfox said she felt that my costuming skills are showing improvement! Coming from someone who makes all their own costumes that made me feel quite chuffed!
I imagine that over time the act will probably need the odd tweak here and there, and I already have a good idea for another joke I can add to a certain part of it but over all I am really pleasantly surpised by how quickly and easily it has happened. I think in future I may try and reuse this quick and simple technique from time to time, especially if I find myself coming to the end of another act with a heavy workload and feel I need a break but still want to keep working.

In other news – I was going to blog about a very peculiar gig that I had recently but I think that it might tie in better with some other general stuff I planned to write about when I had the time so I think I will save that for my next entry. In the meantime, if you see me ask me about my interesting gig!

Next thing I couldn’t blog without giving a mention to is the adventure for the senses that was Delicious Burlesque in Derby. For anyone (or at least anyone who likes burlesque enough to bother with my blog) who has been living under a stone for the past couple of months, Delicious Burlesque is an absolutely huge burlesque all dayer with market stalls, workshops, a newcomer’s competition and a big evening show. It was held on Saturday 31st July and word on the grapevine is that it may well be becoming an annual event. Well, with an event this exciting practically on my doorstep I just had to go so my sister and I made plans to attend (and she event generously shelled out the extra tenner for VIP tickets so that we’d have a great view of the show!).
We went and we were not disappointed! The market had loads of exciting things to buy from the many talented makers and charming purveyors of glamorous goodies. My wallet forbade me from partaking but my sister bought a very fetching hat. I think we both could have easily spent a small fortune on all the lovely things. After perusing the market and popping out to one of the local pubs for a spot of lunch we went back to the hotel to get gussied up for the evening section of the event. I went for a silent Movie Era starlet, meets black and white Minnie Mouse, in black hotpants and braces, a white wife beater, a huge black hair bow and heavy black eye makeup and black lipstick with a pronounced cupid’s bow. Sis also went for a 20s inspired look including a gorgeous finger-wave hairstyle.
When we got back to the venue I went to a workshop I had pre-booked (more on that in a moment) and Alex went and got her portrait drawn by one of the talented bods representing Dr Sketchy’s Nottingham (it wasn’t Charlotte, not sure of the chap’s name!).
After that it was time for the seated entertainment. First came the newcomer’s competition. I have to say, I was amazed that the performers being showcased had only been performing a year. The costumes were gorgeous and clever, the dancing was incredibly accomplished (mind you, all dancing looks accomplished to me, but these were particularly good!) and the concepts were sophisticated. I don’t know how the judges came to a decision as there were so many acts that charmed me! I particularly enjoyed the quirky fun dance moves in Elle Amour’s cupcake act, the hilarious facial expressions in Jeu Jeu la Foille’s Mary Poppins, Peski DeVille’s innovative magic flowers and skilful fan throwing and Nix Le Noir’s gorgeous costume (especially the headdress!). All the performers were super and I don’t feel I could have competed with most of them despite having been on the scene somewhat longer.

The main show was nothing short of spectacular, and jam-packed with fantastic performances. Not that I’m a critic by my personal faves are as follows: Joe Black’s cabaret set had me laughing throughout and clapping, stamping my feet and generally behaving like a burlesque lager-lout and his Defying Gravity act was a treat. I have seen Joe on Youtube so much that I almost felt I had seen him live already but it turned out I had seen nothing yet. As much as I enjoy Joe’s videos it is no patch on seeing him live – his energy, inventiveness and charisma cannot be matched.
Vicky Butterfly performed two acts I had never seen before and reaffirmed her place in my heart as one of my absolute favourites. I was mesmerised by her graceful movements, innovative costuming techniques (I can’t really describe what she did costume wise as I don’t have the technical knowledge, suffice to say that it was really amazing!) and beautifully odd music selection. Vicky’s performances inspire me so much and make me wish I was more dancerly in my acts. Kittie Klaw from Ministry of Burlesque did a fantastic Rule Britannia performance that had me laughing one moment and feeling a little lump in my throat and a patriotic tear in my eye (and I never get patriotic, ever) the next. Finally, my other fave of the night was Beatrix von Bourbon. I have been a fan of hers for some time and watching her performances I was genuinely moved. I love the way her performances register emotion so clearly and really admire the fluidity and economy of movement she uses. Her Winter act I especially enjoyed and the audience was delighted at the finale of the act when it began to snow onstage!

I also had the pleasure of taking a workshop with Beatrix von Bourbon. On the subject of Burlesque Branding. I enjoyed the workshop very much found it left me with lots to mull on and also some practical goals to start tackling. I would recommend the workshop highly to any performer but especially if you feel you need a little help pinpointing where you are or where you or your acts fit. Beatrix was warm and friendly and allayed a lot of the worries I had about talking frankly about burlesque with someone I admire, and the whole experience left me with a different perspective on what I do and renewed enthusiasm to do it better.

So what am I up to now? Well, in the wake of my consultation with Beatrix I have decided to bite the bullet and do something I have wanted to do for a while. I am going to retire my Rubber Ducky act for re-working. I have always been very pleased with the costume for that act but less happy about the act itself. I always felt it had neither a strong narrative nor a strong sense of character, and those are the parts of an act I enjoy most. The plan is to take the act off and work on completely re-writing it, but I wouldn’t like to say how long that will take as I am not sure yet which direction I want to take it in.
The other thing I am working on is making the first initial changes to my Jackalope. In light of its debut performances there were some things about the costume and choreography that I wanted to change. I have finally got my perfect trunk (thank you Colwick car boot sale!) and I now just need to get the rest of the tweaks and small changes finished. I have a couple of fairly big engagements coming up over the next few months and I hope that the act will be ready in it’s 1.1 version by then.

If you have read this far to the bottom, I commend you! It’s been another long blog. Hopefully, when I get my netbook back from the shop the blogs will get closer together and not quite as long!

‘Til next time,
X
Emerald

Back From Further Adrift

Image by Paul Wright (paulwrightphoto.co.uk)

Dearests,
It has been a long time since I last blogged and I have been further adrift in the world of burlesque than usual since my last contact.
In the past weeks and months I have attempted to blog on more than one occasion and found that my perspective on all things burlesque related had become so skewed that I didn't know up from down, let alone enough to write a blog worth reading!

Where to pick up? When last I left off, I was convinced that I was approaching the last push on my Jackalope act. That was early April. How wrong I was about that. Now, it is early July - so what happened? Did I take the blue pill and disappear down the rabbit hole for almost three months? Did I run off to Acapulco with a gigolo? Did I go to Paris to live as a penniless blind sitar player? What the hell did happen?

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure myself. Lets just say the final stages of my Jackalope act was much more painful that I had expected. This was probably naive of me, considering how fraught the whole process has been, but it was still a bit of a surpise. The skirt, that I had expected to take some time, ended up taking much, much longer than I had envisaged. I ended up covering the top section of the skirt in raw wool and then the rest in strips of calico, hand dyed with tea, coffee or a mixture of tea and a little red food dye. In the end I used over 20 metres of Calico and I sewed every strip on by hand. As I'm sure you can imagine, that took a while. Whilst making the skirt I kept asking myself 'How do you know if you are having a nervous breakdown?'. I felt as though my day to day life at my day job was getting bleaker and bleaker, my financial situation was not great, and burlesque, the thing that is normally my refuge of creativity and joy had somehow morphed into a behemoth of sewing needles, ravaged fingers and stiff necks that was going to swallow me alive.

It sounds melodramatic, I know. But I really felt that there was no end in sight with this costume and I just couldn't see myself finishing it. But I did, of course, finish it in the end and if I say so myself, it is the part of the costume I am most proud of (aside from the wig and antlers, although the antlers were not my own work). When I had finally finished the skirt, got through the first pair of gloves which were awful, tacky and wouldn't dye, bought a new pair of gloves that would dye and made my pasties I began to feel my spirits lift a little. NOW I was really on the last push. I made my ears from calico that I wired for shape and covered them with the same raw wool I used on my skirt and sewed them into my wig, which was starting to look rather finished as I had also dressed that with some calico for decoration.

Finally, I needed to work on my trunk. Cherryfox, burlesquer and photographer friend of mine, had got hold of a trunk for me but it was khaki green so I had to repaint it. I worked on this and the trunk is now a shabby-chic looking off white. It looks quite cute but as time went on it became clear that it was going to be too small to fit the costume items in (for me to unpack them onstage). I felt a bit disappointed as Cherry had gone to some trouble to get the trunk for me and I had taken the time and effort to paint it up all nice but there was just no getting round the size issue. As yet I still have my feelers out for the right kind of trunk but at the moment I am doing the act without rather than rushing into buying something unsuitable.

So esentially (all bar the trunk) the act was finished, and I decided to debut it at Dixie's Dollhouse in Newcastle. This was on Thursday just gone. (Incase you're interested I was on the bill with Fancy Chance, Missy Malone, Beau Rocks, Constance Peach, Miss Jasmine, Stephy Suicie and Daisy Chainsaw, with absolutely super compere Jez Hunt). The event was a high class, high end show in an opulent venue (with the best dressing room I have had so far in burlesque!).



So it was down to me to bring my Jackalope to life, this character that I had been building and shaping, dreaming of and obsessing over, that was almost more real than myself at times - it was time for me to take the act from a perfect image in my mind to a real stage infront of real people and to try and translate that image into a reality that the audience could experience. And that bloody terrified me!

In general I get excited before a performance but not usually nervous and never to this extent. I could hear my heart racing in my chest and when I got onstage my hands trembled a little involuntarily. There were some sound issues in the first act and the music sounded a little distorted and I had a paranoid moment, just as I came on where I worried that they had played the wrong track. But once I realised it was just a technical issue I focused on trying to convey the character as strongly as I could. I was so nervous about presenting this straight, serious, sad act (especially as I was the first performer of the night - I didn't know what the audience would be expecting).

Every moment felt long and extended and I felt like my movements were more clumsy and fumbled than usual. The audience were quiet, not whooping or cheering like they do for a raunchy, silly or upbeat act. As I came to the most tense point of the performance I heard a woman say quietly "It's all gone a bit emo" to her friend and it was all I could do to stop myself from innappropriately giggling. When the act came to the end the audience applauded and I left the stage (from the wrong side - such was my frazzlement!).

After I came off I had expected to feel this rush of relief and achievement, of finally having culminated the months and months of hard work. In reality, I didn't feel that. I felt a but numb. Unsure whether the performance had been a roaring success, a horrible failure or somewhere in the middle. While working on the act I felt that I had lost all perspective of whether it was good or not, whether I had created something beautiful or just something mundane with a pretty costume. I had thought that performing it onstage for an audience would give me some of that perspective back, but it didn't. I felt just as divorced from what my act looks like from the outside as ever.

At the end of the show, after performing my second act (The Octopus - one of my favourites to perform) I did get a little good feedback but in reality I think maybe I expected too much from this first performance. After seeing some photographs from the night and reflecting on the things I did take in from the feeling of performing it, I can see some things I should modify slightly in both costume and performance to improve the act. My bra was much too fiddly to fasten properly and I need to change the clasp to something simpler and larger. Also, from looking at the photos I can see that it didn't stay up very well and that it needs straps to be added to stop me from ending up with it round my waist! The choregraphy for the first section needs to be tighter and more polished and I need to ask for people's feedback on whether the last section runs on too long (it felt too long for me onstage but my OH watching it says it added to the tension and worked). Also, the wig (which stayed on and didn't wobble - yay!) makes me look pretty double chinned because of the way it hangs in my face so I think I will have to play with the styling a little to reduce that. I also painted on a little rabbit nose but I don't think I will be doing that again - it looked a bit too comical and also like I had a cold!

The more I look back on the performance, which was now almost a week ago, the more I feel I am gaining the perspective I had hoped to gain on the night. I wanted to feel this surge of joy and relief but in a way I think that because of the nature of this act, getting it to a standard I am happy with will be a slower process of trial and error than compared to other acts. My other half pointed out to me that, as your skill level rises, so do your standards. So in a way, although you are making progress - you don't always feel as though you are.

I know I have a long way to go before the Jackalope onstage becomes an acceptable representation of the Jackalope in my imagination, and I know for a fact one will never exactly replicate the other, but I feel as though I have made the first step to realising my concept into something tangible. Hopefully there will come a time when this act feels as natural to me as I want it to, but until then I'll just have to keep trying.

'Til next time
x
Emerald

The Last Push

Dearests,
Well, it has been a busy couple of weeks and between day job dramas, family commitments and extensive watching of King of the Hill I haven’t found a minute to blog until now.

I do however, have plenty to be cheerful about as I am now approaching the last push on my Jackalope act. When last I wrote I had finally faced my fears about dying my corset. Since then, costuming has come on steadily. I have finished my bra, which turned out to be no mean feat. I wanted to exchange the standard back clasp for a front fastening closure (I probably should have done that before I covered the cups of the bra – just incase I botched it up and put my hard work to waste). I began with this just being fastened by ribbon but I soon realised that my mighty bosom was not going to be contained by something as flimsy as a pretty bow. So I ended up adding a small hook and eye closure to the bra and using the ribbon to hide it. I then covered the back strap and I have to say I am delighted with the results. I am still hoping to add a halter strap to the bra for a little extra support but haven’t yet found any ribbon or other material that would be suitable so I am going to wait and see how that pans out.

My music is also now finished and edited. Music selection for me is always a relatively complex process. Unless the music was the original starting point or inspiration for the act I often find I am choosy to the point of being pedantic. Originally, back many, many months ago I had about a week where all I did in my spare time was listen to and compare potential tracks for this act. I probably listened to a couple of hundred easily (no exaggerating) and made shortlists and pared those lists down and re-listened again. Back in November I finally chose a track which I really liked and another track which I cut into a one minute section to precede it. However, I found that, although I liked the track and the overall mood was appropriate, I just couldn’t make the choreography and narrative fit to it. A couple of months ago I resigned myself to search for another track and perhaps cut down my main track and still have a little of it at the end. I found something that worked really nicely but it fit better at the end of the act, much better than my original selection. So this left me in a position of having a little short intro bit that worked and an end bit that worked but no middle! Finally, about six weeks ago I found the perfect track for the middle part of my act. The music describes the action so perfectly that the choreography for that part of the act has almost written itself as the music holds all the cues. So, after running my final line up past a couple of people whose opinion I value I went ahead and edited the three together. What music did I pick? Well, you’ll have to wait ‘til the act is debuted to find that out but lets just say it has been a labour of love choosing!

As well as getting the work done on my bra, on Saturday I also received my finished antlers from Haus of Emerald (aka my sister). Unlike the last pair (the less said about them the better – I’m going to wait till December and then try to ebay them for Christmas purposes) these are light as a cloud and they look superb. I spent some time on Sunday mounting them into my wig (to my delight I didn’t have to cut the wig after all as they just threaded in the gaps between wefts– one less thing to worry about) and then moulded the base inside the wig to hold them steady. They look great although they still need a little tweaking to get the angle right – it’s hard mounting two tall antlers into a wig when you only have two pairs of hands and a limited time before the plastic sets!

So… just the last push left to go now. I am waiting on my gloves which are on order and will need tea dying when they arrive. I need to get hold of an old chest or trunk. My local car boot has stuff like this all the time but it would be just my luck that they won’t have one now for ages as now I need one! I still need to work on my choreography but that is getting there steadily. The last real making jobs are making my pasties, doing my ears, which I want to look aged and ratty and not ‘party costume’ looking, and covering my skirt. This one is going to be a pretty big job due to the size of the skirt and the fact that I want to cover at least some of it with home felted raw wool. I’ll let you into a secret: The people who say that felting is a fun hobby are fibbing! Felting is a big pain in the butt and it takes ages and your hands go all pruney in the process. So the skirt is probably going to take a while longer yet, but I am trying to do a bit at a time to make a dent in it.

So I am hoping that my Jackalope might be in the finishing stages sometime in June at which point I hope to get some promo photos done and then start pimping it out. Keep your eyes peeled because no doubt any Jackalope news will be here first!

‘Til next time
X
Emerald

Corsets, Tea-Dying and More Fetish Thoughts

This week has been a fairly quiet one day job wise so I have managed to get a little more done burlesque-wise than usual.

The biggest achievement for me this week has been facing my fears, biting the bullet and working on my Jackalope corset. I bought a gorgeous ‘Morticia’ underbust corset some time ago now from What Katie Did (see older posts for the fun and games that I had obtaining it!). WKD are my corset people of choice as they make such gorgeous stuff (not to mention their bras, undies and what have you!) at really reasonable prices. The Morticia style is perfect for my figure as it has gored hips – I find when I wear corsets without the goring that there is not much room as I have a 28” waist to 37” hips.

Originally, I had considered getting a custom corset made as I wanted something in a yellowed out white, so that it looked aged, and most of the off the peg corsets I found came in white or ivory. However, I know and trust What Katie Did and know their corsets fit my body shape well so I decided to go with them and if need be dye the corset (NB – Disclaimer – What Katie Did do not recommend dying any of their corsets except for their ‘Music Hall’ range. I dyed mine totally off my own steam and cannot guarantee that the results I had would be the same for anyone else).

When I received the corset it was so beautiful that I didn’t dare risk dying it. I was so worried that I would accidentally shrink it, cause it to rust or do it some other sort of damage. I decided instead to embellish the corset using lace appliqués. I spent hours trawling the web looking for something that would be the right shape, size and colour and come in two symmetrical parts (as the corset is in two parts) but nothing was quite right. Then I had a light bulb moment – why buy pre-made appliqués that aren’t quite right when you can make your own? I found instructions on Google for making appliqués at home and was pleasantly surprised by how simple it was. So I ended up going to the fabric market and buying beautiful beaded bridal lace, in a light tea colour – I bought a half metre, the fabric was £120 for a whole one!!! After I had made the appliqués and sewed them on, a painstaking process that shredded the skin on my thumbs and fingers, I was delighted with the result.

So why didn’t I leave it at that? Well, I’ve never been the kind of girl to leave well enough alone. After a long conversation with my other half, he told me that in his minds eye the costume would not be white at all and that the whole thing would be a yellowish, brownish cream again aged looking but still beautiful. I agreed that that was what I had wanted to do, but that WKD had advised against dying their corset as they couldn’t predict the results. I didn’t dare bugger it up, especially as I had gone to all the work and expense with the appliqués. But the more I thought about it, the more the thought wouldn’t go away. So I decided to take the plunge and risk it in the hope of getting closer to my original vision of what the costume should look like.

I dyed the corset, and also my bloomers and bra in a tea bath. Nothing scary happened during the dying process but I was like a broody bantam fussing and checking and turning the two halves of the corset as it dried. Reputable sources had told me that if you absolutely must dye a corset you should leave it to dry flat and try and get it dry as quickly as possible. Leaving it flat was a bit of an issue because of the goring in the hips – it just isn’t cut to sit in one flat piece, but I did my best. I put it near the radiator on a drying rack and hoped for the best.
In the end I was absolutely delighted with the results for the corset. It has come out a light brownish cream and does look as though it was something that used to be white but is very old. There is a little inconsistency in the colour in a couple of places but it kind of adds to the flawed, aged effect and I don’t regret taking the risk (NB another disclaimer! I am not suggesting anyone else follow my lead and dye their own corset – mine turned out great but I can’t guarantee whether other people’s would.).

The bloomers, being made of cotton, took the colour a little darker and have come out slightly more yellow in tone which gives a nice contrast to the corset but the bra – made from mainly synthetic stuff – didn’t take the colour as strongly. It came out more like a pale brownish peach. This wasn’t a big problem though as I only wanted it dyed as a base so there would be no bright white peeking through when I covered it. I have started covering the cups of the bra with vintage lace fabric bought from my local car boot sale and then trimmed it with a cream and brown lace edging. I still need to work on the side sections and add a little more trimming and then the bra will be done.


Here’s a snapshot of my bra-in-progress and my finished corset – apologies for the rubbish phone photo.

So the Jackalope costume is now coming on in leaps and bounds. There is still lots more work to do before I can put costuming to bed, the skirt alone is going to be a mammoth task, not to mention I still need to get myself my prop and finish music editing and choreography. It looks like I will not meet my self imposed deadline I had hoped for but I think the extra time I have spent on it will pay off in the end.

In other developments – I have been thinking more about my fetish idea (see the previous post) and have decided to produce a simple version of my idea and trial it at a few burlesque events. If people seem to respond to it I’ll keep it and upgrade the costume etc (I have some very exciting – very complex ideas) to bring it in line production-wise with my other acts. If people hate it or don’t get it I’ll retire it knowing I didn’t break my back (or the bank!). It will be good, after working on my Jackalope, to do something with a quicker turnaround time and with less of my heart and soul invested. Not that I plan to just slapdash this idea out, but it would be nice to produce an act that doesn’t involve too much over-thinking, and that can be done as a bit of fun. My other half (who among his many talents, paint beautiful abstract canvasses) talked to me at great length about letting the chips fall where they may, playing, experimenting and not being too precious and trying to control everything so I am going to try and take that approach with this new piece. And apparently the universe or what have you agrees because this Sunday at the car boot (my own personal treasure trove of amazing finds) I stumbled upon something (or should I say two matching somethings?) that were exactly what I needed for a part of this new act’s costume.

I now have a couple of busy weeks vanilla life-wise but hopefully I will still be able to make time to get some burlesquey stuff done. Also, ballet starts again tomorrow after the Easter break – I feel rusty just thinking about it!

‘Til next time

X

Emerald

Adrift in the World of Wig Styling

As promised I have been as good as my word and prepared a little photo blog of my first proper attempt at wig styling – my Jackalope wig.

To begin – here’s a picture of the original wig (I bought mine from the brilliant Annabelle’s Wigs) so you can see what I started with.


Originally (like back when I was still thinking about buying a pre styled drag queen wig) I was going to use a readheaded wig but I gradually came round to a pale blonde as I wanted the whole costume to have a dirty yellowed out white theme running through it.

Here is a picture of my inspiration of what I wanted the wig to look like (the picture is from America’s Next Top Model – the lovely Allison).



As my Jackalope lives in a forest (I think ‘real’ Jackalopes usually live on plains or prairies but I have allowed myself some creative licence!) I wanted the wild, tangled look with twigs, plant matter or feathers twined into it. I had been daydreaming about something in this general area for some time but hadn’t been able to nail down the exact style until I saw the episode of ANTM that this shoot was from. As soon as I saw Allison with her hair styled this way I knew that this was the look I wanted for my wig!

My base wig was from Annabelle’s Wigs. The style is ‘Danielle’ and it has a skin top. For those who are interested a skin top is useful for wig styling if you want to mess about with the parting. Without a skin top wigs normally only part one way and trying to part it any other way will just expose the lace the hair is mounted on. There are ways you can change the part on a wig without a skin top but I haven’t attempted them yet as it looks like a pretty complicated process! As the original wig has a centre part and the style I wanted has no parting at all I thought the skin top would be a good idea (although in reality I might have been able to do it another way if I had got a wig that didn’t have this feature).

So I started off by pinning my wig to my wig head which I have affixed onto a stand made out of an old artificial Christmas tree. I pinned it around the outer edge but I also put extra pins in the lace above each section while I worked on it to avoid putting excess pressure on the wig and ripping or stretching it.

After securely fixing the wig to the head I used a tail comb and a hair elastic fastened loosely to section off the portion of the wig at the front that would make the backward bangs/pompadour/quiff whatever you like to call it.



It stayed pretty firmly parted down the centre but I tried not to worry too much about that as that would be remedied when I styled that part. Then it was time to begin the backcombing process. I started at the bottom back. I figured that way if I had any teething troubles at the start they would be hidden by the rest of the hair when the wig was finished. I used my tail comb to part the hair and clipped the parts I didn’t want up out of the way. Then I took the hair in small sections and started backcombing. After I had done a section I misted it lightly with hairspray. I have been using Tresemme because that’s what I’ve got but supposedly Aquanet is the wig stylist’s spray of choice.

At first my technique was not great and some of the sections began to look a little dready. I used to make synthetic dreads some years ago and the technique for backcombing the wig is in some ways very similar to that and in others the exact opposite. With synthetic dreads the objective is to keep them nice and tight and in a well defined shape, whereas for this backcombed style the idea is to make it loose but still voluminous. When I first started I backcombed the hair sections quite strongly like you would when making dreads and this made them rather tight at the root. This tightness meant they stood up and out giving the hair lots of body but it also made the sections look a little too ratty and separate. As I got more used to what I was doing I found it worked better to backcomb the sections more gently and after every few strokes to pull the hair apart from itself (exactly the opposite of making a dread where you would twist the hair in on itself). This makes the hair less ratty and sectioned and gives it more of the ‘candyfloss’ sort of look that I wanted.

When I had worked my way up to somewhere between half and one third of the head I looked at how much hair I had left and decided to add an extra weft in for thickness. Originally, when I looked at the wig I didn’t think it would need any extra wefts put in but as I worked my way up I thought I would put an extra one in under the philosophy ‘better safe than sorry’.





I had originally planned to buy two wigs and rip wefts from one to put in the other but I ended up buying extra wefts (actually they were clip in extensions) separately and having the second wig more as a spare in case I ballsed up the original! This meant it was quite simple to attach an extra weft, all I had to do was remove the two little clips and then they were ready to go in! To sew in the weft I parted the hair horizontally and clipped the top section up with an alligator clip and then I pinned the weft to the wig and wig head, stretching it as I went so it fit neatly. I used a curved sewing needle to sew it in although I’m still not sure whether that made it easier or not, it was only my first time using one and I bought it as it was the recommended thing to use for this task. I am going to stick at using it for this reason but we’ll see if it makes things easier once I get used to it.
Here is a picture of the wig, from the back, after I sewed the extra weft in (to be honest, it's not a great photo - I should have taken one a bit closer up!):




After I sewed the extra weft I got back to backcombing and the rest of the wig took shape fairly quickly. I was really pleasantly surprised at how big I could get it with only one extra weft. After I had done the body of the wig I just had to do the quiffed back bangs. I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to entirely get rid of the part but it wasn’t a problem. I backcombed them in the same way and almost moulded them backwards into shape. At the moment I haven’t permanently sewn or otherwise attached them backwards (I’m not sure whether it will necessarily need it) just in case the height or shape needs tweaking when it’s on my head.



Now all I need to do is attach my antlers, rabbit ears and the other wig adornments and decorations. As my antlers as the central piece I am going to wait ‘til I receive and attach them before I put anything else on the wig. I have been talking about doing a little fun photoshoot with Cherryfox Fine Photography before I add the extra bits onto my wig so if that ends up happening I will post the results up here!

Hope some of you found my wig styling walk through interesting. If you did and would like to see more of the same or if you want to know anything further about how I styled this wig (it’s pretty simple really as I am just a beginner to wig styling) give me a shout! PS.Apologies for the quality of the pictures, I took them on my phone so they're not amazing - at some point I will winkle out the cable for the proper digital camera!

‘Til next time
X
Emerald