I performed my Frida Kahlo burlesque act this past Tuesday at the Elbo Room in Bombshell Betty's Spook-tacular show. It was a tremendous night. Some advanced burlesque student graduates blew me away, and shows this time of year are always a blast! I was scheduled to be the opening act, which really thrilled me, regardless of why I was going first. Unfortunately my friend Trixie Fou Laurant was having trouble keeping her latex zombie skin from falling off. After a fairly unsuccessful attempt at glueing her back together with my bottle of Skin-Tac, she needed to go on first before she fell apart!
So, I went on second, and I felt I gave a really good show. I switched my routine up a bit so it would have more meaning, which left me exposed much longer than I usually am (see the body cast/corset I made here). I know from some of the photos I've seen of the act (none decent enough to show here except the one below) that I didn't have control of my facial expressions as well as I'd like. Too much "ooooh" face. There are a lot of moments in the act where Frida is surprised, so I suppose it came from that, but I'm going to work on giving way better face when I perform this in a couple of weeks with Red Hots Burlesque. I love watching people perform when they are smiling. It's hard to reconcile that with many of the paintings and photos I've seen of Frida Kahlo, but this is burlesque and I'll take that artistic license next time.
Thank you to CoCo Jewelle for the performance shots!
Kudos, praise and admiration to all of the performers from that show, and especially to Bombshell Betty. She has done so much for so many people in bringing us all out of our shells and making us more comfortable in our skin. She fosters all of this crazy creativity from costumes to choreography and everything in between. I may STILL hate to go to the beach, but I can perform in my skivvies for hundreds of people without batting a (false) eyelash, and for that I am forever grateful! I love you, Betty!
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