showtime: debut performance at red hots burlesque, el rio, october 24, 2012

All photos by Eric Stein Photography unless otherwise noted.

I just had a great night performing with Bombshell Betty last week, but before I get too behind and this becomes a distant but exciting memory, I wanted to share the photos from my debut performance at Red Hots Burlesque last month. I had stage kittened for the Red Hots previously, but this was my first actual performance with them.

Red Hots Burlesque is run by Dottie Lux, who is a wonderful performer, a generous, generous soul, and a hilarious broad. Dottie performed that night, along with the INCREDIBLE Alotta Boutte, and performers Nikki Sparx and Miss Rahni. I of course performed my Frida Kahlo act, which I am so happy to put away for a while.

Unfortunately, that night was game one of the World Series, with eventual champions the San Francisco Giants playing, so we didn't stand a chance. There were maybe twenty people in what is normally a packed audience, including the one friend of mine who showed up out of literally a dozen who said they would be there, who was here on business from Pennsylvania (he's a Red Sox fan). They audience did the best they could, and with the lights in my face it didn't register that I was performing to a sea of empty chairs.

Good experience for me for sure. I was completely out of my comfort zone, performing with seasoned, talented performers who don't know me from Eve. Preparing for the show in a keg closet with four other performers. Dancing for next-to-no-one. I gained a little autonomy that night. I'm not only (proudly) one of Bombshell Betty's Burlesqueteers, I am a performer named Yve Jobs. Pretty cool.

Here are a few more photos. You'll see more in an American Apparel ad on a bus stop than in these photos, so don't fret.

I love this next photo so much. That's David Glamamore on the right, a revered performer and costume designer. He's whispering to me "....and when you removed the sequined eyebrow?!". Best moment of the night!

I also really love this! I've never been on a flyer before. That's me on the bottom right performing my Easter act earlier in the year, with the big huevos eggs.

Flyer credit: Dottie Lux

I hadn't expected to be performing this much in the second half of the year, but it has been a joy. The Frida act is as much a performance art piece as a burlesque act (they are often both). It has a narrative of being freed from the body cast, the bandages (and the eyebrow), and something about death. It's as much as I can convey in a three minute long song. It's fun. 

I'll be back performing a different act with Red Hots in late February. I'm really looking forward to it. I guarantee there will be more people in attendance that night, which will make it even more fun!