"Put ze deviled eggs next to ze phenylbarbitol und ze cocaine."

The L'Etage show last night was a success, and everyone in Revival is very satisfied. With good reason: The show was smooth, fun and very well-received. We raised more than $300 for advertising and supplies for the troupe.

Doing shows at L'Etage -- and seeing them -- is an experience that I encourage everyone to indulge in at least once. The room is like a small, alcohol-soused Moulin Rouge. There are bright red curtains, candles on every table and a dark wood bar with a fascinating variety of beer behind it. Shows there are almost audience-participation affairs, as if there was no fourth wall on the stage. Performers sit in the audience or go to the bar and drink during the show. I sat and watched every scene that I wasn't personally in with a vodka cranberry in front of me. There's very much an energy at L'Etage of "you poor audience members, you spent all that money to come in here and now you're coming along for our ride."

I for one am very comfortable with what became of the banana/gorilla/sundae strip. Rather than doing my own strip before it, I now stick to helping make the gorilla strip just a little sexier. Really, how could I ever hope to compete with a pink gorilla costume strip set to "Venus in Furs"?

And NEXT is "Burlesque Barbarians from Beyond Infinity". And after THAT I get November off to prepare for the December show, "A Burlesque Carol".

There is also talk of me taking on the den mother/leader role for another New Hope show (a la the Mutter Museum show). I just had a brilliant idea for it, actually. I don't want to jinx it, so I'll tell you more later.

-DD

Occasionally there are surprises

...and this week's surprise is that I will be able to do the L'Etage show tomorrow night. My teacher canceled lecture.

What is especially happy for me is that I won't be doing the banana strip -- there wasn't time with me taking over the role from the person who was filling in to rehearse the old one or plan a new one. I'm hoping to still be able to sexy up the following strip.

In the original show, I stripped, then interacted with the other strip. The next girl stripped out of a monkey suit and made me into a sundae.

So what I'm hoping to do is to be able to be made into a sundae, minus my previous strip. Also I'll be able to do my hair before and skip wigging it.

Yeah. So come see it. Tickets available online here.

-DD

Making Pretty: Before and After

Going from mild-mannered, ordinary Person to show-stopping, mind-blowing Burlesque Dancer, at least in appearance, isn't a difficult process. It is a drastic one, though.

Consider, if you will, this picture of what I looked like mere hours before Widow Svedka's Black Hearts Memorial (a.k.a. the Mutter Museum show, a.k.a. the New Hope show). This, with very little exception, is what I look like from day to day. On an average day I wear little or no makeup because of a combination of temperamental skin and laziness. I'm not a terribly girly girl--a surprising number of the burlesque girls aren't, either.

And here is the look I used for the Mutter Museum show last night. The flowers were a last minute decision: I was going to apply them to the top I was wearing, but putting them in my hair solved the problem of what on earth to do with the rest of my head.

I really do want to put flowers in my hair more often. It was incredibly easy to do. Step 1: Flower. Step 2: Bobby pin. Step 3: Repeat.

I'd love to spout makeup tips or hair advice but I have none. Every time I have to sit in front of a strange mirror and doll up, I am practically flying blind. What colors to use, what brands to use, what tools to use changes every time.

The show was brilliant, by the way. Everything went well, both bands were incredible. The Absinthe Drinkers never disappoint and everyone loved This Way To The Egress. Of course, the night didn't end without a discussion about October's burlesque barbarians show. NOW it's time to get excited.

-DD

COME SEE MY SHOW TONIGHT!!!

Burlesque Barbarians from Beyond Infinity!

I am more excited for the October show than anything I've done with Revival so far. Maybe it's the incredibly geeky family I grew up in, or the geeky friends I spend my time with. Either way, I'm putting all the energy I've got to give into this one.

This poster was painted by one Mr. Dave Palumbo, professional fantasy illustrator and all-around awesome guy. I think he's also playing the deceased Dr. Mutter in the Mutter Museum show (gotta come see it, then you'll get what I mean). The poster isn't actually blue...I'm not sure why it's doing that, I'll try and upload it again later. It's still gorgeous.

I'm helping our regular writer pen a couple of the sketches since it was decided I had sufficient geek chops to take on the task. My dark secret is that I've never actually played a Dungeons and Dragons campaign (and how weird is my life that not playing D&D is the dark secret?), but I'm well versed in most fantasy and gaming tropes. God knows I've painted enough Warhammer to qualify.

Told you I was a geek.

Occasionally there are frustrations

The Mutter Museum show is going to be great. It's also going to be insane. I fear I'm not into the weirdness of it quite as much as the other ladies are. I'm into it for them, but not for me. Weirdness, I think, generally goes hand-in-hand with elaborate costuming, which I currently don't have the funds for.

If all goes according to plan, I will be starting a new job by the end of the month. Cross your fingers and knock on wood.

The other great frustration is that I will not be able to do Revival Burlesque's September 24 show at L'Etage. I only just noticed today that that day is a Thursday, which means I have an evening class (I am, as of two weeks ago, a part-time grad student). I've already contacted Annie A-Bomb (our fearless leader) and let her know, hoping it wouldn't be too terrible a bombshell to drop.

There's a little sigh of relief with it, I won't lie, as I would have wanted to re-work my routine for that show for the third time. Someday I'll perfect that number. Unfortunately, I don't think that'll come until I can afford to really invest in a costume* for it.

Anything to scratch something off the to-do list.

You're still all required to go see the L'Etage show, though. I'll expect a full report.




_____
*Or, since it's set to "Banana Split For My Baby" by Louie Prima, a giant sundae dish to writhe around in. Like a high-calorie Dita Von Teese routine.

Less French cooking, more French knickers.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I suddenly felt like I needed to write an entry after seeing Julie & Julia. Briefly, a cute movie if a bit too long. If it had just been Julia it would have been great, Julie was just a whiny, self-important foodie.

But if that whiny, self-important foodie can shout into the void and get a movie made about herself, surely I can be entertaining for somebody.

So I thought I'd share a little burlesque lesson: Don't wait until you have an act to build to pick something up (especially if it's on sale).

It's not an easy rule to encapsulate in some neat little phrase. I couldn't stitch it on and make it fit (although I should try...) The gist of it is this: If you're in a store or shop and you see something that makes you say "gee, that'd be great to use in a routine," get it then. Don't count on it to be there four months later when suddenly you need it. If you're not totally sure if you can use it ... you can use it. You will use it. You will use it either as is or with minor modification. And if you absolutely can't use it, someone in your troupe probably can.

Here's a recent example: This bra set was on the sale rack at Target. In two different places. All for under $30. A similar Victoria's Secret set would set me back $98—just shy of free shipping! That's a push-up bra, garter belt and bikini panties (there was a thong, but not in a size I could justify purchasing). Do I have a routine for this? No. Will I end up using this? Almost definitely. It might not be white when I use it, it might lose the bows. It might gain fringe, trim, sequins, feathers, man I don't even know what'll become of this.

I've had similar luck at craft and fabric stores when scouring the sale bins and clearance racks. Odd scraps of fabric, out-of-season trims and flowers, unusual socks, these little strange things will almost always come in handy for someone at some point.

One other lesson I can share with you that does fit on a pillow is this: Target has cute stuff.

-DD

Upcoming gig -- not for the faint of heart.

I have a gig coming up on September 18 with the Absinthe Drinkers and Rigor Mortis Revue at John and Peter's in New Hope.* COME SEE IT.

*ahem* I jumped at the chance to do the show (entirely without knowing what I was getting myself into) in my excitement to do a show out here in the burbs. Or, as my city friends are eager to point out, the boonies. I don't split hairs with them since I'm pretty sure they all think I live on a farm.

This gig, certainly very different from anything I've worked on, has already presented some challenges.

• The act I originally intended to do was a two-person strip that relied heavily on unarmed and possibly armed stage combat. My partner in this act is most likely going to be unavailable for the performance date, which is very, very sad.
• The theme of the show is basically madness incarnate. Rigor Mortis ... well let's just say their shows usually have more corpses and stage blood and disembodied parts than something I'd usually be signed up for. It's not that I don't love them, don't misunderstand me. I'm just way more of a sequin and feather girl.
• This show's theme? The Mutter Museum. Fitting my usual brand of silly/sexy in with all the blood and guts is going to be a fun—if messy—challenge. They wanted me to go to the museum to get inspiration. I declined on account of the nightmares. (Oh look, a whole room of diseased fetuses in jars of formaldehyde! Let's go look at the tumor exhibit!)
  
• I have no money.

My goal, if it's at all possible, is to double-up some of the parts of this costume for the first Revival show of the season in October. Since the September strip is going to be about me being slowly overtaken by the plants in the Medicinal Garden, I'm aiming to reuse some or all of the costume in what I'm hoping will be October's fairy costume.

October is another matter entirely, requiring many, many entries to demonstrate just how excited I am about it. But September is first.

And for my being-overcome-by-botany routine (think steampunk Poison Ivy), I think I'm going to go with "Flowers" by Emilie Simon. It's a short song 2:30, so the act itself has to be tight. Fingers crossed, kids.



-DD

*Sorry to abuse link tags like that. If you go to all three and come to the show, I'll buy you a beer.

Hello World!

Some of you I know, some of you I'm meeting for the first time. I'm DD Ramona, troupe member of Revival Burlesque. I perform with Revival and other acts on occasion in and around the great city of Philadelphia.

For a while now, I've been looking for a way to create an online presence for myself. Most of the other girls in Revival Burlesque have a myspace page or somesuch, and I did try that for a time. The two big problems presented by this were 1) I never even think about myspace, let alone use it, and 2) the photo upload system regularly glitches, meaning I haven't been able to upload a picture in ages.

Even despite those things, I feel like I'm more interested in talking about what it's like to be a burlesque performer than to just share photos or videos. Don't worry, I'll throw in some photos and videos. But I also want to talk about what we're working on as a troupe, what I'm working on individually and what other people are working on that I desperately wish I could pull off.

So here I am now. Hi. I hope you'll check back often. The new Revival Burlesque season will start in October, with a Revue of last season at the end of September, so things are going to really be getting underway soon. I'm a little nervous and very excited. Join me, won't you?

-DD