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!!!

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.