Guest Blogger: Beatrix Von Bourbon

I had an absolute blast performing at Ritual fetish club in Rome on Friday. The event was really busy and had a great party energy. I’d certainly recommend the club to anyone travelling to Rome.

Qube is a divine venue with 4 giant disco balls outside and copious amounts of gold glitter inside. Plus, the DJ booth’s surrounded by a small water pool! It was quite amazing!

I managed to snap a quick photo of the stage on my phone before the doors opened, but I’m sure many photos will be added to the Ritual Facebook Group in due course…

As the more observant of you may have gathered from my acts list, I will be debuting 2 new acts when I return to Stuttgart for 3.5 months at the end of this year.

For the past 9 months I’ve been slowly researching, creating, costume-making, out-sourcing and choreographing two new acts: Cinderella and Milkshake. But I must admit… Perhaps the *most* exciting bit for me is watching the prop for my milkshake act come together. My 6 foot tall milkshake glass is being custom-made by the team at Spur Creative in East Sussex.

And before you think about it, no, I won’t be bathing in chocolate milk! The exact content of the act will be revealed in due course…

Beatrix Von Bourbon is a top international model and performer and will be headlining for Burlesque Against Breast Cancer at Dirty Dicks in London on October 21st. For more Beatrix, visit www.vonbourbon.com

September Burlesque Diaries

September has been a busy month for the Swoons and the Swoon bus.

Poor old Swoon bus, we had to fork out seven hundred quid on it last month at the MOT but it’s holding up well. When it’s not ploughing into ‘fields of barley’ or running over badgers, the Swoon bus enjoys travelling hundreds of miles taking me to various wonderful burlesque gigs across the country. First stop this month was Darkteaser’s Dark Side at The Victoria Biker’s Pub Coalville Leicestershire.

This was a challenging gig for me. I haven’t performed for six weeks which is the longest break I’ve had since starting burlesque nearly a year and a half ago. August was a quiet month and I was away on holiday, but I was also battling with a massive bout of depression and most of August is a complete blur. By September, I was ready and excited to leap back into back the saddle and looking forward to this show. It was also especially exciting because we didn’t know exactly who was going to be performing until we all turned up at the venue!

As soon as I got out of the car at the pub, I spotted the lovely Nicole A Lure, burlesque performer and Hourglass photographer. Absolutely lovely to see her again. We’d performed together at The Slippery Belle Leeds a couple of months before but we hoped this time we might catch each others acts! Also performing were comedian Al Grant from Derby, Angel LaVey who I hadn’t yet had the chance to see perform and Darkteaser herself. The compere for the evening was the fantastic Tobi James.

I had a lovely time performing, the crowd were loud (always good) and friendly. I scraped up my knees beautifully crawling across the stage with my rubber chicken planted firmly between my teeth during ‘Valhalla’ and my legs still held up for the high kicks during ‘Trumpet Player’. It was great to catch some of the performances. Al was delightfully crude, Nicole’s singing was amazing as always and I loved Darkteasers ‘I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts’ fan dance! Robin Lowe and James Thorpe took some amazing photos of the evening and Tobi held the whole show together beautifully.

Two days later, it was time to embark on our journey to The Glitter Room at The Black Sheep Bar Croydon. Mr Swoon installed the new Sat Nav; Croydon’s one way system was not going to beat us. If we can navigate Soho we can navigate Croydon. Nuvi (you’ve got to give your Sat Nav a name) was true to her word and we arrived after about 4hrs and parked easily in a side street around the corner from the venue for two quid – excellent.
It was a pleasure to perform at The Glitter Room. DJ Suave runs a tight ship and there was a great atmosphere backstage. Miss Doxy Moron did a great job taking care of all the performers and there was even a buffet provided too! I managed to catch quite a few performances and they were all fantastic. Compere Tempest Rose had me in stitches with her Camden Council routine and I also loved Daisy and Doris’s Cary Grant act which was hilarious.

Backstage, I caught up with Audacity Chutzpah and Lolo Love who I’d last met at the Valentine’s Varie Tease back in February, Ruby Fortune who I’d had the pleasure of performing with at BABC at The Book Club Boutique in July and Bea DeVile who I saw last when we were both shivering with fear waiting to perform at the LBF back in April.
After the show it was back to the trusty Swoon bus for the long haul back to Leeds. Nuvi who had been so reliable on the outward journey this time decided to take us on a magical mystery tour on the way home. I don’t know a great deal about ‘driving’, although you’ll be pleased to hear I do hold a valid driver’s licence (Fact, fans!) but Mr. Swoon explained something about one way systems and had faith as we drove around and around London village.

‘RECALCULATING’

Eventually she directed us back to the trusty A1 and we even managed to find a twenty four hour service station open on a Sunday night. I do love a brightly lit service station after midnight. We rolled in back home at around 3.30am, our mood rather dampened after running over a badger that had darted out at us on a country lane – horrible. We were up bright and early at 8am for the kids first day back at school and my youngest Alex’s first ever school day. He looked very smart and very little in his school trousers that kept falling down. He settled in great and at 9.05am, I settled in great back under my duvet with no problem at all.

The following Saturday, we were off to The Candy Shack Burlesque at Oliver’s Bar Aston under Lyne. I first performed at Candy Shack in July of last year at their first ever burlesque night so it was great to go back and see everyone again. Joan and Jas are passionate about their night and even provided the performers with a V.I.P area to watch the show. Resident performers, Suzie Sequin and Dani California were fabulous as ever, I got to meet Lucy Lippstikk who I’ve not seen perform before and had the pleasure of driving home fellow Leeds burlesquer Nelly Plum home. She brought chocolate éclairs for the journey and we ate them.

All in all a busy September so far. Back in October with another round up.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang xxx

Jubilee Swoon is a resident of West Yorkshire and has been performing burlesque for over a year at events all over the U.K including The Slippery Belle, The Wet Spot and The London Burlesque Festival where she won the Best U.K Solo Newcomer category at the Battle Royale. Not to mention for Burlesque Against Breast Cancer in London.

Smoochie, Smoochie

I love travelling for my work. Getting to meet new people, other performers, is very exciting and a lot of fun.

But there is something very special about performing in my very own stomping ground of Brighton. Not only does it mean there's no late night train to catch, but I usually know everyone back stage and quite a few out in the audience!

Club Smooch is a Brighton institute as far as Burlesque entertainment goes. I have modelled for Curve Couture at a Club Smooch night but this was my first time performing at this night.

The atmosphere backstage was wonderfully exciting and friendly, much like when I was in high school and all the girls would congregate at one house to get ready for Friday night's party. There were girls and guys (don't forget the Dream Bears!) chatting and laughing, last minute snacking, dressing, glittering and hair spraying all over the shop.

I was debuting my new box (all puns aside please!) for my Living Doll act and it performed beautifully. Most importantly, it collapsed down at the end of the night so I could fold it into a bag, sling it over my shoulder and carry it off at the end of the night. An absolute dream compared to the cumbersome old prop I had before.

The whole night really felt like one big party really, and the best part of all was that BW came along for his first ever show! I'm pleased to report that he had a great time and brought another friend along who was also a burlesque virgin so to speak (BW has seen me rehearse so often he can sing every word of the songs).

They sat happily up the back with a colleague of mine from Pulp Press, Danny Hogan the talented writer of Killer Tease. By the end they were all looking very comfortable, whooping and clapping and BW has promised to come to the next one!

We all had ambitious intentions of heading downstairs for Born Bad, but with my plethora of props I decided I needed a cab and my bed for some well deserved beauty sleep.

www.belladejac.com

Introverts and Extraverts

Renowned psychologist Dorothy Rowe divides the human population in to two categories; introverts and extraverts. What defines these two categories is our response to stress and how we recharge our batteries. Extraverts look outwards. They need to be around others to re-energise and in a stressful situation they will chat, giggle and need to express their nerves vocally and volubly. Introverts, on the other hand, look inwards. To restore their balance they need to be alone and when under pressure they become quiet, often sitting apart in a corner where they pray they will not be disturbed. Nowhere are these archetypes more visible than in the dressing room of a burlesque show.

As you might imagine, such places are often small, cramped and full of semi-naked women, stockings and glitter. The extraverts chatter away, the odd shriek piercing the tension, while the introverts skulk in front of mirrors and in corners trying to shut out the bustle and the noise. You might have guessed from this description that I am an introvert. When I arrive at a gig, the first thing I want to do is get all my technical checks done, hand over my music, and discuss my cue, set-up and pick-up. Then I want to find a corner of the dressing room, or a patch of mirror space and begin the ritual of putting on my make-up. I will listen to my music on my ipod, running through my act in my head and telling myself that all will be well and that I can do this. As my time on stage approaches, I get quieter, less communicative, more focussed on the task in hand.

But I worry.

I worry that everyone around me thinks I’m stuck-up, or unfriendly. I worry that the extraverts, who are all happily chattering away and making friends, think ill of me. I worry that I’m missing the opportunity to get to know people better. And I worry that I inadvertently snap or appear sullen when an oblivious extravert interrupts my solitude with their innocent high spirits.

That’s a lot of things to worry about when you’ve got a job to do. But I know that if I didn’t focus inwards, I’d fall apart.

So I began to look around me and I started noticing I wasn’t the only one hiding in toilets and corners. Then I mentioned it at a couple of shows and found colleagues who are also introverts, and who prefer to quietly prepare for their time onstage and not participate in the high-spirited buzz around them. And finally, I expressed the fear that I came across as moody and unfriendly, and was told that the opposite was true; warm, friendly and professional were the words used, which pleased me enormously, and set my mind at rest.

They say you will find all sorts of women in the dressing room of a burlesque show; the tall, the petite, the slender, the curvy, the blondes, brunettes and redheads. They all take their clothes off and bring a little magic to the stage but the rituals that get them there usually fall into two categories. Next time you watch a show, perhaps you will wonder who sat drinking white wine and laughing, and who hid in the toilet with an ipod and their make-up case.

http://www.missglorypearl.co.uk/

Welcoming a New Sponsor

We're very pleased to announce that a new sponsor has come on board the Burlesque Against Breast Cancer team.

Photos by Camille will give a percentage from her future work and sales to BABC and we hope to see her at some of our events in the future shooting all the action, plus all of the gorgeous performers.

Please have a look at her website.