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The Sissy Butch Brothers (Tara Vaughan Tremmel - Red, and Gwen Lis) put on one helluvah Burlesque show this past July...they're back with another show
Nov. 22, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, Chicago
Diva caught up with Red, and asked about burlesque....
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 | MC Ginger
pix by Mel Ferrand |
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So, Red....I know you've mentioned Exotic world...what is this....and who is Dixie Evans?
While doing research for my dissertation last year I went to the Exotic
World Museum
in Helendale, California to find out more about the history of
burlesque.
The museum, which is located in the middle of the Mojave desert and
which was once a goat farm,
was founded by the former burlesque dancer Jennie Lee. After her death
from breast cancer,
Dixie Evans, the former Marilyn Monroe of burlesque, became the
caretaker of the museum.
Now in her seventies, Dixie has a wealth of information that she
delivers
with excitement, wit, and sharp analysis as she guides intrigued
visitors through the museum.
After meeting Dixie on this first trip I was hooked and the documentary
began.
Can you explain "burlesque?" for the uninitiated...(myself included!)
Burlesque is an entertainment form that was originally performed by men
who used comedy to poke fun at conventional hierarchies and to critique
those in authority who misused or abused their power, such as
legislatures. In the United States, in 1869, women transformed
burlesque into a new entertainment form by taking the stage and using
comedy to especially play with gendered and sexual hierarchies and
conventions. Both dangerous and pleasurable, early female burlesque,
placed women and their sexuality at the center of theater, purposefully
and insistently taking up public space. Women burlesque performers,
unlike ballet dancers of the day, created meaning through winks,
laughter, and wit. They held influence over audiences, addressing them
with defiance, walking alone on stage with confidence, placing their
female bodies in public and insisting that people pay attention to them.
Early burlesque performers invoked female sexuality through language,
innuendo, puns, double entendres, intonation and male drag, arousing a
frenzy of desire and then eventually, censure.
Anti-burlesque campaigns have been launched periodically since 1870 when
women first
appeared as feature performers. One crusade during the Great Depression
culminated in the
outlawing of burlesque by New York City's Mayor LaGuardia. And yet, new
generations of
performers and fans are insistent that burlesque remain a vital and
relevant part of American
culture and history. Because early burlesque centered on the red-hot
issues of the day, women,
their sexuality and gender hierarchies, and because those issues remain
significant today,
burlesque lives on. Despite wave after wave of repression, burlesque
continues to arouse new
generations of performers and audiences who play with the meanings of
women's sexuality and
power in public.
So tell me a bit about your film-in-progress, Gurlesque. What's it about?
This documentary moves beyond an examination of burlesque as a novel
entertainment form to an investigation of what burlesque and its
continued, although intermittent, popularity can reveal about gender,
sexuality and display in American culture over the long 20th century.
Over a period of several years, the documentary will focus on the
performers and fans that
gather each year both at the museum (for the 46-50th annual reunions of
burlesque dancers) as
well as at Tease-O-Rama (an annual burlesque extravaganza of
performances and workshops).
Drawing on interviews of veteran and new performers, ages 20 to 80,
archival footage of
burlesque and historical and sociological accounts of the striptease,
the documentary will peel
away both sensationalism and the bias against burlesque to tell a tale
about an irreverent
and powerful entertainment form that continues to raise important
questions about women,
their sexuality and their public power in American culture. The film
will investigate America's love/hate affair with burlesque and why so
many queer and straight performers in recent generations are dedicated
to keeping it alive.
Yeah, that's cool! I like the idea of Tease-O-Rama. I know you and Gwen are pretty into reviving burlesque in Chicago. Can you speak about this?
Well...Gwen Lis and I, the Sissy Butch Brothers, returned after our first shoot
at Exotic World and wanted to hold a burlesque show in Chicago not only
to raise money for our documentary but also because we just learned, in
a larger than life way, what an amazing playground burlesque stages are
for playing with sex and gender. Not only did we have a chance to
interview former and current burlesque performers during the 46th annual
reunion, we were treated to the Miss Exotic World Pageant in which
dozens of women performed. We had a sense that there were people in
Chicago, especially in the queer community, who would love a burlesque
stage.
What was the first show like?
You were there, diva....didn't you DJ at one point?
Yeah, I did try to play some tunes. I also got covered with flying whipped cream from one of the acts! But, describe the night for those who weren't there...
Well, the first show at Star Gaze, with Mamie and Dusty as outstanding hosts,
was a huge success.
We sold out to an enthusiastic audience of over 500 people. The
performers were outstanding. From the clumsy stripper to the wrestling
gorilla in garters to the Shirly Temple dominatrix, the performers
filled the venue with palpable pleasure. The show featured Viva La
Dyke, Bevvy O'Bosom, Kitten Infamous, Starina, Shirley Temptress, Kiki
Savvas, Bubbles McQueen, Ace Lux, Gypsy Rose, Persephone, P. Delicious,
Cliteacher, Alexis, Ravenous Gorge, Tom Erge, Christine Heinisch from
Apartment, Loretta Hubbard, Betsy Chainsaw, Jeff Stroker, and the
amazing MC Ginger.
What is the next show going to be like?
This upcoming show at Subterranean Cabaret and Lounge on Friday
November 22 will feature all new acts with performers form Chicago AND
Seattle and Detroit. The audience will be treated to over 16 acts
including striptease, comedy, song, drag, dance, fire, and magic. In
addition, the band Apartment will play live burlesque music, there will
be a dj and dancing after the show, and Tom Erge and Ravenous Gorge are
working hard on an unconventional peep show to be run on the balcony at
intermission and before and after the show. Also, we expect that
Subterranean, which was formerly a casino and brothel in the 1920s, will
provide the perfect atmosphere for a burlesque revival.
What do you think the future of burlesque will be?
Burlesque performers in the United States, since 1869, have intrigued
audiences because their play with gender and sexuality is both dangerous
and pleasurable. So I think that burlesque has a future for as long as
woman and their self-fashioned sexuality and gender trigger cultural
anxieties, debate, and excitement. I also think that people are tired of
corporate entertainment. In a burlesque theater audience members are
treated to a live show where they are likely to have a performer make
eye contact, touch them with a boa, smile at them or pull them on stage
- none of which comes through a television or movie screen.
Additionally, as people are saturated with images of perfectly
manufactured silicon bodies, they are returning to an art form and
historical period that welcomed and celebrated a range of bodies. At
the recent Tease-O-Rama in San Francisco the audience delighted in a
range of body sizes, bold moves and unconventional genders. Lastly, I
think burlesque stages offer performers, as they did back in 1870, an
opportunity to make their own costumes, pick their props, choose their
music, design their routine and develop an act about bodies, sexuality
and gender without the censorship of corporate studios, policies or
producers in television, theater and film.
How can someone get involved with the show?
If you'd like to get involved with the show as a performer or volunteer
go to sissybutchbrothers.com and contact us.
One Bad-Ass Burlesque Show is a fundraiser for Gurlesque, a documentary on burlesque. Red, director and co-producer of Gurlesque, is a doctoral candidate in the history department at the University of Chicago. Gwen Lis is co-producer and editor.
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