Post a Comment On: A Nod to Nothing

[Image] On Saturday night, despite being ill of health, I went to Best of Midwest Burlesk 2012 with Ming, Kyle, my father-in-law, Greg, and Matthew.  I'm not sure what Greg thought of it.  He was the new guy, and it's always difficult to get a read on anyone's first time at BOMB.  He said he enjoyed being asked to go and had a good time - so I'll assume he was.

We were two up on my wife's night at BOMB.  She didn't have the live band, The Southside Aces.  We did, in their long johns.  She didn't have Nadine DuBois MCing.  We did.  As the main host, accompanied by a variety of other hosts.  My favorite extra host was Big Mama Red.  She entered an aisle on one end down front and slowly talked her way to the middle where she leaned over a guy who enthusiastically decided a bit of a motorboat was in order.  She laughed at him when she backed up and told him to stand up and turn around.  He had a big goofy grin and the most serious case of glitterface you've ever seen.  She continued to talk and slowly move toward the other end of the aisle, and close to the end, midword, just bent over and licked a bald guy on the head, back to front, and then a little extra for good measure.  She borrowed wine from another table claiming he'd been very salty.

My favorite acts?  Ray Gunn dancing with an image cast on sheets. Impressive.  Looked like it took an amazing amount of work.  I hear my wife's crew was taken with his little red pouch.  The Beaujolais Sisters and their banana song about the banana between the branches.  I can't find the lyrics on the web, unfortunately.  Peach Pies Caburlesque out of Madison, Wisconsin, with their mustaches and 70's jackets. One of them had this Butthead look on her face, mouth open, upper teeth showing, that was hilarious.  And Midnite Martini and Buster Hymen, who did an amazing Hello Kitty act.  She came out in a Japanese schoolgirl outfit.  Danced around with her Hello Kitty, and finally threw it in her toybox.  The Kitty came alive and danced with her until someone off stage handed her a shirtless Ken doll.  Hello Kitty was irritated, so he began to strip...right down to his Hello Kitty softball-sized stuff head on a jockstrap.  Nadine encouraged everyone in the audience with children to consider their Hello Kitty backpacks.

The locals did some very nice work as well: Coco Dupree, Nadine, Tila (not local, but local enough I've seen her many times), Sweatpea, Ophelia Flame.

My sister might note I left out the cross dressing Mistress Victoria DeVille who sang the Little Mermaid's Part of Your World with a gay-marriage political theme.  Enjoyable, and the big costume made it more integrated with the show than this YouTube performance.  But to me it didn't feel like burlesque - more like something I'd go to the Gay 90s to see - which could be a lot of fun, it just wasn't what I was expecting.  However, Mistress DeVille seems to be a staple at burlesque around town, so maybe I've just always missed having male cross-dressing at my burlesque (which is decidedly different than what the Peaches were doing, for instance).

So overall, fun.  Despite being a bit ill and forgetting to get a beer before a show where there wasn't an intermission and a bit of disappointment that it's become hip enough that it's noticeably more expensive than in the past.  Ming was less enthusiastic, but only because the woman next to him was whistling so loud he was going deaf.  He claims that's why he's making this face, although she doesn't appear to be whistling that I can see.  Just quietly reading her program.  I think he was just putting on a posture so Julie doesn't know he was checking out her legs.

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Look at how happy he is to see her backside...you know, so the whistling is over.  Why are you keeping your program strategically positioned, Ming?

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