Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Ladies in Red - Burlesque at Cherry Cola's Rock n Rolla

This will be the first time EVER that Cherry Colas has hosted a burlesque show!

You may remember me mentioning the bar that my booty-dancing gogo self graces pretty much every Saturday. If not, check out my vlogs. It's a gorgeous bar, all red damask and black lacquer, and I tried to pick girls and music that would match the decor.


Then, of course, I had to have a flier that would do the same!* It's not easy putting together a flier that contains the hotness of my performers.

Obskyura can't be contained on the best of days, and we'll be seeing her do a jazzy number with her typical WTF flair.

Keela Watts will be seducing the crowd with her voice and her body. I have it on good authority she'll be poured into the dress she'll be coming out of.

Trixi Jones will be spicing up the night in the way only an Italian can. Mob guys beware, she comes armed.

Yours truly will be teaming up with Trixi for a rousing retailing of our jail break after a mob gig gone bad (it's not unheard of for the Italian and Irish mob to work together!). Following that, I'll be busting out a new routine.

We'll also be joined by such handsome men as Steve Winchester, who will be our emcee for the night. Will he stick things in his face? Will he light his eyebrows on fire? You really never know. Stay back from the mousetraps!

Le Barback, one of Les Coquettes Man Props TM, is generously on loan to us for the night as our heavy-lifter and heavy hitter. Ladies never travel without a man at hand.


Lastly, we will be featuring the debut burlesque performance of the mystery man, Izzy Ridged!
Never before seen in Toronto, Izzy will be wowing the crowd for his appropriate cherry popping at Cherry Cola's.

This is not a night to be missed, and I'm incredibly excited to be the producer of the debut burlesque show!

Join us on February 10th for $10! Doors at 8pm with the show slated to begin at 9!








~ Red Herring


*I wish someone out there would do a flier-design post (hrm, maybe I should?).

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Elvis #1 Tits! - Backstage!

Elvis #1 Tits: A Presley Parody with Pasties!

Let me tell you, the act Trixi Jones and I did for this show had one hell of a dramatic lead up.

 Rehearsals were a chaos to organize, and  Trixi Jones (my dance partner) moved, and then moved again (through no fault of her own), and then a bajillion more things went boom in the way they tend to do when one has a deadline. But when we got there? They went BOOM again, but this time in caps! The show was a rockin' success, as most anything produced by theOriginalface.ca is, and from the get-go the performers did The King proud!



Lily Lemonpie was a good wife gone bad in her sad tale of lust and dirty laundry. Of course, she gets even. But seriously, who would cheat on that? For shame!


Steve Winchester wow'd the crowd and ate a peanut butter, banana, newspaper sandwich! After slicing the bana with a razor he helt with his tongue. That's right. Oh, and the blowtorch.


Miranda Tempest did a wonderful aerial act on the hoop, and performed a few tricks I haven't seen in Toronto yet. She's fabulous, and rather fetching, and (as confirmed in the dressing room) a huge nerd. She might just be one of my favourite people, so keep your eyes open for us working together in the future. You know, sci-fi...nerdy...burlesquey...spacey future*

Me and  Mrs. Jones (ha!) busted out of jail, and then busted out of our clothes to Jailhouse Rock.


By far, one of my favourite Elvis songs, it was also a hilarious routine to rehearse with the wonderful  Trixi. Anything involving handcuffs, jumpsuits, and her face in my boobs? Awesome.



We may be performing this act again pretty soon. My manicured fingers are crossed!

The photos here, the one to my right being one of my favourites of the night, were taken by the immesly talented Chris Suppa. I may have accosted him in the lobby of my building one day, and invited him to my apartment.

"I live in ###, come down and talk to me when you're done."

In retrospect, this was incredibly random and suggestive, on my part. He seemed a bit confused by the whole thing.

None the less, Chris ended up photographing the show and taking some amazing images. He's a pro to work with, and it was great to hear the point of view of an artist unfamiliar with burlesque.

Above is one of the images he captured. Obskyura is a force of nature. She is one of Toronto's most innovative and creative and...and chiffon covered performers. This act was to Devil in Disguise, and had some very defined character roles going on, not to mention the hilarity of the final reveal. Epic. There were people on their feet. I would call her style performance art with burlesque. This girl needs to go to New York.

Worst thing? The poor lady was feeling under the weather, and still pulled off a performance of that magnitude. I've gotta step it up!


The night ended with a hilarious visit. These wonderful People of the Law were there for an entirely non-burlesque reason (unlike my last encounter with the law) and were very quick to single out us poor jailbirds!

Clearly we rocked the jailhouse a little too hard!

~Red

* I may be hinting at something here.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Performers - Should You Work For Free?

As a performer and artist, one question I get faced with a lot is whether I should work for free. As a model, gogo dancer, burlesque dancer, and even managing 3BArtistry who does makeup and bodypaint. Photographers, graphic artists, musicians...everyone in the arts industry (and a good few people out of it) are faced with this question at one point or another.

This infographic, made by Jessica Hische, helps you along quite a bit.

(see it large, here).

Of course you should consider your experience level and factor that in, and occasionally the 'exposure' trade-off is a good one, but here's to raising the bar for the Arts, and us performers involved!

I think I'm going to post the occasional business article here, whether it's for branding, taxes (ew, I know), or advice for freelancers. 

*chart posted on Good Design

~ Red
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