Busting Ass, Making $s

It's my week off! This is the only week where I don't have any regular gigs, which is great for resting but not so good for my having grocery money. As John Oliver would say "time for a quick recap of the week[end]."

-Friday-
Some months back my dear friend and fellow Hot Fawking Troupe member Wicked Scarlett approached me looking for advice on putting together a short burlesque set for a heavy metal festival in Fife. We met up several times and went over everything that was needed to make it flow, with large importance placed on knowing what the right questions were to ask the venue. 

After a few schedule shift arounds (planning festivals is *hard* but we were patient), we finally settled into the 3:50pm Friday time slot. 5 Performers total rounded out a half hour performance slot. The night before, Scarlett and I sat down to put all the music together onto a playlist so we would be able to hand off the laptop without problem. We were so prepared. 

The poor, unfortunate heavy metal venue, was not. They had no idea how to handle burlesque and made a number of honestly innocent assumptions. There were a few hiccups - at some point my laptop was dropped off the sound guy's table resulting in the music to cut out, a backdrop from one of the bands fell on our poor pick up person, and shortly before I started my makeup I realized that I had grabbed the wrong costume bag! Fortunately, the performer whose music was interrupted powered through, as did our Pick Up (who was uninjured), I still had my Wendy's act in my trunk, and my laptop still works after being dropped! Even with all the hardships, I would still love to return sometime and maybe do a burlesque show on its own. The space is beautiful and I think if we bring in our own crew who understands what it takes to run a production of this kind. 

-Saturday-

After having the Book Club delayed so that myself and another member could perform at the Backyard Festival, my own performance was moved to Friday and the other woman had a string of unfortunate events. Fortunately, other members were patient with our late start and we had a great time talking serial killers past and present regarding The Devil in White City. 

I had exactly enough time to get from the Dreaming Comics to Timbre Room for Kitchen Sink. Soon, I will have to make a post about my process building a bed of nails, but it took me a day of Charles Manson podcasts and $40 of supplies (including 227 4in nails) to create something strong enough to support my weight

KitchenSink is unique in a number of ways, but one of the things they do is a randomized show order. Each performer's name is put inside of a balloon and, before each act, they invite an audience member to come up and pop one. This meant that once intermission was over, I got suited up (er, straightjacket'd up) and sat waiting for my name to be called. 

While I was waiting, there was an unfortunate incident with another performer slipping and injuring their knee. I'm not at liberty to discuss any more of the incident, but it was worrisome to say the least! I hope that they are ok and hopefully on their way to a speedy recovery (if they aren't already feeling better).

With this in mind, I was super cautious about performing my bed of nails routine so as not to hurt myself. I kept an arm hovering on the floor each time I dipped onto the bed as a precaution but it seemed to be a matter of over-worrying (better than not worrying enough!) because my nails held me well. No skin broken, didn't even have bruises. I even made a point to show the audience my bare ass (with a thong of course) for signs of damage and gave one of the most satisfying smacks I think I've ever done on stage. The act felt wonderful and while I want to do a rebuild of my bed for better structural integrity, I'm very happy with where this number is at. 

- Sunday - 

Sunday, I had rehearsal for All That Azz. Many of us in the troupe are doing a group number to Todrick Hall's "All That Ass". This has been a great exploration into doing routines with structured choreography as a group as well as a wake up call that my twerk game is not where I would like it. For the past week and a half, I have been twerking myself into oblivion then spending two days in agony recovering only to do it to myself again. I've already improved and hopefully between now and August 13th I will get to where I want to be.


On that note, tomorrow is twerk day so my buns better brace themselves!

The rest of this week thus far I have spent resting and working on some behind the scenes work. I'm on the hunt for a part time job but also trying to throw myself into my artistic work for both the sake of sanity and because I like eating. Now, I rest, because tomorrow I have a 9am meeting followed by at venue walk through at noon, then another lunch meeting before I prepare for Jaded!