Too Hot To Handle

So at the end of every moth there is an awesome show called Live Burlesque in Las Vegas. It's held in a small venue inside a bar called Boomers. I have gone to many of the shows and have had a blast every time I have been in the audience. Well I was lucky enough to perform in the September show Too Hot To Handle.

I was told by a friend that it was going to be amazing on the stage due to the energy in the room. Let me just say how right that person was. Just think you are in a room filled with burlesque enthusiasts. These people need no lesson on etiquette at all, I should know I am usually sitting out their with them.  The people in the audience played back with me as I performed and I I got tot grace the stage with some awesome performers.

So here are the great photos that were taken of me. The photographer is MHA photography. She does a ton of the events in the community so go onto facebook and check her out!!

Working on a festival

So this year marks the first ever Las Vegas Burlesque Festival. Yes our city hosts BHOF (Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend) but our festival isn't anywhere near like BHOF is. And because of this we also didn't want to be in competition with this amazing weekend either. Honestly all of us want to be there so why would we want to start a burly rumble with them. Since this is the festivals first year they needed a lot of help getting things done. Honestly when they were first starting I had no idea how I could help so I didn't initially volunteer, but thanks to my dear friend Kiki, we make lots of trouble together, I became part of the festival just two months ago.

What goes into a festival is crazy!!!!! I had no idea how much work it was going to be and didn't care either, because I was able to help. I became a sponsorship person for the festival since they needed the help and I am a helper. Now only being two months away from the festival this job is harder than I think it would have been if I had started a few months back, but I have done everything in my power to gain us assistance in any way I could. I was able to get us some assistance, but not as much as I think I can next year.

Now all the crazy that goes into a festival is bonkers. Luckily for us we have a fearless leader she has a vision and wanted to stop at nothing to make it a reality. And so far we are making it a great reality. We have three days for performances, which I am in one of those nights, starting at our local place the Boom Boom room inside Boomers bar and than we head downtown to The Plaza showroom for the other two nights. We have performers coming from all over the place including other countries. To be a part of it all three nights is ridiculously exciting. We even have a day where we are having a party at Du Barry's store. Now if you don't know Du Barry's you should damn it!!! Du Barry's has great dresses and jewelry. I bought a dress from their after seeing all the fabulousness at BHOF the one night I went. Their dresses aren't for the normal crowd. I am talking beads galore and jewelry that would make your glammed out grandma proud. AHHHHH...I love this place. Anyways, we are even having a bazaar that Sunday and Thursday night where you will see tons of amazing glittery things to purchase. How exciting is this gonna be!?!?!?!?

So I got a little side tracked with explaining the hard parts behind the scenes. Can I just say Money! Money is always the huge factor with all of this. We have gained a few thousand from our generous donations that our community here in Las Vegas. But we have had to deal with absorbing most of the upfront cost, which is something I am hoping to solve next year. A lot of our money comes from tickets sales, and we are doing amazing with those!!!!! I am hoping we have a packed house the whole weekend showing everyone that locals are loved too. Now many other festivals hold competitions and we made the choice not to do that, but to just celebrate the amazing art that we bring. Housing performers and getting them around is a whole other thing as well. I am looking forward to being a tittie taxi that weekend (I'm even painting my car for it) so that many of the ladies and gents that will be at the hotel will have rides to the other events that we have going on. We are even offering a brunch to the performers. That was a whole other thing that had minor complications to it, but we solved those as well. It's crazy how much work gets put into all of this before it even happens.

Then end product I honestly can't wait to share with all of you after it's over. The people I have gotten involved with are allowing me to really see what this community is all about. It's amazing to see that so many will band together for a weekend of good times for all. I'm so freaking excited for this event to fucking happen I might pee a little when I wake up next Thursday morning knowing that it is the beginning for the weekend.

Negative opinions

Now I will state this if you think differently than I do that is fine. We all have the right to our opinion, but lately I have been reading articles about how degrading burlesque performing is to women and that we are still kneeling to a patriarchal society. But take a moment and think about what legends have done and during the time they did it. They worked their asses off and most of them had children to care for as well. They did what needed to be done and beyond that as well. They showed women that it didn't matter what we did, because whatever it was we could prove to the world that we will do it our own way. They have given many women the strength to stand up and say we love ourselves. If you think about it a patriarchal society is not about us loving ourselves and being happy in our own skin. It is about loving what a man thinks and what he says is okay.  Granted I am glad my hubs likes his chubby bunny it's an added bonus ;)

But if you sat with any of the women and men who perform now our stories start off very similar. We didn't love ourselves when starting our classes for one reason or another. Either it was physical appearance or emotional turmoil something that kept us from loving ourselves was happening. Now through our own journeys we began to see ourselves in a different light. We started looking in the mirror when we were naked and saying hey this isn't so bad. For me personally I had had a baby boy who left his journey across my lower body and that can't be changed. I love my son to the point of pissing him off when I ask him for a kiss because I do it so often. But it didn't leave my self esteem in tact. I cried thinking my husband didn't find me attractive anymore and the fact was I didn't find myself attractive at the time.

Burlesque was an eye opener for me. It reminded me that I should love me I earned every mark I have. Some showed me that I could over come my own demons, others reminded me that I was given a miracle, and the rest reminded that I gained them through truly finding happiness in my life. So why not be ecstatic about finding an art form that allows me to do two things I love, dance and being naked. Yes I love being naked...I get made fun of for it all the time by my hubs. I grew up dancing in a world where I was too big and short, which caused me to have years of eating disorders and many suicidal moments thinking I was never going to be good enough. Now I get to dance and have fun doing it in my own skin that I earned.

So when bashing us performers for the art we bring to the stage I will say this...Kiss my fucking ass and all the other naked asses you have seen. If you hate this art form and laugh at me for calling it that DO NOT go to a show. Stop allowing your friends to drag you to shows and shut your damn mouth already. Also remember you are the reasons many of us got into this art in the first place. We were constantly told we weren't worthy of what we were doing just like you are trying to say. You know what our responses have been slapping glitter on us and twirling our pasties to our hearts content. We love the skin we are in now and laugh at people putting us down.

Burlesque is our courage and our way of telling the world we are finally happy.

Legends

So being in Vegas those of us in the community are surrounded by many women who started this art form and many who were and are chums with them. Now for me I find them intimidating. So far though none of them have been nothing but nice to me when I do speak to them. So far I have met Tiffany Carter, Tempest Storm (whom I love), Dusty Summers, and I was lucky enough to perform on the same stage with Gypsie Luise this past weekend.

After performing with Gypsie I told her how great she was and what an honor it was to share the stage with her. She gave me a hug!! Really I was not expecting that at all. Seeing these great women on stage still shaking their shit like no tomorrow makes me proud to be a part of it all.

None of these women came from easy lives and for any of us who now do this as a full time hobby have nothing in comparison to these ladies and their lives. If you don't know who some of these ladies are you should look them up. I am personally waiting for Dusty's book to come out and for the documentary to be done on Tempest Storm. These ladies paved the way in my opinion for women's liberation and a path for women to love them selves again.

I know it's short but I wanted to put it out there anyway.

glittery kisses to you all.