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Tuesday Tease: Vermont Burlesque Festival

Champ.LogoMan, burlesque festivals are just popping up EVERYWHERE! This weekend marks the inaugural Vermont Burlesque Festival happening in South Burlington. I met the festival’s organizer Cory Royer in Los Angeles when we were down there in early December and he told me then that he’s got a great weekend of entertainment planned. Now, I can see what he meant. He’s got a bunch of fun in store for the Northeast. We’re talking three days and two nights of burlesque, comedy and variety acts: shows, classes, a film festival and BOWLING! How can you go wrong?

While the lion’s share of performers hail from Vermont, there will also be some national performers showing up; namely the lovely Lili Von Schtupp from LA, Cha Cha Velour from Vegas, the Boston Babydolls, Chicago’s boylesque sensation and member of the Stage Door Johnnies: Ray Gunn and Montreal’s Scarlett James.

While chatting on the phone with Cory today, he told me: “I am excited to be working with so many talented local, national and international people who are helping to create Vermont’s first burlesque festival.”

Judging by the schedule, I can see why he’s excited. Things kick off this Friday with the opening ceremonies and Friday night’s showcase at 5 Market Street. Immediately after the showcase will be the “Burlesque Bounce” dance party featuring DJ Irie. Saturday will bring a burlesque brunch, classes, another showcase and the Burlesque Bowling Competition at Shelburne’s Champlain Lanes. Festival attendees will have the whole bowling alley to themselves and are encouraged to dress their team in a theme and compete for the best theme, best costumes, most team shimmies, most outrageous performance in sport, worst dressed team and more. Somehow a bunch of burlesque beauties in a bowling alley sounds like trouble to me.

Sunday is reserved for recovery from the previous two days of pandemonium and a burlesque film festival. A perfect way to wind down and nurse your hangover!

It’s so exciting that burlesque festivals are no longer in major metropolitan areas but in smaller cities like South Burlington. When you see an artistic movement like burlesque spread to far reaches of the country (and world) it goes to show that it isn’t going anywhere. And aren’t we lucky to be ticketing so many of these great festivals?

If you’re in the Vermont area, I can’t recommend the Vermont Burlesque Festival enough. I think it’s safe to say that the Northeast is about to get a little heat wave this winter. Get your tickets here!

Love burlesque festivals? Check out some other great ones that we’re ticketing:
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Tuesday Tease: The 11th Annual New York Burlesque Festival

NYBF_2013_400pxIt’s time, once again, for the biggest burlesque event to hit the Big Apple: the 11th Annual New York Burlesque Festival. The whole thing kicks off this Thursday, September 26 and organizers Angie Pontani and Jen Gapay (of Thirsty Girl Productions) always put on an unforgettable show. This festival is not only the longest running annual burlesque festival, but it has become one of the festivals that other producers look to for inspiration.

Every sub-genre of burlesque is represented: boylesque, neo-burlesque, nerdlesque, etc. Just one gander at this year’s lineup is enough to make your head (or tassels) spin. There are performers from nearly every corner of the planet: the UK, Sweden, Italy, Australia, even Russia! Basically, if you want to witness what is going on with burlesque in 2013, look no further. It’s all represented at this world-class festival.

We interviewed Jen last year in honor of their 10th anniversary and I encourage you all to check out that interview, especially if you are event producers yourself. Jen has an impressive track record of festival organization including The Capitol Hill Block Party in Seattle, the Siren Music Festival at Coney Island, The Glamour Ball on Fire Island, The New York Boylesque Festival which is now in its 2nd year and The Coney Island Talent Show, now in its fourth year. She was also the Associate Producer of the documentary, Last Summer at Coney Island, which aired on PBS in May 2011.
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Tuesday Tease: Discounted Tickets to New York’s Gotham Burlesque!

GOTHAMLOGONew York’s Gotham Burlesque has been a critics pick at TimeOut New York almost since their inception. They regularly get glowing reviews in major publications like the New York Times and Broadway World and The NY Daily News even called it “Wonderfully theatrical…sometimes to the point of insanity.”

We featured Gotham back in August of last year and we think it’s time to shift our attention once again to this amazing monthly show at Stage 72 (formerly the Triad NYC). Hosting a monthly show is no easy task and producing a show that features the level of talent that Gotham brings every month is mind boggling. Since their inception in 2011 they have featured some of the top names in burlesque:  Dirty Martini, Jo Weldon, Nasty Canasta, Angie Pontani, the World Famous *BOB*, Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey and more!
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Tuesday Tease: New York’s Gotham Burlesque

Though it’s only been in existence for less than two years, Gotham Burlesque has been taking the Big Apple by storm. It’s made Time Out New York‘s Top 5 Nightlife Picks at least seven times, has been featured in the New York Times and Broadway World and regularly features some of the top names in the international burlesque scene. The NY Daily News even called it “Wonderfully theatrical…sometimes to the point of insanity.”

Gotham Burlesque was founded by award-winning filmmaker, artist and producer Gary Beeber in March of 2011. His intersest in live burlesque began when he featured live burlesque performers as part of the screenings for his 2010 film “Dirty Martini and the New Burlesque.

“We did screenings all over the country and I enjoyed producing the live shows that were included with the screenings. I thought that it would be nice to do burlesque shows without the screenings, but I wanted to do something classy at an upscale venue.”

Beeber brought the show to the Triad Theatre in New York’s Upper West Side. The Triad is one of the few remaining off-broadway theatres and has been home to some of the longest running off-broadway shows. The theatre provided the perfect venue for Beeber to bring back the experience of Vaudeville to modern audiences and to challenge audience expectations of a contemporary burlesque show.

Here’s the original promotional video for Gotham Burlesque’s debut peformance back in March of 2011:


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Tuesday Tease: Monthly Burlesque Revues Near You!

Over the past few years the popularity of burlesque in the United Stated has exploded like a bursting dam. No matter where you live you can be sure that there’s glitter and spinning tassels somewhere near you.

As the number of shows has grown so has the number of styles. The art has taken off in all kinds of new directions. There are forms of burlesque that were non-existent just a few years ago; There’s still classic burlesque out there but now there’s also neo-burlesque, boylesque, gorelesque, burlesque with live bands. There are shows that incorporate art, magic, books and even lube wrestling. Anything you can think of can and probably has been made into a burlesque routine.

One happy outcome of this is that there are tons of reoccurring monthly shows nearly everywhere you go! I’ve done the hard work for you and dug through the Brown Paper Tickets event listings, pulling out some of the best of the monthly burlesque shows from around the country.

Seattle, Washington

Tuesday, August 21, at 8:00 PM Lucid will be home to Tuesday Tease, Seattle’s only monthly burlesque show featuring live music. Sailor St. Claire and Ace Carter will host. And The Lurid Spectacles will provide musical accompaniment for Sara Dipity, Holly Lets’em Downlightly, and Roxy Ruby. Tuesday Tease began as a bi-monthly event but the first few sold out shows made it clear that this needed to happen more often! The show has thus become a regular event on the third Tuesday of every month at Lucid.

Thursday, August 30, at 9:00 PM the Westside Burlesque Review at the Skylark will be featuring performances by Scandal From Bohemia, Whisper De Corvo, Serafina Fiero, Katie Kat and Cherry Killer Tomatoes. The Westside Burlesque Review features contests and prizes along with the performances. And August’s show coincides with the host’s birthday, which means that there will also be a “kinkature” artist and of course CAKE! If you miss this night the Westside Burlesque Review can be found at the Skylark on the last Thursday of every month.

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San Francisco, California

Thursday, September 6, at 8:00 PM EL RIO will be host to a unique combination of burlesque and lube wrestling. Red Hots Burlesque presents Go Deep: Let’s Wrestle. This event comes in two parts. The burlesque portion of the night will begin at 8:00 and feature Alotta Boutte and Ginger Skyye, along with hosts Dottie Lux and Barbary Doll. At 9:00 the burlesque show ends and the main event will begin. lube wrestling! This part of the evening is exactly what it sounds like and you already know that you don’t want to miss it. VIP seats are available for this event but you’ll have to hurry because they are limited If for some reason you miss this night, you can catch Go Deep: Let’s Wrestle on the first Thursday of every month.
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