I realize how bad this sounds. As if I never call my mother -- HA! I do call her. As my wife and I have discovered, the blogging format is the perfect way to keep a large body of people up-to-date on the goings-on in one's life. This form of blogging has been criticized as "pet cat blogging," a self-indulgent blathering on of the minutiae of a person's day-to-day activities, as in "this morning, my pet cat did such and such."
Well, we don't have a cat (but Pam's dog has a blog,) and I'd like to know what the hell this medium of blogging is for if not self-indulgent blathering. I suppose I should blog about hot-trending topics, and pack the margins with advertisments and other revenue streams. Maybe you'd like to read yet another nobody's uneducated opinions on the news of the day.
Whatever.
So here's the update, Mom:
A couple of weeks ago, I made my solo debut as a burlesque performer. I got paid to take my clothes off for an audience of (mostly) strangers. Ergo, I am now a professional stripper. Technically, I've been paid to strip as a part of the "Pulp Fiction" number Red Snapper and I perform. But there was something about striding out on stage by myself that seemed to make it more ... something. Je ne sais qua. I don't know what.
I performed as Han Solo to Jerry Reed's classic song of smuggling awesomeness, "East Bound and Down." You may remember that song as the theme from Smokey and the Bandit.
Red is performing as Leeloo in a number inspired by the movie The Fifth Element.We're reprising our numbers, along with the rest of the cast of Super Nova A-Go-Go, in San Diego for the throng of people attending Comic Con. Comic Con is HUGE! They average upwards of 125,000 attendees. That's THREE TIMES the population of Hot Springs!
Strangely, I'm not nervous.This past Monday night, Red and I reprised our "Pulp Fiction" number for the Monday Night Tease's 2nd Annual Quentin Tarantino Burlesque Film Festival. I don't have pictures from this last performance yet, but here are a couple from last year:
We also reenacted the famous "ear" scene for a massive Reservoir Dogs group number! due to popular demand, we'll be repeating the show next Monday night. The show was mentioned on the radio as a must-see, and we were featured on the local NBC affiliate's website!
This weekend, I'm performing as a part of that certain marionette show, the name of which I omit so that kids searching for it online don't wind up here! we'll be on the mainstage at Universal Studios CityWalk.
That's pretty much it for now. I'll sign off with a few photos of me and my partner Phil Kelly as Mssrs. Snapper and Buddy. The first few are from a burlesque show, Peepshow Menagerie where we opened with a forty-five minute-long set of music and comedy. The last photo is from Theatre Unleashed's "The World's Smallest Renaissance Faire."
"Old McBuddy Had a Farm." One of our newer numbers, prone to technical difficulties, but hysterical! Audiences love it. Mr. Buddy never speaks, so his part in the song is pre-recorded on cassette tape.
"A Whale of a Tale," from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Each lyric is about a different girl, and Buddy acts each one out. This is the last verse, for "Harpoon Hannah." Buddy dons a tiki mask: "There was Harpoon Hannah, with a face that'd make you shudder/Lips like fishhooks, and a nose just like a rudder/If I kissed her and held her tenderly/There's no sea monster big enough that'd ever frighten me!"
Breaking out the big gun for "Buddy vs. The Dragon." This was a song we performed at the Ren Faire. It was so well received, we put it into our "normal" repertoire. I like it because I get to play the guitar. Buddy likes it because it makes him out to be a dragon-slaying hero.
It's hard to say, but I think we're performing "Whale of a Tale" here. It looks like I'm playing the little solo run on the uke while Buddy retrieves the Harpoon Hannah mask.
