Timeline: June 4th 8pm –
Tatah: As always, the weekend was a blur but a blast! Here’s what I remember:
We were finally off to the Orleans for bowling and burlesque. Though Chris was hesitant and skeptical at first, we all dressed in our sailor attire and rocked out at the first annual Barecats invitational! By the end of the evening we had bowled our asses off, hung out with our amazing Burly-Q friends from all over the world that we hardly ever get to see, and walked away with two trophies for “Best Style” and “2nd Place” in the tournament.
Marky: The Barecats Invitational was a rockin event! Swinging tunes, fishnets, bowling, gorgeous ladies and some of the funniest characters on earth! Shultzie bowled a Turkey for gods sakes! We Pulled out a 2nd place trophy for our super awesome bowling skills and award another gold statue for being the Best Styled Bowling Team. Crazy Fun!
Tatah Dujour & Crew "Best Style"
Later That Night: Tigger Hosts the opening festivities- so funny and relaxed on stage. Thursday night shows were not on the original line up but as Tigger poignantly noted, “There are just too many stage whores! ” Here are some of my favorites performers who cannot get enough stage time- Darlinda Just Darlinda as Bearlinda- Amber Ray with all her curvy purple awesomeness- I love Amber Ray- Manchego’s number left me on the floor- simple idea but well executed and effective number- 16 pairs of underwear removed in record time! Nasty’s Groucho was inspirational once again- and tons of UK girls with lots of great costumes. My “Fake Japanese Girlfriend” -Violet Eva and Co made me smile and laugh my ass off..Great shows!
Love At First Light- Amber Ray
PS – I thought Midnite Martini killed it! (Tatah)
Timeline: Friday June 5th
Tatah: The Legends Night – an amazing evening celebrating the women of the burlesque era. Very awesome and moving show. Highlights- Joan Arline, the Sexquire Girl wore the same costume she made famous 55 years earlier. Michelle L’amour and Frankie Vivid were married on stage in a very beautiful ceremony and we all enjoyed the company of our burlesque brothers and sisters.
Marky: The Legends are spectacular! Pioneers and a fearless bunch of ladies who dare to bare and be themselves often times against great opposing pressure. They are all crazy cheekas and I love em all! World Famous Bob is so hot and I want to snuggle her so bad! She didn’t get a chance to “Shush” us…a little disappointing. Candy Carmello is wacky nuts and makes me laugh regardless of what she says. So funny- there is no stopping Candy Carmello! Satan’s Angelrocks so hard- she performed her infamous Indian Girl number. Modern Icons Dirty Martini, Catherine D’lish, and Immodesty Blaize kept all of us transfixed and enthralled- total pros in every way. My first D’lish experience- I had heard so many great things- I was just WOW about Miss D’lish!
Burlesque Legends 09
Michelle L’amour brought out a gigantic purple heart prop and after a series of dynamic poses- gets oiled and her remaining cloths removed by 2 sets of hands that pop out of nowhere! Very Hot! Which reminds me of the very best wedding ceremony I have ever witnessed. Miss Astrid is genius. I wasn’t all the way on the Miss Astrid train- until this wedding ceremony! So Funny! So funny! I could not hold the camera straight to save my life…great night! I love all of these ladies!
Timeline: Saturday Night : Reining Queen Pageantt –
Tatah: I spent most of the day getting ready for this night and still ended up leaving my glittered cave girl club back at the hotel. I had to send Mark there mid show to retrieve it. There were so many great performances but I didn’t get to see many of them after the debut and boylesque – amazing!!! – performances. Backstage was super fun and full of supportive people and great energy. I was a little worried my video would not match up with my performance as the stage and video screen was so big. I forgot all of
Tatah Dujour & Cave Boys
my choreography as I do moments before I go on stage- it all instantly came back when the big lights came on. It was so fun! The audience was cracking and laughing hysterically at my backup dancers on the big screen. I could see Bob and Dixie sitting in the front row smiling the entire time. Wilbur and I rocked it and over all I felt pretty good about my performance. Although my performance with its interactive film was innovative- I did not place. It was such a thrill and great honor to have been chosen to compete! For those who don’t know the results are as follows:
Debut – Melody Mangler – VC, BC
Boylesque – Hot Toddy
Variety – Gigi and Pop
Group – Nanda
2nd Runner up – Perle Noire
1st runner up – my good friend – Roxi Dlite
Reigning Queen – Kalani KoKonuts
Marky: I was running 2 cameras so I didn’t get to see as much as I would like. Filming an event is so very different than actively
watching. There were so many great performances. Tatah forgot her Cave Girl Club and realized this just before the
second act, so I had to run back to our hotel to grab it. I missed most of the group numbers. I wanted to see Harvest Moon
with her Aerobella performance- but I didn’t make it back in time. Filming- Filming- Filming. Trixie Little, The Evil Hate Monkey, and Indigo Blue were all performers I had to film perfectly with a super fancy pants camera. I was assisting Kirsten Dandrea with her documentary filming of the dangerous Baltimore duo and friends. 
Highlights: Peekaboo’s Titter Tat was very sexy- Nanda put on quite a bad-ass show- not quite burlesque by their own admission- but a kick-butt inventive show that brought the audience to its feet! Hot Toddy’s Devil had most females in the crowd all giggly and excited- The Evil Hate Monkey exploded onstage and rocked out with more energy than a herd of wild boars. Yes Boars, they are crazy. Roxi D’lite was all business and she killed her number flying above the stage on her huge diamond ring. Technically stunning. Trixie Little in her little and industrial ways, cutely cuted herself around the stage and dazzled with her imaginative inventions and cheeky humor. I like Trixie its true. (see also sewing glove at finger and thumb trick) Miss Dujour killed it with her throw-back number with an ultra modern twist. The audience was laughing and watching the movie- which ended up being way bigger that we figured- and in some respects upstaged her. Tatah did what Tatah does best! She glided across the stage bumping and smiling. She was glowing and I was so happy for her to be on that stage. The Burlesque Hall of Fame and MEW were events she told me she wanted to be a part of long before I was aware of any of this Burlesque awesomeness. I was proud. Melody Mangler was in the Best Debut category but we would soon find out she was not new to any of this- she killed a Venus number. Angie Pontani’s farewell performance was stunning- the audience was silent – It was a beautiful and simply elegant number. All in all it was a great night- I was tired but somehow still not burnt out on Burlesque!
Timeline Sun: Pool Party
Tatah: – It was so hard to wake up Sunday morning. Exhausted, emotionally drained – with a post performance hang over – I drug myself out of bed and into the shower. Marquee had been looking forward to the pool party all weekend, so we headed to the Orleans as quickly as we could. Chris opted to go to brunch with friends that were in town from Key West. Having only spent a few months performing burlesque, the portion of Chris’s brain that was dedicated to burly-q had not expanded enough to handle the 24/7 bump and grind of the BHoF weekend. We arrived at the pool around 1:30 – just as the biker convention started to arrive. We hung out with friends in the company of a few leather bound strangers, had drinks and kicked back. Marky wore his white speedo – totally see thru – so I spent some time searching for a towel to keep him from being fully exposed.
Marquee & Tatah
We dried off and ran up to the Legends Panel. The panel was soooo amazing! The women spoke of stories form their burlesque past and reminisced while a large group of us sat quietly dreaming of how it would have been to tour around the country with these great women in their day. I remembered having similar moments and stories when I was a feature exotic entertainer, but their stories seem so much more authentic and inspiring. I’m hoping that I will be able to convince my old agent, Eleanor Bucci, from my feature days to come out next year and share some of their past. She was a performer in the 1960′ s and is still in the adult entertainment business at age 80!
We went back to the Hilton after the panel to prepare for the evening. By that time Chris was missing his burly buddies and got ready for the night with us. Always bitter sweet, the last night was amazing! We hung with friends and watched more kick ass performances. Saturday night’s co-host, El Vez and his band played this crazy set and I fell in love with a gay Mexican Elvis ! Who would have guessed?
Marky:- The Pool Party was very chill and well attended- I just relaxed and left the camera at the hotel..or I wanted to anyways..we just chilled with Marquee- Roxi Dlite & D’arcy and Trixie & Monkey- Highly anticipated burger from Fudrucker’s- which was delish-
Dr Lukki & Tatah Dujour
and a quick jump in the pool before I ran up to film the Legends Panel- I had filmed a few interviews facilitated by Dr Lukki with some of the legends on an individual basis. The interviews were very interesting and insightful and made me love these women of burlesque so much more. I will definitely promote the Legends Panel event next year and hope to fill up the theater with these awesome characters and their stories!
Sunday night I finally got tired- El Vez put on a crazy awesome show and Tatah fell in love with the “Mexican Elvis”. Overall an overwhelmingly successful event for Luke-Laura and the whole production staff of the Burlesque Hall of Fame 2009!
Next Post:
Hilton Trashes Wilbur the Rhinestone Dinosaur!
The Tiny Bugle 