Gilding the Lili

I am absolutely covered in bruises this week! Sparkly showgirl, magic rehearsal, ice-skating bruises admittedly, but bruises nonetheless!

Sparkles!

I had a week off from 'real life' work this week, ostensibly to have a bit of a break, yet I ended up with more to do than I would have done if I'd have stayed on! But it has been fabulous fun, so I'm not complaining at all!

Skates on!

On Monday and Tuesday I took myself off to the ice-rink for Burlesque On Ice rehearsals. And, not to get ahead of myself or anything, but I think I'm *finally* starting to get the hang of this ice-skating malarkey! In the past I've had the issue that, when I look at a move, I know I can do it - my brain goes 'yep, I can totally see how that needs to be done', but my feet go 'nope!' Like my body didn't get the memo from my brain. However, in the last week or so I've started to get my head around some of the moves I was having mental blocks on (i.e. all of them) and work on some new, slightly harder things. Which is all good! Full credit for this definitely goes to Hollie Deller (who is playing the lead in the show!) who doesn't take any crap and just forces me to try things that I think I'd usually try and wiggle out of!

Burlesque On Ice - Tickets on sale NOW!

What wasn't so great was me throwing my hip out like an old lady! All the skating is exacerbating old issues I first encountered during college when I was dancing all-day, every-day, but thanks to having these things happen before I know what to do to try and make sure it doesn't happen again! Fingers Crossed!

Monday evening was an event I had been looking forward to for a while - a Cabaratiparti!! In honour of the unveiling of the Cabarevolution video, that I blogged about a few weeks ago, the organisers of the London Cabaret Festival hauled half of the performers in London to Proud Cabaret for a party! And it was wonderful!

Cabarevolution!!

On Tuesday evening I was in rehearsals for the amazing Simon Drake's House of Magic! I'm making my debut in this incredible show on the 2nd November and although my role is quite small it's insanely physical and takes split-second timing to get right. I felt like I'd been put through a Navy Seals bootcamp on Wednesday morning!
I'm so excited to be in this show - I have always been fascinated by magic and illusion and to be a part of such a renowned show is terrifying and wonderful at the same time!

So excited for this show!

Wednesday was a day of tending to my injuries and working on two new acts - one that I have the music and choreography for and just need to get the costume finished, and another that I have a complete costume for and no idea for music or movement!
My wonderful boy bought me a bunch of roses to help me recover from my bruises; roses are my favourite flower and the birth flower for June, which is nice! I also got new slippers! I know that's not really blog-worthy but I love them and it's my blog so deal with it.
I mentioned last week that I had signed up for NaNoWriMo and I got to work on the story planning and structure, ready to begin in earnest on the 1st November! I have the story and development all set out now, and a chapter plan as well so I'm excited to begin writing!

 

Roses! ** Sleepy Cat

 

NaNoWriMo ** Leopard PJ's and Slippers!

On Thursday, after a morning skating session, I headed off to the beautiful city of Canterbury for The Gilded Lili in the gorgeous Speigeltent at the Canterbury Festival. I did Lili's show at the Milton Keynes Festival last year and it's always a fabulous night. We were in a gorgeous venue and an amazing show - created, curated and hosted by the wonderful Lili La Scala the line-up was incredible, featuring The Boy With Tape On His Face, Mat Ricardo, Abi Collins, Ash Frith and Chantilly Lace. Just lovely! Apart from me having a little bit of a brain fart regarding my act and not even realising I hadn't finished it properly until I had left the stage! What is wrong with me?! Must be getting old :P

Gorgeous Speigeltent at Canterbury Festival

 

Two Mirror Pictures! With Ash Frith, Mat Ricardo, Lili La Scala, The Boy With Tape On His Face, Chantilly Lace and Abi Collins!

I don't know why it amused me that hotels *still* put bibles in the bedside tables.

I stayed over in Canterbury on Thursday night in a lovely little hotel and, after a *huge* breakfast headed back to London for an exciting interview at lunchtime. I spent the afternoon on the ice, trying to avoid kids on half-term and kamikaze hockey skaters - seriously I hate those guys.

Quote from Kristi Yamaguchi

Friday and Saturday I was back at Proud Cabaret for a lovely couple of shows with a whole lot of the usual Proud suspects (literally, as Friday night is Murder Mystery night!) It was a fabulous way to round off a stellar week!

The Silencing of Miss Scarlet

 

Friday Mirror Pictures! Mat wants to be the centre of attention! ** With Taz Zebrowski, Mat Ricardo, Beau Rocks, Teddy Boylesque and Jolie Papillon!

Saturday Mirror Picture! With Dee Riley, Helen Orford, Lili La Scala, Taz Zebrowski and Jolie Papillon!

Showgirl on Tour

Gosh this weekend has been a busy one! I've been up and down the country, with a whole host of lovely people and it's been wonderful - so prepare yourself for a LONG blog with LOTS of pictures!!

This pretty much sums up my entire weekend

But first... remember last week when I blogged about the Cabariot? Well you can follow all of the gossip on Facebook but the video is finally here and it's fabulous!

At the time of writing, it had had nearly 55,000 views in five days!

The video was even re-tweeted by Gary Barlow, who called it 'Amazing' and has made it into The Guardian, The Stage, Time Out and This is Cabaret!

Filming still: with Sarah-Louise Young and Laurie Hagen as girl band 'Zone Trois' !!

Anyhow: on Wednesday I dragged myself out through the rain to watch the Cream Tease Show at Proud Cabaret with Chrys Columbine - it was a fabulous evening catching up over a couple of cocktails and wine, and the show was a joy to watch: especially the lovely Lady Catalina who I'd heard of for years but never seen perform before.

With the gorgeous Chrys Columbine, and lots of wine and cocktails!

The second glass of wine may not have been the best idea as I had to wake up ridiculously early on Thursday to travel up to Harrogate - it was worth it though.

The beautiful Yorkshire countryside

I was dancing at a gala evening to celebrate Hoopers Department Stores 30th Birthday Celebrations alongside Vicky Butterfly, Adelina Le Shay, Allegra Noir and Em Brulee. The store had gone all-out with the decorations and staff costumes and the place looked fabulous!

 

Decorations in the store ** Em and Adelina

Store Decorations

**If you haven't watched the Cabariot video yet, you have to watch it to get this picture, but trust me, it's funny!**

Mirror Picture! With Penny Sweets and Dalia (organisers!), Allegra, Adelina, Em and Vicky

Photo Booth!

I stayed overnight with Dalia, and she even provided me with a cat to keep me company in case I got homesick! 

Danzig - fluffiest cat ever!

On Friday I was up early again, this time to travel to Manchester to meet up with Kittie Klaw and Coco Malone for a road-trip back down South to Epsom for The Burlesque Show.

 

Newspaper and Magazine advertisements for The Burlesque Show

It was a fantastic show - I was particularly nervous for the proper debut of my new act 'Midnight' but I think it went well!

 

Backstage peeks of the new costume! Dress is by Louise O'Mahony

Mirror Picture! With Vicky Butterfly, Kittie Klaw, Lili La Scala, Dolly Rose and Coco Malone

As Epsom isn't too far away from London, I travelled back home with Vicky, Dolly and Elliot Mason, and boy was I happy to be sleeping in my own bed!

On Saturday I was back at the gorgeous Proud Cabaret, again performing 'Midnight' and the reworked version of my glitter act 'Sugar' - they both went well though, fortunately! And Neil Lewis from Behind Burlesque was on hand to catch a few performance shots too!

 

Performance shots of 'Midnight' (Neil Lewis and Filming Still)

 

Performance shots of 'Sugar' (Neil Lewis)

I also managed to get them filmed (on my iPhone so not great quality!)

Midnight

Sugar

My favourite thing about this show was finally watching Leah Debrincat perform live - I'd heard so much about her and she was just as mesmerising as I expected her to be! 

Mirror Picture! With Ben Brown, Teddy Boylesque, Kai Hoffman, Dan Serra, Slinky Sparkles and Leah Debrincat

A well-deserved Champagne Cocktail to wind down after my hectic weekend!

Bang Tidy

This weekend saw me heading up to Leeds for the wonderfully named show "Bang Tidy Burlesque" run by the indomitable Heidi Bang Tidy.

Backstage with Lilly Laudanum and Anna Fur Laxis

I was performing my act 'Snowstorm' for the final time before retiring this act - I have had it for so many years and I never felt it was working quite the way I wanted it too, so time to hang it up and concentrate on new ventures. However the show was fabulous and it was lovely to see so many old friends. I even got a few pictures back from the night already!

 

 

Pictures from 'Corbeau' and 'Snowstorm' by Laurie Cooper-Murray

Quote of the night came from Anna Fur Laxis: "Shall I show you how to kerb a mother-f**ker?"

I took a trip to Brighton this week to visit Louise O'Mahony who makes my costumes - we're working on a few new ones so it was time to get measured while wearing my tightlacing corset to make sure the dresses fit! Louise is fabulous and also runs my favourite vintage dress company 'Oh My Honey' 

 

A windy day on Brighton Pier

 

Sneak peek of my new costume bits...

I also managed to have a day off this week, and took advantage of it to go to the National Portrait Gallery with the beautiful Dolly Rose to visit the Marilyn Monroe exhibition.

 

Now those of you who watch the television abomination that is The X Factor will be aware of the head judge, Gary Barlow, using the words "Too Cabaret" to critique a singer that he believes is sub-par. The cabaret community didn't take too well to this insult, and so, organised by Frisky and Mannish, came together for a Cabariot Protest Video...

9:30 *A.M.*?? With Benjamin Louche, Joe Black, Vicky Butterfly, Coco DuBois, Victor Victoria, and Mat Ricardo

It was a long, tiring but utterly fabulous day with the cream of London Cabaret performers, all coming together in a cacophony of gospel vocals. We had brainwashing, sequins, passionate solos, convenient lighting changes, pizza, knives, witty one-liners, makeovers, endless tea, and lots and lots of giggling. 

 

Cabarati Assemble! ** Coco and Caroline take advantage of Joe's doughnuts...

 

Joe Black ** Vicky Butterfly

 

Laurie Hagen and Sally ** Mat Ricardo

I can't wait to see the final result... I shall post it here when it's ready! In the meantime, Mat has also written a blog about the Caberiot, with much better photos than mine! You can have a read of that here...

xx