Big Week - Little Blog

Another rather busy week here in Cabaret Land!

I've had another full week of shows, skating rehearsals, photoshoots and 'real-life' work so I'm enjoying having a lazy Sunday off while working on a gorgeous bespoke headband for a customer of my Etsy store.

Roses and Rhinestones

This week I had two shows at the gorgeous Privee of Knightsbridge and a double Saturday show at beautiful Volupte Lounge. I had a shoot with Zebrowski Photography and hopefully got some good shots in there, and also took a trip to Cellar Door to watch Felixy Splits and Jaz Delorian perform a fabulous show!

Busy Busy!

xx

 

Zebrowski Photography Studio ** Jaz and Felixy at Cellar Door

Mirror Picture! With Vixen DeVille, Tempest Rose, Jolie Papillon and Dolly Rose in the background!

Heat Wave

Well this has been a glorious week! I have been loving this beautiful weather we're having!

A couple of sweltering performances this week: a private party in Surrey and two shows at two of my favourite venues - Proud City and Volupte Lounge!

I actually really like this picture! With Bettsie Bon Bon

The crowd was quite small but absolutely wonderful - helped by a dozen of the staff from Proud Camden rocking up for a party! 

With Joe Morose

 

Mirror Pictures! With Abi Collins ** With Bettsie Bon Bon

After a couple of sweltering days I took myself off to Volupte Lounge for their Saturday afternoon Voluptease - again the audience was small but perfectly formed and gave all the performers such a wonderful reception.

Mirror Picture! With Kiki Kaboom and Jolie Papillon

My favourite point of the day was the fact that I was singing, not dancing, so I didn't have to worry about corsets, gloves, boas or pasties! Woop!

Drinking white wine in the sun...

In the evening I was lucky enough to have been given tickets to the ballet! Myself and a couple of friends went to the gorgeous London Coliseum to watch the Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet perform Coppelia: I can't say it was the best production I've ever seen - while I can't fault the incredibly high standard of dancing, and the solos and duets were incredible, I thought there were some very odd, poor choices of choreography for the corps and company scenes. I didn't particularly like some of the costume choices, although the sets were wonderfully epic. The story has been slightly changed and a lot of cuts made to turn the three act ballet into two acts which makes parts of it seem slightly rushed - however, it was a lovely way to pass an evening!

 

Coppelia at the London Coliseum

Back on Show

Well this weekend was another of those that began with nothing going on and ended up being rather busy!

On Friday I returned, after a long hiatus, to the beautiful Proud Cabaret in the City of London to perform at their wonderful Murder Mystery night: it is a fabulous idea, based around Film Noir detective movies, with a cheeky cabaret twist and it was great fun!

Mirror Picture! With Ben, Taz, Mat Ricardo, Luke Meredith, Joe Morose, DeVees, Dan and Kitty Devine!

I adore Proud Cabaret and it was so lovely to be back performing alongside such wonderful people!

 

I can't think of a suitable caption ** Showgirl Mirror Shot

On Saturday was a double whammy at the gorgeous Volupte Lounge for Voluptease and The Vintage Ball. Once again both shows featured a fabulous cast and both audiences were wonderful. Volupte is such a hidden gem, I love it there!

Mirror Pictures! With Adriano Fettucini and Audacity Chutzpah (afternoon show) and Sophia St Villier and Emma Divine (evening show)!

It was also the first outing for my gorgeous new pasties from Banbury Cross's Bulletproof Showgirl company, and they were super sparkly!

Mirror Picture! Selfie!

I have a lovely busy week coming up as it is my birthday in a couple of days so I'll leave you with my favourite picture of the last few days...

I'm a bad cat momma... 

Love, Lust, Life and Learning

Yes, I've been particularly lax at posting again. I'm not going to lie and say I've been that busy, but I have been occupied with other, 'real life' concerns that have left me unable and unwilling to post a lot.

On the performance side, I've had a couple of lovely shows in the last few weeks: one of my favourite regular shows is High Tease in Bath at the Komedia - the audiences are always lovely and I have a blast whenever I'm there.

Mirror Picture! With Rod Laver, Vicky Butterfly, Peggy de Lune, James Malach, Kittie Klaw and Red Sarah!

One of the best parts about the Bath shows is getting to hang out with everyone after the show and eat burgers from the amazing burger shop next to the Komedia!

The following week I performed at a couple of hen parties for the company Burlesque Baby - the girls were lovely and appreciative, and I always enjoy working for the company as they look after their performers so well.

Mirror Pictures!

After dashing around Soho and Covent Garden all afternoon I took myself off to Volupte Lounge for a double show with the gorgeous Tempest Rose and House of Burlesque.

The show was inspired by the very first show I did with the company, Circus Burlesque, which was based on the Seven Deadly Sins. Each show in this run is inspired by one of the sins and the opposite virtue, so I performed Lust (obviously!) and Chastity, depicted with my rarely seen, non-striptease serpentine dance.

Mirror Picture! With Gwendoline L'Amour, Tommaso, Dolly Rose, Tempest Rose and Betty Blushes!

I adore the girls in the show, and it was especially lovely to meet the gorgeous Gwendoline L'Amour at last - she is one of the pioneers of the modern burlesque scene in London and the UK and she was an absolute delight to chat to between shows.

This weekend I have a private party to head to where I'll be singing a few songs for a birthday girl alongside a stellar line-up!

xx

Oops!

Goodness me, it's been almost a month since my last blog! 

In my defence, I've moved house this month and didn't have internet access for some time - added to that I've been a little under the weather so I've not really had the motivation to do much more than curl up on the sofa with the cats and Disney movies!

However, despite this, I have had a lovely month - it began with a charity show at Proud Cabaret organised by the wonderful Hayley Coppinger at Clear Cut Events, with a marvellous cast!

 

"And All That... Cabaret!" ** Joe Morose on piano 

Mirror Picture! With Abi Collins, Tempest Rose, Jonathan Finch and Ben Brown

I had several more shows at Proud Cabaret and the beautiful Volupte Lounge during March - here's a selection of pictures from a few of them...

Electra warming up backstage ** Leah Debrincat onstage

Mirror Picture! With Taz, Coco DuBois, Joe Morose, Electra, Mat Ricardo, Sophia St. Villier, Betsy Rose and Frieda Rose! 

 

Carmen looking gorgeous! ** Coat and Hat artwork?

Mirror Picture! With Tempest Rose and Kitty Devine at Volupte!

Alongside shows, I also participated in a fun photoshoot for the band 'The Noise Next Door' - I spent a fun afternoon dressing up as a saloon/show girl with a group of lovely ladies and gentlemen and the results promise to be wonderful!

Sneaky Peek! With Twin and Tonic, Scarlett Belle and Liberty Sweet!

I also visited my hometown, Chester, to teach a Burlesque Workshop to an over-excitable hen party as part of the Vintage Pamper Box. They are a lovely group of ladies and I always enjoy working with them. The best part about visiting Chester is getting to see my friends and family; although the journey was a little fraught as I don't think Mother Nature has received the memo about Spring!

Snow covered garden in Chester

 

Hen Party at Telfords Warehouse ** Girls Night In with the besties

So, that's about it for March - it was a relatively quiet month, show-wise, which fortunately left me plenty of time and space to move house without lots of distractions. And obviously, being unwell, I actually preferred *not* performing as I wasn't feeling my best at all!

However, the next few months are looking promising and will hopefully be bringing some good things and exciting times, which I will, of course, share with you here - I promise not to leave it so long next time!

Ooh, and I got my hair cut!

Life Is Too Short To Eat Pizza With A Knife And Fork

Blog Title, courtesy of the gorgeous Bettsie Bon Bon!

While looking back through previous blogs, I realised that this time last year I performed at Proud and Volupte - and that's just where I was this weekend too! History repeating!

On Friday I was at Proud Cabaret for their Murder Mystery themed night, hosted by Joe Morrow and Vicious Delicious alongside a stellar cast of Mat Ricardo, Abi Collins, Kitty Devine and Beau Rocks.

Mirror Picture! With Vicious Delicious, Joe, Taz, Mat, Beau, Abi and Kitty

Despite the audience being quite quiet to begin with, they soon got into the swing of the night and were dancing til 3!

Abi Collins...

On Saturday I had a long but wonderful day performing at Volupte Lounge. It is such a beautiful venue and the audiences are always lovely. For their 'Voluptease' afternoon show I was performing alongside Jaz Delorian - a fabulous, Tom Waits-esque pianist and singer, Peter Antoniou - who describes himself as a psychic comedian, and was absolutely fabulous, the wonderful singer Beverley Stone, and Bettsie Bon Bon, who, bizarrely, I had never seen perform solo before, and is completely and utterly captivating, to the point that I couldn't really speak after watching her acts!

Peter Antoniou on stage at Volupte

As I was staying at Volupte for the evening show, Bettsie, Beverley and I took ourselves to a nearby pub for a lovely relax and a pub lunch! I was tempted by the pies but thought better of it seeing as my costumes are quite fitted!

Mirror Picture! With Beverley and \Bettsie

Back for the evening show, I was performing with the gorgeous Scarlet Cuffs and Miss Kingsley - a lovely jazz singer. I was excited to watch a comedy duo perform; Men In Coats, and they were brilliantly funny using physical comedy and quick music changes in a fabulously bonkers act. The show was hosted by Leanne Stott, who is a complete force of nature and had me in stitches all evening!

Mini Me!

Mirror Picture! With Scarlet Cuffs, Miss Kingsley and Leanne Stott

After a well deserved pyjama day on Sunday, I was extremely excited to attend the premier of Lady Rizo's show at the Soho Theatre on Monday night. I met Lady Rizo when I was at the Edinburgh Fringe and she completely blew me away so I was desperate to see her London show. It was completely sold-out and only a couple of late returns meant our entire group could get in! I'm not going to say too much about the show as you need to go and see it, but we had a truly fabulous evening, and I think she even performed two encores as the audience wouldn't let her leave the stage!

Lady Rizo at The Soho Theatre

Quick Blog

I've delayed this blog for longer than I usually would as I've had quite an annoying weekend and didn't want to post anything I might later regret (earlier drafts of this blog prove that point!

The weekend started off with so much promise: my January has, so far, been pretty damn good to be honest - I've had a lot of fabulous shows, started work on exciting new acts, costumes and concepts, a couple of exciting developments, and it was even snowing!

On Friday I even had an audition - the first in a long time! Obviously I don't know whether I'm even through to the recalls but I miss the feeling of an audition: the nerves in the waiting area, the adrenaline rush when your music starts and that euphoria when you know you've nailed it. I'll let you know if I hear anything.

That evening I joined the gorgeous Tempest Rose at Volupte Lounge for a lovely show with some of my favourite people. The weather had put a lot of people off leaving their houses for the evening (the radio was warning people to leave work early because of expected blizzards!) but our audience was perfectly enthusiastic and lovely. Leonie and I even got a round of applause as we headed to the bar after the show!

Mirror Picture! With Tempest Rose, Dolly Rose, Leonie Soprano and Tina

Saturday, by complete contrast, was a complete write off. I'm not going into details but suffice to say it was one of the most annoying days I've had in a long time.

Sunday redeemed itself as I took myself to the Hammersmith Vintage Fair - I didn't buy anything but I love having a rummage around the beautiful clothes, hats, sparklies and furs on offer! And we got to walk through Hammersmith in the blizzarding snow which was really lovely, and shelter in a gorgeous little cafe with plenty of food and coffee - perfect Sunday!

This week has begun quite well, so hopefully it will make up for the annoyances of the last few days and I can be back to my usual upbeat self soon!

xx

Busy, Busy!

Another lovely few days in Cabaret land!

Espresso cocktails at Cellar Door

On Wednesday evening, I went along to Cellar Door to watch Kiki Kaboom and Pete Saunders performing their show 'Blues, Booze and Complete Country' (genius title!) It was a great show, and wonderful to hang out with so many performers who had come along to support them both.

Hanging out at Cellar Door

On Friday I was performing at the gorgeous Proud Cabaret, with a truly fabulous line-up! Proud is one of my favourite venues - it's a beautiful place, the people who work there are wonderful, and the show always has a stellar line-up: backstage is great fun too!

Mirror Picture! With Kitty Devine, Hayley Coppinger, Leah Debrincat, Mat Ricardo, Missy Fatale, Ophelia Bitz and Taz.

Saturday was a busy little day - early evening saw me at The Vintage Ball at Volupte Lounge, performing alongside the gorgeous Sophia St. Villier and Bambi - I love Volupte; it feels like being in a cozy living room with a bunch of friends!

Mirror Picture! With Sophia and Bambi

I was performing my 'Cottingley Fairy' act that night - the routine is one of my oldest and I have been performing it for around four years now, however the costume has been through several incarnations to reach the beautiful wings I now use; and those wings made their debut about two years ago the first time I ever performed at Volupte!

All the petals for the act!

As soon as the show had finished, I jumped into a taxi and tore across town back to Proud to perform there again!

Mirror Picture! With Kitty Devine, Missy Fatale, Ben Brown and Abi Collins

I adore weekends like this - full of shows, fun, pink wine and amazing people!
xx