Miss Immodesty Blaize

Standard Lite, London, Wednesday. 30 March 2005

WEST END BURLESQUE ‘WILL BE SEXY, INTELLIGENT, FUNNY AND CAMP’

Labour’s ad man and a risqué business
BY ILYA GRIDNEFF

HE was the man behind the controversial Hello Boys posters for Wonderbra and French Connection's FCUK slogan.

His ad agency sparked outrage when posters for the Labour party showed Michael Howard's head grafted onto a pig's body. Now Trevor Beattie is set to court controversy again by producing the West End's first burlesque show.

Opening at the Arts Theatre next month, Immodesty Blaize and Walter's Burlesque will be closed to under-15s and claims to feature "domination and gratification at its raunchiest best".

Mr Beattie, head of ad firm TBWA, said: "I've seen the future and she's wearing contrarotating nipple tassels.

"This will be a night out like they used to have. It's sexy, intelligent, funny, camp, energetic, satirical, risqué, androgynous, exuberant and at least seven other camiknicker-clad adjectives."

The production will feature five showgirls, a pianist and — for undisclosed reasons — an eight-foot high rocking horse.

The star of the show is striptease burlesque artiste Immodesty Blaize, who said: "The show is not sleazy, but groundbreaking. The West End has never seen anything like this."

Burlesque is an erotic cabaret and was a common element of Victorian music hall. It has enjoyed a recent renaissance thanks to performers like Blaize and Dita Von Teese, girlfriend of Marilyn Manson. Kylie Minogue's tour Showgirl features burlesque-inspired corsets.

Blaize says her show is more popular among women than men. "My striptease performances are erotic but it is the presentation of a character, it is not merely stripping," she added.

"It is intelligent and sophisticated. It is parody, irony and tease in the burlesque tradition.

It uses comedy, various dance disciplines and pokes a lot of fun. There is a huge amount of substance to it." This substance includes her reportedly expert mastery of simultaneously rotating her nipple tassels in different directions, the talent that caught Mr Seattle's eye. Blaize said: "Burlesque is the new fantasy of looking back to the days of glitz and glamour, back to the times of sexy bombshells. Audiences can dress up and become part of the atmosphere. This is why it is popular."

Mr Beattie, 45, is chairman and creative director of TBWA, which is thought to have an annual turnover of £37 million.

http://www.broadway.com/Gen/Buzz_Story.aspx?ci=507470

Immodesty Blaize, who has been called the “widely lauded Queen of British Burlesque” by The Evening Standard, is bringing her show Immodesty Blaize and Walter's Burlesque to the West End. The show will begin a limited engagement at the Arts Theatre on April 20.

Blaize has earned accolades for bringing British burlesque out of the dark and back into the spotlight. A headlining star of London's famed Whoopee Club, she has performed at various locations throughout the world, including The New York Burlesque Festival, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and The Windmill Theatre, a United Kingdom landmark. She also choreographed a striptease included in Kevin Spacey's production of Cloaca at the Old Vic earlier this season.

Immodesty Blaize and Walter's Burlesque (a version of what was formerly known as Immodesty Blaize and the Adventures of Waler) is a 90-minute Vaudevillian tale set to music.

The Arts Theatre's current tenant, Tynan with Corin Redgrave, is scheduled to end its limited run at the theater on March 26.

http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/shows/display?contentId=83831

The star of the show, Immodesty Blaize, lauded as the Queen of British Burlesque, has been described as a dynamite bombshell, a radiant Ava Gardner-Goddess reshaping the hourglass with her natural curves and gravity-defying assets! Her co-star Walter is uniquely talented: a male burlesque star in what is traditionally a woman's world. His performances are comic strip.. modern and sexually charged. The act includes a chance to get your kicks from Five Spectacular Showgirls, pianist Rod Melvin, the hilarious and poignant clowning of Mr Spike Loons and a giant, eight foot high rocking horse.

Director: Jane Gibson; Producer: Andrew Sutton, Edward Snape and Trevor Beattie.; Designer: David Roger;

Previews from: 20 April 2005
Opening night: 3 May 2005
Closing: 18 June 2005
Times: Tues - Thu 8.30pm, Fri & Sat 7pm & 9.30pm

http://www.londontown.com/LondonEvents/ImmodestyBlaizeandWaltersBurlesque/3026b

 Immodesty Blaize and Walter's Burlesque

Arts Theatre, 6-7 Great Newport Street, WC2H7JB

London's burlesque craze has been spreading rapidly from nightclubs and music halls to the Glastonbury Festival and The Barbican. Now it finally arrives in the West End with a blaze of feathers, bows, corsets, camiknickers, diamonds, diamante, stilettos, powdered wigs and whirling tassels. It follows the traditional pattern of a burlesque show, with a series of dancers, musicians and clowns linked together by a high-camp strip show.

It's been updated for the modern age, so that Miss Blaize's cheeky dominatrix is accompanied by Walter, a corseted man who strips just as enthusiastically, and there's a lot of very smart satire in the humour. One of the things that hasn't changed, however, is that there are still no nipples on display, which pulls this stuff far closer to Moulin Rouge glamour than lap-dance sleaze. Previous shows at Club Whoopee and the Wilton Music Hall attracted more women than men.

It will be interesting to see if this material will translate from the easy atmosphere of glammed up nightclubs to a traditional theatre. The weekend late shows should definitely be a great laugh.

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/ticketshop_feat_burlesque.asp

The hotly anticipated Burlesque! phenomenon shakes up London's West End this spring, as Immodesty Blaize and Walter tear the theatre rulebook to shreds with scorching charm and high camp.

The dynamite performances by the sensational Immodesty Blaize and Walter are guaranteed to make Burlesque! one of the most talked about shows in the West End.

The show's star, Immodesty Blaize, has been hailed as the queen of British Burlesque, thanks in part to her natural curves and gravity-defying assets. Meanwhile, her co-star, Walter is no shy sidekick – his performances are modern and equally sexually charged. The act also includes the Five Spectacular Showgirls, pianist Rod Melvin, the side splittingly amusing clowning of Mr Spike Loons and a surreally gigantic eight foot high rocking horse.

Amongst the show's producers is Trevor Beattie, Guardian columnist and high profile Chairman of ad agency TBWA. Trevor is credited with developing the Hello Boys posters for Wonderbra, not forgetting the FCUK branding campaign for French Connection.

Tickets for one of the raunchiest shows to tease the West End stage are bound to sell out fast. Burlesque! appears at the Arts Theatre for its run from Wednesday 20th April – Saturday 18th June, with tickets ranging from £25.00 - £37.50.

http://www.allticketseurope.com/musicals/burlesque/burlesque.html

Immodesty Blaize & Walter's BURLESQUE

Entertainment with Immodesty Blaize and Walter.

Audiences are invited to rediscover the lost arts of tasseling and tease in an intoxicating and glamorous atmosphere where they’ll see show-stopping routines infused with infectious energy and opulent charm. It’s a nostalgic, eccentric and fun-filled musical night out for all genders and all ages.

Among a host of sensational Burlesque artistes is the star of the show, Immodesty Blaize. Lauded as the Queen of British Burlesque, she has been described as 'a dynamite bombshell, a radiant Ava Gardneresque goddess reshaping the hourglass with her natural curves and gravity-defying assets!' Her co-star Walter is uniquely talented: a male burlesque star in a woman’s world whose performances are comic strip, modern and packed with razor sharp wit.

Joining them will be a full complement of gorgeous showgirls, the poignant and hilarious clowning of Spike Loons and a retro/contemporary soundtrack which ensures this is no gentle trip down memory lane!

The show contains no nudity or singing.

http://www.broadway.com/Gen/Buzz_Story.aspx?ci=507470

Immodesty Blaize, who has been called the “widely lauded Queen of British Burlesque” by The Evening Standard, is bringing her show Immodesty Blaize and Walter's Burlesque to the West End. The show will begin a limited engagement at the Arts Theatre on April 20.

Blaize has earned accolades for bringing British burlesque out of the dark and back into the spotlight. A headlining star of London's famed Whoopee Club, she has performed at various locations throughout the world, including The New York Burlesque Festival, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and The Windmill Theatre, a United Kingdom landmark. She also choreographed a striptease included in Kevin Spacey's production of Cloaca at the Old Vic earlier this season.

Immodesty Blaize and Walter's Burlesque (a version of what was formerly known as Immodesty Blaize and the Adventures of Waler) is a 90-minute Vaudevillian tale set to music.

The Arts Theatre's current tenant, Tynan with Corin Redgrave, is scheduled to end its limited run at the theater on March 26.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/91478.html

Immodesty Blaize to Bring Burlesque to London
By James Inverne
02 Mar 2005

The venerable Wiltons Music Hall in London is set to echo to the sounds of burlesque once more, when Immodesty Blaize stars in her own show there.

Burlesque and music-hall were once the bread and butter of English theatre, but have steadily declined since the dawn of the “angry young men” (one of whom, John Osborne, wrote his play The Entertainer about precisely that phenomenon).

Most recently Wiltons hosted a much-praised production of Macbeth. But Blaize, dubbed by some as “the queen of British Burlesque” will play there between December 1 and 4.

The show, Immodesty Blaize and the Adventures of Walter runs for 90 minutes, and promises decadence and sexual innuendo aplenty. Blaize herself, once a convent school pupil, has taken her act to the New York Burlesque Festival and Cannes. In 2004 she advised Kevin Spacey on a striptease for his Old Vic production of Cloaca.

The show going to Wiltons tried out at Hoxton Hall in July 2004 and later the Windmill Theatre on the London fringe. Blaize, describing the show to a journalist, said, “Think [James] Bond’s John Barry two-stepping with Beyonce, Shirley Bassey dirty dancing with Thin Lizzy and Benny Goodman’s old-time jazz jamming with Grandmaster Flash. Mix in the high-octane glamour of ‘Moulin Rouge’ with a dash of big band and the razzmatazz of rock n’ roll and you’re getting there.’”

The show is directed by Jane Gibson and produced by Andrew Sutton. It will have an 8:45 PM start time.

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=622107&host=5&dir=500

Ladies! Gentlemen! 'The Good Old Days' return

A new National Theatre of Variety marks the rebirth of a classic form of entertainment
By Louise Jury
21 March 2005

Ventriloquists and magic acts may smack of old-time musical hall and working men's clubs, but Britain's long tradition of variety is about to enter the 21st century.

Plans by a task force including Jo Brand, Jimmy Cricket and Tony Robinson envisage a National Theatre of Variety - to be based in its natural capital, Blackpool. The town's Grand Theatre is seen as the home for a new centre of excellence to train younger generations in the arts and history of variety and to showcase them in festivals.

For many, the word variety conjures up memories of The Good Old Days. The television variety show, which revived the Edwardian music hall tradition, ran for 30 years, broadcast by the BBC from the Leeds City Varieties Theatre until its demise in 1983. The brainchild of Leeds-born producer Barney Colehan, the show launched numerous famous faces including Ken Dodd, Barbara Windsor, Roy Hudd, Jimmy Cricket and Les Dawson. Leonard Sachs, who fronted The Good Old Days, became a household name.

The aim is for the new venture to be launched next year, the centenary of the founding of the Variety Artistes' Federation, which later became part of the much younger union Equity. Equity established the task force six years ago in response to demands from variety members, who form a quarter of its membership.

Christine Payne, its assistant general secretary, said the aim was to promote the new strands of variety that have emerged through street theatre, contemporary circus and the new vogue for burlesque. "It's not about preserving; it's about looking at what we need to do for the future," she said. "We know the talent is still there. People are doing variety, but they're doing it differently.

"Street art is a huge employer of our members. The problem is the term. Variety does sound old-fashioned. But it's not."

Roy Hudd, a veteran performer, said the theatre was "the most exciting thing that has happened in variety in years" and honoured an important strand of British entertainment history. "We only invented two forms of showbusiness in this country - variety and panto. Apart from Shakespeare. He was quite good."

In the past, nearly every town had a theatre where performers did their apprenticeship. "You always watched people do their act and people would say, 'You know what would be good? You should put a song in there.' Or, 'It would be great if you could do a back flip. You've never done one? I'll show you.'

"But now you work one-nighters everywhere and you hardly get to say hello. Young performers have to sort it out themselves sitting in their bedroom in front of a mirror."

Nina Conti, who has been acclaimed for reinvigorating ventriloquism with her foul-mouthed monkey sidekick, did just that. She was aware of the form only through childhood memories of Keith Harris until she was given a dummy as a gift.

"Then I went to a convention of ventriloquists in Kentucky and I realised it does have a very rich history. But I had come to it in a vacuum on my own in a bedroom practising in front of my mirror," she said. "When I was putting my hand in a novelty oven glove and bringing it out in front of a heckling pub, I was nervous at the beginning. But it got laughs."

Among the companies she works for is Medium Rare, which offers variety evenings of short film, cabaret, comedy, readings, opera, magic and live music to audiences packed with what it describes as free-thinkers from the worlds of film, advertising, media and fashion.

The plans for Blackpool include workshops on everything from ventriloquism to puppetry in the studio theatre while the records of the theatre already form the basis of an important historical archive.

Paul Iles, theatre manager, said that at the height of the summer season in Blackpool, 22,000 tickets a night were sold for variety. But he believed there was room for more. "We want to reinvent many of the speciality acts from the turn of the 20th century and try new acts for the future," he said.

ACTS NEW AND OLD

VENTRILOQUISTS

Now: Nina Conti
Nina Conti - daughter of Tom - has succeeded in making ventriloquism edgy. Her sidekick is a monkey with a biting sense of humour, who mouths off about his dislike of nature programmes and does a great impression of Helena Bonham Carter in Planet of the Apes. After just seven months of practising ventriloquism, Conti won a BBC Talent New Comedy Award in 2002 and has since performed at festivals from South Africa to Canada.

Then: Keith Harris
Orville, the nappy-wearing duck, sold more than 400,000 copies of his hit single "I Wish I Could Fly", and his creator Keith Harris had his own BBC show. Harris now tours Butlins resorts and makes adverts for Persil washing powder.

BURLESQUE

Now: Miss Immodesty Blaize
One of the stars of the recent burlesque revival, Immodesty Blaize, real name Kelly Fletcher, performs titillating routines in which she strips down to cami-knickers and nipple tassles. Blaize, who started out at the Whoopee Club and made a video for Goldfrapp, is about to star with male striptease artist Walter in her own West End show, produced by advertising guru Trevor Beattie.

Then: Lydia Thompson
Britain's Lydia Thompson was signed up by P T Barnum in 1867 to take her burlesque troupe to New York, where their scantily clad antics were a hit. Even when the American press turned on them, calling them "indecent", burlesque continued to flourish.

MAGIC

Now: Jerry Sadowitz
Four-letter words and savage rants against his fellow magicians are just as much a part of Jerry Sadowitz's magic act as tricks with cards and coins. He is no fan of magicians in the mould of David Copperfield and is particularly vitriolic about the illusionist David Blaine. Born in the United States, but brought up in Glasgow, Sadowitz is as renowned for his deliberately offensive brand of comedy as for his magic tricks.

Then: Paul Daniels
The Middlesbrough-born magician enjoyed a 20-year run on prime-time television, presenting magic shows and game shows such as Every Second Counts. But when his brand of traditional magic began to look dated, he was dropped by television networks.

http://salvfilm.valuehost.co.uk/pulpit10.php

An occasional monthly journal taking in events, life and
general happenings around Salvation and Soho, London.

…
The show was split between Ms Blaize and Walter, a petite man with a penchant for dressing up as a feminised ZZ Top clone and then stripping off to morph into Brittany Spears as a schoolgirl, and then removing yet more Brittany layers before revealing the true man underneath. Ms Blaize however is all woman: round, curvy and with the ability for breast tasselling rotation tricks that were almost hypnotic in their perfection. Immodesty Blaize performs classic burlesque striptease sets utilising her substantial assets, a number of well placed props and a very large rocking horse to great effect. It was a great show, performed in what felt like a real Victorian music hall, and delighted everyone there, including the wonderful Eileen Daly (Redemption icon and Jezebel singer), and a certain woman who will no doubt shudder if she recalls her antics the last time I saw her a few New Years Eves ago…
….

http://www.ideasfactory.com/performance/features/perf_feature49.htm

FLESHING IT OUT

There's no bad ass strippas featured here. Just ones who have a penchant for frills. Kickstarting the burlesque scene in London, Maria Saugar reckons the Whoopee Club will be the talk of the town at The Edinburgh Festival.

It's all about "flesh with equal parts humour, theatre and camp," leered men's mag, Jack.

"One of the only strip nights where they prefer frills to thrills," winked The Face.

But it's, perhaps, The Erotic Review that hit the nail on the head. The Whoopee Club is quite simply "the dog's bollocks."

However you choose to define them, the near-unanimous word on the street is that for anyone looking for a fantastic night out - without the hassle of a dress code, or the disappointment of a snooze-inducing DJ-and-decks scenario - the Whoopee Club is the place to be.

Whipping up a storm

It's a balmy afternoon in Islington. Twenty-something Whoopee co-founders, Tamara Tryer and Lara Clifton, quietly sip their drinks in a booth in the far-corner of the empty bar. On the other side of the room, a DJ spins some inoffensive Motown choons.

A far cry from the glitz, glamour (and rhinestone-studded g-strings) that is the Whoopee Club; one suspects, however, it's a welcome respite nonetheless.

Lara and Tamara have been working together under the Whoopee moniker for a year now, and the party is showing no signs of slowing down.

Taking a break from an unusually hectic schedule, the pair are discussing preparations for their forthcoming Crooked Mirror Cabaret extravaganza, which takes place this 6th-21st August at The Edinburgh Festival.

The show will comprise a host of specially-selected, top-class acts - trapeze artists, sword-swallowers, tableau vivant, and, of course, nipple tassel twirlers, amongst others.

And, if the press coverage and popularity of their monthly club is anything to go by (the Whoopee is London's longest-running monthly burlesque night), it all looks set to take the Royal Mile by storm.

Doing their turns

That said, the look on the duo's faces as they contemplate the proceedings (wild enthusiasm with a smattering of mild hysteria), paints a pretty picture of the sheer enormity of the task ahead.

"We're doing fifteen nights - that's a different show each night," quivers Tamara (charmingly dressed in 1940s-style dress, topped off with a chignon). "Some acts are staying for the whole time, but we've got different people coming in to do turns, so it's ever-changing."

Among the performers taking part are a number of Whoopee regulars, including burlesque ace-face Gwendoline, kinky cross-dressing stripper, Walter, and actor Matt Fraser (who will compere the first two nights).

The show will also feature a handful of acts from the States (where burlesque has been going strong since its introduction as staple of late nineteenth-century vaudeville).

It's on the other side of the pond that likes of Dita von Teese (the queen of the U.S. burlesque scene, who performed at the Osbourne's recent wedding bash), and (at the other end of the scale) even Baywatch's Carmen Electra (a part-time "Pussycat Doll"), have been strutting their stuff, spearheading a revival in this some-time forgotten music hall entertainment.

"We've got a few people coming over from America," Tamara informs us. "We've got Katherine Delish, who's a bit of a big burlesque star there - like Dita. She's going to come and perform. And," she adds, "she's got her own cocktail glass."

Olympic standard

Many of the Whoopee Club performers are regulars now. Some (such as Miss Immodesty Blaize, whose nipple tassel twirling skills recently featured in Gold Frapp's Train video) have been with the club since day one.

"She was with us from the first show," says Lara. "She does Olympic-standard nipple twirling."

Interviewer makes candy-floss swirling motion with hands.

Tamara: "It's a proper symbol. A couple of years ago no one knew what that meant." Quite.

And, as and when necessary, the pair regularly top up their roster by contacting circuses and performers directly. A sort of burlesque lonely hearts...

Says Lara: "If we were missing somebody, we found specific acts for certain-themed nights."

"For example, for the gypsy circus night, we wanted more circus-y acts, so we approached people. We put an ad up in (circus arts charity) The Circus Space. Also, just through going through the internet, finding people."

A new twist

Lara and Tamara are keen to stress that unlike many other revivalist clubs currently going strong they're not running some kind of memory lane for throwbacks who live the lifestyle, or missed it the first time around.

Says Tamara: "We're very much trying not to be a nostalgia show. We're not just re-doing what's been done in the past."

"We like to use the traditions, and also what burlesque has come to mean - which is kind of suggestive striptease - but to use it in a modern way."

"That's what we're trying to push the performers to do, particularly in Edinburgh. To put a new twist - a modern twist - on what is an old art-form."

And it's probably true to say that, unlike their more traditional counterparts in the American burlesque scene, British performers are much more willing to innovate.

"Yeah," nods Lara. "It's all very fifties in the States. Whereas, we're a lot more eccentric and imaginative."

Fan fantasies

Part of the reason for setting up the Whoopee Club was to provide a platform for working strippers to be able to extend their repertoire. Oo-er.

"Yeah," says Lara, matter-of-factly. "A lot of burlesque performers do..."

"Before we started up the club, people in London who wanted to do burlesque found there wasn't really anywhere for them to perform."

You met each other at a fan-dancing class...

"It sounds quite romantic," laughs Lara. "Yes, I was working on the Burlesque Academy and Tamara came to a class. I was mainly just helping to provide burlesque people and do the show at the end."

"And," (turns to partner) "you were there for filmic reasons, weren't you?"

"Oh, I had these fantasies of being a fan-dancer," says Tamara with a giggle. "I also wanted to make a film about fan-dancing."

"I did Photography at the RCA," she reveals. "And I always do the projections at Whoopee."

Getting away with it

The list is endless: fan-, exotic-, and belly-dancing, chair-work, even "six ways to remove a glove". But are lessons in the various art-forms of burlesque (the pair run a class in collaboration with London School of Striptease founder Jo King) a help or a hindrance?

Does getting their tassels spinning at the exact scientifically-specified speed and angle encourage performers to experiment with new ideas or just stick with what they're taught?

"Oh, it's brilliant," enthuses Lara. "One of our acts once did a subverted magic act, but he wanted to learn magic before he could subvert it."

"I think it helps if you are trained to an extent, because then you can play with the genre a lot more. But it's very hard to train in tasselling or fan dancing."

"I think the nature of vaudeville and burlesque is that you can get away with it if you have an original idea, that it's more about the idea than the skill...depending on what it is you've chosen to do."

Upping their stakes

Truth be told, the acts can be on occasion be a little hit-and-miss. Thankfully, that's the nature and, perhaps, appeal, of cabaret. After all, it was, back in its Parisian hey-day, an opportunity for performers to test their acts on audiences, informally.

Lara: "That's another reason why we're gonna do less shows, because in a month there's so little time to actually know...quite often we book performers and don't see them until they're on stage, because we haven't got time to audition people."

"We're flyering and getting the show ready, and fifteen acts and getting the show ready is such a mammoth task that we can't actually direct and produce as much as we'd like to or in the way that we'd like to."

Tamara: "But, yeah, it's sometimes fun for us, because it's actually surprising for us."

"Also," Lara points out, "I think that people are starting to up their stakes a bit. People who weren't doing that much to begin with, we've kept them on and they're just kind of getting better - they have to to stay in the line-up, which is good."

"This big thing"

The last six months have seen the Whoopee holding nights at a number of sumptuous London venues - the rooms of the Great Eastern Hotel; the gilded, mirrored ballroom of the Atlantic Bar in Piccadilly.

Now, it seems, they're taking the Whoopee Club back to its roots, in the more intimate 200-capacity Cobden Club in Westbourne Park - also their original venue.

Tamara: "It's actually built for burlesque, with a gold proscenium arch. They had actual burlesque on in Victorian times."

"The whole thing about Edinburgh," explains Lara, "is to have a more artistically directed show that really goes with the theme and develops the acts - how they relate to the theme and how they work with each other."

"After Edinburgh, we think we're gonna do a big event every four months, in a bigger place like the Atlantic. But it seems more special to have it for people to look forward to it and dress up and really plan for this big thing."

Says Lara: "If we can have it every four months, then we can make it a really proper theatrical thing."

Permission granted

In the States - particularly in post-Mayor Guiliani New York - the return of burlesque has been put down to a backlash against conservatism: a clamp down on strip joints, smoking bans in public places, etc. Does the UK revival echo this cultural reaction?

Lara: "Yeah. There's the fact that there's a war on. People go for glamour and hedonism in times where politics is so depressing."

"And, also, I think it's to do with women feeling that they can be sexy and that it's allowed, and that they don't have to get their underwear from Ann Summers to be sexy."

"It's not just a kind of silly thing. It's giving permission for people to be sexy and strong. And I think that that's quite new, that women are finding their sexuality in it in quite an exciting way at the moment. I think that's evolved over the past ten years or so."

Va-va-voom

Also, maybe the UK club scene was desperately in need of a change...

Says Lara: "I think people were just ready. We just put the club on and people came along. People were just ready for that glamour and that different way of clubbing that's not just putting on a DJ. That someone's made an effort to make you feel that you want to come out."

And also a way of injecting a bit of verve and va-va-voom into a long-time staid art scene.

Explains Lara: "The whole Brit Art scene was quite cynical and was not really celebrating pleasure and joyous things."

"I think burlesque kind of brought back a way to have fun, and be a performer and enjoy yourself."

"Art as a whole has changed. It's become more convincing, more seductive."

Keeping it fresh

It's a surprise to learn, then, that both Tamara and Lara came into the club promoting biz with no prior experience, and are, to an extent, still learning the ropes day-by-day.

Tamara: "Yeah, absolutely. We're learning things every single day..."

Laughs Lara: "Yeah. To our expense, quite often. But, yeah, Edinburgh is the biggest production that we've done. If we can carry this off, I think we'll be very pleased with ourselves."

And with a boutique (selling knickers and tassels), an agency (providing acts for hen nights, parties and corporate events), and an event at the V & A later in the year, it's fair to say these two ladies will have their hands full for the rest of the year, at least.

Lara: "I think if we keep it fresh, it'll remain an exciting event."

Adds Tamara: "Yeah, like real theatrical events, and maybe have a trip out of London on a train...in some weird art deco hotel by the sea."

And your own venue with showgirls and a motorised stage, like (leading Parisian cabaret company) La Lida?

Tamara: "Oh yeah! I mean that's what we'd love, to have our own venue...and all proper stages..."

"They probably have a bigger budget, though," Lara reminds her partner.

Quite possibly. But there's no harm in dreaming.

Have you got an idea for a feature? If so, email the editor and let them know!

Standard Lite, London, Wednesday, 20 April 2005
Blaize's saddle
by Nick Curtis

The West End's newest star on how she rose from being a PA to making it big, very big, in the world of burlesque

MANY stars seem smaller than life when you meet them in the flesh. Not Miss Immodesty Blaize, 28-year-old tassle-twirling queen of the new British burlesque scene. She sashays into the Arts Theatre, all big boobs, big lips and shapely calves. The look is classic Fifties American bombshell, with a bit of wry British wit thrown in, the make-up and jewellery veering on the cartoonish. And this is her in civvies, not the stage outfits - corsets, pom-poms and an 8ft rocking horse. "So," I stammer, "your real name is Kelly Fletcher..." "I could confirm that," coos Miss Blaize in an immaculate Home Counties accent, "but then I would have to kill you." Hmmm. I can think of worse ways to go.

We have met because burlesque, which has enjoyed something of a resurgence in recent years, is about to go mainstream in a show at the Arts featuring Miss Blaize and her male co-star, Walter, produced by advertising guru Trevor (Hello Boys) Beattie of ad agency TBWA. "Last year the Immodesty crew did a one-off show for a group of our clients, and people still talk about what a great night they had," says Beattie. "So when I was given the chance to take it into the West End, I said, 'where do I sign?'"

"The show is cheeky, but there is a lot of substance to it too," says Miss Blaize. "It is more than people removing their clothes."

Burlesque, as she points out, began in London's music halls in the 1860s as a sort of prototype cabaret, its primary purpose to send up the social conventions of the day. But the term was annexed in the Forties and Fifties by American theatre owners who hired strippers to stop audiences defecting to the cinema. Today there is an overlapping transatlantic scene, but while American burlesque focuses on Playboy perfection, the British strand is, according to Miss Blaize, "more eccentric and ironic". The show at the Arts will reference the full history of burlesque, but with a modern spin.

"Although we draw on the traditions of the past, burlesque has always reflected the society of the time," says Miss Blaize. "In our show there is a scene where I come on as a beautiful bird and turn myself into a horse, which is a parody of the bootylicious, butt-shaking female."

Miss Blaize is "famous for my contra-rotating nipple tassles", but neither she nor Walter is ever fully nude on stage. "Everyone has their boundaries," she says. "Nipple tassles and panties are mine." She also thinks that people "are keen for a chance to dress up and show off again".

At the peripatetic Whoopee Club burlesque nights — where she and Walter honed their act — audience members often outdid and out-(un)dressed the performers. What's more, about 60 per cent of them were female.

"The audience is very mixed — from 18 to 80, men, women and everything in-between," says Miss Blaize. "And though I think it would be odd to call myself some sort of third-way feminist, every woman who sees and enjoys the show walks out visibly two inches taller.

"Many come up to me afterwards and ask if I can teach them tassling or fan-dancing. I'm not selfish with my skills: it took me months of feeling stupid in front of my bedroom mirror before I learned how to tassle, so I'm happy to pass it-on."

She also feels she's doing her bit to combat body fascism. "I myself am not stick thin," she says, indicating her 36DD-26-36 curves, "and I think it's important to show that you can be confident, sexy and beautiful without being a size six."

The only child of an electrician father and a dog-breeder mother, her parents divorced when she was three and she was sent to boarding school at a Hertfordshire convent. She claims she wasn't a rebel, but throughout her teens and early twenties — when she took a degree in advertising at Brunei University — she immersed herself in the imagery, the feminine icons, the music and the fashions of the Forties.

After graduating, she spent a couple of months as a (clothed) pole dancer in a London club "to pay the rent". She then joined a film company as a PA, working her way up to become an award-winning commercials director. She also produced paintings and sculptures about female sexuality but knew there was "some other form of self-expression bursting to get out". She created Immodesty Blaize in 1997 (named after comic-strip heroine Modesty Blaise) for a performance-art night in Brick Lane.

For three years her two careers ran in tandem, but her big break came when she was picked by art-rock outfit Goldfrapp to appear in the video for their single Train, and on their national tour. "I had to decide whether to become Immodesty Blaize full-time and I went for it," she says. Other high-profile appearances followed, culminating in her stint as Queen Of The Whoopee Club, and now her turn at the Arts Theatre. "It's a calling, dammit," she insists.

• Immodesty Blaize & Walter's Burlesque, previewing now, first nights Tue 3 & Wed 4 May, Arts Theatre, 6-7 Great Newport Street, WC2 (020 7836 3334).

Evening Standard METROLIFE, 22-28 April 2005
Blaize of glory

Kelly Fletcher, aka Miss Immodesty Blaize, has dedicated herself to putting the forgotten art of burlesque cabaret back on the map. With a full-scale show opening in the West End, she tells Nick Curtis why there's more to burlesque than taking your clothes off

Mention of bodice-ripping prompts Miss Blaize to clear up some misconceptions. 'The show is cheeky, but there is a lot of substance to it too,' she says. 'It is much more than people removing their clothes.' Burlesque, as she points out, began in London's music halls in the 1860s as a sort of prototype cabaret, its primary purpose to send up the social conventions of the day. But the term was annexed in the Forties and Fifties by American theatre owners who hired strippers to stop audiences defecting to the cinema. Today there is an overlapping transatlantic scene, but while American burlesque focuses on Playboy perfection, the British strand is, according to Miss Blaize, 'more eccentric and ironic'. The show at the Arts, which also includes five showgirls and the enticingly named Spike Loons and Magic Wanda, will reference the full history of burlesque, but with a modern spin.

'Although we draw on the traditions of the past, burlesque has always reflected the society of the time,' says Miss Blaize. 'In our show there is a scene where I come on as a beautiful bird and turn myself into a horse, which is a parody of the bootylicious, butt-shaking female.' Miss Blaize is 'famous for my contra-rotating nipple tassles', but neither she, nor Walter, is ever fully nude on stage. 'Everyone has their boundaries,' she says. 'Nipple tassles and panties are mine.'

Miss Blaize says burlesque restores a sense of glamour and mystique to showbiz. 'The world is also a f***ing depressing place at the moment,' she says, 'and our show is a place of absolute escapism, a velvety, decadent cocoon from reality.' She also thinks that people 'are keen for a chance to dress up and show off again'. At the peripatetic Whoopee Club burlesque nights - where she and Walter honed their act - audience members often outdid and out-(un)dressed the performers. What's more, around 60 per cent of them were female.

'The audience is very mixed - from 18 to 80, men, women and everything in-between,' says Miss Blaize. And though I think it would be odd to call myself some sort of third-way feminist, every woman who sees and enjoys the show walks out visibly two inches taller. Many come up to me afterwards and ask if I can teach them tassling or fan-dancing. I'm not selfish with my skills: it took me months of feeling stupid in front of my bedroom mirror before I learned how to tassle, so I'm happy to pass on the short-cut.' She also feels she's doing her bit to combat body fascism. 'I myself am not stick thin,' she says, indicating her 36DD-26-36 curves, 'and I think it's important to show that you can be confident, sexy and beautiful without being a size six.'

The only child of an electrician father and a dog-breeder mother, Miss Blaize's exotic looks spring from her 'mongrel' refugee heritage - a mixture of Irish, Polish, French and Serbian. Her parents divorced when she was three, and she was sent to boarding school at a Hertfordshire convent. She claims she wasn't a rebel, but throughout her teens and early twenties - when she took a degree in advertising at Brunei University - she immersed herself in the imagery, the feminine icons, the music and the fashions of the Forties.

After graduating, she spent a couple of months as a (clothed) pole dancer in a London club 'to pay the rent'. She then joined a film company as a PA, working her way up to become ah award-winning commercials director. She also made paintings and sculptures about female sexuality but knew there was 'some other form of self-expression bursting to get out'. She created Immodesty Blaize in 1997 (the name came from a gas meter-reader who said she looked like the Standard's comic-strip heroine Modesty Blaise) for a performance-art night in Brick Lane.

For three years her two careers ran in tandem, but her big break came when she was picked by art-rock outfit Goldfrapp to appear in the video for their single Train', and on their national tour. 'I had to decide whether to become Immodesty Blaize full-time and I went for it,' she says. Other high-profile appearances followed, culminating in her stint as Queen Of The Whoopee Club, and now her turn at the Arts Theatre. 'It's a calling, dammit,' she insists.

Her fiancé, Andrew Sutton, is thoroughly supportive. A former hedge-fund manager with the Mann Group, he's co-producing the show and hopes to take it on to Broadway. 'We met when he saw me dancing at the Hammersmith Apollo with Goldfrapp and said: "Who is this woman, I've got to meet her.'" says Miss Blaize. They will marry later this year, in the Cotswolds. 'It's going to be very Immodesty,' she says, 'with flamingoes and topiary hedges and costumes from Alice In Wonderland.' She smiles. 'It's going to be a wonderful opportunity for me to actually wear a dress, rather than a corset.'

• Immodesty Blaize & Walter's Burlesque, previewing now, first nights Tue 3 & Wed 4 May, Arts Theatre, 6-7 Great Newport Street, WC2 (020-78363334).

Events/Tickets
Immodesty Blaize & Walter's Burlesque
Arts Theatre
London

A new phenomenon bursts into London's West End this Spring with the arrival of IMMODESTY BLAIZE & WALTER'S BURLESQUE! A seductive blend of hot charm and high camp, the show will open at the Arts theatre on 20 April.

Audiences are invited to rediscover the lost arts of tasseling and tease in an intoxicating and glamorous atmosphere where they'll see show-stopping routines infused with infectious energy and opulent charm. It's a nostalgic, eccentric and fun-filled musical night out for all genders and all ages.

Among a host of sensational Burlesque artistes is the star of the show, IMMODESTY BLAIZE. Lauded as the Queen of British Burlesque, she has been described as "a dynamite bombshell, a radiant Ava Gardneresque goddess reshaping the hourglass with her natural curves and gravity-defying assets!" Her co-star WALTER is uniquely talented: a male burlesque star in a woman's world whose performances are comic strip, modern and packed with razor sharp wit.

Add to this a full complement of gorgeous showgirls, the poignant and hilarious clowning of Spike Loons and a retro/contemporary soundtrack which ensures this is no gentle trip down memory lane, IMMODESTY BLAIZE AND WALTER'S BURLESQUE!' is shaping up to be THE show of the year!

"Severely Chic...where Moulin Rouge meets Chicks on Speed." - QX Magazine

"Glamorous and decadent" - THE TIMES

"A dazzling reminder that fun will never go out of fashion" - The Stage

'Amazing...incredibly sexy!' - BBC RADIO 4

ADDRESS
Arts Theatre
Great Newport Street
London WC2H 7JB

Photo Gallery

Miss Immodesty Blaize's Web site: www.immodestyblaize.com.

RETURN     |     RÉSUMÉ (ENGLISH)     |     RÉSUMÉ (RUSSIAN)     |     HOME