DISCLAIMER: I may or may not have been so swept up by all the boob-plates and pads that I may or may not have taken photos for this article. but never fear! The awesome Jane has a great collection of pics that she’s taken at each stage so far, that she’s taken with an actual camera, as opposed to my iPotato. I’ll pop a selection of pics for each act at the end of this post, and you can find her official FaceBook page here: Go and give her a like, and a share, and all the online love you can muster. She’s THE BEST!
This week at It’s a Drag Knock-Out at Bloc, it’s all about the ass and titties (ass, ass and titties) as the Eight finalists are putting their BURLESQUE skills to the test. Yes, this week the worlds of drag and burlesque are colliding, and the queens will be showing swerves and curves for days! The twist this week, as I hear you ask, was that each act was randomly given a song to perform to in a move inspired by Lolo Brow‘s burlesque shuffle.
Emceeing the event was, of course, Meth bringing classical glamour-clown with a neon yellow wig and red nose, as she pulled a touching performance of Send in the Clowns out of her bag of tricks, which also contained a flower, squirty flower and a good ol’ fashioned cream pie.
We interrupt this review to bring you a quick history lesson on the art of burlesque (taken from Wikipedia) As you’ll know, burlesque and drag, despite being fairly different beasts, share a fair few similarities: they’re both under the umbrella of cabaret acts, they both involve humour and satire, and they both blur the lines of sex and sexuality. The word ‘burlesque’ has roots as far back as the 1500s, and has always been used for parodies and satires, but burlesque as we know it today (the pieces centred around female nudity) started to become widespread in the late 1800s, with strip routines taking over in the 1930s, and included acts like the legendary Gypsy Rose Lee. The act of burlesque started to decline towards the mid 20th century, and became almost unnecessary in the 1970s, as nudity became more prevalent in mainstream media, movies and theatre, and so became antiquated. Burlesque has since had a resurgence and a re-brand of sorts (neo-burlesque) which sees names such as Dita Von Teese bringing the classic standard of burlesque back into the public conscious. It is this sort of burlesque that springs to mind immediately when you think of burlesque, but there are still further delineation of burlesque, just as there are different types of drag.
Aaaaand we’re back in the room, as are judges Virgin Xtravaganzah, Blanche Dubois (she’s a Mexican don’tcha know?) and the stunning Miss Lolo Brow, one of my personal fave burlesque acts on the scene at this current time. This week the judges have a lot more to deal with than doling out the critiques, as, unfortunately it seems a few members of the crowd were here more for happy hour cheap drinks than supporting and nurturing the acts and SHUTTING THEIR DAMN FACES.
Sorry bout that… Onto the first act to bare it all- Kai Kai, who brought us some good, old-fashioned burlesque to Christina Aguilera‘s Candyman. Starting in a hefty black fur coat and slowly stripping off the layers to reveal pasties, Kai Kai delivered a standard fierce lip-sync with lots of anger, but is it time we saw a softer side? I always feel like the driving force behind Kai Kai‘s performance is power and defence, when we need to see some vulnerability that doesn’t come from anger. That being said, I will applaud her for being up first, and going all-out in her act, stripping down to a pair of pasties and skimpy briefs. No stage fright here.
Next was perennial fan-favourite Veronica Green, who was given the frankly awful song choice of Livin La Vida Loca, a song that I can’t even bear to hear at a karaoke, let alone on a burlesque stage. Despite this setback, she bought a feisty Latina flavour to the stage, starting off as some sort of gothic action heroine (Lara Croft meets The Cure) before revealing a Rhinestone-studded bodysuit. The moves were down, and so was Veronica, unfortunately. Yes readers, prepare for my first critique aimed at Veronica… There was a lot of floor action, and from where I was sat I couldn’t see these moments and reveals, such as the shorts->bodysuit switcheroo. Play it to the boys in the back, gurl!
Flirty Third was Delirium, who managed to perform to an even weirder song, Bring Me to Life by Evanescence. This was used to good effect in a robot-inspired routine which involved a malfunction and robotic bodysuit. It was an alright performance, but hampered by it giving me some serious Deja Vu (I’m saying nothing, and neither did anyone else) I did actually enjoy this week’s offering from Delirium, however, as there was character there, humour and a bit of uncanny valley thrown in for good measure (uncanny valley, for the uninitiated, is when things look human but aren’t quite, or they move in an inhuman way. You know, like ..) Maybe I’m just a sucker for creepy Robots.
Taking us into the interval was Cherry Popper who cleverly played her strengths to an advantage, by using a character for the lipsync to the Dresden Dolls‘ Missed Me, portraying a heavily drunk wife who strips down to body painted lingerie, before washing it away with the help of a good merlot. My one gripe with this act was the blocking, thinking purely in theatrical terms, Cherry always angled herself away from the crowd, and never turned to reveal the amazing body art until very late in the performance.
After Cherry came Georgia Tasda with another satirical act in the vein of her Maria Sharapova doping admission speech that got her into the top Ten way, way back in Week One. This time, she set her steely gaze on the state of the nations budget as Georgia became George Osbourne (from the waist upwards, and Frank N Furter down below) in an interesting and definitely unique burlesque set that saw George presenting and destroying several controversial political documents, we’re looking at you, David Cameron and your tax dodging antics. It was classic Tasda, bringing an intellectual and relevant humour to the proceedings in an eye-opening and entertaining way. And, of course a classic song, Goldfinger by the Bassey!
Lick was Sixth, and we were all expecting the boundaries to be pushed, demolished and stomped on, but no one expected them to be gender boundaries. Yes, while Georgia has been brushing up on Newsnight, Lick has been trawling the pages of PinkNews in search of gender-based drama. Starting off as a 50’s housewife in a poofy dress, albeit with a bandaged face, she transitioned (see what I did there?) into a man with slicked-back hair and a wispy moustache. It was almost like looking in a mirror (minus the housedress, of course) the make-up was actually so good, and it was interesting to see an on-stage reveal from bio-queen to drag King, something that you won’t see everyday. And I can’t ignore the delightful twist on burlesque gloves, substituting silk ones for pink marigolds!
Then came a very personal performance from Tess Tickles, who opted for a very contained and almost intimate strip routine to an Adele song (Set Fire to the Rain). This was an interesting take on the idea of burlesque, which is normally an over-the-top spectacle that always feels like a crowd-pleasing act. With Tess’ performance this week it seemed more like an act geared towards individuals, as opposed to a whole. Also, it was unfortunate that the wardrobe malfunction, an undoing of a corset/bodice was so obvious and drawn-out. Accidents happen, as they did with other acts this evening, but the overriding and vital advice from the judges has always been to play it out and make it work.
Finally, we get to the ever-sensual Aimee Rose, and I am so happy that we got to see another side to Ms. Rose! So far, each act has shown sass and confidence, but it has been reserved, and almost aloof. But given the task of performing a burlesque routine to Guns and Roses Live and Let Die, Aimee managed to take back some control over the audience. She’s always been able to grab our attention, but this was the next level, having the attention and giving a real tease, and all this while staying very covered, and giving the bra-reveal equivalent of two-wig Roxxy. ‘Pass the Bra-cel, if you will.
And after all that excitement, we got all got to vote for our Faves (one vote per £5 at the bar, one free vote at the interval, you know the drill) and were treated to the reveal of next week’s theme: LIVE VOCALS! Note: this is vocal, not singing, so the acts can sing, monologue, rap, stand-up, recite Sylvia Plath, whatever, and will be mentored and judged by Silver Summers and Ruby Wednesday.
Lolo Brow got to strut her stuff and bring her trademark Burlesque Shuffle to Bloc. The concept is simple, but so very good! Basically, Lolo has loloaded up a playlist with 500 songs, which will be the randomly shuffled soundtrack to the striptease routine, and the audience is in control, shouting ‘change’ they want the music to, you guessed it; skip. The act was the perfect mix of sexy and funny, and shows just why Miss Brow deserved a spot as guest mentor and judge.
And now, the results: making it through safely to next week’s show were Veronica, Cherry and Aimee, leaving the tops and bottoms of the week on the stage. Delirium and Tess also made it though, and Georgia was crowned the (deserving) winner of the challenge, walking away with a pair of tickets to a Soho burlesque club.
And that left Kai Kai and (shockingly) Lick Von Dyke to duke it out in the Lip-Sync for Your Life to Muse‘s Feeling Good, and what a battle it was! Lick brought Detox-esque jaw wobbling and humour, while Kai Kai pulled out all the stops (and her wig) in an intensely physical performance. In the end, Lick retained her place in the competition, and it was Bye-Bye to Kai Kai.
Come along to Its a Drag Knock-out at Camden’s Bloc Bar every Monday at 8 for for queens, bio-queens and… whatever Georgia decides to do this time!
Again, all pics for this week’s post were taken by the wonderful Jane, whose work can be viewed at https: //www.facebook.com/jevgenijaphotographer I want to thank her for allowing me to use these pieces of art in my little old blog, and remember to like her page, follow her, send her love letters, send me love letters, whatever floats your boat!
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