Burlesque you say?

Friday April 6th the adventure began. Three brave souls marched out into the dangerous...oh wait wrong story! Here we go right one: So a fellow student saw and advertisement for a Burlesque show here in K-town and she hinted around about me joining her...I finally caved and we also recruited another grad student to go with us.

I will preface this with I am very happy Burlesque came to the valley and I hope similar shows make continual arrivals on the performance landscape.
The show was held at the Habitat which I am told was created so that whatever event could be held there...not sure of the whole intent although I suspect it is an attempt to give more 'meat' to the cultural vibe of K-town...which I support any effort that focuses on diversity and punching up the level of colour in the town and valley!
The show was sold out and me and my colleagues showed up just in time as there was only five tickets left...YEAH!!! We found seats (that were incredibly painful and unforgiving to my well padded backside...I can still feel the pain!).
Two different sets of performers were scheduled: Kabuki Guns (opening act) and Cheesecake Burlesque Review (second act).

Kabuki had an emcee that admittedly was new and ultimately she was HORRIBLE!! She encouraged the crowd to buy her drinks in the hope that she would improve as an emcee and even as she poured shots down her throat she still managed to stumble over which routine was coming up and names!! Which was matched by poorly practiced routines and ladies who were barely even going through the motions of burlesque. Thankfully I had Rob and Tena to share in the mocking of the whole act...it was disappointing as I had a fairly good idea of burlesque and I also have a WELL GROUNDED sense of performance and these ladies totally ruined the experience and had no respect for the art form they were representing! Although, there was one lady who I got the sense was aiming to do her best but it was hard to give her credence when her fellow performers left such a bad taste in my mouth...
The saving grace was that Kabuki was the opening act (unfortunately the opening soured the experience). The Cheesecake Burlesque Review was great! Granted they admitted they were still perfecting their routines but their emcee was beautifully articulate, clear and well organized! The performers believed in what they were doing and really gave it what they could! Very beautiful ladies honouring a style of performance that has a long history!

The audience was a split of the typical drunken bravado males and the conservative watching for watching sake. Which for me was disappointing as well as I really think the audience makes up the other part of a performance. Aside from the performers themselves no one really costumed for the occassion and drunken men aside the audience remained fairly reserved, still and only engaged at appropriate times ie clapping at the end and beginning of the performances.
However, I will remain firm in being thankful that the show came and I hope many more will arrive on the performance scene!

http://www.capitalcitycheesecake.com/ I would book them in a heartbeat!!