Do You Really Want to Know What Banana Is The Top?

Photo by Ian West

For those of you who don’t know and to hear it one more time for those of you who do, before Burlesque was associated with striptease, it basically meant to parody or satire. Burlesque literally means/meant to make fun of! The first burlesque shows were satires and parodies of lofty, “real” theatre plays. “Ben Hur” became “Bend Her” and so on. As part of our heritage, I personally feel it our duty to take the piss out of everyone and everything! At least some of the time.

Recently I’ve attempted to harangue my mailing list into voting for me as one of Vancouver’s favorite comedians. This based purely on my comedic Burlesque performances. I’m not involved with stand up, improv or sketch (not yet anway). It wasn’t my idea last time but I won a spot in 2009 (also due to a faboo mailing list) and now I want MORE! Its part of my 3 step plan to get good, get noticed, and get paid. I tell the mailing list the reasons why are:

  • 1.) it confuses real comedians
  • 2.) it makes me sound like a bigger deal than i actually am
  • 3.) it will help me in my quest for world domination

All of these reasons are funny because they’re true!! I’m so haha like that. But I have actually received small amounts of what the fuck from stand ups. The issue slash the cool thing that is happening here is that we are creating a new genre of funny that doesn’t really appear anywhere else. Typically you say comedian and people think of stand up or sketch. Now, not only is Burlesque bringing sexy back but Physical Comedy as well! Ok, ok! Obviously Clowns win at physical comedy. But still, they don’t usually dance. And not as many people are scared of us. Ok different people are scared of us but aside from all of that we are helping to create and establish a crazy hybrid of funny and dancing. I’ve only seen a few examples of this running professionally or mainstream. Mr. TV in Vegas or that Evolution of Dance guy. There are some really great opportunities waiting to be developed within all this that I am really excited to be a part of.

There is lots to be said about women and comedy. Usually its stuff like there aren’t as many funny ladies as funny boys, that they’re not as funny, Tina Fey and Sarah Silverman are awesome (Not to mention Kathy and Margaret among others but you get what I’m saying). Bla bla bla. The other way-awesome thing about what is happening is that because this a woman dominated art form; we are finding a place where women are able to find a voice and venue to become comedians. This is fucking awesome if you ask me!! I know that I feel truly at home within this strange Dancemedian genre and I am so grateful to have found it.

The other power of using comedy within BurlyQ is more of that spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down stuff. Comedy can and will soften the blow on matters of serious or political nature (The Daily Show anyone?). When we even just lightly lace our performances with humor, we are taking the edge off something that alot of people consider “scary” or “bad.”  This scary or bad thing that I am talking about is stripping and/or sex in general. Now stripping is part of our heritage as well and is not something to distance ourselves from. Instead we, as performers and WOMEN need to embrace and celebrate the talent and abilities of our sexy cousins. This is another blog post entirely but I see Burlesque being a way to bridge the gap between our genre of Striptease which is  seeing more and more success and celebration and conventional Stripping which hopefully can gain more positive notoriety and respect from the mainstream as well. Its important that we view sex as something that can be fun and laughed at. When we feel positive about sex, the less power it has over us to feel shitty. And when you don’t feel shitty- you don’t need to buy anything to fix yourself. Boo-Ya!!! Be the change you wish to see people. You know its important.

Now there are a few challenges that I can see occurring for us. One involving changing the perception of what comedy is- not only for ourselves and our audience but for “traditional” Comedians. How to do this? Be good. HA! Cause its that easy. But seriously, what its going to require is more research and serious consideration into the how and why of the funny. Effort people effort!!! One thing no one can argue with is success. And how to be successful in any realm of Burlesque is to maintain and improve with the quality and effort. This also means not only lauding the famous stripteasers from our past but also the comedians, physical and otherwise.

The other issue I can see is how we define ourselves and what the global community views as worth promoting. Even though comedy in Burlesque routines is basically part and parcel to pretty much every Burlesque show I have ever been to, when I went to Exotic World this year- I’d say that I saw maybe 6-10 funny numbers? I saw beautiful, I saw epic and holy fuck did I ever see amazing. But gut busting, side splitting, ironically amazingly funny? There were 2 in my judgey judgerson opinion. Not to say that Evil Hate Monkey didn’t deserve the comedy award- cuz he did- but he didn’t have much competition. Aside from Roky Roulette, another competitor in the Boylesque category- and maybe the bananas in our entry for Best Group- there were NO funny numbers in the main categories. I was backstage for abit so maybe I missed some stuff? I am aware that alot of what BHOF stands for involves preserving and treasuring what Burlesque was in its glory but seriously… the lack of funny wasn’t very funny.

I get we need to know where we’ve been-but what about where we are going? And what about the part before it was all about striptease? And what about the comedy in our heritage? Why is it ok for the gentleman to have funny numbers and the ladies are a no? Were there just no funny entries this year? Is it important that we define Burlesque as only classic striptease?? Are funny numbers worth showcasing? Is there a demand for Dancemedians??  P.s I did not make up that word.. Bob Hope did!! I just dont think it caught on for some reason, but like the sexy (and the funny!), I am bringing it back!!!!

But look at me! Making dialogue. OOOOooooooEEEEooooo! As I said before there is alot of opportunity for us Burly Comedian/ennes to change the way basically everyone views comedy and Burlesque.  I will personally rise to any said challenge cuz as I just blathered about for the last page and half.. I think Comedy+ Burlesque=Fucking Awesome!!!