Review of the 10th Anniversary show;

"This show was fantastic!!!"

 

 

"The opening and epic recovery from technical issues by Johnny Nuriel was a great, unscripted ice breaker that demonstrated Johnny's comfort with the audience and stage prowess. The act that followed was sultry and seductive, yet playful and teasing. It really started the show off on solid ground.

 

I have been a fan of burlesque for years, and anyone I have talked to about it since attending my first show in 2014 has heard me say on at least a few occasions, "I find classic burlesque acts to be fairly boring." Lola Couquette made me a believer in the ability of classic acts to be entertaining, exciting and as valuable as the experimental/interpretive acts. She was electric in her performances, and that's understating it by orders of magnitude. Sexy, engaging, playful and well choreographed, she left the audience gasping for breath and wanting for more.

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Dahlia Kash brought down the house. She was such an awesome example of making smaller movements/motions feel massive, grandiose and sweeping. I also love that she ended her first act without uncovering completely. It kept the tension and excitement for her second half act very, very high. Like a wood nymph teasing us and leading us deeper into the forest to devour us once we were collectively lost in the deep of the trees. Her act was so uniquely hers that I couldn't tell if it was more classic or modern burlesque. It just was, and it was truly wonderful to behold.

 

Never walk into a show with Paige Rustles in the cast with the belief you know what to expect. Just trust me when I say you have no idea. Her first half act was a deep, slow burn that mixed themes of mourning, spurned love, vengance and longing. It was sexy, powerful, seductive, and...almost succubial in nature. There was a flow of energy that was from the audience to her, and the more we gave her, the more powerful she got. She left the stage leaving us feeling as if we had been spent and she was just reaching her present zenith of power, off for another meal.

 

Her second act was a real mindfuck of a performance piece about disability, the medicalization of a disabled person's existence, and struggling to break free from the cage that is a disabled body. It was dark, without being moody or brooding. The audience was into the whole thing. Not a single look broke from her while she was performing. It ran for about 6 minutes, which is long to hold audience attention for something this experimental, but all were captivated from start to finish, with tons of hooping and hollering all along the journey she took us on.

 

At this point in the review, dear reader, assuming you are still along for the ride, I need to confess a weakness. Much like IPAs, paté and basketball, I am not, and have never really been, much of a fan of drag performance. This doesn't mean I believe it's valueless. I just lack vision and appreciation for it. In that spirit, I offer up that Diva Dott's performances were well choreographed, physically impressive in their acrobatics and the audience response was massive and sustained throughout both.

 

Sorry, Diva Dott Your performace deserves praise and a detailed critique that this reviewer is ill-equipped to offer. That is most definitely my failing, not yours.

 

Finally, we had a performances by Izaiah and Izohnny (Johnny and Izaiah). Izaiah opened the second half of the show with a little performance BDSM piece as an intro to the act, itself. The entire time, I felt 100% lost in the moment, captivated by the gravity of their presence, and when the end of the performance was reached, it was as if I woke up from a trance. Their magnetism, grace, beauty and presence was all my brain had room to process.

Unfortunately, I had to miss the Izohnny performance. I have few doubts that the combined reality was far greater than its individual parts. From where I was, separated by at least 2 walls and a door, it sounded like I hadn't left the room.

 

To call this celebration of a decade of Burlynomicon a "great revue" would be to dramatically understate it. Natasha Riot has vision, soul and brilliance. Her lineups never disappoint. However, this night was extra special. It felt like a full decade of amazing burlesque crammed into a single evening. Each performance felt like it belonged in the same peer group as all of the others. There was no mismatch in talent or delivery, which can be near impossible to achieve in the best of shows.

 

Thanks to all the performers, Anita Rage kittening her heart out, and Mad Marquis for emceeing, and Natasha for producing and emceeing. It really was a show for the record books."