burlesque blowout!

 

 

Last Wednesday I was lucky enough to be asked to perform at a reading party forCaper Literary Jounral and fiction circus where the burlesque performers did their acts in between poetry and short story readings.  It was a great time and was at this strange little place called Happy Ending Lounge which used to be an illegal prostitution house posing as a massage parlor!

Here are two pictures shot of my act from the ever-so-wonderful Lucille ti Amore who was also a performer that night!

 

Notice the garland boa from my recent post!

 

Amazing purchases

Man, it’s late but here are three awesome things I bought recently:

An antique, hand painted parasol. This parasol was bought for $10 at the Brooklyn Flea Market on Sunday.  Check out my charming companion animal, Catthew Damon, being a shy little model!

While walking by a hardware store in Borough Hall,I saw this tinsel in the window! It is   shiny and good and around $7. Great non-feather boa, right?

Third, shiny spats made from pleather. $10!!!

the boa issue pt 1

As a vegan, I don’t use or wear animal products.  In burlesque, it is quite common to find huge, thick, lush, feather boas draped on the arms of the performers.  So, what is this little bedding burlesquer to do?

I have been putting off this post because, quite honestly, I am still not sure what I will do.  I spent the last few days trying to find synthetic feather boas, mostly with little non-positive results.  It is very difficult to determine the source of most feathers while searching online, so there is no guarantee that some of the boas aren’t actually made from the plucking of chickens on factory farms.  I don’t want anything to do with that byproduct, so my searchresults are highly limited.

Manic Panic sells some fake boas in a variety of colors, but these boas seem so thin and sort of wimpy looking, wouldn’t you agree? I guess if worse comes to worse, I could deal with that.  I considered buying a bulk order of synthetic crafts feathers and making a boa myself, but feel that would be disasterous and only reselt in a a boas that sheds everything in the first hour.

It seems like the manic panic boas are really just strands of fake hair (like hair extensions) that they strung together. This made me consider that maybe going to a fabric store and buying strings of fringe together to make a boa.  This might still be a possiblity

My last thought was about using fake fur yarn to knit myself s long scarf that could be used as a boa.  For now, this is what I’ll be practicing with until I find a better option.