You started a new burlesque troupe I understand?
Yes we came together in December about six of us and started talking about it and then started putting it into action in January.
What’s it called?
Sugar Box Burlesque.
I understand there’s nine women and also a man involved?
There sure is he’s our emcee Buster Hymen. And one of the girls is our stage kitten so she’s not necessarily a dancer as of yet but she will still be entertaining.
What is a stage kitten?
She picks up all of the things that we take off and she sets up the stage for numbers and whatnot. She and Buster will entertain the audience while we get changed backstage and get ready for the next number.
Is that like a burlesque intern?
Basically yeah.
What troupe were you with before?
I was with Kabuki Guns Burlesque for about two years. Before that I was a student with Kabuki Guns I guess for two years before that. So just started off as a bit of an exercise routine something new and it has now become a passion and pretty much a second job.
Why did you want to start your own troupe?
I don’t know about four of us had come from Kabuki Guns and the three other girls had left the troupe well before I did and when I left the troupe we all just decided to start something new. Calgary needed a new troupe in our opinion just something new and fresh and we all had our own ideas that weren’t necessarily able to follow through with the other troupe so just decided to form our own little baby.
I don’t know much about the formalities of burlesque but do you have a particular style?
We’ve kept it pretty classic as in just classic numbers — we keep ruffle bums on for most of our numbers that cover everything. Ruffle bums are basically just ruffled panties. We do do neo-burlesque but basically our signature right now is satire comedy and classic.
So essentially what people imagine when they think about burlesque.
Exactly. We’re not going out of the box too too much.
Where does the name come from?
I don’t know it just came to me. It was kind of like hmm it can go either way. We were just sitting around talking about it and I’d heard about a spot named Sugar Box in another city — I’d heard that years ago and it just kind of stuck with me and it kind of fit with what we were doing and it’s kind of cute. Burlesque is all about the tease and kind of playing with the mind a little bit so I thought it fit pretty well.
Does this take up a lot of your time?
This has been our first time doing all the planning and to be honest I’m really happy that Nite Owl is partnering up with us on this because it is a lot more than I expected. But trying to wrangle 10 people per week to plan for a big show like this you know meeting once a week minimum for practices is like herding cats. So it’s been fun struggle for sure. It’s definitely a challenge and something that I’ve been happy to take on. I kind of have a feeling that it’s going to be easier from here on in but I might be completely wrong.
Tell me about the event — what’s happening at Nite Owl?
There’s three bands there’ll be a rockabilly band a surf band a kind of swing band I guess — Eve Hell and the Razors Peter & the Wolves and The 427’s. So big night with music starting right at nine o’clock as the doors open pretty much. We’re going to have vendors there — Blame Betty will have a booth set up as well as Pin Ups for a Cause — they’ll be donating all the money they make off of their cupcakes to a charity. We’re going to have cigar girls walking around selling some burlesque type items and we’re making everything for that — hair flowers pasties and that sort of stuff so it’s all stuff that we’ve put our heart and soul into. We’re going to have a 50/50. Our set isn’t very long actually. We have about nine numbers so it’s a good chunk. It’s going to be entertainment from the minute the doors open to the minute they close.
That’s on September 26?
That’s right.
Learn more at niteowlyyc.com.
