Burlesque success

The Garter Girls and Buxom Burlesque get riotous and raunchy at the Engineered Air Theatre

Roxie Floggings emcee for the second act walks onstage in a fuzzy bathrobe. “I’m having a fat day” she explains.

She introduces two acts. First Miyuki Divine and Sugar Mae B. in breathtaking fishnet costumes seduce the audience as a pair of mythical sirens. Next Eva Angel rocks the stage with an energetic fan dance. And then it’s Roxie’s turn.

“I’m feeling better” she says. The speakers blare with k.d. lang’s “Big Boned Gal” the bathrobe comes off and suddenly our emcee is killing it with her very own burlesque routine.

It’s Saturday night and the Engineered Air Theatre is packed for “The Garter Girls and Buxom Burlesque present April O’Peel and Melody Mangler.” For me Roxie’s performance encapsulates the evening. Sexy. Unexpected. Body positive. Irreverent.

Aside from the titular headliners who hail from Vancouver the lineup is stacked with local talent featuring acts from Burlesque Burn the Buxom Burlesque Revue Corrupt Creatures Burlesque the Garter Girls and Jewel Box Burlesque. (Who knew Calgary even had that many burlesque groups?)

Tonight is important because the show is in a proper theatre space as opposed to burlesque’s usual bar venues and comes on the heels of international exposure with Calgary artists recently returned from the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival and the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend in Las Vegas.

When it comes to striptease costumes are paramount. Melody Mangler comes onstage in a massive rose-covered dress… and when she strips out of it we realize that it’s actually a bench allowing her to do a languid backbend over the rosebed. Alabaster Fay’s routine to “Working for the Weekend” sees her pulling off work gloves with her teeth stripping out of kneepads and overalls then yanking sandwich ingredients from her skivvies for a quick lunch.

That’s actually the second food-themed gag following April O’Peel’s show-opener as the Hamburglar.

To close the night April comes onstage and freezes face distorted hand outstretched twitching. She stays there one eye bulging. The audience starts to lose it. She plunges a hand down the front of her skirt and the crowd goes wild.

All of this isn’t to say that it was a perfect show. There were a couple of technical glitches the performers’ experience levels varied and there was a rape joke that to the audience’s credit fell pretty flat. But where it shone brightest was in situating Calgary’s burlesque in a historical and contemporary context.

While introducing Beatrix Rouge’s classic bump ’n’ grind Raven Virginia pays tribute to the artists that paved the way from Tempest Storm to Betty Page to Dixie Evans who passed away just the night before at the age of 86. Then in the second act Raven takes us right back to Victorian burlesque when the genre’s emphasis was parody not striptease and performers specialized in ridiculing the era’s high art.

Her routine begins with Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” and Raven — dressed in tutu and tights — dedicates a full minute to a convincing classical ballet routine. Then with an abrupt needle-scratch Tchaikovsky is replaced with Ginuwine’s “Pony.” The panicked ballerina tries to pick up her choreography but soon tosses the tutu and succumbs to raunchy club moves. Raven shows more skin than her Victorian counterparts but when it comes to skewering high art she’s dead on.

At the end of the piece Raven — clad only in pasties panties and ballet slippers — straddles an embarrassed bride-to-be in the front row to the delight of her entourage. For those in the know that’s where things get political.

Since 2010 the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission has been classifying burlesque under the rules for “nude entertainment” which among other things limits the dancers’ ability to interact with the audience. Tonight because booze isn’t allowed in the theatre they have the freedom to strip down to pasties rather than bras and to play in the front row.

So let’s review. Costumes that rival Theatre Calgary. Gut-busting comedy on par with Yuk Yuk’s. Sexier striptease than anything at a strip club. Determined artists thriving despite repressive government regulation. Calgary’s burlesque scene is booming and it’s high time that more Calgarians took notice.

Photo by Patricia Rose