Find out what it takes to be a modern-day
bump-and-grind gal!
Fluffgirl Burlesque
Below is an excerpt
from an exclusive back-stage interview with Cecilia Bravo
of the Canadian troupe The
Fluffgirl Burlesque Society conducted before a rather rowdy
show in Charleston, Illinois on April 23, 2005.
* * * * *
Java's
Bachelor Pad: Tell me a little about the Fluffgirl troupe.
Cecilia Bravo: Well, recently, since my focus has been
on touring, I try and seek out other performers who have that same desire
to perform and travel. So, we're all based in different cities.
JBP: Really?…How difficult is that to get everyone together?
CB: Well, everyone is so fabulous that after a couple of shows
it's like we've been working together for years. It's difficult to arrange,
but I think if everyone has the desire to do it...I guess it's just a matter
of arranging your own personal life and committing to it. But, getting
together is just the matter of a plane ride away.
JBP: What I'm always interested in is how gals nowadays get introduced
to burlesque. And not only that…take that next step and want to do it themselves.
Where did you discover burlesque and what made you want to do it.
CB: Basically, through the sort of culture I was involved
in. I was involved in the lounge and rockabilly scenes and I had an affinity
to the fashion of the 30’s and the 40’s and the music. I was record shopping
one day and I found a “Las Vegas Grind” record. This was in ’96 and I came
across this record. And the art attracted me to the album. I think it was
COOP, and I was like “whoa…cool art.” Then I looked at it and it was “Las
Vegas Grind…1950’s striptease music.” I thought that sounds interesting.
I flipped over the back and they had these old photographs of striptease
artists in a cheesy 50’s Las Vegas club. So, I took it home and I had a
girlfriend of mine there and we're just listening to the record. I was
like, this is so cool. I'd love to dress up and go see a show like this.
Sit down and watch these girls shaking it while I was having a drink wearing
some lovely gown and gloves. That was another thing, there was just not
enough places for me to go. I had a lot of vintage dresses just because
I love these clothes, but I didn't have anywhere appropriate to wear them.
I had a friend who started putting on lounge nights and that was the only
place I would go out to. It got to the point I'd even go to punk rock shows
with beehives from the night before…from the lounge night. I guess I'm
the type of person if something is not happening and I want to do something,
I take the initiative to do it. And it took a while. My friend said why
don't you put on something on like this. This is your thing. I used to,
more in a private setting for my boyfriend, I'd do my little stripteases
(laughs) in vintage lingerie and things like that. So, I had the idea in
my head and I just started talking to people and it literally took a year
for me to do this. Originally, I didn't even want to perform because I
was just terrified of stage. I would never speak in front of a microphone
in front of people. I couldn't even do interviews or anything. I just wasn't
my intention. I thought I would produce this and create this environment
so I can just sit there and enjoy it.
JBP: But something pushed you onto the stage.
CB: Yes. The fact that we had two performers and someone bailed
out and I had commitments. I thought, well, I have to come up with some
routines to create a show and that's why I did it. That kind of pushed
me to emcee as well. (laughs) Just out of necessity. So I did it and I
was scared to death. I watched my first video and I'm looking at the ground
but I performed a routine and people were screaming. I can't remember what
I did. I took one thing off and everyone went wild. It was just such a
rush. I guess that adrenaline rush of being on stage and having people
scream at you. That was exciting. After that I just kept working at it
and it motivated me to continue on with it. And I've been doing it ever
since.
JBP:
Well, the interesting thing about the modern burlesque gals, what you read
in books and what you get when you talk to them, is this real sense of
empowerment. This personal empowerment that they find doing it.
CB: Yeah. It feels good. I don't know…everyone has a different
motivation, but people like to be center of attention. Like I said it's
an adrenaline rush. You can put whatever label you want on it, but that's
how it is being in control. You're doing something. You have control over
you acts and what's happening as opposed to like in strip clubs. From what
I know about strip clubs, a lot of stripper that I know they'll say they
need to do the 15-minute…the three songs and it leads to the throwing the
blanket on the floor and rolling around. It's more of a time thing. They
don't really have a lot of artistic or creative control in their acts.
I've known burlesque performers who work in strip clubs and they were literally
like told not (to)…one girl she would go down completely naked but she
would go out in burlesque costumes and pasties. She was told she couldn't
do that. You can't wear those things on your nipples and all that. That's
not very empowering when someone is restricting your creativity and your
personality. So, I guess in that sense, yeah it is empowering to go up
(on stage) and do you thing. The only restrictions I have in my show is
that I want it to be burlesque. It's not like you can go up there and do
whatever you want. I've gone to so-called burlesque nights in New York
and saw a guy reciting poetry as he's shaving someone's pussy. And I'm
just thinking that's performance art and it's really New York. Don't call
it burlesque. If I'm going to a show to see something that's burlesque
I'd expect to see (burlesque). There’s a fine line. I like the more avant-garde,
modern takes on burlesque. I like the traditional acts. But it got to the
point where I used to be very traditional with stuff but you get to the
point after eight years you get bored and you expand your ideas. Also,
we're in a different time. Burlesque from the 20’s and 30’s is not going
to be same now because there are different points of references…politically,
socially…the humor back then just doesn't work. If you use those old burlesque
skits now they just wouldn't be funny. Because we're touring we don't have
this 15-person show. It's not impossible; it's just extremely expensive.
But we in incorporate all those elements of traditional burlesque into
the show that you'll see tonight with just the four of us. So, I guess
you could say less is more. (laughs). Less is more…so that's why we take
it off!
JBP: You said you've been doing this for eight years. How long
has the troupe been together?
CB: It's kind of a rotating troupe. I was based in Vancouver
and I had a regular cast for years. I moved to Toronto and when I decided
I wanted to break some ground in touring and recreating the old-style burlesque
circuit all the people I was working with just weren't able to commit to
that. Or the people that I'd know for years, I'd go out on tour with them
and they just couldn't handle touring. They couldn't handle the schedule,
the drives, and the performing late, or the being away from their boyfriends
or whatever the case was or work commitments. A lot of the performers were
either students or had really intense jobs that they couldn't take time
away from. If you look at my website, there's a mission statement. What
we do is seek out performers who have the sort of same motivation to tour
and
travel and perform. They are people who will call themselves performers
but just to go out and perform a few times a year in your own city. But
real performers in the heyday of burlesque toured and there's a big difference.
You can be in your comfort zone. When I was having my regular burlesque
night I developed this crowd. People would go there expecting to see a
certain thing, so there would always be a packed house and everyone would
always be cheering. I find now I've been working with much better, more
skilled performers that have been doing it for so long. Obviously, you
doing it after eight years you're going to be better. I just find you go
to all these different places. We've gone to the U.K. and to small areas
where people have never even seen burlesque and you get a completely different
reaction to the same show in every city. It really teaches you a lot about
what it takes and it brings you down a notch.
JBP: You hone your craft.
CB: Exactly. It's really interesting. I think those are the
real burlesque performers in my book. I have a lot of respect for people
like Indra (editor's note: A fellow Fluffgirl troupe member). She
sings. She emcees. She's funny. Well, I think she is, but we're weird.
(laughs) We have a bizarre sense of humor. Indianapolis was the first city
that laughed at every single one of our jokes…even when they weren't suppose
to laugh. We have little set-ups where everyone is silent and then we say
this…and they would laugh. So, I don't know what happened. Something just
clicked. Maybe they just get us. I don't know. But, it's a different level
of performance and performer and that's what I want to be around and create.
In that sense the troupe (works with) different performers. We work with
the same people, but like I said it's really difficult for people to commit
to a month of touring…going away from their jobs, their homes, their mortgages,
or whatnot. So, we're just sort of leaving that open and trying to find
a certain type of person or performer as opposed to having this regular
troupe.
JBP: Who inspires you? Who do you look on to get inspiration
from? Both, I guess, modern and classic.
CB:I
look to a lot of people. With a lot of old burlesque performers I will
like their image or something like that, but I don't really know them personally,
so that doesn't inspire me. I'd have to say Indra inspires me because
she is able to do so much. I can see how she works and it's something that
inspires me to be more creative because there's someone I can bounce off
of.
JBP: So, you're just finding your own style. You're just taking
it all in.
CB: Yeah. I like the fact that Gypsy Rose Lee was a
burlesque performer yet she very business-minded and very intelligent and
she crossed over…crossed that boundary from the world of strippers to high-class
society. She bridges a gap there. So, I respect that and I thought that
was cool. She wasn't the most beautiful burlesque performer or anything
like that, but she really accomplished a lot. So, I'd say I find that really
inspiring because that's what I would like to do. Lili
St. Cyr…I just love her because she's gorgeous. She looks like
a cat. That doesn't really inspire me. I just love the way she looks (laughs).
JBP: She was always big with the over-the-top glamour.
CB: Yeah, I just love that. I like glamour. I think everyone
likes to see the full package. Like with Gypsy Rose Lee, she had
something else. She had other kind of presence.
JBP: She would actually talk to her audience during her routine.
CB: Yeah. She would do a little monologue and poems and take
the pins out of her dress. And she wrote books…G-String Murders. I have
one of the original copies and I actually like the story line. So, yeah.
To me what I'm trying to promote burlesque performers as classy, intelligent
women…not little girls…just real women who have this life experience and
are doing something else in their lives.
JBP: So, where do you see this going? Where do you see the continuation
of this?
CB: Depends on the day you ask me (laughs).
JBP: Some days you just want to pack it up…
CB: Yeah…After every tour we're like this is the last tour,
but then it just gets bigger and bigger. In the end, I think everyone loves
to perform and loves to be on stage and that's all our motivations. In
the end that's what drives everyone.
More Essays>>>
