How to Live a Burlesque Life

Tagged Creativity, Getting There, Ideas, Musings, Society  •  posted in blog • Permalink

I originally wrote this for Chris Guillebeau’s Art of Non-Conformity contest about a month ago. I didn’t win, but Chris liked it, and since it’s about burlesque I’ll post it here for you! It’s also on The Merch Girl.

“Burlesque” originally came from the Italian word burla, to “send up” or mock – in this case, making fun of the high-brow entertainment of the time. Nowadays it’s become code for vintage glamour, corsets and red feathers, and sparkly pasties. You don’t have to be a star tassel-twirler to incorporate burlesque into your unconventional life. Here’s a few ideas on sending up with sass and shimmy:

Embrace horrible prettiness – style yourself how you want to, not just how you’re expected to.

The term “horrible prettiness” was used by Robert Clyde Allen in 1991 to describe the paradox of a burlesque dancer: ladylike and feminine in dress, but loud and raunchy and bawdy in behaviour. Burlesque performers didn’t worry about gender norms; they wore what they liked and acted how they liked. Drop the fashion magazines and the etiquette guides, and let your imagination take the lead! Shave your head, wear a pink frilly dress, and run a marathon in the woods. Deck out in combat boots and a Navy uniform – then invite everyone over for a nice cup of tea and a sit-down. I don’t really have a set style to speak of – I tend to mix up ethnic Asian, Goth, corporate, and saloon girl. Even if you are hardened and gritty and rough around the edges, you can still indulge in a little boylesque:

Do things on a whim.

Does that hat look interesting but not typically “your style”? Curious about an adventure class but you’ve never hiked in your life? Doesn’t matter! No one is keeping a tally on how consistently you live life. If you are curious about something that seems out-of-character, follow that curiosity and sees where it leads you. There’s no harm in trying on a dress you’d otherwise never wear, or signing on for a class that seems out of your depth. You’ll never know until you try! It could very well change your life – or at the very least give you some conversation material. I started going to burlesque classes partly to prepare for my first stage role (in The Vagina Monologues – I played the dominatrix) and also because I had just finished university in a foreign country and wanted to do something I wouldn’t be able to do back home. Six months later, I’ve hung around, and I end up being interviewed on radio for my debut public routine:

Tiara the Merch Girl – Cabaret Burlesque – Islamic Routine – PLEASE READ THE DESCRIPTION from Tiara The Merch Girl on Vimeo.

Embrace accidents boldly.

Every performer will face some mishap on stage at some point – a missing pastie, a broken prop, the music file skipping. What do you do? Smile, laugh, do a little shimmy, and move on! Sometimes the show becomes a lot better for it – the incident amuses the audience, who are generally rooting for the performer anyway. Similarly, not all accidents or oops-moments are terrible. If something goes wrong, have a little chuckle (or stomp about dramatically if you need to) then pick yourself up and keep going. The people who care for you will want to see you succeed, and will support you no matter what. Indeed, like a star burlesque performer, you can turn that accident around – a “wardrobe malfunction” turned Rose Chan from just another dancer to Malaysia’s ultimate burlesque/striptease queen.

Look at things from a different angle.

A cigar isn’t just a cigar, and that hair clip doesn’t just have to sit on your head. Look at the way you work, the things you use, the beliefs you have – and examine them from another angle. What would happen if you read your book outside instead of the study? How would chicken seasoned with chocolate taste? What if you didn’t have to get a car and a spouse by 30? At least for a moment, subvert something! Think of your object or subject from the perspective of someone else – your neighbour, your best friend, your enemy, someone the total opposite of you. Be synesthetic – smell its colours, see its sounds. Everything has its own hidden glamour, a secret story. You may stumble onto hidden genius – like Nasty Canasta’s highly inspired choice of music for a usually-traditional fan dance:

Find the funny in everything.

So you spilled wine on the carpet, your boss yelled at you, and you’ve run out of hot water. Before you delve into despair, find something humorous about your situation – even if it’s something absurd and surreal, like “At least I’ll be prepared for showers in the Antarctic”. At least it’ll cheer you up; at best, it’ll help you find alternative solutions and reduce stress. At least on the inside, laugh it up – even if you have to bite your lip to stop yourself from giggling inappropriately. Sometimes I get stuck in my own drama and feel like the sky is about to fall; however, a joke from a friend or a wry comment sometimes help to diffuse the tension and get me smiling. Musician Dave Carroll turned his own terrible incident of his guitar being wrecked by United Airlines into a song that became a worldwide meme:

If you must despair, do it with flair.

A lot of burlesque is about overblowing the minor and understating the major. Drama in your life – whether as a crazy-making acquaintance or a series of annoying events – isn’t much fun. However, dealing with your woes in a dramatic way can help lighten the mood and release tension. Allow yourself to be ridiculously melodramatic and operatic about your stress. “Oh my! I am surrounded by escapees of the mental institution! My money all goes towards parking fees! WOE BETIDE ME!” Sometimes I mope around in my room and wail to my boyfriend about how LIFE SUCKS I HATE IT ALL – he’s pretty used to it. Scream your anger out. Rest your hand on your forehead as though you’ve been hit by the vapours. List aloud every misery you’ve ever experienced and spend a few minutes hamming it up to friends or even just the bathroom mirror. The key here is to not take it too seriously – amp up the drama, but don’t stress yourself out over it. You’ll find that by the end of it you feel like laughing – you’ve worked through the ridiculousness, and can now see the situation in a whole new light.

Make up your own mind – and speak it.

You don’t have to like whatever’s in vogue, even if your immediate environment is charmed by it. While there’s a lot of contemporary burlesque that goes through the same tropes, there’s also a lot of innovative unusual work that ultimately stands out in people’s minds. Discover music, art, fashion, performances, politics, places, books of your own, and let your own heart and spirit decide how it feels about it. Have varied tastes in things, no matter how iconoclastic or unusual – like eating vanilla ice cream with salted peanuts or wearing capris in the cold. Then share them! Speak your truth about current affairs, art and beauty, or anything else that matters to you. You will likely encounter some strife, which does suck, but in the long run you’d be making space for people like you, who’d be grateful for your voice. After all, if it weren’t for pioneers like Lydia Thompson and Gypsy Rose Lee, who combined striptease with witty repartee, modern burlesque probably wouldn’t exist!

Dance, sing, make something, speak – give anything creative a go!

You don’t have to be any good at it. Just pick up that guitar or turn on that radio and do whatever moves you. “Dance like no one is watching”, as they say – once you get past the awkwardness of starting (something everyone goes through, pro or not), you’ll get into your own groove. Keri Smith released her book Wreck This Journal for this very purpose: to get you used to just starting something creative. If the end result isn’t to your liking, that’s OK – you’ve given it a go, which is more than important. In the past few years I’ve tried plate-spinning, juggling, trapeze, acrobatics, stilts, silks, singing, tapdance, and who knows what else, mostly for the heck of it. Some, like silks, were total disasters – but I also discovered a hidden aptitude for balancing and spinning plates on sticks! Here are some basic tricks to get you started, if you’re intrigued:

Choose something else to entertain you.

No need to chain yourself up to the TV and watch another episode of the Biggest Loser. Get yourself a copy of the local street press, or go online and look up the alternative listings. Facebook’s usually a good resource for ideas too. Go check out a burlesque show, a foreign film, a fetish party, a pub band in an obscure part of town, an experimental physical theatre piece – something that’s not usually your cup of tea. They’re usually cheap or free and are pretty welcoming to newcomers. Bring a friend if you’re a bit shy – you’ll likely make new friends there anyway. My friend and I checked out a fetish dance party for the first time a few months ago, and to my utter surprise I actually found it quite fun. I don’t normally go out at night, but we stayed there until 3 chatting with all sorts of people – some of whom I’ve met again at different places. Once you start, you end up finding out more about others – and your social life isn’t the same again. How about you? Will you choose a VooDoo Restaurant over McDonalds?

Whether you’d up for rockin’ your billies, or softly hip-swaying your way through life, there’s many ways to add a touch of burlesque to the daily (bump &) grind. It’s all about taking things lightly – so laugh loud, tickle your sensibilities, and make your friends gasp with surprise at your audacity to be unconventionally you.

If the art of burlesque itself interests you, check out the Ministry of Burlesque and Daily Burlesque for tons of resources, ideas, inspiration, and conversations with other enthusiasts and performers. It’s especially open to newcomers, so if you want to truly make burlesque part of your unconventional life, come on board!