Upcoming shows: Tuesday Tease and Texas Queerlesque Festival

Back from vacation and ready to roll!  Tony Fo-Hawk performs tonight at Tuesday Tease, bringing a little table-top RPG action to the board game-themed show.

Then on Friday, I am performing in the third annual Texas Queerlesque Festival! 

Click here for tickets.  There are many options if you want to join the other festivities.  I'll be helping with workshop setup on Saturday and will be taking classes throughout the weekend.

The Timing of Things

"A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to." -  Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring

The theme of this post is timing.  I'm not talking about musicality although that is definitely important, but like my decision to make this post, the timing of events sometimes just happens to be just what my audience and I needed all along.

I like to use the word "serendipity" to describe the moment when inspiration strikes.  The word has a positive connotation that does not always fit the events surrounding my performances.  However, art has a way of coming out of the greatest catastrophes and injustices.  Sometimes inspiration comes from the worst news, as evident with Tony Fo-Hawk's protest act.

"Know Your Enemy"
Mustache Envy: Politics
Photo by Brandy Lynne Photography

Once again, the act provided cathartic release when I was cast in the Mustache Envy: Politics show.  Even though it had been nearly a year since the election of 45, we (the queerlesque community) had many reasons to give him the middle finger.  The show was around a particularly busy time, as I was helping train new people in lab and there was an anime convention I was going to participate in.  Sometimes my rehearsal was simply listening to "Know Your Enemy" by Green Day on repeat.  

 That was when certain lyrics started to pop out: "silence is the enemy", "overthrow the effigy", "we fight against the honor to obey".  You see, this was when the debate to remove Confederate monuments had peaked.  The tragedy in Charlottesville happened, and I was angry at 45's response.  After talking to the producer, I changed up my act to directly respond to what had happened.  It felt so good to make my statement, and I'm sure my castmates would agree.

"Naked Snake"
TXQF 2017
Photo by The Naked Lens

Another instance where the news impacted my performance was during the Texas Queerlesque Festival.  My Naked Snake act had been accepted, and in the week leading up to the festival, 45 announced that he was going to ban transgender individuals from serving in the military.  Immediately I thought of Mad Max Morrison, whom I met at TXQF 2016  He actually spoke out against this proposed ban, and I was inspired to use my routine, which had me genderbending a fictional soldier, to show my support.  I told Milo Cox that I wanted to add a dedication to my intro for the trans people in service.  All of this gave me extra fire so even when my performance didn't go as planned (due to costume malfunctions and a finger injury that right before the festival), I'm happy I got to do it.

In those two cases, I had existing acts that fit the occasion or mission.  There have been other times where inspiration and opportunity meet at the right moment.  That's what happened with my new Mantis act.  I plan on making a separate post about the inspiration behind it, but let's just say I started thinking about doing a nerdlesque number to address my disappointment in her portrayal in Guardians of the Galaxy 2.  Just as the idea was going to rest in a place in the back of my mind, Glitterbomb announced a Guardians-inspired show and that was my chance.  Timing is as much as seizing the moment as it is about serendipity.

Speaking of which, one of my friends and fellow performer, Elle Ay'Elle, did that with a compatriot when an important queer space, Mable Peabody's, closed.  They're opening up a queer cafe/bar/performance space and are putting on a benefit show to help raise money for start-up costs.  Tony Fo-Hawk will be performing.  It's tomorrow night at the Sue Ellen's Vixen Lounge:

Upcoming shows: Tuesday Tease and Nerds in Technicolor

I've been helping with the 2017 Texas Queerlesque Festival, and Tony Fo-Hawk wanted to get involved.  Tonight he'll be performing in the Tuesday Tease fundraiser.  All proceeds will be going to festival so please come and out support this show!

I've mentioned Nerds in Technicolor before, but tickets are live now.  Click here to purchase them and check out all the beautiful POC geeks taking over Fort Worth in February!

Pride at the 2016 Texas Queerlesque Festival

"Moon Pride
I want to be your power

Tears flow down a cheek, eyes burn red
Someone cries of love violently, like a flash of lightning
Even if you're in pitch black darkness, you're not alone, you know?
The Moonlight illuminates us" - "Moon Pride" by Momoiro Clover Z

I meant to make this post a couple weeks earlier, but lab life got really hectic.  On top of that, I've been working on shows.  In fact, my next one is tonight!

I also got interviewed by Asexual Artists.  It fills me with pride to have been able to represent both the burlesque and ace communities.  Click here to read the interview.

Photo by The Naked Lens

The Asexual Artists feature provides a good segue into the topic of my next post, the inaugural Texas Queerlesque Festival.  It was place where I could show off my pride as a genderqueer, grey-asexual burlesque dancer (who also does drag but Tony was absent).  Being cognizant of my straight-passing, cisgender privilege, I initially hesitated.  I didn't want to take another, more deserving person's spot.  Then I remembered that I belonged as much as anyone else because my identity is my own and my art clearly reflects the queerness that makes up who I am.  I submitted "Moonlight Serenade" since it had queer inspirations and got in! 

"Moonlight Serenade" had been previously rejected from other festivals so I thought about what needed improvement: less focus on doing actual tango steps, more face, more sparkles!  This all sounded good, but then I changed my anxiety medication right around the festival.  I went from one set of side effects to another.  At the same time, I can't completely blame my meds for the lack of preparation.  Even with a day off from work, I was behind on costuming and incredibly scattered-brained.  You could probably tell at the shots taken during the performer portrait session.

What made me even more agitated was that I was the second performer in the line-up.  However, once The Companion delivered my forgotten items (to which I owe him greatly), I buckled down and got in the zone.  I steamed my cape, fixed my false eyelashes, put on Glam Jam (which feels good even on sunburned skin) and slipped on my ace pride socks (a special addition to my costume, inspired by the desire to show that asexuals do belong in the community) with enough down time to chat with fellow performers to wind down from all the anxiety.  Then it was showtime.

Photo by The Naked Lens

I don't know if it was the magic of my ace pride socks or the sound of fellow Sailor Moon fans screaming over the rest of the audience, but I felt a great adrenaline rush that matched my solo debut.  It was my best performance of "Moonlight Serenade" to date.  Even with a few rushed spots, I was very happy.  The cherry on top was Lady Lola LeStrange's utter excitement over the fact that I was portraying Tuxedo Mask.  Moonies unite!

The upside to being second on the first night of the festival was that I could now chill and enjoy everyone else's performances.  And boy were there a lot of awesome ones!  It made me proud to be a part of the queerlesque community and inspired to work even harder for next year.  On top of that, the people were so friendly that hands down, this is a festival I will recommend over and over again.

I was on such a high that I actually drove to Sue Ellen's by myself for Jeez Loueez's Twerk and Jerk workshop.  Driving is a great source of anxiety so this is a big deal.  It was a scary experience, but the workshop and wind-down party made me forget about it until I had to go home.  I have to mention how cool it is for Jeez to include the history of twerking in her class.  It's both necessary and fascinating.

Sunday Wind Down Party

The inaugural Texas Queerlesque Festival was amazing, and so many people worked hard to make that happen.  I thank each of them for their efforts, and I'm proud that despite its conservative image, Texas is able to have a space where queer performers from all around the country can show their art.  I came away knowing where I need to improve as both a performer and an individual, and hopefully I can come up with something worthy to be in the next show or at least find more ways to be involved‒ be it socializing, attending more workshops, or volunteering.

Upcoming shows: Glitterbomb and Tuesday Tease

As you can guess, I've been busy as a bee.  Tomorrow (or I guess technically tonight), I am debuting a very special and personal number about hair and my contentious relationship with it.  So please come out to Glitterbomb.  It won't be all tears though as Tony Fo-Hawk is bringing back his fun tribute to our Snowboard Slopestyle gold medalist with fabulous hair, Sage Kotsenburg. It'll be an unforgettable night so please come out to Mable Peabody's!

For Tuesday Tease, I will be stage managing/kittening for the next show on September 27.  Then I'm producing the October 11 show.  The flyers haven't been released yet, but mark those dates down!

I promise I'll get back to blogging.  The next post is about the Texas Queerlesque Festival, and there's a lot.  In fact, I don't think I can fit all the pictures in so here's one of them.

TXQF16: Sequins and Sass cast and crew
Photo by The Naked Lens

 

Upcoming shows: Glitterbomb and Texas Queerlesque Festival

I was going to make a post about Orlando, but like many in the LGBTQIAP community, I'm struggling to find the right words.  Glitterbomb had a different theme this week, but we decided it would be best to celebrate us and our pride.  Therefore instead of just having Tony Fo-Hawk do two numbers, he and I are going to share the act that got us through some tough times.  Because sometimes we need a little rage.

The other act is still a solo from him.  If you're a fan of Hamilton, you don't want to miss it.  The show is tonight at Mable Peabody's.

I suppose now is a good time as any to announce that I have been accepted into the first-ever Texas Queerlesque Festival.  I'm performing in the Friday night Sequins and Sass Showcase.  It's going to be an amazing weekend, and if you want to volunteer, vend, or sit on the producers panel, please click on the link above for more info.