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emilieautumnarchives · 27 days

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Emilie Autumn for Bubblegum Sl-t Zine

Original Link (Archive Post from Author) Last access 3/31/24 Originally Posted: Summer 2010

...I interviewed Emilie Autumn a few times in the mid-00s, although only once for Bubblegum Sl💛t. I think the photo of Emilie and me (seen on the left of the first slide) was taken after an interview for Alternative Magazine. Every time I saw Emilie, her gigs grew a bit grander and more bonkers. Consider that her entry point to the era’s music scene was a violin-and-vocal concept album - which concerned Shakespeare and mental ill health, and arrived accompanied by a semi-autobiographical novel, fusing psych ward memoirs with a Victorian fantasy world – and you get some sense of just how bonkers things got. By the time this was printed in 2010, her shows were bringing cabaret vibes and musical theatre production values to rock venues. Accompanied by the ‘Bloody Crumpets’ (a troupe of burlesque belles posing as asylum inmates), and an elaborate array of handcrafted props and costumes, she was greeted at every show by hordes of adoring ‘plague rats’ in bloomers and stripey stockings. Something I always found both inspiring and a little intimidating was just how hands-on Emilie was with every aspect of her ambitious shows. Right down to handmaking merch, she oversaw every last damn detail of her immersive fantasy world, putting in frighteningly long hours to make it happen. This was a big a theme of this very wordy interview.

Interview and scans below the cut.

Transcription note: this interview is long and EA's comments are interspersed throughout, so I've put her words in bold.

Wayward Woman

Released from her old record contract, our favourite asylum inmate Emilie Autumn has lately let her creativity run. And run. And run.

18 hour day corporate workaholics would be put to shame by the drive that Emilie Autumn exhibits in her many artistic endeavors. With each successive, increasingly grand tour I've witnessed (for which Emilie handles the design and production of lavish stage sets and costumes, the creation handmade merch and the choreography of dance routines and comedy set-pieces with her sidekicks 'The Bloody Crumpets', not to mention violin, harpsichord and vocal duties) I've felt, with crowing certainty, that superhuman powers are the only explanation for her quite extraordinary ability to maintain both the quality and vast quantity of her output. Speaking to the insomniac artist herself shortly after her Spring 2010 tour of Europe and Australia however, I've forced to entertain the more improbable, and frankly frightening notion, that her stamina is actually that of a mere mortal, as she recounts woefully how a throat infection forced her to cancel two shows on this most recent outing. The singer can't claim she wasn't warned; management -- characterized in popular music mythology as the business bods cracking the whip on the backs of their poor, cash-cow artist -- apparently made efforts to talk her out of undertaking such a lengthy tour before she had embarked up it, but inevitably such a suggestion was never given any serious consideration by a women who describes the experience of taking a few days off as "torturous".

"I wasn't allowed to speak," she elaborated on the horrors of her enforced spell of rest and relaxation. "I wasn't even allowed to whisper, so I had to write things down to communicate. As somebody who talks a lot--as you can tell--it was definitely torturous!"

Yes, I can definitely tell you that, amongst a great deal of many other talents, Emilie Autumn can really talk. Figuring out that much in the four previous interview I've got to admit that, while the kind of intense and frank debate and confessions she offers in volumes are a refreshing pleasure over any media-trained soundbite, I approach this latest encounter with as much dread as anticipation; dread that is for the figure that will appear on my phone bill when the receiver eventually goes down and Emilie and Chicago. And on this occasion there's more to talk about than ever before.

See, even within the biography of an artist who is prolific by nature the past few months can be considered a fully of activity. The tour aside, there's been the double dis re-release of Emilie's breath-through album 'Opheliac', while the publication of her long-awaited book 'The Asylum of Wayward Victorian Girls' requires epic discourse by itself. So more -- much more -- of the book later. Firstly, Emilie explains, the starting point for seeing this succession of projects come to fruition was opting to break away from former German-based label Trisol.

"Once all the house clearing went down I found, to my surprise, when the door opened I had a good amount of options," she recalls, swiftly skipping to the part where, having weight these up, she found and offer from New York's The End records the most attractive.

By signing on the dotted line she joined an oddball, distinctly arty roster, which also includes Mindless Self Indulgence, Dir En Gray and Dirty Little Rabbits, and celebrated seeing her music gain a release in her native Unite States at long last. Although "frustrated" by the prior limbo period, when her work languished on record stores' prices import shelves, she has to conceded that there's little evidence to suggest hefty taxes impeded the spread of the 'plague' (as she is wont to refer to the rise of her so-described 'violindustrial', with fans readily wearing the label 'plague rats').

"I was amazed to see the fanbase I have [here] when I first toured the US," she says. "The Plague rats are here, they're everywhere, and it's insane that this thing has spread almost without radio, without videos and without a label until now."

The fresh pressing of 'Opheliac' has also been granted a second release in Europe, where by contrast Emilie has enjoyed strong support from the alternative music media ever since the album was initially issued in 2006. Critics might assume a second coming so soon a little premature but, even without the addition of a wealth of bonus material, a record that can honestly by called a 'grower' -- rewarding revisits by revealing new depths to it's complex sonics and storyline -- makes a good case for being deserving of a second look. For Emilie herself "the 'Opheliac' record is still the most important thing" - the silver lining to the breakdown which followed her separation from musical collaborator turned lover Billy Corgan, traced to the eureka moment at which she began charting comparisons between her own increasingly troubled life and the misadventures of Shakespeare's archetypal 'difficult woman.'

"I think a couple times in your life, if you're lucky, you just get it right," Emilie reflects of the work now. "It's like creating the perfect quote that people will say 500 years later, because it still rings true. When I sing those songs onstage, or listen to that record it still strikes me that there's not a single thing I would change."

Such a definitive statement from the artist herself does rather invite the suggestion that the bonus disc can do little to enhance the piece; only encourage plague rats to pick up the second copy.

"The first disc is completely a concept album, where every sound is a puzzle piece within a big plan and everything relies on everything else around it," Emilie affirms. "So that second disc is like 'here's the mixbox' -- it's a complete jumble of things, like the inside of my head. But it is all very relevant to the suicidal theme of the album."

Specifically, she cites her unlikely rendition of an age-old song Billie Holiday mad her own, declaring "'Gloomy Sunday', - that's like the original suicide song, it couldn't be more relevant." With her version sitting alongside a cover of The Smiths' 'Asleep,' a solo violin rendering of Bach, several original acoustic recordings and samples of the spoken word, performances Emilie has lately been giving in support of her book release, she's not wrong in her assertion that the second disc is a 'mixbox' either. Set in contrast to the main album's heavy, literary study of her own human condition this new component is also reflective of the trademark scatter-brained and impatient intellect she overwhelms with when she chatters mile a minute.

By far the greatest justification for revisiting 'Opheliac' now Emilie excitably gabs is the long-awaited arrival of its companion and sequel, the Asylum book, viewed by it's author as a sort of key to decoding the shorthand hints embedded in the other releases in her catalogue.

A back-burner project in the Trisol offices for more than 2 years, the book looked so sure to be lost to the world for a time that Emilie's reaction when it eventually when into production under guidance of The End was to "go into shock - I've almost been in denial that i was ever actually happening.," she gasps. "I'd got so into saying 'wait for it, it's going to be great!' and not having it materialize that it was a shock when the new printing company put it together. It was torture to keep touring a keep releasing knowing that, even if I have a great fanbase who like what I'm doing, they really had no idea of what they liked was about at the time, They didn't know the full extent of how serious it actually was, how much i actually means and real it is."

Referring to the titular 'Asylum' -- most basically defined as a location in [Emilie's] imagination and art, but nonetheless deeply rooted in historical documentation of the treatment of Victorian madwomen, and the harsh realities of Emilie's own experience of the modern mental health care system -- she tells "there's this thing of assuming it's a fantasy world when, actually, it's for real. That was very difficult," she sighs, "to go on touring, knowing that there were so many things I couldn't do onstage that I actually might have wanted to, but because they were references to things in the book they would never make sense without it."

As much a novel, information manual for those wanting to pick up tips on surviving a mental health ward or swarm of leeches and detailed history lesson as it is an autobiography, the book was a massive undertaking --particularly for an author possessed of the perfectionist tendencies Emilie is. To put in perspective the length of the sentence 'The Asylum..." served in post-production hell, journalists received sample pages from Trisol's PR department, in preparation for an apparently imminent publication, way back in 2008. In the months it took for a released date to pass many other active and breathing public figures saw fit to issue second volumes to their autobiographies. Hence it figures that the finished Asylum on bookstore shelves now is a substantial development of those early previews.

"The story was there but with every day there was another delay and so more painting and ore words would go in just so that the time wasn't completely wasted," confirms Emilie. "If I had to wait I had to make the most of that time and now you have something that wouldn't have been quite as awesome if it had come a day earlier. It's not like the 'Opheliac' record, where I wouldn't add a note or take a note away -- this is the story of my entire life, it goes on -- I could always add another scribble in another corner. 'Opheliac' is a time capsule and this is everything, it goes [from] the beginning to beyond the end... the ultimate ending is still just a massive cliff-hanger because we don't know how it ends!"

Candor and openness being defining traits of the Emilie I've come to know it's surprising to hear that the other "big, open question mark," the book implanted in her head was a wave of self doubt--

"Like, 'okay, you think you know how you're going to react if people read this stuff by do you really ?' And for a couple of days there was this silence, on our sounding board--you know, the internet," she translates. "Everything was really quiet for a couple of days as people were reading it and digesting it and when they came back there was a kind of collective 'holy fuck - we though we knew what was going on by now... maybe not.' There's an increased understanding of me and what I do now - the colours of everything are a bit brighter, because it means more. It's a relief," she announces. " I've said it now, everybody knows all of these things about me now, and if you still like who I am, knowing that this is the life I've lived and things I've done then you like who I really am. It's just a relief to finally tell someone who you really are... like you might have wanted to pretend to be the little queen, or tired to be the good girlfriend, and when you give that up... well, it turns out that pressure is a lot scarier than telling the truth and doing whet comes naturally."

While she's in the mood to share, Emilie reveals the next stage in her grand plan.

"I'll tell you my secret," she relents, after a moments hesitation, reasoning. "I don't know if it's a secret, it's kind of obvious really. My plan, of why the book has to get so very much out there, is because we want to make a movie."

A nanosecond is spared for dramatic effect here before her enthusiasm spurs her on to laying out the blow-by-blow proposal, as though addressing her plague rats en masse.

"Here's what I need you to do," she instructs. "I need you to go buy me these 52 hundred copies of the Asylum book, because then we in the popularity contests--and that's how we get to the top of the bestsellers list. That's very simple, right? Because then, everyone knows, every single book that reaches the top of the bestseller chart is very quickly made into a movie. So if you want to see that movie you've got to help me and purchase that book!"

Emilie is right to think her plan is becoming 'obvious' at this stage. Always theatrical, her stage shows have now grown to a scale that their props are testing the limits of her one-woman workshop, and their stunts are insurance policies of venues only every intended to play host to the humble rock band. A theatre or screen production is the clear next step and, not one to restrict the creative outlets at her disposal, Emilie has not ruled out the former option.

"When we're hitting a new venue every night we have to wonder every night if we're going to be able to do the full show," she sighs. "It's 'are they going to let us to aerials here?', 'are we going to have to leave out the fire-eating because they won't let us do fire here?' It's becoming very clear that, at this level, there are limits to what you can do and the alternative to that is getting a theatre run where you're actually in the same place for 3 months. But there's a part of me that doesn't want tot do that because, however grueling life on the road is, there's that whole thing of the show coming to the people, which I love. SO I think maybe doing both is the ideal. Something I'm quite seriously working on," she impressed, before continuing, "is the possibility of being able to tour with my own venue. Circuses do it, so why can't I? It's a bigger production, and it's expensive, but if you know what you want there's always a way, and I've figured out what we need to do, which is embrace the fact that this isn't a rock show and begin putting it into a setting which reflects that."

Which reminds me, amongst Emilie's many interests is creating music, and between talking books, movies and big tops we've so far neglected to mention an additional iron in the fire, that is 'Opheliac's musical follow-up. Suddenly engaged on another new topic Emilie tells, "I'm about halfway through writing, but nothing has been recorded. It's still being added to because that's the next thing -- making sure that this album accurately represents my life right now. It ties in to the Asylum book, and 'Opheliac', which laid out 'this is the situation you're in,' so this next record is naturally saying 'okay, now what do you do about it?' So that's where it gets a bit more violent and bloody, because now it's about fighting."

Supporting Emilie's often re-iterated line that her seemingly disparate works are, truly, inter-connected and even inter-dependant, recent live shows have started to develop the theme of fighting. Most obviously performances on the Spring tour included a segment in which Emilie and her Bloody Crumpets tool up to become the Asylum Army, marching to a gruffly barked, yet uniquely feminine, drill chant.

"Now there' about 50% guys in the audiences," she notes. "And so when we ask there 'are you ready to fight like a girl?', and every one of them is screaming 'yes'... well, that's amazing. It's about taking that phrase -- that we've heard our whole lives a s derogatory thing, 'you fight like a girl', 'you throw a ball like a girl,' we're taking that and turning it on it's ass completely to make it like the greatest thing possible, knowing that actually, if a girl really has something to defend, there will be no chivalry, no rules, and she will use every tool possible.

For Emilie, these violent developments, as explored more graphically on the next album, represent "part tow of the adventure. It's still completely relevant, it has to be," she says. "When I put [the record] out it has to mean at least as much to me as 'Opheliac' did."

Here the perfectionist standards that her vast ambition demand surface once again, and she tells "I never want to do anything that doesn't have the same impact, on me that is. I want to get it right again. I can't fail, it's just not what I do. I would rather not put anything out. But that's not going to be a problem. I'm already working on the new record and we're gonna be just fine."

#emilie autumn #interviews #zine #2010 #bubblegum slt

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sweetadonisbutbetter · 23 days

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Show/Movies I would show the Helluva Boss characters

This is rlly random but this started with the thought of Blitz liking MLP and kinda spiraled from there.

Blitzø

MLP: I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. I think he would like the ponies and the whole friendship thing. Actuakky think he would bully a brony to get a figure of his favs (and tell them to shower). He would probs love Pinkie Pie. (this stemmed from This Day Aria playing lol)

Spirit: horse.

Loona

Teen Wolf: A show I know nothing about. Just would show it to her. This would probably get me killed.

Alpha and Omega: I wouldn't even get to 10 minutes in the movie. I am dead

Moxxie

Steven Universe (both the shows and movie): Purely because of the music. If anything, he would also enjoy the animation and he would LOVEE Pearl. He would create a teir list of all the songs and rate them.

Sooo many movies to show him, but I would show him, but I have to say Chicago. Once he learns the songs it's over for literally everyone.

Millie

Tbh not really a show, but any crime documentary or documentaries with the baby animals.

Selena (1997): I think Millie would LOVEE Selena, and I also want to instill the hatered ofYolanda into her. That woman could never have too many haters.

Stolas

Any historic romance drama (like Bridgerton): We already know he loves telenovelas, so I also think that he would love the messiness of the relationships. You know how in every season, the main couple would have an arguement and not talk for a while? He is sobbing like a baby LMFAO- Also would show him any romance K-drama, esp the BL ones.

Moulin Rouge: Kinda historic, but mainly bc it has main character death lol he would also enjoy the music.

Striker

Moonshiners: I have no idea what this show is about, probably about people making moonshine. Never really watched it,but I have seen glimpses of it when my grandpa would watch it. Think because of it, he would probs try to make his own moonshine.

The Godfather: He would probs like all the violence lol. it just fits him idk kekw

Asmodeus

Grey's Anatomy: Not because it's a doctor show, but because it's SOOO MESSY LMFAOO- Have y'all seen that one tik tok of the person with the chart of who slept with who? That would be Ozzie. Also think he would love the drama.

(This is for both him and Fizz) Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Do I need to explain??

Alt: Burlesque: rlly don't know how to explain this one

Fizzarollie

Any old cartoon: I think he would like the loonyness of the charaters and would probs would us some of the gags.

Refer back to Asmodeus

Alt: Adam Sandler movies: i just find them funny, plus some of his romance movies are cute

#helluva boss x reader #this is just really dumb #helluva blitzo #helluva loona #helluva moxxie #helluva millie #helluva stolas #helluva striker #helluva asmodeus #helluva fizzarolli #☾adoniswrites

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ditavonteese · 1 year

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Just 7 more shows on the #Glamonatrix #burlesque tour! February 9 New York City, The Beacon Theater (SOLD OUT) February 11 Boston, The Orpheum Theater (SOLD OUT) February 14 ♥️Valentine’s Day Chicago, The Chicago Theater (SOLD OUT) February 16 Detroit, The Fillmore Theater February 18 Louisville, The Palace Theater February 22 San Diego, The Magnolia (SOLD OUT) February 24 Riverside, The Fox Performing Arts Center (SOLD OUT) Bespoke @louboutinworld #swarovski 📷 @guillaumethomasparis https://www.instagram.com/p/CoaxvP3OkBi/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#glamonatrix #burlesque #swarovski

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batsarebetterthanpeople · 1 year

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Hey. There's an OFMD themed drag and burlesque show for charity going on in Chicago on March 31st. <3 Get your tickets now.

#ofmd #our flag means death #c2e2 2023

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florenceofalabia · 2 months

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I'm performing in Chicago in a couple weeks at this amazing queer trans burlesque show with some of my favorite people on earth. Come see! Tickets here: www.eventbrite.com/e/iykyk-tick... No tickets will be sold at the doors. You gotta get tickets ahead of time!

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mes-popcorns · 2 years

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Walking home from school just before her 10th birthday, Tura Luna Pascual Yamaguchi (Tura Satana) was reportedly gang raped by five men. According to Tura, her attackers were never prosecuted, and it was rumored that the judge had been paid off. She reports that this prompted her to learn martial arts, such as aikido and karate. Over the next 15 years, Satana tracked down each rapist and exacted revenge. "I made a vow to myself that I would someday, somehow get even with all of them," she said years later. "They never knew who I was until I told them." Around this time, she formed a gang, "the Angeles," with Italian, Jewish, and Polish girls from her neighborhood. In an interview with Psychotronic Video, Satana said, "We had leather motorcycle jackets, jeans and boots...and we kicked butt." Because of frequent delinquency, she was sent to reform school. When she was 13, her parents arranged her marriage to 17-year-old John Satana in Hernando, Mississippi, which lasted nine months.

Satana moved to Los Angeles and by age 15, using fake identification to hide the fact she was a minor, began burlesque dancing. She was hired to perform at the Trocadero nightclub on the Sunset Strip, and became a photographic model for, among others, silent screen comic Harold Lloyd, whose photos of her appear in "Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3-D."

Satana returned to Chicago to live with her parents and started dancing at the Club Rendevouz in Calumet City, where she was known as Galatea, "the Statue that Came to Life." She was offered a raise to become a stripper.

"I started out as an interpretive dancer, but I was offered more money if I took my clothes off, so I did. I started dancing at the age of 13 years old. I became a professional dancer at the age of 15 years old. If the owners of the clubs I had worked in ever knew that I was only 15, I think that they would have had a heart attack."

After singer Elvis Presley saw Satana perform at Chicago's Follies Theater, the two began a romantic relationship that some reports say ended in a marriage proposal she declined (though she reportedly kept the ring). Satana eventually became a successful exotic dancer, traveling from city to city. She credited Lloyd with giving her the confidence to pursue a career in show business: "I saw myself as an ugly child. Mr. Lloyd said, 'You have such a symmetrical face. The camera loves your face...You should be seen.'"

Satana's acting debut role was a cameo as Suzette Wong, a Parisian prostitute in the film "Irma la Douce" (1963), which starred Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. Her next role was as a dancer in "Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?" (1963), which starred Dean Martin and Elizabeth Montgomery; Soon after, Satana appeared in the television shows "Burke's Law" and "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." Satana then starred as Varla in the 1965 Russ Meyer film "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!"—a very aggressive and sexual female character for which she did all of her own stunts and fight scenes. Renowned film critic Richard Corliss called her performance "the most honest, maybe the one honest portrayal in the Meyer canon and certainly the scariest." Originally titled "The Leather Girls", the film is an ode to female violence, based on a concept created by Meyer and screenwriter Jack Moran. Both felt at her first audition that Satana was "definitely Varla." The film was shot on location in the desert outside Los Angeles during days when the weather was more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit and freezing nights, with Satana clashing regularly with teenage co-star Susan Bernard due to Bernard's mother's reportedly disruptive behavior on the set. Meyer said Satana was "extremely capable. She knew how to handle herself. Don't f*ck with her! And if you have to f*ck her, do it well! She might turn on you!"

Satana was responsible for adding key elements to the visual style and energy of the production, including her costume, makeup, usage of martial arts, dialogue and the use of spinning tires in the death scene of the main male character. She came up with many of the film's best lines. At one point the gas station attendant was ogling her extraordinary cleavage while confessing to a desire to see America. Varla replied "You won't find it down there, Columbus!" Meyer cited Satana as the primary reason for the film's lasting fame. "She and I made the movie," said Meyer. Meyer reportedly later regretted not using Satana in subsequent productions.

"I took a lot of my anger that had been stored inside of me for many years and let it loose. I helped to create the character Varla and helped to make her someone that many women would love to be like."

Santana legally owned her likeness and image. So, whenever Russ Meyer wanted to change the artwork or rerelease "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!," he had to get her permission and sometimes pay her all over again. (Wikipedia/IMDb)

#faster pussycat #faster pussycat kill kill #tura satana

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thefakegeekg1rl · 1 year

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Flaunting America's ass with @plan9burlesque this weekend. I can't guarantee that you'll understand all the references but I CAN guarantee that you'll have a damn good time! . T1x @ https://rb.gy/smi9hm

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chaplinfortheages · 9 months

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December 14th 1914 - George Spoor announces Charlie Chaplin has signed his with Essanay - (shortly after heading to it's Chicago Studios) it would take approx. 6 more weeks till he released his first film for his new employers - aptly titled “His New Job”

He signed for 10 times the amount he was making with Keystone Studios. $1250.00 a week and a $10,000 sign on bonus, initially Chaplin was not looking for a bonus but somehow a rumor got around and he just went with it.

At Essanay with the beautiful Edna Purviance beside him the tramp became more romantic, caring, more 3rd dimensional. His first masterpiece called appropriately enough “The Tramp” – his comedy and pathos came together, with more breathing room he was able to become more creative and experimented with bits in his films, showing his fascination with nude statues in “A Jitney Elopement” and “Work”, as well as a car chase in “A Jitney Elopement”, camera angles and effects in “Work” and “Police”, a look at famous Karno sketch with “A Night in the Show”, in “Carmen” a Burlesque on a much seen opera/film he finally showed the critics as the end of “Carmen” reveals that had he chosen he could have easily been a dramatic actor .

His Essanay period (1915/1916) was truly a transition from his Keystone comedies and a bridge to his Mutual film period (1916/1917). Essanay's is also one of his least mentioned periods as a filmmaker. A great book on his Essanay films and one I have read and refer to numerous times: “Chaplin at Essanay - A Film Artist in Transition 1915-1916” by James L. Neibaur.

#charlie chaplin #essanay film company #annoucement #december 14th 1914 #george spoor #president

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wonderlandleighleigh · 2 years

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Could you make one of the "public" reacting to the Lenny/Midge relationship?

Or maybe Penny Pann seeing them and judging 😅

COMEDY AND CUPID?

by L Roy Dunham

Dear readers, it seems that our city's most tasteless comic has found herself a man.

That's right. Mrs. Maisel - she of the unfunny punchline and former burlesque MC duties, now currently in-house comic for Gordon Ford - has found a new romance with one Lenny Bruce. They were spotted walking hand-in-hand in Midtown a few nights ago, and even sharing what looked to be a rather steamy embrace.

Are we really surprised? Mrs. Maisel got her start opening for Bruce at the Gaslight when Sophie Lennon had tried to blackball her from the local clubs (a valiant endeavor). They've been popping up at each other's shows for a number of years at this point. It was only a matter of time before the relationship went public.

With her shiny new television spot and his run at Carnegie Hall followed by his Chicago charges being dropped, it's no wonder the two are now being a little less conspicuous about a relationship that has likely being going on for a while.

So what does this all mean?

Likely that she truly did get her start by opening for Bruce in a number of different ways. Certainly that comedy for Maisel has been a mere husband hunt.

And seemingly, she's found one.

Good for you, Mrs. Maisel. May you remarry, and go back to your Jell-O molds, never to grace our comedy clubs again.

The New Feminine School of Comedy, Jewishness and the Art of Minding One's Own Business

By Lenny Bruce

I suppose I can press pause on my history of comedy and the modern sense of humor series to address some things. Right? That's allowed. Sure.

Yes, I am seeing a very funny lady that I have known for a number of years. We have been friends for a while, and things have progressed into romance. They do that from time to time. It's fairly common actually, for consenting adults to one day look at someone they like or admire or even care for and think "Oh. It's you."

It even happens to us celebrities.

Let's get down to it:

Now, Timmy. When a man and a woman love each other very much -

Wait, wrong lecture.

Right.

This paper has printed quite a few articles about how unfunny Midge Maisel is. Her humor is not for everyone, I suppose. It's very feminine, which is a brand of comedy a lot of people just aren't used to yet. It's a new concept for women to go on stage at a smoky club and talk the way men do about their lives. Men have done it for decades, of course, but women are expected to stay in their home kitchens (god forbid they set foot in professional ones, right?), raise their children and die shortly after their husbands do.

But Midge Maisel decided to do something different with the very real pain of being left by a self-centered husband with two children and no job.

She got on a stage and she talked about how much it stinks.

How dare she! Trying things that men do. What nerve. What gall.

Maisel's brand of humor is also very Jewish. She is a Jewish woman who was raised in a Jewish community who is raising her own children in a Jewish community. And I wonder if these hit pieces that the Daily News sees fit to print are veiled attempts at antisemitism. It certainly feels that way sometimes. We are, after all, very easy targets. I bet you can find a few nice old men in Argentina who can confirm that fact.

As a Jew myself, I can tell you that I am deeply aware when I read something that feels strange; when you know you are being singled out because you are Other. Some of these articles feel that way. It's unsettling.

In regards to my relationship with Midge Maisel, that's really no one's business but ours. I suppose if you must pass judgement on two divorced people making a go at something new, you may, but it won't change anything. She makes me laugh. She makes me very happy. I like to think I do those things for her. Ain't love grand?

As a point of order, this will be the only time I address my love life in these articles. Next time, I promise: none of you will have to bother reading anything like this again. Next time, I'll just call my lawyer.

He won't mind hearing from me for a sixth time this week. We've become pals, you know?

Next week, we'll be looking at the concept of The Fool in a historical context and how it bleeds into our modern sensibilities.

Until then, readers.

#fic #au #tmmm #Midge/Lenny #Midge x Lenny

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feotakahari · 4 months

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Some people have gay uncles, but I’m proud to have the gayest uncle. He stars every Christmas in a drag show called The Buttcracker.

(Reno, not Chicago. The Chicago one is burlesque.)

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dangerousturkey · 11 months

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I am now locked into attending a star wars themed burlesque show next month in chicago and this is not something i have any desire to do but it's a collective birthday present to someone so. Here we go

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cinematicct · 1 year

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Chicago (2002)

🎤🎷🎶

Directed by Rob Marshall in his directorial debut, this film adaptation of the hit 1975 Broadway stage musical is packed with themes of fame and scandal.

The plot is centered on housewife Roxie Hart and nightclub performer Velma Kelly who find themselves on death row. In order to avoid the gallows, they both fight to earn a shot at stardom.

A fabulous ensemble cast includes: Renée Zellweger as Roxie, Catherine Zeta-Jones (whose show-stopping performance won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress) as Velma, Richard Gere as media-savvy yet charismatic defense attorney Billy Flynn, Queen Latifah as the shrewd Matron “Mama” Morton, John C. Reilly as Roxie’s simple-minded husband Amos, Christine Baranski as sensationalist reporter Mary Sunshine, Taye Diggs as the Bandleader, Colm Feore as district attorney Martin Harrison, Lucy Liu as heiress Kitty Baxter and Dominic West as Roxie’s beau Fred Casely.

Each cast member (with the exception of Colm Feore, Lucy Liu and Dominic West, respectively) does their own singing for songs such as: “Overture/All That Jazz”, “Funny Honey”, “When You’re Good to Mama”, “Cell Block Tango” (where several female prisoners, including Velma, rhythmically describe their part in the murder of the men in their past lives), “All I Care About”, “We Both Reached for the Gun”, “Roxie”, “I Can’t Do It Alone”, “Mister Cellophane”, “Razzle Dazzle”, “A Tap Dance”, “Nowadays” and “Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag”. Those songs, originally from the Broadway version, represent the mood of a swinging/violent setting.

Nearly every musical number is part of this huge vaudeville act that would occur in the imagination of a would-be megastar, which in turn demonstrates the difference between reaching for the stars and facing the music. This impeccable technique of combining “reality” with a burlesque fantasy of the main protagonist (Roxie Hart to be exact) won an Oscar for Best Film Editing.

The story takes place in 1920s Chicago during a stimulating period known as the Jazz Age. Thanks to filmmaker Rob Marshall’s background as a theater director, this movie is designed to replicate the glamor and brutality of a particular city in the Roaring Twenties. Such radiant detail won the film an Oscar for Best Production Design (formerly known as Best Art Direction).

The costumes (which won an Oscar in that category) add an extra splash of color and snazzy texture to the movie. Billy Flynn mostly wears sharp lawyerly threads. Roxie wears delicate clothing in actuality, whereas her wardrobe is all sparkly in the tuneful fantasy sequences. Velma is shown wearing provocative clothes, especially fishnets. Every outfit (by design) reflects the legality, ferocity and sensuality of the story.

This particular musical explores the dark side of first-wave feminism in the early 20th century. Roxie and Velma each commit a murder to an unfaithful man who has taken advantage of them. Since both female inmates have no redeeming qualities, one is determined to outshine the other. Along the way, Roxie and Velma gradually come to realize that a solo act is not enough.

Hence the significance of the story: in a world where crime makes the headlines, only a good show can get people off the hook. I certainly recommend this toe-tapping Best Picture Oscar winner to every fan of Broadway-style musicals.

#Chicago 2002 #rob marshall #Catherine Zeta-Jones #velma kelly #Renee Zellweger #roxie hart #Richard gere #Queen Latifah #roaring 20s #jazz age #movie musical #based on Broadway musical

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