The setting for this well attended burlesque show was the "long room" rather than the theatre. This could have had an effect on the atmosphere due to its dimensions which sometimes meant that the audience energy was not so concentrated towards the stage Nonetheless, there were a variety of performance styles on show which meant that any audience newcomers to burlesque saw an almost complete spectrum.
I am usually a traditionalist as I like to see a male compere, but I was delighted with Gigi Golightly's elegant turn, she gave each act, including mine, a lovely introduction. However, as there were indeed a lot of newcomers (who knew little about burlesque) in the audience, she had her work cut out when it came to encouraging them to cheer the acts on.
Plenty of people turned up to see some real scary glamour. Black Country Burlesque regulars such as Delilah Cherry Blossom, Ava Quinzel and Lola Pops showed their finely honed skills and fabulous costumes in neo and gorelesque performances, taking delight in "freaking out" some of the ladies on the front row! Another thing which struck me was the expertly applied make up of these performers. The great amount of work that had gone into these performances was all too apparent.
The stage manager for the evening was Celeste Chiffon who did sterling work in her own inimitable style, with horror make up and a fluorescent green wig.
Other performers to appear were trained by Maggie Palmer at Wolverhampton's Burlesque Academy. Blue Bell Noir and Starr Rouge, are a sister act who performed in perfect synchronisation in a traditional cabaret style. Tiger Lilley was another academy girl who made her debut with a sensual performance to the music "Teach me, Tiger".
I myself did two performances which included my debut act and a new one which used Robert Plant's "Fortune Teller" to tell my tale.
The evening had a couple of departures from burlesque with the Jawahir Belly Dance Troupe from Kingswinford dazzling us with their stunning costumes and routines.
Another part of the evening was an appearance by "Angel Eyes Helen" a medium who did readings for randomly selected memebers of the audience. Not everyone's cup of tea, but a different act which added to the variety of the evening.
As always, it is difficult to rate a show you have appeared in yourself, but I would recommend this show as worth a visit should there be another one, but I might suggest some format changes.
(Many thanks to Robin Lowe from Black Country Burlesque for the use of photographs from the night.)
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