Goodness, Gracious

Danger Zone Burlesque from John Goddard on Vimeo.

Courtesy of Pinkie Special's lovely British fiance John Goddard, a fun video overview of Danger Zone Burlesque, the final Casino O'Fortune Cookie Production at Joe's Pub. It was an emotional night for me and this is actually a fun way to remember it.

All of my MST3K dreams realized

Thanks to burlesque, I get to live the life of a 1970's professional TV host, which is just about the highest I can imagine aspiring to, but I do it live, surrounded by naked women. It's a pretty solid gig.

And now, another thing that I never thought I'd get to do is being realized, when I am one of the panelists on July 6th for Bastard Keith's Movie Club at Galapagos Art Space. The second installment of Keith's new venture has a panel onstage watching a movie with the audience, making snarky comments about what's on screen. This month, it's a mid-90s piece of Hong Kong weirdness, lesbian action flick The Naked Killer. Which I saw on VHS, about...15 years ago. It should be fun!

The dude got around, too.

The wide-ranging graffiti artiste responsible for drawing curlicued moustaches (made up of the word "moustache") on subway station advertising has been busted. He shall mustachio no more.

This is cool.

BUCK 65 "Superstars Don't Love" from Travis Hopkins on Vimeo.

Discovered via IMSO.

"I never try anything. I just do it."

One of the great and unique pleasures of the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend every year is spending time with--and seeing the performances by--our living legends of burlesque. I love that I can call many of these ladies my friends and in six years I've seen more amazing happenings on stage then I can describe here. (One favorite this year: Camille 2000 returning to the stage for the first time after 25 years.)

One of my favorite memories of all of my BHoF Weekends was, in 2008, hanging out in the Ghost Bar at the Palms with Tura Satana and Satan's Angel, while they swapped nostalgia. Tura was lovely and welcoming and I'm glad to have met her.

She's an inspiration to so many of today's performers and we were sad to lose her this year; the Friday night show this year was dedicated to her memory, her children were there to celebrate with us and among other tributes featured the debut of the trailer for a new documentary about her. It looks like it might kick as much ass as Tura did.

Shun the non-believer! Shuuuuuunnnnnn-ah.

Neil O'Fortune's big summer continues when I return this Saturday as the host of D20 Burlesque, for a night completely dedicated to Internet memes. It should be batshit insane, in a good way. And haven't you always wanted to hear my dramatic reading of Charlie the Unicorn? I know you have.


And then on Monday night I make my debut as the host of the long-running Original Cyn Burlesque in Brooklyn. It should be batshit insane, in a good way.

Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend 2011 in words and pictures

Finally got my pictures from Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend posted to Flickr, check 'em out! As always, I barely scratched the surface, there's too much and I'm always too busy...but needless to say if you search Flickr and Facebook you'll find tons of fabulous pictures, especially of the amazing action onstage throughout the weekend's four nights of shows.

I'm happy to say that the Weekend was an absolute triumph. The best yet in our 6 years in Vegas. There's tons of press out there too if you missed the action...including about the legal wranglings that I'm not going to go into. (Just look for the Wall Street Journal article if you're curious about that.)

We feel the need, the need...for speed.

So, something is coming to an end, but it will end with a bang. Casino O'Fortune Cookie Productions will be no more after this summer but we've got one more show at Joe's Pub, which will also soon close for months of major renovations. So, you should come out! June 25th! Our usual pop culture craziness with an all-star cast! Does this looks familiar?

Well, check it:

Take us to bed or lose us forever!