Grateful

It's hard to believe that the year is rapidly coming to a close. There have been plenty of ups and downs, but as we fly toward the New Year things have been hitting a lot of high notes. Up there, that's the cast of Material Girls: The Burlesque Tribute to Madonna, backstage at Joe's Pub before the sold-out show. And below is the cast of the All-Star Burlesque Birthday Bash, backstage in the brand-new dressing room before we brought it to the brand-new stage at the Red Palace (the venue formerly known as the Palace of Wonders) in DC for a packed, crazy audience that may have been the most enthusiastic we've ever had anywhere.

Then Casino O'Fortune Cookie launched our new series of shows at another new home, Crash Mansion on the Bowery, with another All-Star Burlesque Birthday Bash, this one doubling as a going-away party for our partner the beloved Anita Cookie as she heads to Los Angeles for a (hopefully!) brief winter sojourn.

I share these shots not just to make you envious of how I spend my time, but because this network of amazing, beautiful, talented, frequently naked performers make our shows as fantastic as they are, and in these dizzyingly busy weeks at the close of the year I've been surrounded by these friends and collaborators, and we all embrace and support each other, and I'm very lucky. Here's to a whole hell of a lot more of that in 2011.

Ok, that's enough heavy shit for now!

Back to the era of The Rachel and Fruitopia. Also: vote for me!

Man in Black Burlesque is behind us, and it was a fantastic night; we have so much coming up ahead of us that once again, this blog is at substantial risk of becoming just a listing of our shows! But it's going to be a big, big fall. Here's our next show, this Saturday we're back at the Palace of Wonders! In fact, it will be our final show at the Palace under its original name, they've merged with the venue next door and, while that comes with an expanded stage and venue and other exciting developments, it also comes with the unfortunate name change to The Red Palace. Changing a beloved and distinctive brand never seems like a good idea to me...but hey, what do I know?



And that's not all! The New York Burlesque Festival is coming up at the end of this month, and Clams Casino and Neil O'Fortune (hey, that's me!) have been nominated for a Golden Pastie award for "Best Burlesque Couple." I want to win this much more than I should probably admit. So click this link and vote, people! I thank you.

There's a whole lot more coming up, stay tuned...

Ready to channel my inner Howard Cosell, again

I know this week is all about getting revved up for the greatest night of all time, on Thursday night. But we've got a lot of other things coming up too, also exciting. This is totally happening:

We're back, baby!

Accept no substitutes

This Saturday's Royale With Cheese sets the stage for a great March of out-of-town dates with various of our co-conspirators:

On March 20th, Clams and I return to the site of our January triumph, this time as the guest of our friend L'il Dutch, the Queen of DC Burlesque; I'll be hosting, tent revival style, the 2nd anniversary of the Dutch Oven in Washington!

Then on the 26th, we return to Asbury Lanes, the most wonderful place on Earth, with the Pinchbottom Burlesque team. This time we're bringing Julie Atlas Muz and Ruby Valentine with us!

Less plugging, more blogging, right after this post.

My scores of Washington DC-area readers should plan to head out to the Palace of Wonders this Friday, when Clams Casino will be headlining L'il Dutch's Dutch Oven show. And it's the holiday special! The Palace, certainly the only Museum of Sideshow and Oddities/variety stage venue in DC or, well, anywhere, survived an awful fire on its block last night completely unscathed, so I'm sure their regular fans will be out to celebrate its continuing existence!