BURLESQUE REVIEW – THE SLIPPERY BELLE – THE VOODOO
LOUNGE, MINSHULL STREET, MANCHESTER FRIDAY 16TH OCTOBER 2009
I was involved in a photo-shoot in Ashton with several burlesque fans and performers all day, so once the togging was done, we travelled in to Manchester from Ashton together to watch the show, which featured the return, as compeer, of Rosie Lugosi.
There was a strong Halloween theme, especially with Rosie being the Lesbian Vampire Queen of Manchester, and as I’d used my H P Lovecraft inspired Cthulhu suit for the photo shoot, I brought it along to wear at the burlesque too, gaining much attention in a very friendly festive atmosphere. Another costume thereof note was that of a chap wearing a Jack Skellingron suit, from Tim Burton’s a Nightmare Before Christmas. 117
Bella Besame greeted everyone at the cloakroom, where I naively asked for a ticket for ‘one adult’ as if kids were invited to such a raunchy show anyway.
Drinks in, I joined the party that had arrived from the shoot, and we settled down to watch the show. The 1940’s & 50’s jazz sounds took us through the first hour and then Rosie came out, quickly taking charge, reminding us to call her Mistress, and being suitably mean to the Maid, the lady who was to recover discarded garments between the dances. It was soon as if Rosie had never been away. She targeted one young lady for her Matalan dress sense, and anyone else who caught her attention.
The first dancer was MIDORI FAE, bravely making her debut – a tall lady in a business suit, dancing quickly down to her underwear and a smile.
Next up was TOKYO TEASE, a returning performer dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, in black & silver sparkling dress, and great shimmying.
Boylesque followed with Slippery Belle favourite, DUKE WAYWARD PHOTO 740 hilariously bursting out of a cardboard box in a tu-tu and dancing the can-can.
STARLA HAZE was next, debuting her yummy-mummy act, as an Egyptian mummy, twirling round as audience members helped unravel her bandages to reveal her beauty. Boris Karloff was never this hot. 741
CRIMSON SKYE, one of the compeers during Rosie’s break, returned as a foxy lady, in fox-fur 1940’s elegance, turning into a heavy metal rocker half way through the set, moving close to the audience and revealing fox tail tassels over her breasts to finish.
The first half of the show was drawn to a great end by, (as Rosie introduced them) a ‘zombie & Western’ trio, LOS ZOMBINOS, who I have previously seen at the Green Room Cabaret Formerly Known as Bucket events. They come on, undead, to sing their own hillbilly zombie numbers including their take on New Order’s Love Will Tear Us Apart – Zombies Will Tear Us Apart.
There was a lot of dancing in the interval, including some from me, with several ladies taking great interest in my latex Cthulhu extensions – I was the happiest chaos demon ever to party-on-down.
Rosie started the second half off with more audience teasing and invites for us to call her a lesbian Bitch. She then introduced MIDORI FAE back, - a second performance making her no longer a performance virgin. She wore a housecoat, and had a towel wrapped round her head as if coming fresh from the shower, and drank some booze to loosen her inhibitions as Stevie Wonder’s Very Superstitious played and she drew back the house-coat to reveal stripey pyjamas which also soon vanished to show off her dark panties and tassels.
TOKYO TEASE performed a traditional balloon dance, but in a Halloween witch’s hat, to a song from Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas. 747
DUKE WAYWARD played a middle class English Gent, exasperated at missing his train, and reading the newspaper on the platform, before removing everything from Bowler hat to trousers, to reveal his union jack underwear. 749 750 751
STARLA HAZE came out as a plague demon in a superb mask, and a cloak covering several balloons, which she quickly burst to reveal her corsetry and suspenders and tassels. 752
CRIMSON SKYE presented the last dance, dressed in black, with a dark rubber mask over her face, snogging a lady at a table near to where I was sitting, and making wide use of the stage, Voodoo Lounge pillars, and everything else, and revealing her glittering underwear to finish. 754
LOS ZOMBINOS closed the cabaret set with numbers like ‘’Till There’s Nothin’ In The Coffin and got a well deserved rapturous call for an encore.
BELLA BESAME came out to thank everyone for their work on the show, and the lovely bar staff, with the best applause going to Rosie Lugosi for her much awaited return.
DJ MIKEY WONG 726 now took over for some great Rock & Roll until way into the early hours, though I left just after 1am, as it was a long and very happy day.
My own thanks to my various dance partners over the course of the night and to my friends from the daytime photo-shoot who it was so lovely to be with in the evening too.
LINKS
SLIPPERY BELLE - Manchester, Leeds &
Huddersfield burlesque performance and training.
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Links to other people's Burlesque related
websites
http://arthurchappell.me.uk/links-burlesque.htm
my other Burlesque pages & reviews
http://arthurchappell.me.uk/burlesque.contents.htm
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