Posts tagged job
How do I get a burlesque gig?
Feb 8th
Just got back from a whirlwind of boobs and glitter from the Dallas Burlesque Festival. Great show, great girls, and an amazing audience. I feel lucky and so pleased to have shared the stage with everyone who performed.
I received an email over the weekend from a reader asking about shows. My troupe, Music City Burlesque, gets quite a few similar emails from girls looking to do burlesque, so I thought I’d share with everyone. She writes:
“I’m a burlesque dancer looking for work and I’d love some advice on getting gigs. Thanks girl!” -Katie
First off, getting gigs is great, but it won’t really count as “work.” Although most shows pay, they only pay enough to maybe cover your costume materials expenses, not counting the hours of choreographing, practicing, and the time to actually craft your costume. There are a precious few dancers who make a living off burlesque, and most of those also either teach classes, in the case of Michelle L’Amour and Indigo Blue or brand themselves through books and makeup, like Dita Von Teese. The rest of us do burlesque for various reasons, but money isn’t one of them. Just an aside, since I get a lot of questions about how much we make dancing.
I’m assuming you’re a new dancer and don’t have any contacts in the business. If you’re a new dancer, it’s kind of hard to get out there because troupes and venues want to know what you’ve done. A great way to get your first show is to take classes and perform in a student showcase. That’s how I got my start in burlesque, and I learned a lot from the other girls in my class as well as my teachers. Of course, you may not be in an area where that’s available. If that’s the case, you need to make an audition video, with your full makeup and finished routine, and finished costume. It doesn’t matter if it’s in your living room and the lighting quality sucks, this is to show prospective people that you’re serious and have put in the time to finish a routine. Photos are always a plus even if it’s just a myspace of facebook page.
Are you in an area with lots of burlesque or not so much? Do a little research to see what kind of burlesque or sideshow is happening in your area. If you’re lucky enough to be in a mecca of burlesque, start going to lots of shows. Dress up and talk to performers afterward if they’re open to it. Don’t pitch yourself, just mention that you liked their performance and see if they have a website or facebook. If you can network and meet people beforehand, you’ll stand out when you send them your pitch.
If you live in an area with no burlesque, don’t despair! Burlesque is constantly growing and becoming more mainstream. Keep looking, and start a meetup group for those interested in burlesque. If you can find a venue, there are plenty of touring acts that you could help bring to town. If you live within driving distance of a burlesque troupe, make the trip to see one of their shows, and see if they’d be interested in coming to do a show near you.
Once you’ve made contact with a troupe, it’s time to send them your pitch. Mention you’ve seen their show and talked to performer X. Ask if they ever host guest performers and list all your finished routines and the accompanying music. Include links to your photos and the aforementioned video. Be courteous and willing to do anything. They may ask you to work the merchandise booth at a show or to stage kitten (picking up discarded performer clothing onstage) before asking you to perform.
Booking non-burlesque shows, like opening for a band, are a little trickier. You could contact a specific venue directly or a specific band directly giving the same information you would give to a troupe. Do your research and make sure you’re pitching appropriately. In other words don’t pitch a classic fan dance to a pop-punk band.
Keep in mind that certain states have laws about nudity in bars. In Nashville, if we perform anywhere that serves alcohol, we must wear a quarter bra (covering under boob and side boob) and full panties. If you violate that law and someone reports it, the venue, not you, gets fined. If a venue has been burned by performers not obeying the law, they may never let burlesque be performed there again, so don’t take it to heart if a venue flat out refuses you because you do burlesque.
Be persistent. Keep watching shows and even youtube videos to better yourself and be more knowledgeable about the burlesque scene and how it’s evolving. Get involved however you can and always be nice to everyone. This is a really small world and if you’re rude or a diva, it’ll be hard to get more gigs.
Hope that helps my would be ecdysiasts!
Popularity: 35% [?]
Dream Jobs
Feb 25th
via Jek a go go
When you’re stuck in a dull week at a dull job, it always helps to daydream about those jobs that you would be happy to get out of bed for every morning, at least in theory. Some I have experience with, and others are just improbable fantasies.
In no particular order:
- Circus Performer: Whether that would be as a burlesque dancer, aerialist, or ringmaster duties (I would totally rock that outfit), making people believe in magic for a living sounds divine.
- Bookstore/Cafe Owner: There are a lot of antique shops/restaurants near Cape Town that are absolutely charming. The shop would only be open during the day, with coffee and small pastries in the cafe. Then at night, the shop would close and the cafe would become a full blown restaurant. My favorite that I went to was this place where everything in the restaurant, the chairs, tables, light fixtures, were all for sale. The food was amazing too.
- Magazine Editor: Well, more of a section editor at a non-real magazine that you see in movies, where you get to try new products and report with bigwigs all day. I’d like to have some responsibility, but maybe not all of it. But to read and perfect other writer’s words while being able to contribute my own from time to time would be glorious. And the fast pace of magazines means you’re always working on something new.
- Run a Desert Drive In: I had never been to a drive in movie until last year but had always wanted to. I love the old-timey and tangible aspect of it. Everyone mills around during the breaks in double features, you can break out the lawn chairs (and beer if you’re sneaky) and just have a relaxing night basically at the park. Boy and I want to run one where we serve our home-brewed beer and barbecue. On the weekends we’ll run newly minted movies and classics for families, and the late-late night showings will be obscure indie and horror movies. We’ll have theme nights like circus and burlesque too.
- Travel Writer: Those two words basically sum it up. I love to travel, meet new people and experience new ways of life. And to be able to turn that into a job? Marvelous.
- Costume Designer: I started college as a theatre major, and my favorite part of all my classes were creating costumes for characters. I love sketching out what and why a certain dress would be perfect for which scene, and how that would convey a mood or feeling of an era or just that moment.
- Indie Book Publisher: There is so much great fiction out there that will never see the light of day because it’s not mainstream or traditional. At my publisher, we’d have office yoga time, the office would be more of a library than a cube-space, and we’d read submissions to each other over a bowl of hookah in the reading nook.
- Airship Captain: Heavy emphasis on the Dream job. But to float through the air, shipping fabulous people to exotic locations, all the while keeping my steampunk goggles on with a refined 20s satin dress. I would meet the guests on the deck for drinks and sunbathe in the clouds while my second takes over. It would be like a Miyazaki film realized.
What are your dream jobs?
Popularity: 4% [?]
My Life as a Cupcake Decorator
Oct 6th
Via Serenete
I worked as a cupcake decorator for exactly one day. One 15-hour, icing-stuffed, day.
A few years ago, when you couldn’t find a cupcake bakery every few corners, one (heretofore and hereafter unnamed) was opening near my apartment. I thought working there would be a wonderful change of pace during college, and to hell with my waistline. I had worked in a number of restaurants before, as a host and waitress, so figured I could definitely handle the strain of a storefront shop. The owners were looking to hire their first employee immediately, and really had no idea what to tell me to do or how to schedule hours. So they just said, show up at 8am tomorrow and we’ll see what happens.
8am. I wait at the door for a good half hour before anyone shows, cold, in the rain. The owners, a husband and wife duo, showed up in a car all fresh and pretty with a carload of cupcakes in the back just waiting to be unloaded, iced, and put out for early morning customers. I pulled my hair back, a little drippy, grabbed a black apron from the back of the store, and prepared for my first day as a baking assistant. I still am not sure why anyone would want a dozen cupcakes for breakfast, but apparently I’m in the minority, because as soon as we opened people came flooding in. One of the owners manned the counter while the other taught me how to re-whip the buttercream icing (to be extra fluffy) and make the perfect cupcake swirl by tucking your beginning in the middle and your end under one of the sides.
We ran out of cupcakes at 10am and had to close for half an hour while we busily shaved the lumpy parts off the red velvet and key lime pie flavors (which I of course munched on) and whipped up more icing. A new tray ready, they were all gone by 12:30. I ran between icing furious swirls, tossing sprinkles or a dash of lime on top, and the back washing cupcake pans and bowls.
I got to take a half hour break at 3:00 when I was asked to find more limes at the corner grocery and grab lunch for everyone. We didn’t have time to eat though, because when I got back there was a line out the door for more cupcakes. I resumed my now sploched apron and got elbow deep whipping and swirling. There were a couple casualties, some cupcakes failed to rise properly, or had too much overlap to be sold, but we managed to keep the cupcake hungry masses appeased.
It got to the point where I wasn’t sure which flavor was which anymore. Every time I thought I got ahead, and could put some freshly iced cupcakes in the fridge to cool for a minute, they’d take my tray and I’d be behind again. My arms started to ache from the constant squishing of the icing bag and the whipping. The sugar rush from constantly mixing and taste-testing new icings kept me energized though.
Finally around 8pm, twelve hours after arriving that morning, I got to eat a sandwich. My first food of the day besides discard cupcake scraps. It was the best thing I had ever eaten, but when I was done we had one last rush before closing at 10pm. I smelled of sweat, baking flour, and most strongly, sweet, sugary icing. It’s still probably the best I’ve ever smelled after a 15 hour work day.
I had class all the day after, but the owners had told me to call about my availability. On the other line, she sounded reticent, and said the other person they hired today wants to work full time, so they won’t be needing my help anymore. “Also,” she added, hesitantly, “you never really got the perfect swirl down, so I don’t think this would have worked out anyway.”
And that’s the day my dreams of becoming a cupcake decorator, in the front line of duty, were dashed forever.
Which was really probably for the best, since I would have undoubtedly lived my life subsisting on cupcake rejects and wondering what life was like outside of the powdered icing station.
Popularity: 1% [?]
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