Retooling

I recommend to poor dancers to repair the costumes they have. I recommend to unemployed dancers to run the numbers they have so they can improve. Since I'm investing my cash in a new costume already, and I have one gig lined up for January, it's time to practice what I preach.

My husband has a gig this evening and I'm staying home to work on me. I haven't gone out much lately because I have commissions I'm working on, but I'm also working on my body and my acts. My eighth year as a professional burlesque dancer has commenced. I decided to pull out two acts I haven't performed in over a year and run them in my living room.

In my room

The first act I ran was "Butterflies" and I did it in full costume sans pasties and panties. This was the costume I made through the "My Final Reveal" series here. I was producing and had to create content. I wanted a panel skirt number with full panels. I wanted to use magnets. I wanted to make a dress from a pattern I had. I learned a lot as I made the costume. I put the number to "Butterflies" by Michael Jackson, a delightful and floaty tune. I don't feel like it ever fully arrived as a number. That could be why this beautiful costume didn't leave my wardrobe once in 2014, and only saw the stage once in 2013.

The costume construction lessons were incredible. The magnets were a challenge. I discovered it takes forever to rhinestone on a showgirl level with a hotfix tool. I learned that hand painting net makes it heavier than expected. I learned that Mod Podge and glitter on shoes seems like a great idea, but those shoes will stick together months after the Mod Podge has cured. I confirmed that strapless bras are a terrible idea for me and that I must have a strap of some sort.

Photo (c) Markus Alias

I put on the costume and started the song without running it in my mind as a refresher. It was liberating to not remember the choreography that didn't fully work. It was fun dancing in different shoes since the Mod Podge shoes just don't work. Little Coca Carter was absolutely fascinated with my living room performance. It was interesting. I have some distance from the number. It's not my bread and butter but I won't part with the costume. The song just doesn't work right for me in this costume.

As an experiment, I put on "Blue Prelude" and stripped to that. I'm not incredibly familiar with the song, but it's a striptease classic for a very good reason. It worked so much better! I may or may not use that song for this costume in future, but I realized the costume is worth putting to work again. I made notes of the repairs it needed and taped them to the garment bag. I'll get to those soon.

I was very warm and Coca Carter was eager to participate in my dancing, so I did a simpler version of another song. I pulled out "If," which I haven't performed since 2013. It has a chunk of floor work and I had a knee injury early last year. I didn't put on the costume and I didn't crawl on the floor. I danced the number as I remembered it, and realized I need to revisit the choreography to fully remember it. I'm not culling the number; I just need to find a producer who wants to see me dance hip hop. (This is good hip hop. I had a choreographer for this number. It's not like me and Evie getting served in hip hop class.)

I may just do this again next weekend. It was an incredible learning experience and very freeing.

Topless Vlog #52

Vlog is here!

I am absolutely ridiculous and give you a little hello to start off the new year.

LINKS:
Madison Hurley Photography
1/30 Double Vision Burlesque

Social Media for Introverts

If you're reading this, you're taking a step in the right direction of tackling social media even though you're an introvert. You know that you need to get busy on the social media front to promote your goods, services, skills, and business.

Social media is necessary for three reasons: showing your value and reach, promoting activities and products, and engagement that creates relationships.

1. Showing your value and reach. At its most basic, this would be your numbers of followers, likes, subscribers, people in your circles, etc.  The numbers have surface value because they indicate how much reach you could potentially have, and they are considered as an indication of your popularity. A number of these subscribers could be false profiles (spammers who create accounts, people who forget their password and create new accounts while leaving the old accounts in the ether), people who followed you even though they don't know who you are/what you do, and the same one person who has several accounts (aliases, business profiles, etc.). People like seeing these numbers because they're an apparent popularity rating. Your reach extends beyond your immediate circle when you make content public and people share that content with people who aren't already on your social media list. You want to increase your numbers, but you can't stop there.
2. Promoting activities and products. If someone hires you to perform in a public show, you are expected to promote that show and help that brand succeed, making the money to cover your fees. If you make widgets, you have to get the word out so people know what you have to offer. (Newspaper ads and printed mailbox fliers are like rotary phones in these modern times.) If you are on social media, you have something to promote.
3. Engagement that creates relationships. This is what it's all about - getting people to care about you, your business, your product. You want them to think positively about you. You want to have real, valuable interactions like a real person. Social media fails if it seems like it's being run by robots. You have to engage with followers to create relationships with them. You never know where your next job will come from. If you engage smartly, you create brand ambassadors from your fanbase. These people will bang the drum for you because they think you're special.

Now you know why you need social media. How do you navigate the social media sphere without coming across as a robot or a jerk?

• Be true to your product. Share things that reflect the values and attitudes of your product. If you juggle fire, you can share photos of getting your fire certification from the local fire station, videos of practice sessions, and tidbits about your life as a fire juggler. ("I've singed my hair three times this morning working on my new act. Time for a haircut!") If you make handbags, you can share photos of the raw materials you use, videos of great sewing techniques, and tidbits about your handbag adventures. ("We were asked to create a new messenger bag with interchangeable straps. I think this second prototype will be the winner. Stay tuned!")
• You should post regularly so people who follow you know that you exist, and you should post slices of life. Yes, people want to know about your next show or your new product or your next community outreach activity. More importantly, they want to know about YOU. They want great storytelling and slices of life. Here is a sample:
  
• Interact with other people and businesses that are in line with what you do. If you make handbags, interact with small businesses that make shoes and clothing designers and models. Interact with boutiques that might consider selling your product, and people who would be potential customers. If you dance, interact with other dancers, instructors, costume designers, producers, and potential audience. Like, favorite, share, and comment on their posts. You don't have to interact with everything they post, but you will have to interact in order to show up on their radar and engage. The goal is to get them to talk back to you. This is how you build social media relationships. Here is a sample:
  
  If you engage them enough, they may just follow you back. :)
• Join online groups and tribes where people are talking about the things that align with your brand. Join performers groups in the areas where you perform or want to perform. Join sewing groups. Join outreach groups that support the things that are important to you and your brand. Comment when appropriate, but mostly you should sit back and watch until you feel comfortable saying something. Observe the rules and relationships of the group so you don't put your foot in your virtual mouth your first day in the group.

If you build relationships, you will have people who listen when you have something to promote. Your audience will already like and trust you, so they're more likely to take that next step and support you. Get them to like you so much that they'll part with $20 to buy your calendar or commit to leaving the couch and spending $15 on a ticket to see you perform live.

If you're incredibly introverted and need lots of motivation to post on social media, try this out for starters: two posts per day on every social media outlet you currently have, two likes/shares/comments per day on every social media outlet you currently have. These two posts can be videos, photos, or text posts ABOUT YOU. After you hit those two posts ABOUT YOU, then you can share the event page or flier for your next show. (I know producers will push performers to promote shows. In my experience, they're trying to reach the people who haven't promoted at all without singling them out. If you promote every couple days after posting ABOUT YOU, you'll be fine.)

You're going to be forced to leave your comfortable, introverted shell to have any kind of social media presence. It's called social media, not leave me the hell alone media. It's okay if it takes you a couple hours to like a comment. It's okay if you have instant messaging turned off. You are your own promotional machine, and social media allows you to do that without forcing you to bother putting on pants to get to work

Topless Vlog #51

Vlog is here!

This week I do a very boring strip out of my evening outfit as I discuss my upcoming trips and a new burlesque calendar!

LINKS:
12/12 Foul Play Cabaret at Maxine's Live
12/13 Hot Springs Classes
12/15 MNT Presents Japanese Invasion
12/20 Broads & Panties Presents Nearly Naked Nutcracker
Yadi Presents 2014 Burlesque Calendar

Topless Vlog #50

For my 50th Topless Vlog, I'm joined by Greta Grenade. After our Friday night show in Fresno, we shot a shortie in our Addams hair and makeup.

Links:
11/10 Monday Night Tease
11/7 Saintly Bomb Productions Presents #Obsessed: England

Tassel Twirling Basics Are Back!

I shared this video on YouTube back in 2011 before my nipples prompted the absolute cancellation of my account. If you want to learn how to twirl, here are the basics.

"I Don't Have a Tag Line ..."

All variety and dance stage performers will need to provide an introduction for an emcee to read at some point in their careers. My goal is to set you on the right path so you can give them something to say about you. I'll talk about tag lines and then about intros.

Tag Lines
The point of a tag line is to give the audience a quick and catchy idea of who you are as a performer. As an example, I'm "the Go All the Way Girl" because I like to get as naked as possible when I perform (without giving the producer venue/vice issues because I like to get booked again). It's a great catchall for the various acts I do. Someone told me I'm like the girl next door who knows you're watching her strip.

Here's some inside baseball: "The Go All the Way Girl" came out of a discussion of my performance style with the one I went all the way with: Mr. Snapper. I don't know which one of us came up with the exact phrase because we're so alike, but I contributed to my own tag line nonetheless.

My first tag line was something off the cuff that I came up with backstage before a show, a whopping three months into my professional burlesque career. As my performance style grew and changed, so did my tag line. To change my tag line, I had to send it in my booking confirmation emails and tell every emcee individually what the new tag line was. Some of them still remember the old one and want to use it from time to time, but they usually ask first.

Sometimes another person will sum up your performance style so beautifully that you wind up using that as your tag line. "She's a real stripping tornado! Watch out for ..." Keep your ears open for these gems.

What comprises a good tag line? I asked Mr. Snapper because he spends more time saying them than I do, him being a host and all.

Catchy, memorable, and above all, say-able. It should roll off the tongue, not trip up the speaker.

It’s not a bio, should not be a passage of prose. It’s poetry; a jingle.

The idea that the only legit tagline/intro is one that is given to you is a quaint myth. To paraphrase (or rather, blatantly edit) John Adams:

“Modesty is a virtue that can never thrive in public …. A performer must be her own trumpeter—she must write or dictate paragraphs of praise in the newspapers; she must dress, have a retinue and equipage; she must ostentatiously publish to the world her own writings with her name, make the mob stare and gape, and perpetuate her fame.”

I'm going to add that it usually needs to be ten words or less. Make it easy to remember and the emcee (and audience) will remember it. Think about the best tag lines you've heard for products. Jot down the first four or five that come to mind. They're not necessarily complete sentences, but you remember them. It's just another way to remember your brand.

I also suggest that you avoid adding "of burlesque" if you're primarily performing in burlesque shows. "She's the stripping girl Of Burlesque." "She's the tile cleaner Of Burlesque." "He's the football cream Of Burlesque." Imagine a night where every tag line is "Of Burlesque." If you were named "The Ice Cream Sandwich Of Burlesque" by LA Weekly, use it. If you're working it out on your own and you weren't named "Of Burlesque" or crowned as "Of Burlesque," get clever about it. "She's an Ice Cream Sandwich because everyone wants to lick her ..." "He's a swamp buggy badass ..." "Empty your pockets because she's taking your milk money ..."

Your tag line needs to tell the audience who you are so they can remember you. Keep that in mind before you decide to make it something funny that's incredibly unflattering. "She'll give you the clap" may be funny once, but you probably don't want fans to come up to you after the show and ask who gave you the clap.

If you've been performing for a month, or maybe if you've been performing ten years, you may not have a tag line. That's okay. Don't force it. More importantly, don't expect your emcee to play tag line fairy godmother/godfather and endow you with the best tag line ever. It's not their responsibility to shape and label your brand; it's yours. Don't put the onus on the emcee. They do introductions, announcements, and stall as necessary.

Intros
Your introduction sets the scene for what you are about to show the audience. Your intro can change based on the act, while your tag line shouldn't vary with every performance. You can frequently just use your tag line (if you have one) as an intro.

You don't have to have a tag line, but you do have to have an intro. The emcee needs to prepare the audience for you.

What can you say about yourself? Remembering Mr. Snapper's paraphrasing of John Adams, say something good. General introductions can include where you're from, what titles you've won, what festivals you've performed in that someone in the audience might recognize (probably no more than three). If you produce, you can give the show you produce and where. If you have another show or exciting tour/festival coming up, you can include that information. "The next performer is a Pacoima native who has performed in the Daisy Chain Festival and is The Dairy Queen 2012."

What if you're brand new, you've been out of the game for a while, or you can't think of anything interesting to say about yourself in an intro? Look at what's unique about you. Can you tie cherry stems with your tongue? Are you stripping your way through college? Teacher by day, dancer by night? Are you returning to the stage after ten years off to raise twins? You can give this info to the emcee. As you gain more experience and notoriety, your intro can change.

There are times when you may want to give more information with your intro. For example, you're performing a Little Bo Peep number as Deadpool. That might require a little explanation to get the audience in the right frame of mind for the act, especially when the rest of the evening is glamour burlesque. For this sort of act, be clear and concise with your intro. Make it easy for the emcee to get the audience in the mood. "Cosplay and burlesque are a natural pairing. Comic book character Deadpool is often caught cosplaying other characters at conventions. Bringing you his take on Deadpool as a stripping Little Bo Peep, please welcome ..." Okay, that one's not particularly brilliant, but you get the idea. The audience now gets the basic concept of this outre act, even if they have no idea who Deadpool is or why he would dress up as Little Bo Peep.

If you haven't worked with an emcee before, if they're unfamiliar with your act or with you as a performer, don't ask them to make something up for you. Have some basic info ready to help them do their job.