Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1536052
A Brief History of Modern Vaudeville Although drag shows have been a staple in Los Angeles for some time, Neo-Burlesque arrived in 1995 with The Velvet Hammer Burlesque. This troupe revived the format of traditional burlesque with exotic dancers, outrageous costumes, novelty acts, comedians, and live music. Performers came from all types of life—classically trained theater performers, graduates of Clown College, stand-up comedians, performance artists, drag queens and kings, strippers, garage bands, Beie Page-style pin-ups, and women with no more than gumption, childhood dance classes, and the ability to hand-sew beaded fringe to their undergarments. Many Los Angeles burlesque performers had been to the annual Miss Exotic World competition in Helendale, CA, started by famed burlesque dancer Dixie Evans. The first burlesque festival, Tease-O-Rama, occurred in 2001 in New Orleans and inspired similar scenes all over the country and the world. Suddenly, live entertainment had a renewed jewel in its crown and venues everywhere from dive bars to the golden palaces of LA's historic theater district were hosting vaudeville shows. The lines between burlesque, drag, and circus were forever blurred. Our Local 705 members reflect this varied background themselves. Rochelle Carino, aka Roxie Balboa, was a former dancer but tore her achilles tendon at the age of 19, then found her way to trapeze as exercise. Aja Morris Smiley, aka Asha Smiley, was a former ballet student who found burlesque open to all body types. Meredith Miller, aka Claire de Lune, was doing puppetry in Chicago and started with the traditional burlesque act that has a woman being tempted by the Devil (a carefully MOTIONPICTUREC O S T U M E R S .O R G 35 Lisa Gardner, aka Lisa Luxe, with Blanche DeBris. Edward Zarate, aka Malice Hyde