Outlaw Burlesque - Boobs Are Banned?

[Little Miss Risk]

We’re now day four into our tour dates and it’s been kind of a strange ride. Our first show in Missoula was a little shaky with the new group structure. We had a tough audience - Brandy Battery’s mom was in the crowd so the standards were exceptionally high. After a better show in Bozeman we were all a great deal more confident with our latest additions - Kate Kerosene and Bloody Betty - making new friends out of our old ones. It wasn’t until we crossed the boarder to North Dakota that things got really David Lynch-like.

Last winter we played through Bismark at the Burnt Creek Club and all seemed well. Apparently though, we had a nasty little morality mole in the audience. Bismark has a law that states no one can dance onstage unless they are singing or playing an instrument. The law was enacted in order to stop strip clubs from operating but as BJB pointed out, that rules our Riverdance from ever performing in Bismark. I’m still debating on how much of a cultural loss that is. However, this law was going to make us performing our show a little tricky since it’s hard to have a knife fight and sing at the same time. For your own information, I have difficulty walking and chewing gum as well.

So as the promoter moved from venue to venue, this rabid moralist kept calling and getting our show cancelled. The law also states that there can be no dancing if liquor is being served (apparently Scottish weddings are against the law in Bismark as well). Finally, after a lot of hullabaloo, our promoter, who it must be said was as tenacious as a terrier on a rat, found us a performance space that was a former house hosted shows. Since no liquor was served and it was in another town we were safe to perform our wicked little show. He even called the police and made sure all was in order, and once he was assured that it was, we got the green light to sass up the space.

I find the thought of a town with such stringent legislation against fun medieval. As Betty pointed out, who wants to live in a city with no strip bars? I just find the idea that someone found our show so objectionable that they went to the lengths they did to ensure it couldn’t take place in city limits. Clearly this person has never spent five minutes in my company, since the things that come out of my mouth tend to be far more offensive than anything I do onstage.

As a professional Tartist, I find their over-protective knee-jerk reaction to a show that people obviously want to see (sold out shows both at Burnt Creek and the performance space) offensive. I never set out to be part of an outlaw burlesque troupe, but I’ll gladly be infamous over famous any day of the week if it means giving the people what they want and shaking up the button-down crowd.

To quote Ricky Lake’s character in John Waters’ Crybaby, “Our bazooms are our weapons!”. In this particular war I feel like we DID win the battle but I’m worried for other peelers, vaudeville, bump and grinders, and performance artists in North Dakota if this is the situation that they are up against. A market for these shows exists and one person’s narrow minded crap-o-la is holding everyone else back from the fun. Got a few minutes? Be sure to write a email to the folks at the Bismark Tribune’s editor, John Irby, and ask why there’s no burlesque in Bismark.

Tonight we’re in Fargo where, thank goodness, the people are vocal about how much they love their burlesque. As our friend Leah put it, “Big John Bates and the Voodoo Dollz are our staples.” I couldn’t agree more - every balanced cultural diet needs a good dose of burlesque.

Little Miss Risk

[Edson Carlos]

Amazing story, you should def be posting this in the forums to get some reactions. Blogs are very personal and don't get much exposure.