Subverse Aphrodesia

in zealous pursuit of emerging aesthetic
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NeoVaudeville in the 21st Century

Exploring the Revival of Burlesque, Sideshow, & Cabaret

in Popular Performance

 

The exciting thing about all this is that as it is new it is old and as it is old it is new,

but now we have come to be in our way which is an entirely different way.

-- Gertrude Stein

 

 

In early 2009, I was awarded an Individual Creative Artist Fellowship in Arts Commentary from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts to explore the resurgance of vaudevillian arts in contemporary performance or "neo-vaudeville" which incorporates alternative circuses and sideshow, punk cabaret, the gypsy punk, and steam punk movements and finds a new twist on burlesque, ventroliquism and magic acts.

 

In addition to a multi-media "slideshow" presentation which will I will present live (and in costume)? at several locations throughout Northeast Pennsylvania, I am making a summary of my research available here.

  


The Premise

I'm not here to argue that "vaudeville is back" or whether it even died to begin with. What we've seen emerge in this first decade of the 21st century is not a recreation of vaudeville but rather a shared aesthetic most effectively defined by term "NeoVaudeville," despite the oppostion of many.

 

This aesthetic seeks its edge in a dusting off of a pre-electronic culture before mass market media. It is DIY, highly-theatrical, romantic and darkly sexy, and often comic while confrontational, questioning the superficiality of packaged pop and our materialistic excesses. It is LIVE but also uses modern technological advances to its utmost populist potential. It is hobo chic.

 

It is for everyone but does not patronize or sink to the lowest common denominator.

 

In addition to alternative circuses like Bindlestiff and variety troupes like Yard Dogs Road Show and the retro New Burlesque movement, I've been following punk cabaret artists like Amanda Palmer and Dresden Dolls and gypsy-influenced bands like Luminescent Orchestrii and Fishtank Ensemble. Here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, I've found artists like And the Moneynotes and the Lotus Fire Belly Dancers surfing the zeitgeist. Electric Theatre Company's modern commedia troupe Zuppa del Giorno should be celebrated as well as ensemble member Conor McGuigan’s variety puppet shows and Richard Grunn's Il Circo di Urbano.

 

Other points of interest include the rapidly exploding Steampunk movement and venues of choice such as the Spiegeltents. Absinthe and old-fashioned cocktails have enjoyed a revival. And it was the sponsorship of Magic Hat brewing company that brought Bindlestiff Family Cirkus to Scranton, Pa. in 2007. Neither is it a coincidence that a stage musical adaptation of thee 1986 movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has been running in various incarnations since opening in London in 2002. Or that Minsky’s “the new, old-fashioned musical about a Depression-era burlesque house” enjoyed considerable success at the Ahmanson in L.A. in early 2009 (there’s been buzz about a Broadway and/or West End transfer?)

 

More recently, NBC's Heroes left up where HBO's Carnivale left off, stimulating its fourth season with the magical Sullivan Bros. carnival setting.
 
 
*Above: Bindlestiff's Kinko the Clown, Sept. 2007 at Tink's in Scranton, Pa. PHOTO BY ALICIA GREGA.

 

 

 

Live Presentation Schedule
* Venues interested in hosting this presentation can inquire at info@subverseaphrodesia.com.
 
HISTORY:
Thursday, Nov. 19, 7 p.m. The Vintage Theater, Penn Avenue in Scranton. www.scrantonsvintagetheater.com. FREE; donations to the venue suggested. 
Saturday, Dec. 12, 6:30 p.m. Anthology New & Used Books, Center Street in Scranton.
www.scranthology.com. FREE; but bring shopping money.
 
Saturday, Feb, 20, 2 p.m. The Olde Brick Theatre, West Market Street in Scranton.
 
*SPECIAL*Sunday, Feb 21, 5 to 8 p.m. Steamtown Vaudeville presents A Hot Toddy Cabaret: a steamy burlesque winter warm up. A benefit for the Jason Miller Playwrights' Project featuring live music, dance, comedy, magic & more!
 
 
 
   
 
 
Online Press Kit: 
 
 
 
 
 
"I haven't a clue what "new vaudevillian means... "New vaudeville is a phrase that somebody made up, and it serves a purpose. I've even found myself using it sometimes, but I have no definition for new vaudeville or what new vaudevillians are - a kind of alternative vaudeville, or new vaudevillians who weren't working out in circus lots, but were taking a sort of collegiate or postcollegiate look at these circus traditions?"
-Bill Irwin, PBS Great Performances. 2005.

"In this post-MTV, post-postmodern, attention deficit-ridden age of electronics-induced schizophrenia, I make bold to suggest that few of us will have a problem with this "fractured" aesthetic."

- Trav S.D., founder of the American Vaudeville Theatre

No Applause - Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous

 

 

The Aesthetic

 

I've identified the unifying characteristics across the NeoVaudeville spectrum as:

   

Celebration of the pre-electronic era (yet computer literate & tech savvy). Pre-'50s retro. Victoian, steampunk, Depression-era. Vintage is prized byt replicas are preferred to ugly modern mass production. ACOUSTIC.

 

High-theatricality. Costume: feathers, lingerie, corsets, garters, silks/slios, natural fabrics, petticoats & bloomers, top hats and tails, formal suits and hats, pocketwatch. Anachronisms: compass, monacle, etc. Gender bending. MAKEUP. Stripes. SEXY.

 

Authenticity at all costs. (Yet, not above a little ballyhoo to get your attention and good showmanship to keep it.)

 

Smart is good. Learning is exciting. Lazy is boring


Freaks are welcome. Unique is key.

 

Hobo-chic: We're not owned by anything because we don't own anything. Cheap Art Manifesto.

 

Independent mangement / DIY: distrust of the mainstream / mass market. Self-branding. Merchandising is sharing (and survival).

 

Playfulness/ Clowning: Serious about maintaining the appearance that it does not take itself too seriously. Extends to creative instrumentation (e.g. toy pianos, ukuleles, melodica, saw, washboard & spoons, etc.

 

Challenging edge. Push the envelope. Sexually stimulating and/or verbally risque. Want the audience to experience some discomfort: a manifestation of growth? Vague political questioning?)

 

Conviction in the magic of live experience: You will not see this on TV.

 

The Party: Absinthe, Moonshine, Magic Hat, Hendrick’s Gin, The Cocktail: Cointreau.

 

*The characteristics of traditional burlesque have been cited by Cecile Camart as: exaggeration, parody, outrage, caricature, extravagance, comedy, bullfoonery, grotesque, and satire.

 

 

 

 

 

NeoVaudeville Evolution

Exploring the Influence of an Aesthetic 

 

It's almost daily that I stumple upon another new lead in to the increasing influence of NeoVaudeville.

 

I established this blog to track the latest news as it meets my radar now that the initial project has been drafted.

 

*Videos appear as links in this blog feed. To view as intended visit http://neovaudeville.spaces.live.com.

 

-ag

 

August 26

Talking about Betty Pickle Explains Why Miami-Style Burlesque Involves A Little Blood - Miami Art - Cultist

 

I hadn't realized sub-genres were localized. VERY interesting.

Also in this article Betty Pickle says neo-burlesque performers are performance artists. That makes a lot of sense.

-ag

Quote

Betty Pickle Explains Why Miami-Style Burlesque Involves A Little Blood - Miami Art - Cultist
Are there genres within burlesque?

They are definitely genres of burlesque. To give you a very general overview, L.A. is known for fringe and glamour kind of stuff, Vegas is known for cabaret, glitzy, showgirl-y stuff, New Orleans is either very classic traditional or spooky goth burlesque, and New York is where the cutting edge or experimental stuff normally happens.



12:08 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

August 23

Talking about "The Scottsboro Boys" at the Guthrie: Dancing with demons | Twin Cities Daily Planet

 

What a great read! Jay Gabler's response to this play is a multi-layered, thought-provoking conversation that inadvertently makes a case for why art is an essentail tool to aid us in processing complicated ideas in the first place.

I have a greater chance of winning the lottery than this show has to be seen in Northeast Pennsylvania yet we have middle-aged couple dining at Olive Gardens confused by young white gangsta wannabees. 

Read this story.

-ag

Quote

"The Scottsboro Boys" at the Guthrie: Dancing with demons | Twin Cities Daily Planet
To revive minstrelsy for 21st-century entertainment means treading between two gaping chasms of risk. On the one hand, a postmodern approach that treated the form with too much ironic remove would be offensive. On the other hand, an overly cautious production that treated the form as a museum piece, like a Klan hood hanging in the Smithsonian, would have a hard time justifying its own existence. Why revive racist entertainment just to tell us what we already know about it?


12:31 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

Talking about Seattle Times » What is Burlesque?

 

Another blogger steps forth to define what burlesque was and is today, and more importantly perhaps, what it isn't.

Agreed: It is not the Pussycat Dolls.

Quote

Seattle Times » What is Burlesque?
There are varying definitions, but burlesque was basically a comic imitation of a serious literary, political or artistic form, at least in the beginning. These shows used comedy, parody, sexuality and music to defy the established and/or conventional way of looking at things.


11:43 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

August 22

raZZle daZZle hOOtenannY pics

 

 
 
Saturday, Aug. 21, 2010 at the Vintage Theater in Scranton. A Steamtown Vaudeville production featuring The DEFiBULATORs, The Ends of the Earth, Haifa belly dance, Jack Bordo, illustrator Ted Michalowski, and Homebrewed Comedy by Here We Are in Spain. (The last of which was shot primarily on video and thus is underrepresented here). Photos by Alicia Grega/Kitty Burbank and Professor Spats.


8:15 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

August 16

Talking about A Screamin' New Burlesque Poster Arrives | Shockya.com

 

***COMMENTS AT A NEW YORK MAGAZINE Vulture response to this poster suggest it is a fan made poster.

Not to beat a dead horse but -- ew.

It looks like A Chorus Line crossed with that groovy poster of Dorothy Dietrich after King Midas went around and touched everything.

I'll assume there's something covering Christina's crotch because that's the last thing I need popping up in my nightmares right now.

 

Quote

A Screamin' New Burlesque Poster Arrives | Shockya.com


10:45 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)