Category: <span>acts</span>

Playing with my blinky lights (AKA the robot act)


This act, as I tell people, is a ‘thinly veiled commentary on female self-discovery’. A little robot girl breaks free from the clutches of her master, and when no one is watching, she takes the opportunity to find out what lies beneath her cold, metallic exterior; the result is soft, sensitive, and surprising.

…ok, so maybe I just wanted a chance to be a masturbating robot on stage. you got me.

i put this act together back in 2010 (i think?), and it’s gotten better every time i whip it out. more interactive buttons. stronger character. better choreo. one of the great things about the process of growing as a performer is watching your skills improve as your imagination pushes the boundaries and invents new challenges.

take for example, the corset i made for this act. it’s cardboard and duct tape, side-lacing, and gaudy fringe and glitter-encrusted flowers. it nearly fell apart the first few times i practiced because i didn’t grommet the lacing-holes. lesson 1. at first my little control panel was just a piece of motherboard. but that wasn’t too much fun to play with, and poking at it didn’t translate well to the audience. so i re-did it, this time with metallic cardstock and battery-powered LEDs with an engorged red rhinestone switch. heh, heh. one day i’d like to make something that’s actually programmable, perhaps with a sequencer. that’d be super hot.

i like this act because it’s cute, funny, clever, and has a solid message. girls are raised to never explore their own bodies, to take what they can get, to never ask for what they want. i thought about that idea a lot when i first got into burlesque. the mere act of getting up on that stage and having something to get off your chest (pun very much intended!), to be in control. it’s liberating to have your 3 minutes of undivided attention.