Burlesque in a brewery?
Well, that’s how it was pitched to me when I was offered the gig. A fascinating prospect, I’ll admit. Where better to have a few drinks after the show? Maybe even during, if we’re lucky! But, then I remembered the venue is in a small town right in the south of the island and I’d need to get home – or at least close to home where most of the nightlife is – afterwards.
Further complicating things for this Saturday are the fact that I’m doing what I call a ‘Mary Mac’. Now, if you have no idea what the hell that means, I’ll forgive you. Mary Mac is one of my favourite UK queens. She’s an immensely talented live vocalist and she gigs up and down the country, sometimes having multiple shows in a day – Sometimes in multiple towns! So, for the first time, I’m doing that. I’m booked Saturday to take part in our first ever Youth Pride in the afternoon, then get in the car and head straight to the night gig down south.
I’m so incredibly excited to be part of our first ever Youth Pride. This year was supposed to be our Island’s first ever proper Pride festival. It’s been in planning properly for over a year and then Covid hit and everyone’s plans for the year were scuppered. I remember when the decision was made over my first ever video conference and, understandably, everyone was pretty deflated. As disappointed as I was, I made the point to everyone that we’re not cancelling, we’re postponing – we WILL have our first Pride, just not this year and to top it off, it gives us the gift of an extra year to build on the connections we’ve made and just deliver an even better event. We agreed that, as a group, we’ve gained so much more than we’ve lost in this instance. We may be disappointed right now, but we’ve all forged some fantastic friendships that might not have happened if we hadn’t been pulled together to work on this, so we took a lot of comfort in that and all stayed in touch throughout lockdown. Then, the unexpected happened. The Island was declared Covid-free just a week before the date Pride was due to happen. Our borders remained closed and we we’re getting back to normal within our little bubble. It almost felt like we should do something, but an event like this needs time, a lot of work and careful planning, so it definitely wasn’t going to happen in 2020. One part of Pride that could still be done though was Youth Pride, a much smaller, indoor event that could still happen, so it was pushed to this coming weekend.
I was delighted to be asked to participate and have been scheduled to do some makeup tutorials and workshops along with a live performance later in the afternoon. I’m overjoyed to be asked to be part of it and I’m really excited to put some smiles on the faces of the next generation. I’ve even got a little surprise for them in the shape of a celebrity video message that’s so beautiful and heartfelt it got me a little choked up. I absolutely cannot wait! But it nearly didn’t happen.
The date had been moved around a little by the organisers and I’d already taken on a gig in the night time, so I had a horrible feeling I was going to have to choose one over the other – and I absolutely hate letting people down. So, I’ve worked it out so that I can do both and just catch up on sleep afterwards.
So, Last night, I was at the technical rehearsal for the night gig. I’d heard of the place because they do pop-ups at local events and stuff, but I’d never actually been there. I don’t often find myself down south, so I had to look it up and get directions and still managed to get myself lost! I’d seen some pictures and thought “Okay, this looks… cosy. Where are we performing? Where are we changing? How’s this going to work?” So, I was pretty nervous when I eventually found the place. It’s a lovely little building on the seafront that’s been turned into a small brewery and tiny bar. It’s just so bijou, I love it! I’d probably love it even more in warmer weather, but we’re in December now and you know how cold old stone buildings can get. So, I parked on the seafront, it was blowing a hoolie (as they say when it’s windy over here) and throwing it down with rain and it was just bloody freezing. I had a ton of technical gubbins to carry up the steps, so I gritted my teeth and got on with it and get inside as quickly as possible. Our principal dancer/director was already there and had marked out the performance area and there were fabulous coloured lights set up everywhere in blues and pinks and the place looked fabulous!
They have events in the actual brewery side, so they have big, heavy wooden tables and bejewelled chandeliers in this big, high ceilinged room, with the great big metal silos for booze making down one wall (I don’t know if they’re actually called ‘silos’, my alcohol expertise only extends as far as drinking it, which I can do very successfully thank you!). So, it’s an unusual setup, but I quite liked it! It has a capacity of about forty, so it’s going to be a lovely small and intimate gig, which works quite nicely for us.
Obviously, as it’s Christmas, I’ve chosen some musical numbers that follow that theme, opening with ‘The Most Wonderful Time of the Year’, where I intend to wear my sparkly, full length, fur-trimmed Christmas dress. There’s a couple of other Christmas songs later, but the show is divided into different parts with different themes, so for the part about celebrating self, sexiness and confidence, I’ll be singing Cher’s ‘Dressed to Kill’ slotted in amongst the dancers’ fabulous routines. Later, for the Pride and Acceptance section, I’ll be following (not that you can confidently follow this) the Pride Wings routine that our principal performed at a local Rainbow shindig back in October. It involves beautiful, swirly dancing with white silk wings, but the twist is that there are images from the Pride movement projected onto the wings as she dances. It’s so amazing and powerful, especially after the preceding poetic monologue about the journey of LGBTQ+ rights. So, after that will be a very nervous me leading a fabulous acoustic version of ‘Like A Prayer’ before a brief intermission and the final section of the show. It’s going to be phenomenal and I really think that with the unusual setting, there should be some fabulous pictures!
So, it’s going to be a busy day, but I’m hugely excited! It’s hard work being a queen, but someone’s gotta do it! Now lets hope all this hard work pays off and goes according to plan. See you on the other side!
