In and out of drag

Last weekend was very emotional! Friday night ended in a wonderful proposal on stage after curtain call for two very dear friends of mine: congrats Jari and Jac <3 Met the wonderful Lou Safire and I think I´m in love -he´s such a fabulous perfomer and a total sweetheart. Meth blew my mind with the scary, bloody amazing shows of hers! FIERCE! Thank you to all the performers and of course Lola Vanilla for organizing! I had so many giggles that night, friends showing up in stuff that I hardly recognized them -go check out Cherry Turrrbocherry´s beautiful Mr. Freelancer on her blog...she, Tinker Bell and Vera de Vil could have started a boyband called LADZ or maybe just The Itty Bitty Boyz :)
Saturday me and Pepper performed at a local event (for me) so I was very nervous about it - our first number was not introduced at all, we just kinda BOOM! Heere´s Johnny!, or rather here´s "Naked" the fan dance but you know what I mean. The audience had not seen burlesque and since the average age was a bit higher I had my concerns ...but was proven wrong -again! I had one of the BEST responses ever from an elderly lady afterwards who thanked me for "Such a refreshing show! I told my husband to look! and remember this at home! If I would do that (hand-gestured meaning twirling) they (boobs) would be in my armpits!" And then she laughed hard and heartidly <3 It just showed me once more that you *never* know what resonates in an audience and that just because of age one should not assume anything! Lesson learned! We have had a revue-theater Punainen Mylly (translated from Moulin Rouge) in Helsinki from ca 1946 to the mid 60´s so this kind of entertainment is not unheard of here. Thinking of my own future I will surely be the one granny found rather in rock clubs than the opera.
And more talk on gender and closets: take 10min to watch this TED tv talk. Have a wonderful, sunny week <3

(c) Kaylin Idora

Love has no gender

So come and show us some love tomorrow night at Dubrovnik where drag meets burlesque at the amazing shows of Drag me to HEL! There might be some tickets at the door so come early, doors open at 8pm!
In the meantime, watch this interview about burlesque (in Finnish only, sorry) with Sir Willy Waterlily and Bettie Blackheart!

Hope to see you tomorrow night!

Pepper will be performing her "The Chap" tomorrow... Photo: Tinttu Henttonen

Inspirations

I´ve talked about how much music inspires me when I´m making a new number but sometimes it´s a character, a trait in someone (or something) that gives me the specific kick. When I was making my "Lucia, faithfully"  I went through a lot of different materials, some given to me by my mentor for that number Bent van der Bleu and some that I just kept finding in the secret stashes of the interwebs... One person that I´ve always have loved and admired is Freddie Mercury - for his amazing charisma, his voice, his va-va-VOOM and showmanship as well as that fabulous gayness about him. So, for this Tuesday-night I thought I´d share one of my biggest inspirations for my little Lucia, maiden of light: Queen and "Crazy little thing called love"  <3

#helbf14 part two

BOOM! There goes another week! Spring is here for sure, it feels like the light has increased so much it makes everyone´s head spin :)

I got some finishing touches to my "Albatross"-number in Tallinn last weekend, the tickets for the Sinsational Spring Awakening are on sale at Tiketti as we speak and all of us Daisies will have new solo-numbers to show you as well as a modified group number so get tickets beforehand! This Friday it will be sweaty and crazy at Dubrovnik when a bunch of drag queens and burlesquers hit the stage at Drag me to HEL! I´m performing my "Lucia, faithfully" in honor of the rainbow community all over the world and especially in support of the one in Russia that is being harrassed at the moment by crazy and unacceptable laws. 

Here are the last bit of the iphone pics I promised you from this years Helsinki Burlesque Festival! Have a wonderful and sunny beginning of the week <3 Ta!

My look for Day 2

Backstage, later...

Hubby gor some action from Kitten de Ville who performed her amazing "Casting Couch" act -the one sanctioned to her by Dixie Evans herself.

Sandy and me with Pearl Noire after her workshop

The unbelieveably inspiring Imogen Kelly

F-f-friday!

Which means that if you are in Pori tonight the only place to be for you is at Ravintola Kulttuurikulma where my girls from the Itty Bitty Tease Cabaret will be shaking their tailfeathers with Sweet Jeena and her Sweethearts! Tomorrow me and Sir Willy Waterlily will be also performing in Pori, this time at Bar Kino. Invitation only show is at approx. 10pm and open for all after midnight but you should check the pages! It´s been a good couple of days...

Yesterday our local newspaper featured an interview with yours truly...

 

And today we got our group picture taken by the fantastic Atelieri O. Haapala at the Helsinki Burlesque Festival on Friday! Have a great weekend everyone and see you in Pori tomorrow <3

P.S Only two weeks to Drag me to HEL!!! Get those tickets!

Thee Dizzy Daisies

#helbf14

That is the hashtag used in the social media for this years Helsinki Burlesque Festival, check it out if you don´t believe me :) Here are a few snapshots (part one) found in my phone after the weekend. I really don´t take pictures of the shows... And I do recommend you do the same. Put your phone away. Enjoy the LIVE show. We look at life through a lense too much as it is. "Breathe through your mouth" like Scotty the Blue Bunny says.
Plus the fact that most, at least bigger, shows have professional photographers who will do a MUCH better job than we will with out phone-cameras!!! So relax, sit back, enjoy the experience and let the pro´s do their thing: on stage and off.

The gorgeous Lada Redstar, Pepper, Lassi and Tuomas at the meet&greet @ Hotelli Aleksanteri on Thursday

The crazy, wonderful women at meet&greet: Sandy, Tinker, Cherry, Koko La Douce and Fiona

Scotty with his new hat made by Bettie Blackheart´s mother <3

Us Daisies with our favourite Bunny and our Friday outfits: retro/vintage swimwear!

Handsomeness to the maxx: Jett Adore and Sir Willy Waterlily

The ever-so-sweet Kitten&Lou with our Godfather of Manlesque Frank Doggenstein

Dictator is trying to feed Lola Vanilla a banana and Tuomas is helping. Or something.

Drag me to HEL

It´s time to get those tickets, people!!!

Happy International Women´s Day!

Today we celebrate everyone who is, want to be or feels like a woman! So congrats my darlings, enjoy your day and I hope we all will get pampered!
Last nights gig at the Kouvola hippodrome was one of a kind, thank you organizers and audience! A very special and fun place to perform! I have never been to a hippodrome before, nor actually see the horses race live -nor performed in one! so it was a first for me.

Tonight you people are sooo spoiled, in Tampere there is the Teerenpeli Tease Hollywood edition with none other than the Queen of the Quake from Californa: Kitten de Ville herself headlining! Other lovelies on stage include Holy Curves!, Albine A. Dorable, Olivia Rouge, Kiki Hawaiji, Miss Magpie and Molly Moonstone.  MC is the one and only mr. Lafayette Lestrange! 

In Hellsinki you can go to the Speakwasy party held at the Helsinki Casino where the Ravising Shangri-La Rubies will take you back to the roaring 1920´s!
So really folks, you have no excuses :)  I do...I have a HUGE pile of papers I need to correct as soon as I finish my morning coffee and get my hot yoga done. Boom, there´s a showgirls´ Saturday for you haha!

The Rubies by Jean-Paul Bichard

A huge thank-you!

To everybody who made Helsinki Burlesque festival the magical sparkle-fest it was: THANK YOU! Especially to Bettie Blackheart and Frank Doggenstein for massive organisation and who hand-pick the performers every year to guarantee the top notch-fantastic performances we see! It was a true honor to assist Kitten de Ville and Imogen Kelly at their workshops. Hugs to my girls Sandy Jungle and Pepper Sparkles for being my crazy partners-in-crime and to my ass-fantastic hubby "Dick Tator" for all his help driving, organizing etc :)

Here´s a link to an interview with Jett Adore and about the festival at Iltasanomat (in Finnish only, sorry!)

This Friday me and Cherry "Turrrbo-Cherry" Dee are driving up to Kouvola and shake our tail feathers at  Nostalgia Ravit, maybe we see you there?! If you are in Tampere be sure to take Kitten´s workshop there this Friday and there is a Teerenpeli Tease Hollywood on Saturday-night! Hope you have a great week <3