EVENT REVIEW – THE SLIPPERY BELLE BURLESQUE SHOW 2cd BIRTHDAY PARTY Friday 19th February 2009 Bookbinders, Minshull Street, Manchester.
Being such a special occasion, the event was very well attended, and after being among the early arrivals, I found myself way back in the queue of people waiting to get into Bookbinders, and once in, I was sitting way back from the stage, though I still had a good view of events. Dr Sid’s selection of 30’s to 50’s jaz and swing-time songs created a very cool atmosphere. ....
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This started off as a difficult night for me, coming soon after the death of my step-father, and a week before my redundancy from work became official. I felt guilty about going out enjoying myself, and I had considered staying at home, but I was very glad I saw the show and there can be few better ways to keep your mind off the less happy events going on in your life than this. ....
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The wonderful, and increasingly scary Rosie Lugosi, Manchester’s premier Lesbian Vampire Queen, was our MC for the night once again, and joked about how she was now served by her third maid in the course of three shows, leaving us wondering if the others are now also among the undead. The victim this month was Eve D’Emeralde, a fine burlesque dancer in her own right, who it way to easy to describe in the cliched term ‘Swedish Bombshell’. As Rosie said, “I don’t just have a maid, I have a Swedish maid.’....
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The theme for the dancers was that of the Seven Deadly Sins, lust, avarice, wrath, sloth, pride, envy and gluttony, with a strong inevitable bias in favour of Lust. ....
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BLUEBELLE MALONE was the first to dance, and took Lust as her theme. This was her first appearance in two years, and a very welcome return to the stage. She wore a blue dress with white spots, decorated with a bow, and she studied a guide to be ingthe perfect housewife, offering slicesof cake to Rosie and the front row audience members. ....
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Those of us set further back had to stand to watch her slip out of her clothes, which made keeping my notes tricky, as I had no table to rest my writing pad on, and muchof my writing was reduced to gibberish. It’s hard to take my eyes off the dancers anyway. Odddly, the more I drank over the night, the more coherant and legible my writing became. Hopefully, Bluebelle won’t leave it two years before she performs at Slippery Belle again. ....
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DANI CALIFORNIA was next up and I haven’t seen her before. She was representing the sin of envy, in a tight corset, frilly panties and wearing a string of necklaces. ....
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ANNA FUR LAXIS, who I saw at the LEEDS EROTICA FESTIVAL was next to dance, presenting a sultry, tightly choreographed fan dance, to a passionate Latin arrangement.
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Boylesque followed, with WARREN SPEED storming the stage like a drunken wrathful Chav, eager to show the audience how such a performance should really be done. It was a very funny presentation of cod-punk arrogance – Imagine Sid Viscous as a stripper and you’ll get the idea.
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There was a break now, and part two opened with LOLA POPS presenting her fine tuned CSI Crime scene routine, (which I could never tire of watching) with her finding a suspect’s hand prints on each garment she had to remove and bag up as evidence, until finding with a shock that the prints even covered her breasts. One chap had to lie down and be the corpse for this routine. Lola makes great use of her ultra-violet penlight torch beam in this pitch-perfect routine.
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BLUEBELLE MALONE gave her second presentation, on the theme of greed, with a good-looking pearl necklace, as she stripped away to the song. I Want Money.
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DANI CALIFORNIA danced down to her underwear to Pink Floyd’s Money, to demonstrate the sin of avarice, followed by CHERRI SHAKEWELL, slipping out of a fabulious evening gown to the 007 theme to Diamonds are Forever, on the same theme. Her ability to undo a complex set of ribbons from her dress without looking at them too closely was very neat. ....
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The second half of the show ended with BELLA BESAME being called to the stage (with lots of chanting of her name by the audience when her arrival was delayed) to be presented with a bottle of champaigne to commemorate the auspicious occcassion and her tireless work in creating such an awesome show for two years. ....
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The second interval was a chance to replenish drinks and watch the LINDYFUSION DANCERS- taught by KEITH MCGEE, as they showed off their steps to rapturous applause. ....
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As part three started, our Compere chastised a table full of ladies for talking over her presentation, with ‘You are dresed far too uninterestingly to make that much noise’, which shut them up nicely. Soon, our vampire dominatrix bitch queen from Hell (she regards that as a compliment) Mistress was presenting the first of the final set of dancers, LOLA POPS, in a red cloak, doing a fast dizziness inducing dervish swirl in a red cloak. ....
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WARREN SPEED came out as an alleged guest appearance by Julie Rroberts in Pretty Woman, stripping hillariously to Roy Orbison’s song of that name. ....
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ANNA FUR LAXIS presented a genuinely touching tribute to the late, great burlesque queen Bettie Page, moving through several stages of the lovely lady’s career, strripping from gingham dress and lingerie to finish clutching a Bible (cheekily reflecting Bettie’s religious conversion – an event that largely ended her career). The illuminated crosses on her breat tassles were a great touch. I think B P would really appreciate the routine. ....
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CHERRI SHAKEWELL presented a Mr. Kipling’s cakes inspired dance on the theme of gluttony, to finish the show, and there was a presentation of a cake to Bella, with the audience singing Hapy Birthday to Slippery Belle. ....
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Rosie prsented prizes to the best dressed man and woman present. I don’t know the lady who won though male winner, Steve Turner is an old friend, and a fine perdformance poet. Well done to both of them. After that, there was dancing, drinking, and the knowledge that we are all guilty of the seven sins demonstrated to us, especialy of course, Lust. ....
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RELATED FILM REVIEW – THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE ....
Arthur Chappell....
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