Hello Lovely People,

As a brand new member just out of her cellophane I feel like a bit of a fraud asking this but I was hoping for a bit of help from those of you with a spot of expertise.

I've only just signed up for my first burlesque workshop but I trained in theatre and dance many moons ago and have been singing in choirs and groups for ages. Since watching burlesque performances on TV and finding more about the craft online my goodness I really feel like I've come home because I'm as camp as Christmas, love a good show tune, have a penchant for elaborate corsetry and my old contemporary dance teacher used to shout at me a lot for being too facially expressive! I'd really like to put together a burlesque vocal act but am at a bit of a loss at where to start. Wednesday Moon's thread on backing tracks has been very helpful as a starting point
but once a girl has got her act together (or at least a rough draft), how does she take it on the road? I'd appreciate any tips from established singers please - how did you start out, what helpful hints do you have and what are the traps to avoid?

Thank you in advance,

Breathless x

There's a couple off songbirds on the forum that Spring (sorry Keri) spring to mind.
Miss Midnight Blue, she has an absolutely gorgeous website, have a look.
midnightblue
Send her a PM, she just loves to hear from newbies.
The second one is:
Meg La Mania, she is based in the North East, so it's possible that you might have heard of her, have a look at her showreel, on it she sings a haunting rendition of Arthur Hamilton's, "Cry Me a River."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx6emSJ_CVw
Both girls have got other YouTube postings that you will find links to. I suggest you send her a PM too.
Hope that helps.
And, darling, I nearly forgot my manners:
Welcome to the forum.

Thank you - that's really useful. I'm always a bit wary of sending people messages from some oik that they don't know but people seem really friendly in this community so I'll give it a whirl. You are right both about both chanteuses - sigh - this is all so beautiful and so distracting from work. I can see I'm going to have to be very disciplined about the length of time spent on this site. Magpie syndrome - ooh that's a pretty avatar, click - mmm nice lingerie, click...before you know it the night is half over.

Hello my lovely and welcome aboard

And thank you for the recommendation Broomy

I'm always happy to receive pm's, even from oiks I don't know ;-) , not always sure how much help I can be though. I do a lot of bread and butter gigs alongside more burly flavoured ones, ie. pubs, clubs and radio roadshows. I originally got into more alternative events via contacts/friends on the fetish scene and things grew from there. I'm still pretty new so far as the burlesque scene is concerned although I've been on here for a couple of years now. My time is limited as I have two little ones, so don't always have the opportunity to just pimp my ass out to every available gig. I quite possibly recommend that route to get your name about if you do have the time and inclination though

As for getting an act together, you just need to go with what you love. I love 40's and 50's music, find a song from there I like on somewhere like youtube then follow the related links onto another track and so on til I find another, more suitable or lesser known track that I love equally. Then move onto costuming, etc

I'm not sure how much help that waffle was, I'm a little preoccupied at the moment. Feel free to pm me with any specifics

Keri -x-

__________________
http://www.kerispring.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/missmidnightblue

Just thought I'd say hello since I'm obviously in the same boat as you are.
xxx

Hello me dear,

How's it going with the act? I've found the swing section of parismusic.co.uk to be quite interesting as the quality and arrangement of the recordings are excellent and I think I'm going to be able to pull off more lively showy numbers where I get to be a bit cheeky and have a bit of a belt in places rather than sultry brooding pieces. Perhaps it's a blonde thing? I haven't looked at the other recommendation though yet and there must be a thousand companies out there who do this kind of thing.

Best of luck though. If you get a video or vocal track posted online you must send me a link.

x

Hi There,

I too am a newcomer to the scene so am pretty much in the same boat. You might want have a look at some of Liberty Pink's acts - i saw her at the cherry pop peep show and although not billed as a performer she was an amasing singer and her act perfectly complimented a burlesque show, I'm not sure if there are any show reels of her about but i'm sure if you have a dig about you may be able to find something.

As for inspiration i am on the look out all the time for music and bits and peices that i can use - If you have the radio on and hear a good tune, write it down with a view to using it as part of a routine. If you are out and about and you see something interesting write it down. For me my husband is a wealth of good idea's for shows and I also find having friends round and performing for them and asking for suggestions also works well (those that you know will be truthfull with you, rather than the ones that will say your act is good even when its crap!!!!)

Good luck with putting the routines together

Ooh - am listening to Miss Pink's tracks as I type. Thanks. I think what I'm scared of is putting something together and then finding out that I'm treading all over someone else's toes. I really need to get out and see more. It must be great to have someone you love to work with. I have a really good mate who is into music promotion (more indie bands and achingly cool people rather than theatrical types) and she is really brutal and scathing but honest. If I can get the guts to perform in front of her then I reckon I'm onto a winner!

Best of luck to you too MissPF. It sounds like you are well on your way.

Blimey - this forum is addictive! Must go and earn a crust for a while otherwise there will be no pennies to spend on shiny costumes!

x

Well you can always post here what you have in mind, and others will tell you if thats something thats already being done. If you're planning on going out doing purely vocals then there are songs where you're going to overlap, but if you're planning on making more of an act out of a single song like Meg then it would be in your favour as much as their's to make sure whatever you come up with is as original as possible

__________________
http://www.kerispring.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/missmidnightblue

Thank you - that's brilliant - will post back ideas a bit later as I keep trying to leave the forum but it keeps dragging me back. I have sent you a PM too Keri. Thanks again. x