Ok, no worries.. it's just I'm still relatively new to all this and I worry all the time when putting my routines together if someone else has already done something similar.

I'm just being para. Ignore me.

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www.myspace.com/chateaukitsch

Don't worry about that. There are loads of similar ideas around. But people can see if it's just a similar act or if someone has stolen a whole choreography.

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www.myspace.com/freya_fox

Exactly as Freya said.

Even if you have a similar theme to another performer, it is very unlikely that you will end up with a routine similar enough to be accused of copying.

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Snowflakes and Sparkles xox
December's Myspace

From the clues Gehenna gave I managed to look someone up on MySpace lickety-split and... OH MY GOD. If this is who I think it is, one of her "acts" is utterly, utterly shameless... Little-to-no hint of her own spin on a well-known burlesque theme AT ALL - a simple copy-and-paste from another performer from what I can tell.

End rant.

So, moral of the story - these performers are shooting themselves in the foot. How can you have any pride in what you do if none of it has any originality? Indeed, how can you even call an act your own?

Whether the performer I stumbled across is the performer in question or not, I'll certainly not be booking the one I've found. And if she were to approach me I'd diplomatically tell her why I'm not prepared to book her. Any promoter with any involvement on the burlesque circuit probably wouldn't book her either - you don't want to give your audience a second-rate act when you could have the original.

xox

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"Star attraction" - News of the World
Website | Blog | BVB on MySpace | BVB on Facebook

You can easily ask around and find out if anyone has seen anything similar, if something similar exists make sure you add your own personal twist to make the idea different and yours.

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"legs are better, you can fake boobs, you can't fake legs" - Sherz
www.myspace.com/silhouette_burlesque - www.myspace.com/cherryfoxfinephotography

Ok, will do. Thanks, feel better now. I doubt anyones choreography would be as bad as mine anyway!!!

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www.myspace.com/chateaukitsch

Agree with Delilah 100% - you have nothing to fear if you've been inspired by an act to do something that uses elements or aspects of it, the problem is when you are inspired so much that you do litterally the same thing i.e. virtually the same outfit, the same props, the same music and the same storyline.

Obviously as Cherry said, some acts are very hard not to be similar - i.e. parasol/fan dances and balloon pops - and I suspect over a hundred performers have a housewife routine - but the line must be drawn when the similarities are so close they might as well be the same act.

An example of good peformer ettiquette comes from my wife who temporarily canned a developing routine after watching a new act by Diva Hollywood, their ideas where too similar. Angel will eventually do the routine, but she wants to make sure the routine has plenty of differences so that comparrisons are minnimal. Sometimes it's very hard - I've even heard of cases of performers doing the same kind of routine to the same kind of music, a fan dance and a secretary act are two types of act that I have become aware of - it can be very tough sometimes to be original, but watching an act one week and then doing virtually the same the next week/month will only cause trouble for the copy cat once exposed. And once someone is accussed of being a copy cat they will end up being tagged by that for anything that looks remotely similar

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Silk Stocking Striptease Show

Yep, great words of advice above...

...and as it turns out, I was thinking of an entirely different performer to the one Gehenna was thinking of. Turns out Gehenna's case-in-point actually borrowed a little something-something from an act I used to do...

Eesh.

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"Star attraction" - News of the World
Website | Blog | BVB on MySpace | BVB on Facebook

I scrapped a routine I was planning to do when I found out a much more established performer had a similar routine.

As I'm new, I obviously don't want to be accused of copying anyone, although I do get inspired when watching other performers. It's very difficult.

And I am working on a secretary act too But I've not seen any performers use that theme yet myself or use the music or even the same storyline that I'm working with, so fingers crossed!

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Performer and All-Round Princess
www.myspace.com/missdanicalifornia

oh dear me too, see I said I have un-orginal concepts! I wanted to do one based on the film, with leg braces and hand cuffs etc etc

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"legs are better, you can fake boobs, you can't fake legs" - Sherz
www.myspace.com/silhouette_burlesque - www.myspace.com/cherryfoxfinephotography