Makeup and act retooling inspiration


Last night, just before my show, I stumbled on a timelapse video of Rabbit, from Steam Powered Giraffe, doing her show makeup from 2016. Of course, the F/X artist in me is analyzing her technique, breaking down what she's doing and what she's using.

I forgot how much I enjoyed this kind of thinking and work.

It turns out there's another angle of the video on her YouTube channel I'll need to check out later.

I'll be honest here, this is hella inspiring as I've been working on an update to my Windup Doll act.


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Reliving old trauma


Holy shit. That was way more re-traumatizing than I thought it would be.

Copyright
"Space Shuttle Discovery by yeahbouyee.
Used under Creative Commons 2.0
I'm watching the docu-series Challenger: The Final Flight on Netflix. Episode 3 just finished with the explosion of the orbiter.

All of sudden, I was in the 7th grade again and 11 years old. I working on a video project for my English class in the media center with a friend. We were crudely splicing video clips together using a pair of VCRs. We had a stack of video cassettes full of stuff we had recorded off of cable television at home. I was that kid who was obsessed with space travel and science-fiction, we both were, and we had planned on breaking for the launch. We just took a break from shooting video we had just captured.

I remember many of the adults I knew were passe about the launches, they had become commonplace. To us, we were excited. We were the generation that grew up on all 3 Star Wars movies. We watched the lift-off. I could only imagine how loud the engines were and the heat from the engines. We let our imaginations run.

We had lift-off.

We held our breath for what felt like forever. Once we thought it was free, we cheered. We were excited again. We were excited about every launch. The last time we watched a shuttle launch in the Media Center, we were scolded for being too loud.

73 seconds into launch, everything changed. The orbiter had come apart and exploded. We stood there with our mouths open.

"The silence is deafening." - Tom Brokaw, reporting on the accident

At the time, I was devastated but in that abstract way. There was a teacher on that flight and she could've been one of my teachers. 

I don't remember anything of the rest of that day. But I remember that moment. 

I am not okay at the moment but I'll be fine in the end, I've processed this shock before but with all of the interviews and archival footage, this way more personal.

I need something lighter. I think continuing my binge-watching of Lucifer should do the trick.


One week until my birthday


Copyright
The show poster from Life, The Universe and Pasties from 2014, when I celebrated for my 42nd birthday.

Next Tuesday, my fourth decade gets closer to a close as I turn 48. So far, this has been my favorite decade. This weekend, I am doing things I love. Like spending the weekend with my family, including my eldest step-daughter from my first marriage. I feel so blessed to have reconnected with her after all these years.

Madame DeVille plotting my cake and dinner for Saturday, but also a mystery dinner. I have I can eat it! Even if I can't, the thought is still extremely sweet and I appreciate it. 

The first thing that I love doing is photographing a show, Behind The Garage Door: A Burlesque Show on Friday night at 7:30 pm at Bad Jimmy's Brewing Co. I love capturing artists in the middle of their performances, whether a behind the scenes photo or a photo captured in the middle of passion realized on stage. Let's be clear, the line up for this show is amazing and will knock your stripy socks off. Performances from Whisper De Corvo, Mx Pucks A Plenty, Carson St Clair, Lavish Leone, Coco Lopez, Vena Kahlo, Emerald Rain, Amara Strutt, Pat Smear, and your host, Moxie Blue. Tickets are limited, so get yours today for some live burlesque for the first time since March.

Saturday night, I'm performing in Royal T's Queen's Night 5: Birthday Bash! Not only am I celebrating my birthday that night, Royal T, Montreal's premiere multi-disciplinarian troupe bringing burlesque, circus, and variety performances. And they are celebrating 5 years of performance goodness. The very hot line up for the evening includes Royal T, Sis Void, Evora Night, Soly Luna, Ozalee Phoenix, Dark Felina, Symbiosis, Rasa Vitalia, Noéline La Bouche, me, and Shyama! This international lineup is going to be AMAZEBALLS! The show will stream live from Facebook Live and Zoom!

 It's one week and I am stoked!


About Last Night


"It's a really hard time for applause junkies right now." - A fellow troupe member

Copyright
Chronically Fabulous, January 25th, 2020
Oh. My. Goddess. It felt so damn good having an actual audience to play off of. Even if I was under a bunch of personal protective equipment and keeping 6 feet apart. Like you do.

Wait, let me give a little more content. It was a solo show for the improv troupe, being the entertainment for the client's 40th birthday party. We create an immersive murder mystery dinner theater in public venues and for private clients.

Sure, there's a script that contains the skeleton of the mystery and the framework of the clues, prop lists, and a collection of suspects to create a reproducible mystery framework. Our improv is built around this script and because the show is immersive, the audience is an integral part of the productions. It should go without saying, the audience doesn't have a copy of the script. That makes every show unique and magical. Everything is a gift, including the curve balls that come out of nowhere.

Last night was no exception. They were such a great audience, make no mistake about that. The client, who received the Killer Birthday award, her boss who took home the Best Actor award, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. My favorite team out of the bunch--and it was really hard to pick a favorite--had to be the team named Threesome. Their energy was fantastic, they were so into it. Even if they didn't solve the mystery and had the most wrong answer of the evening, they owned it celebrating that wrong answer in all its glory.

It wouldn't be live theater without some technical glitch. In this case, that glitch was the face shield kept running up against my lavalier microphone. That made the mic practically useless for the evening. Fortunately, I'm a mouthy broad and I can project with the best of them.

This is was the first show I've done since early March, right before I had my surgery and it was the first time I've done this particular show since last December. I even mixed up a murderer from a different show with this one during one of my run-throughs. Whoops! It was a good thing I didn't do that during the live show. "I'm sorry," I can hear a confused hypothetical audience member say, "but who is REDACTED?" Yeah, that's a different show.

 

It was good to be back.


The Performer and the Corona Virus


Miss Violet DeVille on Doomsday. Copyright 2020, Miss Violet DeVille
Me and my favorite gas mask. It's handy given that the west coast on fire at the moment.
The last time I was on a stage that wasn't in my home was in February. Then I had surgery and COVID-19 lockdown went into effect the very next day. Every performance since then has been in my home studio. I've been making slow, incremental upgrades to it for live-streamed shows, recording acts for video, and so on. It's been an eye-opening experience, to say the least. I miss the feedback that only the stage and the audience can give. Tonight, I get to see an audience once more.

Tonight I have my first performance with the improv troupe before a live audience. I would be foolish if I wasn't nervous, and I was very nervous about this in the leadup to the client call for the show.

It turns out that the audience for this birthday show all work in the same medical center. That's a huge relief as there is not a COVID denyer in the bunch. This party had been planned since before the outbreak and they have rolled with the punches. For example, they shifted from a buffet meal to a 4 course meal because of COVID and I suspect that hand sanitizer will be abundant this evening. While it may be odd to perform under PPE, I am not complaining about it. Hopefully, the new lavalierr mic I bought for my wireless pack will does the trick tonight.

I cannot wait to get back on the proverbial stage. I mean, it'll be a careful and thoughtful approach but I am grateful none the less.


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