End of Weekly Dim Sum Burlesque

Yes, last Sunday (that was just last night!) was the last of the weekly show at Chow Bar of "Dim Sum Burlesque". I've been running that show since November 2009 and it's been sixth months of every Sunday except for Christian holidays and whatever days. Six months in showbiz time feels like twelve months in human time! It's been a great ride and I will always remember this show as the first show I produced. I loved the routine of Sunday nights of seeing Brassy, the regular performers like Dame, Strawberry, Pandora, and hanging downstairs in the office and kitchen. It was a well-oiled machine. I learned tremendously week by week by leaps and bounds every weekend, all my improv skills from college came rushing back and I really found myself on stage as the host and as a performer. Funny how it can take like three decades of one's life to finally "find" oneself.

So starting in May, May 16 to be specific, Dim Sum Burlesque is a monthly show. May 16 is going to be a special show because my mom is coming to visit from Texas. This show is billed as "Calamity Chang Comes Out to Her Mom Show" and I'm bringing back all the highlight performers of the last six months so my mom can see that I'm not working at a strip club where men with long, oily hair with semi-balding pattern are sitting around touching their genitals (with similar semi-balding pattern) with one fistful of crumpled, torn edged dollar bills and another fistful of crushed Bud Lite cans.

I've never seen anyone of the above description at any strip clubs I've been to! But for dramatic effect I'm using my poetic license.

Anyway the point is, my mom knows I have been producing and hosting shows but I never directly said I am performing. But she knows me pretty well so I have an inkling that she knows. So yeah, I want her to meet the powerful and fierce women I've gotten to know and work with, I want her to see the new apartment, the new back tattoo (she does not know!), and the new boyfriend who isn't really "new" anymore, it's been a year I think. But it feels longer like I've known him for a much longer time. Yes a lot of revelations.

Admittedly I was a little sad at the show. I was sad for various reasons. First, I was sick so I forgot things. Second, I knew the crowd was going to be very thin. I was happy that one of the people who were coming was Diana Delatorre and I actually had some time to sit and talk to her pre-show. Lastly, I was sad that the set up with Chow is not going to work out profitably for me from a business perspective, and here it was in front of me, the last night, the demise of something that could have been, should have been, might have been if (x, y, z variables) were possible. I felt at once melancholic and resentful. It felt like breaking up with someone who has loved you but may not love you as much now. I don't know. There are many reasons, all blended together. Producing a show takes a lot of energy out of both producer and the venue. Both parties have to work REALLY hard ALL the time, and I mean EVERY single day of reaching out to press, bloggers, twitters, etc to promote the show. If the venue is a big name has a PR department who handles that, that's ideal. But if they aren't and they rely on you to do all the promoting, marketing, emailing - then it's inevitable that some other venue will notice you and give you the kind of marketing and financial support you need to make your show consistently profitable. Again to use the cliché relationship metaphor, it feels like I am making myself "available" to meet someone else who can give me what I am looking for. Thus the slow backing out. The room filled out towards the end like by the last two acts. I wasn't planning on doing an act at all that night, being sick and cold and all, but at the end, I spontaneously stripped out of my street clothes to Peggy Lee's "Fever" sans pasties and with non-matching civilian underwear.

As they say, one show closes, another opens.

Some stuff that I'm up to this week:

• Wednesday night I am auditioning at the Slipper Room to be on the regular roster. Slipper is closing for renovation all summer so I don't really even know what that means to be on "the regular roster" like when will I perform again there? Who knows? But Rosewood has been encouraging me to do it and be "on track" - she's so awesome and so inspiring. I will have to write a whole blog entry about her another night. So I'm going to do my nun act and the red priestess act which I just found out is an act that Jo used to do with the same song! I cleared it with her and she said I can go for it cause she doesn't do that act much anymore.
• Thursday I am doing one classic act at an agency industry party at Click3x along with Nikkita Lemarcelle and Ruby Valentine. I bet you anything I will see people I am or have worked with. Can't wait to see their faces. After that party, I have the Nurse Bettie show. This Thursday is with Brassy, Madame Rosebud, Dame Cuchifrita, Marlo Marquise, and Honi Harlow.

The rest of the week and weekend will be used to rehearse my new act "Asian Hooker" ha!! It's not what you think it is. But I will probably do it at Dr Lucky's class showcase on Friday, May 7 called "Reform School Girls". I also need to rehearse my act for Beatles Burlesque on May 10, and create a groooooooooooovy slideshow to project behind the stage! And make a new mc costume - no fro this time but something a little... sleeker!