RISQUE, MATURE CONTENT! Viewer discretion is advised. As a special feature, we've released several videos from their Burlesque Ball, featuring standout, game changing Canadian performers Dew Lily, Charlotte Webber and Melody Mangler as well as international acts Trixie Little & The Evil Hate Monkey and Jett Adore as a hint of the awesomeness awaiting anyone who supports our very own Toronto Burlesque Festival.
We were fortunate enough to get an interview with Sauci Calla Horra, the Director and founder of TBF. Only in it's fourth year, the festival has attracted a loyal following and created a rallying point for Toronto's community of Vaudeville and Burlesque performers. This same community comes up with the ideas every year for set design and theme, with performers volunteering as extra hands when needed. It is very alike the theatre/broadway community in NYC.
The festival has more than just, well, the year's best performances. From the horse's mouth [our resident media photographer] it is one of Toronto's most entertaining events of the year. The festival also boasts seminars, free get-togethers and art exhibits. Our favourite thing about the TBF is its habit of getting to the point. We attended their Friday show at The Gladstone Hotel which featured 32, that's right, 32 performances. At $35 per ticket, it is almost a dollar per act. It is also incredible how hosts manage to get their funny on and get acts on stage in time. Credit also goes to the stage hands; eye candy working hard, picking up bustiers, silks and sweeping glitter off stage.
If you're interested in Canadian burlesque, check out the websites of Skin Tight Outta Sight Rebel Burlesque, Mysterion The Mind Reader, Boylesque TO and Great Canadian Burlesque for upcoming performances. Also take a look at Roxi Dlite, the first Canadian to win the Burlesque Hall of Fame Crown (in 2010), Melody Mangler (winner of Best Debut, Burlesque Hall of Fame 2009) from Vancouver, Burgundy Brixx (who heads a school of burlesque in Vancouver and produces the Vancouver Burlesque Festival), Scarlett James (Producer of The Montreal Burlesque Festival) and pioneering troupes, Blue Light Burlesque in Montreal and Pink Velvet Burlesque in Halifax.