Behind the Pasties: A Burlesque Mockumentary

For the next five weeks you have the opportunity to experience an artistic experiment as conceived by Seattle’s longest running weekly burlesque revue.  Sinner Saint Burlesque, at The Noc Noc, is branching out, theatrically speaking, with a new, entertaining and highly promising show.

Behind the Pasties: A Burlesque Mockumentary gives the audience a peak behind the scenes of Sinner Saint Burlesque.  Host Diva le Deviant dialogues with the audience and with ‘BQ1 interviewer’ Aman, the Chocolate Boy-Wonder, about the history, pre-show rituals, inner secrets and foibles of this troupe of glittering artists.

The audience is told the tale of how Evilyn Sin Claire became known as ‘The Wild Child.’ We are shown how Dona De Couri overcame her insecurities, and like in the story of the ugly duckling, discovered her own beauty, and glamour.  We learn a bit about the secret kinks of the Debutante of Derriere, Lady TaTas, and are made privy to the hard work and the various trials that burlesque artists undertake in training, glamorizing and making their onstage personas… stick.  And for last night's audience, we were given a "where is she now" look at one of SSB's former Sweet Hearts, the 'Martha Graham of Hip Hop', Randi Rascal.

On the surface, Behind the Pasties is standard fare for those who have become accustomed to Sinner Saint’s work.  The individual performances are well executed, sexy, fun and appropriately rhinestoned.  Diva le Deviant is her usual, “Bitch in Charge” self, full of biting wit, and good-natured, over-sexed humor.  Fellow performers, and those intimately connected to burlesque artists will be rewarded with some humorously acted inside jokes, and asides.  In fact the addition of comedic tableaus and mini sketches were my favorite parts of the show.

The emcee-interviewer dialogue added depth to the audience experience, as did, the participation of audience members in a ‘love poem’ from SSB to their fans.  These together with Diva's 'motherly' and affectionate overtures to the audience gave the show the feel of Roxie’s parting line from Chicago, “Thank you, we could not have done it without you!”

Look a little closer, and you might find that ‘Behind the Pasties’ is not yet a finished product.  It is an experiment, or test run, a first draft of something really awesome in the making.  While it is a fun and entertaining show in its current state, it is my hope that the ladies of Sinner Saint Burlesque will continue to develop this show.  I would love to see more history (or comedic pseudo-history), more group sketch work, and eventually I would love to hear the individual voices of the Sinner Saints themselves.

I would encourage Seattle burlesque fans, and fellow performers, to check this show out.  Sinner Saint Burlesque is an ongoing part of Seattle burlesque history. It is due to both the hard work and dedication of the artists, and the love of viewers like you that theirs is a story of success.

Sinner Saint Burlesque performs every Thursday night at The Noc Noc, in Downtown Seattle. Behind the Pasties will run for another five weeks.  For more information you can check them out at http://www.facebook.com/SinnerSaintBurlesque.  As a self-declared SSB fanboy, I don't ask you take my word for it, but I do ask you to see for yourself.

Loves!

~ Fosse Jack