Mm-hmm

... m- diverse talent that is, uh, you know, would change people's minds about burlesque, and that's always been important to me since the beginning.

Um, and this, this, this tour is different because I've decided to, uh, bring together magic and striptease together.

I started performing-

[laughs]

... and they don't really know what they're at, which is cool because I feel like I have a, you know, the longevity of my career is different because I think, for those who don't know me, I've written a few different books that are about empowering people, uh, through burlesque and beauty.

Uh, I wrote a book called, uh, Your Beauty Mark: The Ultimate Guide to Eccentric Glamour.

So-

Oh my

gosh.

I mean, everything.

Everything.

I think everything.

I'm always been a do-it-yourself gal.

And I always say there's very few things that I ask other people to do that I have not done myself in the past.

wasn't i didn't have i i i'm not back

Is it true that in your shows that you do now that you still do all your own hair and makeup?

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I've had like people do my hair for certain like private events that I get very like, I can't sit there.

To me, it's like a whole part of the process of like sitting there, taking my time to paint, do my hair, do things like, you know, there's so much to do before a show besides just the glam part.

There's lots of like, especially with the show, the tour I'm doing, the Nocturnell tour that I'm starting in Australia.

Yeah.

There's like things to do, like setting the props in the right spot, checking the lights, have to focus lights, setting, you know, getting all the magic elements ready.

Like how do you keep your skin looking so fresh and beautiful?

all right what kind of car do you drive i'm trying i'm picturing like a fiat a tiny european fiat or like a what like a really old one of those beautiful american vintage chevrolet's right

I have several vintage cars.

I've been collecting old cars from the 30s, 40s, 50s since the 90s because I just always liked them.

And my first vintage car was a 39 Chrysler New Yorker.

And I got it because my boyfriend was very precious about his 30s car.

And I'd be like, I want to drive it.

I want to drive it.

feel like the most you you've ever been? Like you've been doing this consistently a long time.

Yes.

And this was an American thing.

And in these burlesque shows, like, the comedy was kind of a little bit risque and sexual in nature.

It was a working-class guys entertainment, and the stars of the show were dancing girls and strip teasers.

And this is where, like, the striptease, the, like, deliberate taking clothes off to music-That's what the stars of the burlesque show were.

And this is very interesting because you'd think that maybe that was, like, started in France, but, like, this idea of, like, taking your clothes off-

Mm.

And I've kept every one ever, and it's like, there's a few that really stand out.

[laughs]

So you couldn't even, if you wanted to make a show like this today, you couldn't even get these, the, this quality of feather.

And so these have, you know, been carefully preserved, and we're putting them on stage for the first time again in a new way, you know? So the show is like a hybrid of my show, which is I've been t- for people that don't really know me, I've been touring with my burlesque show.

The last tour that I did was last year, and in historic theaters like Folies Bergère, Opera Garnier Monte Carlo, The London Palladium, like, all these big scale.

It's a big scale burlesque show.

So I'm kind of mixing that with the classic Vegas showgirl, but-Now I have just as many men in the show as women in the show, and I have show boys wearing feathers as well.

And so it's a, it's a d- diverse and inclusive show, just like what I've been known for, for the last part of my career.

Would you tell us a little bit about the process of making the book and a little bit of your thoughts about beauty as an art form?

Especially being in the Midwest, just

saying.

I still have dreams about my first strip club tour.

I drove out to Texas and I was in like Wichita Falls or something in Texas.

And every time I would get to a city, I'd open up the yellow pages and be like, where's the antique stores? Where's the vintage stores? And I'd go and there's this place I still like to have dreams about.

It was so amazing.

but it was like a Victorian old house.

And that's also especially fascinating to us.

I do.

Kind of.

I mean, a mix because, you know, with the vintage, I just came back from the Goodwood revival and I wore all vintage and I was sewing things every day.

You know, you split seams.

I've split the ass up in my dresses so many times wearing vintage.

So you kind of have to be prepared for it.

And then it starts to rain maybe at Goodwood and then you're like...

Tassels are like the good sister of the nipple clamp.