THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2009
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NEWS 7A
ENTERTAINMENT
Burlesque show draws crowds reminiscent of 1930s
Tobias, a sword swallower for "Pretty Things Peep Show," bows to the audience after extracting a length of ribbons from his mouth. The Pretty Things Peep Show, a traveling burlesque act, performed at The Granada on Sept 9. Alex Bonham-Carter/KANSA
BY ANNA ARCHIBALD aarchibald@kansan.com
The Granada stage for the "Pretty Things Peepshow" is nothing short of gaudy.
Every inch of the cloth curtain is dotted with sparkles. The giant keyhole in the middle of the stage and the rack of swords sitting stage left were an indication of things to come.
Then, through the keyhole,
Go-Go Amy appears. She enters wearing a sparkly, nude-colored outfit. Amy and her two fellow dancers easily slip off their costumes, revealing nothing but panties and black tasseled pasties.
"Everybody wants to see this type of show," said Amy, co-founder of the burlesque peepshow. "People are looking to entertainment to escape from reality. Burlesque leaves more to the imagination than most adult entertainment today."
Like the dancers in the "pretty Things Peepshow," Go-Go Amy specializes in burlesque dancing, a form of striptease using showy costumes and suggestive humor that became a popular form of entertainment during the 1930s.
"It is a very off-the-cuff sort of show," Mike Logan, owner of The Granada, said. He said he had noticed an increase in burlesque shows around the Kansas City area. The dancers performed the burlesque show at The Granada Sept. 9.
Alex Bonham-Garter/KANSAI Insectavora, a performer with the "Pretty Things Peep Show" demonstrates her ability to blow a flame from her mouth at The Granada Sept 9. Burlesque acts became popular in the 1930s during the Great Depression.
"We will definitely bring 'Pretty Things Peepshow', probably
Alex Bonham-Carter/KANSAN
sometime in the spring"
tainment, now more than ever"
spring. During the past two years this style of Great Depression-era burlesque has made a comeback, as have other forms of stage and theater entertainment popular during the
The increase in movie ticket sales supports the notion that people are looking to entertainment as a distraction from their everyday lives. A survey from the box office trading company Media by Numbers found attendance numbers at theaters this year have risen 16 percent.
"People are looking to entertainment to escape from reality."
Tali Friedman, Cleveland, Ohio, senior, said while she has cut back on eating out, she has maintained her entertainment expenses.
1930s, including both movie and live theater-going.
"I will splurge to go to theater shows," Friedman said. "Live theater
John Staniusas, professor of the theatre and film, said he had noticed the need for people to indulge in some form of escapist entertainment during difficult times.
GO-GO AMY
"Pretty Things
Peepshow" co-founder
"An interesting thing I've noticed when I go out is that lines don't seem any shorter at shows," Staniums said. "People still need and desire enter-
a phenomenon in escapism.
is unique because it's more exclusive than going to see a movie."
Depression.
Go-Go Amy said she thought the increase in the popularity of these forms of entertainment was partly because of the relationship the current recession shared with the economic problems of the Great
"It's a cheap vacation for people to take a break from reality," Jon Kelly, house manager of the Hollywood South Wind Theaters 12, 3433 Iowa St., said. "They can come here and spend $40 for the whole family."
"People are going through hard times," she said. "It helps to know that in a couple of years everything will be fine like it was years ago."
Stanislaus said that entertainment on-stage was just as much a form of escape as entertainment on-screen
Its increase in popularity, however, isn't solely an economic similarity to the Great Depression. Justin Scott, a spokesman for Kansas City, Mo. based movie giant AMC Entertainment Inc., said it was also
He said the Broadway revival of "Gypsy", a musical detailing the fall of vaudeville and rise in popularity of burlesque in the 1930s, could be another sign that the Great Depression-era entertainment was making a return.
able to thrive even in tough times
"During the Depression, Hoover's administration put money into theater entertainment to help boost the economy by way of the WPA, Works Progress Administration," Staniumas said. "Now, Obama's administration is putting more money into the National Endowment for The Arts."
The University department of theatre has also decided to put on the musical "Anything Goes," set during the 1930s after the stock market crash. Stariunas, who will direct the spring 2010 production, said it was especially relevant now
Ben Chappell, professor of American studies, said he thought there was something essential about forms such as burlesque being related to hard times. Also, he said he thought the return of this type of entertainment pertained more to modern popular culture.
"Retro is something that happens right now." Chappell said. "When someone does a performance that references the past, it's always about what's happening in the present."
With support from the government in the 1930s and now, Staniunas said entertainment such as theater productions, movies and racy burlesque shows have been
Edited by Anna Kathagnarath
Go-Go Amy's 5 tips to becoming a successful burlesque dancer:
1. The ability to sew. Believe it or not, there is no burlesque section at Wal-Mart and the costume is 80 percent of the act, so good costuming skills come in handy.
if you know how to make a wink and a smile sexy, you're in good shape. You also need a good sense of humor just to be on stage.
2. A good sense of humor.
Burlesque is very cheeky, so
3. A really strong work ethic. If you want to do it for a living, you basically have to give up your social life and the chance at a normal apartment life to tour in a van. For every two minutes of stage time, there
are at least four and a half months of shitty times to go with it.
4. Self confidence is crucial. If you don't believe you are sexy, no one else will, either.
5. Respect for the past. We're doing something that was done 80 years ago so we owe it to them to give it a good name.
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Leonard Zeskind
Behind the Lines: What White Supremacists Think About What They Do
Thu September 17, 3:30-5 p.m.
Alderson Auditorium
Leonard Zeskind is a leading expert on white supremacists and the extreme right. In his new book, Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream (2009), Zeskind ties together seemingly disparate strands—from neo-Nazi skinheads to Christian Identity churches and militias—to offer a wide-ranging historical account of the white supremacist movement. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Nation, and The Los Angeles Times. He is a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship.
This event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required Co-sponsored by American Studies and the Department of Sociology
KU HALL CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES The University of Kansas
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