Angstrom wrote:re: Berlin - we were thinking of going to Berlin with a few acts, but there are big cultural differences. Cabaret (my German friends tell me) didn't really die out over there, while in the UK that entertainment fell badly out of favour in the 1970s, and was re-invented in the mid 1990s as a very different 'cool' London thing.forge wrote:I cant help but think Machinesworking's view is quite specific to the US - I think Europeans (and Antipodeans) are quite different
ask any of the Berliners here on this forum and I'm sure they'll give you a very different perspective - burlesque is seeing a real revival now, and the burlesque shows are far from strip clubs - they have accordian players, sword swallowers, bearded ladies and all that - well I dont know about that last one...
but there is even a bit of it going on in australia - the links to circus are far stronger than the links to strip clubs
I suspect the term burlesque is probably used a little differently in the states
UK burlesque / cabaret is arty circus skills types grinding angle grinders on metal knickers, while Berlin cabaret references Weimar era decadence In a way they are burdened by their strong history of invention, where we discarded ours so made a different new one.
Also, partial nudity hasn't the same titillation values in Germany as it does in England. As we know - the Germans only put clothes on for special holidays(!)
RE: American Burlesque.
The only acts I know are from New York, and they are even more performance arty than the ones we have here. An example might be the coney island based "This or That " online tv show
http://thisorthat-video.blogspot.com/
I think that's pretty representative.
I have no idea about what happens anywhere else in the states though.
Severe Nastyness apparently !
yeah - the angle grinder knickers thing is something I've seen here to - dont know if that's a UK act - but I think there is quite a bit going on here - I would say more in Melbourne or Sydney though
there is a variety TV show on here that has been featuring it a bit and they make it sound like there's quite a big scene - lots of Australian acts - and they are usually ex-gymnasts or aerobics instructors or something rather than 'bad girls' strippers
just before the last 'camp ableton' I saw a program about the 'neo-burlesque' scene that was flourishing in Berlin - they were saying there was a major resurgence going on - it looked brilliant and I really was hoping to go while there, but it didnt happen, then I saw Shawn from Abe and he said "oh you should have said, we went to one last night!"



