Like you, Tiger is an international showgirl who has helped reinvent burlesque, but how do you define Burlesque?
It’s a little like asking how do you define music, or how do you define theatre … It means different things to different people, and is a genre that has transformed and developed immeasurably over the last two centuries. Its popular roots are to be found in early 19th century British music halls, at a time when the genre was about parody, satire and bawdy comedy.
What I perform (and what Tiger performs) is classic American burlesque striptease and European showgirl acts, the type that were popular in the mid 20th century. Around this time, a burlesque show was essentially risqué, ironic cabaret, with bawdy comedians, stripteasers, chorus lines and specialty acts. The stripteasers were often huge legends, as famous as the movie stars of the time. The shtick was also as important as the strip, but the erotic undertow was essential. My own shows are similarly big elaborate theatrical spectacles with a variety of acts, in which I also perform with my dance troupe, my 12 piece big band, and huge props and sets; pure classic glamour.
Why do you think it has such an enduring appeal to modern audiences?
My shows attract a large female audience as much as a male audience. It is a form of erotic entertainment that appeals and is accessible to both sexes. The women love the glamour and love to come to the shows dressed up; they really tap into their own inner showgirl. The shows are enormously glamorous, funny and camp, but, ultimately, they are pieces of theatre. They offer fantasy and escapism which I think is an antidote to our modern social climate.
Ironically we have spent so many decades thinking about the future, predicting the future, anticipating a better future, that now I believe there is a trend for looking back to the glamour of the past with the benefit of rose-tinted spectacles. In the noughties we have a very ‘quick hit’ culture, and everything is so accessible now … except the past, we can never actually re-experience that. Perhaps that’s why there is so much allure in recreating the classic, perceived ‘halcyon days’ of a time that is gone forever, its memory preserved in black and white stills and moving picture, it is otherworldly.
I think also the overwhelming accessibility and use of sex in our media is also why people gravitate towards the concept of seduction and tease. But the bottom line is: a fabulous glamorous show full of beautiful women disrobing has always been popular, and always will be!
How did you come to be a showgirl?
It was an organic thing; there was never one ‘Eureka’ moment. Pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fell into place over time: dance classes as a child, my obsession with Parisian showgirls, a mother who looked like Wonder Woman, watching Gypsy and falling in love with Mazeppah, discovering Betty Page in my teens and all the pinup queens, feeling out of place with my hourglass shape in a time of super waifs and heroin chic, working as a stripper for a few months when I graduated from university, being told I looked like Modesty Blaise by the gas man, being an artist and being able to design my own costumes, working in film as a producer director and honing the art of the mise-en-scene … as long as I was creating my crazy fantasy worlds, in whatever way I could.
Both you and your character have the most wonderfully elaborate stage acts but did Tiger get some of the spectacles that you yourself would like to perform? (Diving tigers for example?)
Yes, Tiger performs at my favourite UK venue, The Savoy Theatre. That’s next on my list of theatres to perform at. I’d also like her automated roaring black panthers for my Blaizing Angels! I allowed her to borrow some of my acts too though …
Dream-casting time: aside from you, who in your head would play Tiger Starr in a movie version of Tease?
Monica Belucci, although Salma Hayek’s striptease in From Dusk ’Til Dawn was jaw dropping: the beauty, those curves, all rendered me speechless.
What about Lewis?
Jon Hamm or Clive Owen – that old fashioned, uber masculine charisma.
And Libertina?
Megan Fox.
Who are your favourite authors?
Ian McEwan. Haruki Murakami, Evelyn Waugh, Lewis Carroll, Djuna Barnes, Henry Miller, Charles Bukowski, Terry Southern, Toby Litt, Will Self, Jacqueline Suzanne, Jackie Collins.
Confession time: which classic novel have you always meant to read and never got round to it?
Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.
What are your top five books of all time?
Evelyn Waugh Vile Bodies
Emile Zola Nana
John O’Hara Butterfield 8
Toni Morrison Beloved
Jilly Cooper Riders
Which book are you reading at the moment?
Me Cheeta, the autobiography
Do you have a favourite time of day to write?
Ideally I like to write late into the night say from 10pm until 3 or 4am, then review my work and make amendments as soon as I get up, when my brain is fresh as a daisy and in a practical headspace.
A favourite place?
Anywhere comfortable. I tend to go to my house in the South of France. I have my room with a view and I sit at my 1930s writing bureau, or when it’s sunny I sit by my pool with a dirty martini. It’s more Dynasty that way. If it’s a late night I’ll lounge on my bed with my little dog; I get terrible backache that way though, hunched over to the early hours tapping away!
What’s your writing process? Are you a planner?
I cannot write a word until I have storylined every chapter. I need to have my ‘map’ in front of me. That way I don’t get distracted by the fun details and lose the plot, literally.
Which fictional character would you most like to have met?
Rupert Campbell Black from Riders!
Who, in your opinion, is the greatest writer of all time?
Tough. Just one? I’ll plump for the phenomenal talent of Hemingway.
Other than writing and performing, what other jobs or professions have you undertaken or considered?
I used to work as a producer/director. It was all complementary to what I do now for obvious reason … and so much of my inspiration on stage has come from cinema.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am writing the second novel with which I’m having great fun! I am also embarking on some really exciting projects with EMI, who I signed with earlier this year. The first of those will be the movie of my annual Tease show, which will be in cinemas on general release later this year, and available of DVD in 2010. I shall unveil my latest act I’ve been working on to mark the occasion!
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to those who inspired me: Robin and Boom Boom, Paul O’Grady who gave me ‘the bible’, Basil Patton, Tura Satana and Satan’s Angel.
Special thanks particularly to Ellen Taylor, Emily Dubberley, and, of course, Clare Conville and Gillian Green for the invaluable input, not to mention world class afternoon tea meetings.
Thank you also to Andrew for humouring the after-burn of long writing hours.
A special mention goes to my showgirl ‘sisters’ all over the world who have shown so much support and camaraderie; you all know who you are.
Last but by no means least, thank you to the true legends of the burlesque stage who paved the way for others to follow: Madame Vestris, Lydia, Peaches, Gypsy, Faith, Sally, Dixie, Zorita, Lili, Blaze, Angel, Tura, Candy, Frenchie, Ricki, Liz, Lottie, Jennie, Ann, and more … many of whom are gone, but not forgotten. I swing a tassel to you amazing ladies and may the fire keep burning bright.
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First published in 2009 by Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing
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