On "climaxing" during your striptease...

As you all know by now, one of my main goals with The Intro to Boylesk Class is to assist my students in developing their own Boylesk stripteases. So, over the first three weeks, we've examined the "bare bones" of a striptease, from the first few seconds a boy enters the stage, to manipulating, teasing, and whisking off his costume, and now finally, to unveiling that big, panting, sweaty exclamation point I refer to as...  

THE FINAL REVEAL 

(cue gong.)

To help my students and myself breakdown the bare parts of a striptease number, I defined the Final Reveal as such:

"The peak or highest climax of one's number. The point at which all aspects of your story line meld together and deliver the final 'payoff' to your audience."

However, I tried to impress upon my budding boylesk'ers that while of course a final reveal can imply a physical reveal of one's body, there are many different ways of "climaxing" in your number. The following are just a few examples I've observed and loosely termed from watching the amazing burlesque and boylesk artists I have the privilege of performing with.

Bare Bum: Ray Gunn

Again, semi-nude or full nudity reveals are of course always a great way to end a piece. Female performers showcase pasty covered breasts and a g-string or merkin, and male performers strip to a g-string or pouch. I personally believe that if burlesque girls are stripping off as much as possible then we male performer's too need to be willing to at least strip down to a bare bum. And one set of cheeks I never get tired of looking at belong to the fantastic Chicago based Ray Gunn.

Phallic Prop: Jett Adore

One of the many things I love about this number is not only Jett's ability to amaze and tease his audience with a seemingly small amount of costume pieces, but also that he showcases at least three different kinds of "birds" throughout the number using the same mask, saving the most impressive peacock for last.

Bizarre Twists: Julie Atlas Muz

What I really admire about this particular number of Julie's is that she is thoroughly stripped down halfway through her piece, yet there is still more story to be told. Julie's final reveal not only relates to the story she's created of a real life serial killer but also is both clever and funny in its (literal) execution.

Physical trick or stunt: Miss Ekaterina

As audience members I think we are always amazed especially but acts or feats we feel ourselves never capable of achieving. Even the (semi) simple act of jumping into the splits can cause a crowd to burst into cheers from its sheer dynamic physicality. Though Miss Ekaterina displays a variety of professionally trained contortions throughout this number, she saves a trick that not only manages to be physically impressive but also extremely hilarious. Her number is wildly successful not only for its use of impressive physical stunts, but also because she has incorporated these moves into a believable, highly entertaining story.

Ride that Tie!

So yesterday in class the boys and I looked at two essentially "masculine" garments and how to strip them off our bodies: the tie and the button down (not break-away) dress shirt. There's a myriad of ways to strip and play with these clothing items as well as some pitfalls to avoid. For instance, I know when I first started stripping I would often "floss" my body with my tie, i.e., rapidly rub it back and forth between my legs as if I was a deranged boyscout trying to light a fire in my crotch (totally different number).

Instead, I was thankfully redirected by Miss Jo Weldon Boobs of the New York School of Burlesque to hold the tie tautly in both hands, and then gyrate my pelvis forward and back again as if riding it for a much more controlled, need I say sexier bit of "stripper-ography."

A button down shirt is somewhat trickier because it requires lots of small movement of small body parts in a small concentrated area to release the garment for what is often a crowded room of drunks or an audience set far back from your stage. I find it helpful to incorporate my entire body, popping my hips as I undo each button or stretching the fabric of the shirt after I undo a button to expose as much chest as possible.

("I said ride that tie dammit!")

Once the garment is off its really up to the performer to make the most or least out of it. It's helpful to remember that you probably won't spend the same amount of time playing with each costume piece. You would just end up with a number that's  very short or very long but in either case not that dynamic or interesting. Instead, I encouraged the students on top of exploring the many options for how a garment comes off their bodies to also play with different tempos and rhythms hidden in their music to create more varied, layered choreography. Below are two videos of burlesque and boylesque stars Boo Boo Darlin' and Ray Gunn, each taking a basic strip tease and not only imbuing it with the above mentioned point, but also creating extremely specific, personal story lines with their numbers resulting in sexy, humorous, and entertaining pieces.

BOO BOO DARLIN'

 (Click above for "Slow Motion")

RAY GUNN