This Thursday, Bad Girl Burlesque presents the second BOOZE, SHOES, and GIRLS with TATTOOS – an evening featuring the best in Vancouver burlesque. Sad Mag sat down with the beautiful and talented Bad Girls to talk about sweepers, girl crushes, and their upcoming show at The Cobalt.

Sad Mag: Who is Bad Girl Burlesque?

Beatrix Hotter: Myself, Didi Disaster and Dizzy Little. Also known as Heather Leaf, Cynthia Weiss and Amber Lamoureux. The name is very tongue in cheek, and is partly inspired by the legendary burlesque performer, Dee Milo, whom we personally met and heard speak about the condemnation performers of her generation faced from society. These women, whom we consider heroes, were the “bad girls” of their era. We chose the name to pay a small homage to Dee Milo and so many other women and because it’s cheeky – and we like cheeky.

SM: How did you meet?

Didi Disaster: Craigslist casual encounters. Unless you want the boring truth, we worked together at a few jobs in the “real world” slinging adult beverages and/or children’s toys.

SM: What does Bad Girl Burlesque do?

DD: We produce high energy, bad-ass burlesque shows with a rock ‘n’ roll edge. We are so fortunate to feature Vancouver’s absolute best performers – and that’s not even bragging – we’re flattered that such amazing women want to be part of what we do.

SM: Do you all perform burlesque?

DD: Dizzy performs and is Bad Girl Burlesque’s PR girl, I’m the sleazy business man behind the scenes, and Beatrix acts as performer/MC/producer.

SM: How did you get started in burlesque?

DD: With a background in radio, TV and theatre, Beatrix first found her way onto a burlesque stage by being a sweeper (the cheeky girl who picks up the dancer’s discarded articles of clothing between numbers and entertains the crowd).

Dizzy was inspired by bad-ass go-go girls she saw perform at punk rock shows when she was younger. This lead Dizzy to take some burlesque classes and develop her love into a skill.

A fan of burlesque from since I can remember, I worked as co-producer of Girls On Top Cabaret Society, a troupe that worked to help DTES women’s charities.

SM: How often do you produce shows?

DD: We’re aiming for every month or two.

SM: What’s the aim of your events?

DD: Our aim is to rock your socks off! We want the audience to be genuinely excited. We want them to be aroused. We want them to be PUMPED! And seriously – what’s not to get excited about? Dance, music, comedy, theatrics, strip-tease, and all with the cherry-on-top of a body-positive portrayal of women’s bodies! What could possibly be better?

SM: Who are some of your favourite burlesque ladies in town?

DD: We are so lucky to be in Vancouver amongst an enormous amount of talented ladies! There are far too many to name but we definitely have girl crushes on Lola Frost and Spooksy DeLune.

SM: What’s your favourite thing about working together?

DD: We all get so excited to hear each other’s ideas! Every time we brainstorm, we are giddy over the creative juices that flow and the inspiration for new ideas that we bounce off each other. We really compliment each other as a production team.

BOOZE, SHOES, & GIRLS with TATTOOS
Pre­sented by Bad Girl Burlesque
The Cobalt
Thursday, Feb­ru­ary 17th 9:00 pm
RSVP on Facebook

Photograph: Matt Leaf