Purrrlesque and the Squidling Bros

A friend, knowing I like taking off my clothes, invited me to a burlesque show last night. Actually, it was sort of a double show with two groups: Purrrlesque—a local burlesque group,

check 'em out herrre

and the Squidling Brothers—a “side show” troupe from Philadelphia.

http://squidlingbros.com/

It wasn’t far from my apartment, and I wasn’t too busy, so I went.

(hand stamp)

It was the first burlesque show I’ve attended. It was also the first whatever you wanna call the Squiddling bros—a contemporary dark, tattooed, side show?—that I’ve attended. I’ve seen video of both before, but never live.

It was partly what I expected and partly not. I could put on my critic hat and say this could be more something, and that could be more something else. But I won’t. I’ll just say that I had a great time. I drank a bit, spent too much money, and went “Whoo!” a whole lot. It was so much fun.

Here are some pictures. There was a guy from a local paper and some other guy taking pics. They both had real cameras, and, I’m sure, come out with much better quality pictures.  Or, check out the groups websites.

PURRLESQUE:

They had some actual singing (by the woman on the left),
not just lip synching.

Yeah, that’s Osama.

And there was the requisite little girl skipping. 

It was part of a “Anything you can do” duet. 

(Yay for musical theatre!)

And here’s the ensemble.
Yes, that's a dude on the left.
Boylesque?

THE SQUIDLING BROS:

Nothing like some atmospheric accordion playing and strange singing to set the mood.

Your MC, clothed, and half-clothed.

...and swallowing a sword.

Yes, a dude on a bed of nails and with a cinder block on his chest.

You can’t tell very well, but they’ve got a long tube 

running up through their noses and out their mouths.

Nice, huh?

Betty Bloomerz: she’s one of the nose-tubers. 

Here she’s eating fire. She is also a sword swallower.

The finale: the MC, naked, 

about to have his scrotum stapled 

by a member of the audience. 

Yeah. Stapled scrotum.
It could’ve been me doing the stapling. What an honor, but I declined. Despite the fact that he’s probably done that tons of times before, I haven’t. And I’m just not that interested in hurting someone on purpose.

I will say this (I guess it’s somewhat of a critique): 

Betty Bloomerz was amazingly awesome and my favorite by far. Her onstage character was sad and funny and strange and quirky and captivating and beautiful. I think I’m in love.

Or maybe I just need a girlfriend.

Here’s a picture from their website:

(I hope they don’t mind too much that I stole it. 

It’s a much better pic than my sad camera phone could do.)

I took more side show pics than burlesque pics, but they a rule: once the tops come off, no pictures. And I didn’t want to accidently break a rule, so, I didn’t take so many pics of the ladies.

I suppose if I go to another burlesque show, I may do more of a critique.