Immodesty Blaize interview by Jo "Boobs" Weldon

I have had the chance to meet briefly Jo "Boobs" Weldon at the Great Boston Burlesque Exposition, from whom I have been following the blog Burlesque Daily for a while... She is also the "Headmistress" of the New York School of Burlesque, as well as highly involved in the "Miss Exotic World" pageant, which is considered one of -- if not the -- top event in the burlesque community. (I wish I still had some research budget to go!!!)

I found lately on her blog an interview with Immodesty Blaize, which I find quite insightful for my research. This is how Jo introduces her: "If you've ever seen Immodesty Blaize perform, you don't have to ask what burlesque is; she's it." (picture of Immodesty Blaize from the blog Burlesque Daily)



Immodesty mentionned about the performance of feminity:

Then came the fun part of watching every film noir movie I owned to distill the ultimate femme fatale. (...) I guess all my heroines along the way have been strong, very passionate women, and I have various parts of Eastern Europe in my heritage so I like to inject a bit of that fiery European passion into my performances! I’m not a cheesecake girl.

I was also interested by her discussing the differences between the US and UK (where she is from) auditoire:

My fan base is around 60% female and pretty darn glamorous! I’d say it’s a spread of media/celeb/fashionista/cultural types and sassy women. I have found the male female ratio in USA audiences to be similar, although there seems to be much more of a music and rockabilly contingent in USA.

The ritualistic aspect of the performance:

Performing is a wonderful ritual for me, right from the moment I wake up that morning. I can be quite reserved off stage as I like to have quiet moments and take time to watch everything and observe; perhaps this surprises some people who don’t actually know me. I do believe in ‘transmit’ and ‘receive’, not just ‘transmit’ all the time.

Also, I have encountered several discussions about neo-burlesque being a way to deal with body image issues and eating disorder (because of the promoted body diversity). This is very relevant for my research project given my problematic "how neo-burlesque performances challenges or consolidate mass-mediated gendered norms". Immodesty mentions the following (which could be interesting to Beatrice Buttons?):

I’m going to mention a different kind of proud moment…I received email correspondance from a lady who had suffered from an eating disorder and self harming, and after she came to one of my shows she said she was inspired to work on her issues. She wrote a few months later and attached a photo, saying she was getting up to a healthy weight again and doing really well. It was deeply touching.

This is one of the aspect I have been investigating in interviews during my "live" fieldwork...