Kiss Kiss Cabaret | |
---|---|
Genre | Cabaret show |
Date(s) | Friday nights |
Frequency | Weekly |
Location(s) | Uptown Broadway Building in Chicago, IL |
Inaugurated | 2009 |
Founder | Jenn A. Kincaid and Chris O. Biddle |
The Kiss Kiss Cabaret is a live weekly variety show presenting vaudeville and neo-burlesque on Friday nights at the Uptown Broadway Building in Chicago, IL. [1] [2]
The Kiss Kiss Cabaret started as a Halloween burlesque called "Peek-A-Boo" in 2009 at The Greenhouse Theater Center. Created by Jenn A. Kincaid and Chris O. Biddle, the show presents classic striptease, with various local acts including magicians, jugglers, belly dancers, acrobatics, and comedians. It is hosted by one of the Flattery siblings. They start by reading the announcements, acknowledging the VIPs, and explaining the etiquette of burlesque. Verner and Velma Von Claptrap are The Claptrap Family Orchestra, who play dirty songs and add rimshots with a children's drum set.
The Kiss Kiss Cabaret showcases traditional "evening wear" and "balloon dance" type shows where the performer begins elaborately clothed or covered and ends in a thong and pasties or tassels. The show adopts a theme every year like movies, or mobsters, as well as Halloween. [3] and Christmas [4] In 2013, it was voted "Best Burlesque Troupe" by the Chicago Reader. [5]
As of the spring of 2015, the Kiss Kiss Cabaret moved to their new location, called The Uptown Underground at Uptown Broadway Building in Uptown, Chicago, across the street from The Green Mill Cocktail Lounge and The Riviera Theatre. [6] [7]
Robert Louis Fosse was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961), Sweet Charity (1966), Pippin (1972), and Chicago (1975). He directed the films Sweet Charity (1969), Cabaret (1972), Lenny (1974), All That Jazz (1979), and Star 80 (1983).
A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. The word derives from the Italian burlesco, which, in turn, is derived from the Italian burla – a joke, ridicule or mockery.
The Annoyance Theatre, or Annoyance Productions, is a theatre and associated ensemble based in Chicago, Illinois, that deals mainly in absurd and outrageous humor. Many people who have performed with the ensemble have gone on to become successful stage and screen actors. Popular productions have included Co-Ed Prison Sluts and That Darned Antichrist. Annoyance Productions currently runs classes in improvisation, writing, musical improvisation, acting, and solo work.
A showgirl is a female performer in a theatrical revue who wears an exotic and revealing costume and in some shows may appear topless. Showgirls are usually dancers, sometimes performing as chorus girls, burlesque dancers or fan dancers, and many are classically trained with skills in ballet. The term showgirl is also sometimes used by strippers and some strip clubs use it as part of their business name.
Neil Tobin is a magical and psychic entertainer, theatre producer and playwright, and a writer on related subjects. Since his performance material often involves themes of mortality and spirit contact—in addition to demonstrations of telepathy, precognition, magic, and even divination—he often performs as "Neil Tobin, Necromancer."
Uptown Theatre is a currently closed movie palace and concert venue located in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Designed by Rapp and Rapp and built by Paschen Bros. contractors, it is one of the many movie palaces built by the Balaban & Katz theatre chain run by A. J. Balaban, his brother Barney Balaban, and their partner Sam Katz.
Michelle L'amour is an American neo-burlesque performer who grew up in Orland Park, Illinois. In 2006, she performed stripteases on NBC's America's Got Talent, Showtime's Sexual Healing, and in small touring performances. Her tagline is "The Ass That Goes POW!" and she sells related promotional products.
Neo-Burlesque, or New Burlesque, is the revival and updating of the traditional American burlesque performance. Though based on the traditional burlesque art, the new form encompasses a wider range of performance styles; neo-burlesque can include anything ranging from classic striptease to modern dance to theatrical mini-dramas to comedic mayhem.
New Age Vaudeville was an American professional theater troupe founded by Richard O'Donnell and Amy McKenzie, and was part of the Chicago comedy boom of the 1980s.
Richard O'Donnell is an American playwright, composer, lyricist, poet, actor, and stand-up comic. He has worked and lived in New York City and Chicago, where he has written and performed for the stage and television. O'Donnell co-wrote the ASCAP award-winning Off-Broadway musical comedy One & One, and Radio City Music Hall's Manhattan Showboat. He founded the New Age Vaudeville theatre company, the New Variety cabaret, the Black Pearl Cabaret, and St. John's Conservatory Theater. As a stand-up comic, he was the executive producer and host of the Fox, Chicago comedy variety television show R. Rated.
The New Variety is an American cabaret created and produced by Thomas Goodman and Richard O'Donnell. It was a fast-paced, ever-changing volley of acts that included jugglers, fire-eaters, stand-up comics, singers, musicians, and sketch comedy troupes. It was hailed by June Sawyer of the Chicago Tribune as a cabaret for the '90s.
The Hubba Hubba Revue is a San Francisco–based neo-burlesque and variety show which opened in September 2006 and continues with weekly and monthly shows in San Francisco and Oakland.
Burlesque is a 2010 American backstage musical film written and directed by Steven Antin. It stars Cher, Christina Aguilera, Kristen Bell, Cam Gigandet, Stanley Tucci, Julianne Hough, Alan Cumming, and Peter Gallagher, and features cameos from Dianna Agron, and James Brolin. The film tells the story of Ali (Aguilera), an aspiring singer who leaves her small hometown for Los Angeles, where she becomes a dancer at a struggling burlesque lounge owned by Tess (Cher). After a performance is sabotaged by her rival, Nikki (Bell), Ali sings the song herself, impressing Tess and leading to her becoming the main attraction of the lounge. Burlesque marks Aguilera's first leading role, as well as Cher's first musical performance on screen.
Miss Polly Rae is a British singer, dancer, and Neo-burlesque performer.
Anna Frangiosa is a Philadelphia-based theater artist, costume designer, burlesque performer, director, instructor and model.
The Uptown Broadway Building is a historic three-story building at 4703–4715 North Broadway in Uptown, Chicago. Built in 1926, it was designed by Walter W. Ahlschlager and is known for its ornate terra-cotta facade, depicting ancient gods, rams' heads, shields, helmets, birds, fruits, and trophies. Lynn Becker of the Chicago Reader has called the exterior "a riotous, Spanish-baroque-inspired hallucination". According to unconfirmed local legends, Al Capone operated a speakeasy in the building's basement.
American burlesque is a genre of variety show derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall, and minstrel shows. Burlesque became popular in the United States in the late 1860s and slowly evolved to feature ribald comedy and female nudity. By the late 1920s, the striptease element overshadowed the comedy and subjected burlesque to extensive local legislation. Burlesque gradually lost popularity beginning in the 1940s. A number of producers sought to capitalize on nostalgia for the entertainment by recreating burlesque on the stage and in Hollywood films from the 1930s to the 1960s. There has been a resurgence of interest in this format since the 1990s.
Kara Nova is a pole acrobat in the San Francisco Bay area, California.
The Green Mill Cocktail Lounge is an entertainment venue on Broadway in Uptown, Chicago. It is known for its jazz and poetry performances, along with its connections to Chicago mob history.
Baton Show Lounge is a Chicago drag club since 1969. It is famous as the venue for the Miss Continental pageant.