Burlesque Update #13

In the previous update I covered my first time marching in the Sydney Mardi Gras, as well as my competitive burlesque debut, and although I posted pictures I promised more once the 'official' ones were released. Well here they are, or some of them anyway.

Firstly, the Mardi Gras pictures, from Wolfe St:

The Retro Equality Gang

My favourite shot of the evening and, it turns out, that of the photographer.

And the ones from Burlesque Idol - Canberra. This was one of the last heats before social distancing kicked in - a couple of heats, and the final, have bee postponed, which must be really disappointing for the remaining competitors and the previous heat winners.

These photos were taken by Rob Studdert of  Digital Image Studio. I have posted a few because, quite simply, I love them. It's the most professional environment in which I've performed, and I put in a lot of work preparing for it, and I think the photos really show that:

This was the moment we all returned to the stage to remind the audience who we were before votes were cast.

And here we are lining up for the announcement of the winner and the runner-up.

I preparation for the debut of my new act, 'Moonglow', I did some new publicity photos. Up until now I've used performance photos of my first solo act (the one above, with the trademark bowler hat), but this new act has a little more class and glamour to it and I wanted some pictures that reflected that. One day I'll get some proper, professional, shots done, but for home-produced selfies I am quite pleased with these; the capture the 1930s glamour vibe I was going for.

So I have a new act and new photos. But wider events conspired against me.

The organisers of the show I was due to perform it in tried as hard as they could to find a way to run it, but eventually the venue pulled the plug on them, forcing its postponement. In fact the day before that was announced I'd dropped out anyway. From my point of view it still involves a trip up to Sydney for both myself and, probably, Mrs Kobold, as well as mingling in a confined public space (ie a pub). In terms of minimising risk and social contact that's not a good idea. It was a hard decision to make at the time - I've worked hard on this piece and was keen to perform, and didn't want to let the organisers down whilst they were still trying to go ahead and provide something for people to see - but it was very much the right decision.

So I will get to perform 'Moonglow'. I just don't know when.

And as for courses? The new classes I mentioned in the previous update would have culminated in a student showcase event at the end of May. But owing to the difficulties of arranging face-to-face classes in these virus-dominated times, the classes and showcases have effectively been cancelled for the foreseeable future. We are doing some online sessions in order to start developing new acts, and maybe there'll be some physical classes later, but we have no idea when our new acts will be showcased. There's been talk of maybe putting together a small showcase just for other students, where we show off the work we've done at home. Obviously it'll be nothing like the 'real thing', but it's something to work towards, and one day we'll get do do our new acts for a live audience.