Paco Fish and Meet Paco Fish and Marla M eringue Marla Meringue by Julie Fisher & Jim Warner You can’t go to a burlesque event in Baltimore and swing a tassled pasty without grazing the up and coming Sticky Buns Burlesque and its creators Paco Fish and Marla Meringue. After sharing a mutual passion for burlesque and costuming, Paco and Marla’s relationship flourished into developing a troupe “So we could do large, solid productions…I wanted to do shows that tell a story.” Sticky Buns Burlesque is troupe of five performers currently doing shows throughout the Baltimore/DC area. Let’s get sticky… Marla Meringue-When we started the Sticky Buns troupe, I came on board with some experience performing in Baltimore. I had taken Trixie Little’s Burlesque Bootcamp. doing variety style shows began crossing into the idea of a show as an arc of a story. It was something I wanted to do too. My first burlesque shows were at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art), with students who had pretty much taught themselves, and put on a show with funding from the Activities Office, as another avenue to express themselves. I was doing some MICA shows as well as my art. Julie Fisher (interviewer)- You were in MICA studying costuming right? MM- Yeah and I was doing large-scale art, like wall hangings and bigger art projects. I gradually came to the conclusion that costuming was a legitimate way to pursue my art. I’d been doing it forever. When I first came to MICA I was becoming a painting teacher, because that was my background. I was sewing all the time too, but on the side, like it was my hobby and this other thing is my art. JF- Was there a moment for you when you were performing at Mica shows when you said “Wow! THIS is what I want to continue doing” or was it a more gradual process? MM-It happened a lot earlier with another series of shows, multi photos by Theresa Keil
media fashion shows consisting of mini performances of characters and costumes I made and it was the first time I wore pasties. It wasn’t really a traditional burlesque show. It was a performance multi media thing. That was the moment I said this is something that feels really good and has the potential to be explored. JF- Paco, what was being part of The Dresden Dolls’ “guerilla” performances like? Paco Fish- It was amazing and I owe so much of my performance life to that time. It was my entre’ into performance. There was a mentality, a set of values they were using that they were calling Punk Cabaret. Which translates to take it out of the trash and make it as big and beautiful and amazing as you possibly can. Part of it was to blur the line between performers and audience and part of it was to allow the downtime between the show to be entertainment. While bands are changing instruments between sets on the stage, people don’t have to just stand around and smoke cigarettes and drink beer, be bored. Instead there’s also something in the audience for them to watch… They had someone playing accordion in the bathroom for people. Another person wrote poems and printed them on beautiful paper and pasted them up above the urinals. And so you have creativity everywhere, whatever it was. So I got involved in a role of communicating online and getting a lot of people involved. A lot of them were teenagers responding to the punk cabaret concept. When I was growing up apathy was totally in and it was cool to not care and the result of that was shit. Nothing worth caring about was happening. Since I got involved with Brigade and it changed my life so dramatically I was eager to do publicity and bring more people on board. So that was my Brigade life and how it influenced my future burlesque life. With Sticky Buns we try to take risks too. We take a new performer on board for a show because they had an idea and we want to see its fruition.
JF- Let me ask what you get asked a lot I imagine, did you have to get used to being nearly naked on stage or was it automatically freeing? MM- For me, my first performance I was nervous but it was a freeing experience. I’m not naturally a naked person. I was raised with a Puritanical background. So it was my rebellion against that. The British prim and proper—don’t make a scene. (It’s) very liberating to go beyond that. And the funny thing about being naked on stage is how quickly the novelty wears off and how it’s no longer a big deal in your mind. I get much more nervous when I’m doing something NEW and naked rather than just naked. I’m kind of at the point it’s a non-issue. I did one naked performance and I was surprised at how surreal it felt. PF- I have been arrested naked in public…went to a Loyola party once and it was boring and I didn’t know anybody so I took off my clothes and everybody was…there is definitely a rush. Like skydiving. You get to the edge of the plane. I don’t have to jump if I don’t want but— MM- “I’ve come all this way, with a parachute strapped on and somebody behind me waiting to jump…” PF- It’s having the idea to get naked in front of people and then all the energy and the tension that happens between having the idea and making the decision. Honestly I was not really comfortable being naked and I had this sort of realization that because what I was trying to do, entertain people, not arouse people, being naked is the easy part. Trying to entertain people with my clothes ON was harder and more scary. Now if I can’t do it, if the audience isn’t engaged, I can TAKE OFF MY CLOTHES, they’re entertained! (It’s) sort of a guaranteed reaction.
MM- We’ve done and seen so many burlesque performances that nudity itself doesn’t interest me so much. Followed closely by sexy. Sexy is not that interesting. I’ve seen a lot of sexy and although there are lots of ways to do it— JF- It gets homogenized? PF- Well. What are you left with? So you see sexy and you get aroused. And you go home and you work that out. What are you left with? Whereas, if you see something that’s thought provoking, you have to have thoughts. And those breed more thoughts. I guess arousal could lead to more arousal and then sex but…so what? JF-Since the first issue of Magic Octopus has the theme of Glitter we want to talk to people about glitter and find out what if means to them. Would your business be less appealing without glitter? PF- Absolutely! Because we’ve been going to and performing in a lot of burlesque shows and festivals. We watch a LOT of other performances and when you see a performance, it can be good and moving but we often think that it could be so much better if it also looked really amazing, looked really fabulous; unless there was a specific reason not to. We’ve seen some acts where it makes sense for the character in the story, the act, to be sort of dull, or distressed, So then the reveal, the body is made more poignant in the act. But a lot of times we also see the opposite effect. We see performers who are covered in crystals, but the performer doesn’t DO anything…when you see the costume and it looks amazing you have high expectations. You say, ok there’s a lot of potential here putting that much time and money into making the costume so beautiful. You think it must be important what they’re doing and they fail to do that, to reach that goal. But that means glitter alone won’t be a good performance either. The way I feel, if you’re going to do something, do it the best that you can. MM- Coming from a costume point of view, having the sparkles for a costume makes it larger than life and it makes it kind of transcend reality. In the same way, if you are putting on a musical, everything is bigger, more exaggerated. It does translate into the realm of performance too. I think a performer can sparkle from their movements and scintillate with their movements. It’s really important to me that people recognize the importance of a façade. They can be glittery and sparkly and use these tools to enhance the way they look, point things out with the way they’re moving.
JF- If you want our readers to have something stick with them from this interview, what would that be? MM- It’s really important to allow yourself to be open to new ideas, to take advantage of opportunities to learn. I think Baltimore has a vast artistic community filled with new ideas, going on all the time. Get out of your comfort zone. See something or do something you aren’t used to doing. I don’ think people take advantage of that enough. I’d really like to see that change… Examine things you see and think about how they affect not only you but the rest of the world and the people around you. Burlesque is an unusual way to do that and an unexpected way to do that. Clouded and veiled in this guise of glitter and comicality and silliness, it has the potential to really offer us critical thoughts. PP- Something that will stick with readers? I need money. No, in all seriousness… Baltimore (the arts community) in general has a tendency to reject glamour. And on the other hand (it) has a tendency to embrace novelty—which is a great thing… This is one sense of the Baltimore arts. It’s really easy to get things started but then projects don’t necessarily gain their full potential. Performers and artists say, “Hey I’m doing this really new thing and it’s great.” People come see it and agree and then they are all ready for the next NEW thing. New is important, but it could also be really solid and really great. It’s like doing a strip tease from your clothes OR doing a striptease from an incredible costume to an incredibly small costume to an incredible very small costume—that’s inviting glamour. Going that extra step because you want to, because you want your heart speaking in your work, Baltimore has lots of heart, but let’s amp up to some glamour. For more information about Marla Meringue, Paco Fish, or Sticky Buns Burlesque: • http://www.pacofish.net/ • http://marlaparker.com/sample-page/ • http://stickybunsburlesque.com/