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FRINGE FESTIVAL FEATURE LIBRARY OF DELIGHTFULLY PECULIAR WRITINGS
In the latest of our “Andy goes for coffee with….” we decided to send him off to meet British Heart, one of the key exponents of the burgeoning new phenomenon of Boylesque… Here’s what he had to say, prior to what will certainly be an outrageous performance at this month’s Brighton Fringe .
By Andy Hollis
So, what do we call you then? Well most people call me British, but in Australia they just call me Tart! Think we’ll stick with British then! For the uninitiated then, what exactly is Boylesque? It’s a type of male burlesque strip-tease really. There’s basically two types of burlesque; Classic and Neo. Classic burlesque borrows and adopts from the 1950’s performers and had a huge renaissance with the likes of Dita von Teese in the 1990’s. Neo Burlesque performers are more avant-garde and messier which is where Boylesque sits. It’s funny, a little bit wrong or very wrong. In fact, disgustingly wrong. There’s no tradition of costume stripping for males which we’re investing in now. We really go against the Chippendale type of strip tease – we’re not these muscular, tuxedo wearing beefcakes, we’re exploring the regular male as something that has an erotic potential. A lot of people find that initially disturbing or uncomfortable and we’re out there exploring those boundaries. When did you realise this was your calling? It was around 2006 really, I was working as a director at the Edinburgh Fringe. I was up there for a month and was pretty bored
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and miserable to be honest. I went down to a bar event hosted by Dusty Limits, featuring a performer called Missy Malone. My jaw just dropped. It was so anarchic and just went against every rule of theatre and I wanted in! You actually began your theatrical studies at the famous Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts? Yes, I trained as a performer – it’s incredible intense training there, like a Marine camp. You train in singing, dancing, acting – all the fundamentals of performance. Strangely enough there was a very popular drag troupe in the 80’s called Blue Lips, who many people see as the forefathers of Boylesque, and one of them was a teacher there. That probably influenced me in some way subconsciously. Your act is perceived as pretty “out there” – has it always been easy to be accepted? Yes and no. Different venues have different crowds really. There’s a longer tradition in New York of burlesque acts, so they just scream and love it. In the UK when you do a corporate venue, they might not quite understand the act, so they’ll bring in Hen and Stag parties. I was performing in London recently and on my left I was being screamed at by a forty strong hen party, and then on the right being booed by a stag group. Then there was a burlesque audience next to them, booing them for booing. The night ended with the hens all screaming and hiding because I was writhing naked on their table – they didn’t quite know what to do. Boylesque will go out and attack the audience as it were. It turns the rules upside down in a way that what’s perceived as a male stripper won’t. It’s clearly something you have put a lot of thought into – in fact you’re even doing PhD in male striptease. What does that involve? Well I had to go to various universities to pitch the idea – I’m not from an academic background so it was a bit of a challenge. I was presenting it as investigating this new, important form of performance and of course many of them ran from the idea. Roehampton University loved it though and I finish the course this year. What’s the main premise? Well Boylesque is male-to-male drag performance. It’s imitating men by being men, not by cross-dressing. Men are always hidden as erotic subjects unless they’re these muscular sportsmen or Bond types, Boylesque is saying “No!” We’re anybody. Any man, and we’re developing an erotic narrative. You’re performing at Hendrick’s Library of Delightfully Peculiar Writings at the Brighton Fringe, what should we expect? Well you’ll be told you’re part of the urban jungles, and Boylesque has crash-landed in your domain, and as a result you’ve taken me prisoner. The main event is the public trial. I have one hour to describe, justify and explain my story to you. If you don’t think I’m worthy, everyone in the audience is allowed to rip my
02/05/2012 23:43