Interview with Lola Van Ella of Show-Me Burlesque

My friend and fellow blogger Chris King describes Lola Van Ella as a “sexy geek.” That’s about right. But as one of St. Louis’ leading burlesque performers (not to mention a producer, manager and teacher), Lola is also a “sexy evangelist,” spreading the salacious gospel of risqué dance, developing the culture of burlesque in the river city, and, with her myriad collaborators and troupe members, putting on some highly entertaining and provocative shows.

On May 13, Show-Me Burlesque will open at the City Museum as part of Midwest Mayhem, KDHX’s annual spring blow out and multi-stage extravaganza. You can get the full lineup of music, dancers and madness at Midwest Mayhem here, and get all the details on the 3-day festival of sensual dance at the Show-Me Burlesque Web site.

Over falafel and iced tea at MoKaBe’s, Lola and I chatted about her career, the development of burlesque and where she sees the art form heading in St. Louis.

Roy Kasten: Dancing came before burlesque for you, right?

Lola Van Ella: I’ve danced my whole life. I was a theatre kid, and was always singing, dancing and acting. Burlesque started a little over 5 years ago. I was singing in a jazz cabaret where the Fox Hole is now. The Spot. It was a little, tiny space, really cute. It wasn’t open for long. We were doing the Great American Songbook, and meanwhile I was doing these productions where, for instance, once I was asked to do this reverse striptease and sing this original song. I said sure. I had a blast, but I didn’t know it was burlesque essentially. Other performers have said the same thing. They were doing burlesque before they knew they were doing burlesque. As a girl, I was all about gypsy and the big MGM musicals, Busby Berkeley. My grandma had me watch all these great black and white films that have so much burlesque in them.

So, there was a show at the Rue 13 called the Alley Cat Revue, five years ago, and I did that show every week, just about, for three years. I left that to start producing my own events and teaching classes.

Did you have a teacher yourself?

Yes, in the sense that I was constantly inspired. There wasn’t one person, just performances that blew my mind. There really wasn’t any such thing as burlesque education in St. Louis when I started. When I was working with the original Alley Cat girls, we all just helped each other. We didn’t know. We were learning together. As Chris King called me, I was a sexy geek. I watched and studied everything I could. What really helped me is that 6 months into doing burlesque I was invited to compete in the Miss Exotic World Pageant in Vegas (in 2006). That was the first time getting out of the bubble. I realized it was so much bigger than me or St. Louis. It was like a Trekkie convention for burlesque performers. There were hundreds of sparkly women and men hanging out in Vegas, drinking and performing and learning from each other.

The biggest part of the weekend was the legends. There were these 70-plus-year-old women who gave panel discussions and interviews, and some of them still perform. I got to watch a 70-year-old woman wear her original costume from 1957 and take it off on stage! Oh my god. It was amazing.

How did the persona of Lola Van Ella start?

That happened on accident. When I walked into Rue 13 it was very bare bones and amateur. There was no emcee, it was trial by fire, very raw. I talked to the manager, and the next week after starting I had my signature song, “Whatever Lola Wants.” Right at that moment they said, “You have to be Lola.” I didn’t want to be Lola. I thought it was clichéd, overdone. There were too many Lolas. But it absolutely fits who I am. I’m the type of person who wants to achieve and grow beyond the perimeter. Since I knew Lola had been used a lot, I decided to be the best and most famous Lola in burlesque. Van Ella came months and months later. I tried to think of a fun name. I’m German, I love Ella Fitzgerald, and Van Ella sounds like vanilla.

I never got that.

It takes a while to get that part. I like the irony of that. My lives aren’t separate. They all commingle. It’s an extension of my personality.

So, what you’re saying is you’re shy and reclusive.

Yeah, I’m a wallflower. I don’t like people. I’m really nervous. (Laughs) The more I would get up on stage, the more my inner Lola Van Ella took over my whole personality. It’s just me times 10.

Are you doing burlesque full time?

It’s not just performance. Teaching, traveling, producing, performing. It’s become a full-time job. I teach every Tuesday night at Floored On Grand. My dream is to grow and expand and have my own studio. I want to offer the full academy of classes, have other teachers as well. The biggest downside of teaching is I don’t have as much time as I’d like to give my students undivided attention. My most advanced girls have become my troupe, “the Bon-Bons,” and we do live band burlesque shows, and they travel with me.

Does the Alley Cat Revue no longer exist?

It’s a weird and funny question. The girls who identify themselves as Alley Cat girls are all friends and we work together, but the Alley Cat Revue was just a name for the performers who did the shows. It was a show at Rue 13, but ever since that’s been gone it’s been in limbo. So it’s just an identifier.

It’s not a troupe.

We were going for that at first, but it kind of just didn’t stay together as a troupe. It became a bunch of different solo performers, who sometimes worked together and called it the Alley Cats.

Lola Van Ella at Midwest Mayhem 2009. Photo by Sara Finke.

Lola Van Ella at Midwest Mayhem 2009. Photo by Sara Finke.

With the Bon-Bons, are you a mentor, a choreographer, or are they doing their own thing?

I guide and direct, but I want them to feel their routines are their own. For the Bon-Bons Burlesque Revue, we’ll work with a live band, led by Kevin O’Connor from the 7 Shot Screamers. That show is very specific. It’s a very retro, ’50s night-club revue. Each girl has her signature act she’s rehearsed to death. We have handmade costumes for everybody. It’s polished, and in my opinion, really good, beaten until it’s perfect. I help choreograph and help with the costume design, but still it reflects their own personalities. I come with a list of songs and we pick one together. And then we organically work it up together. Then on top of that, I book shows, like for Naughty Gras or some event, and [the dancers] do routines they’ve come up with completely on their own, maybe with a little help, and we critique each other. The Bon-Bons Burlesque Revue is like my baby, that’s a separate thing, with my specific vision. But the dancers are still independent and find their own voices, and do what they want to do. We’re all friends and we all support each other. It’s a great group of girls.

Let me get this straight: You’re a manager, booking agent, choreographer, stylist, fashion designer, teacher.

Producer!

Producer. And a pretty good dancer. That’s not so much.

Yeah, it’s all manageable!

You seem very good at doing all of that.

Thanks. I would never consider myself a great costume maker. But I feel like I have an eye for what looks right. That’s from doing it for so long. I can say you need a costume with a tear-away panel in front, and it needs to hook here, and it needs to be this color, with this kind of rhinestone. I can design that in my head, but I have this amazing friend, Becky, and she can get it and make exactly what I want. It’s definitely not by myself. God, I would never want to do it myself. It’s not my favorite thing to do. Some performers love to make costumes. But it’s not like I get my rocks off sitting on the floor rhinestoning a G-string. I’m so glad I have somebody who can realize it.

Have there been shows in town where it just hasn’t worked? Where the audience thought they were on the East Side?

Rarely. That has a lot to do with setting the mood when you get there. And I like to emcee. I try to set the mood when I get there, that it’s going to be fun, exciting, a good time. We did one gig recently, it wasn’t that bad, but it was a bunch of tattoo artists, and they were all nice, but they were like 7th graders in a locker room. They didn’t know how to handle it. They got obnoxious, giggling like schoolgirls and elbowing each other. Half way through the show they were so rowdy that I yelled at them and put them in their place. I said, “If you don’t behave properly, we’re leaving.” I did this jokey, mean mom thing. They all were like, “We promise, we’ll be nice!” They became so polite, clapping after every dance, and afterward they said they didn’t mean to be bad. Mostly it’s been positive. I’ve been fortunate. And even when it’s a little strange, which does happen, but you can generally even out the crowd and get them to the place where they can appreciate it.

There’s probably nothing more intimidating to a drunk heckler than a very attractive woman who just took off her clothes but who can still put you in your place.

I try!

What was the origin of Show-Me Burlesque?

This is the first year. It grew out of the St. Louis Burlesque Showcase, which was every 3 months at Off Broadway. I needed a platform for my new students. I believe every man or woman who has some experience should try it once. The recital grew into having headliners, so the first time we did it was on a Wednesday three years ago, a Stag Night with Johnny Vegas. I wanted to charge $10, but the club was afraid no on would pay it. I had no idea either.

The show sold out. I think we charged $7. Everyone paid and was thrilled, and Off Broadway loved it and wanted me to do it again and again. I love Steve (the owner), I think it’s a great venue filled with wonderful people. From then on we started doing it on weekends. The shows kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally, I had my 2-year anniversary show, and it sold out. The last showcase was January, and it was just exhausting. It got so long, so huge, 30 performances over a 3-hour show. It’s wonderful, but everyone is exhausted. The club was wall-to-wall claustrophobia.

So I said, that’s it, we have to get to a different venue, or do it over 2 days. So that was the idea, and it quickly grew to a national festival, with over 15 national performers, a lot of award winners. I didn’t plan on it, but suddenly I had a national burlesque festival on my hands. So, how do I make this work? It’s now 3 days, with the City Museum and KDHX involved, and Midwest Mayhem. And then 2 shows on Friday, 1 on Saturday, plus lots of after parties, and a hangover brunch on Sunday.

All day Saturday there will be classes offered by top burlesque teachers, and panel discussions at Floored On Grand. It’s a big deal weekend. I want St. Louis to be excited. It’s bringing new people into the city. There are a lot burlesque festivals around the country, and some are great. And I want them to come here and see that St. Louis has a lot to offer. So I’m working my little tushie off to make that happen.

Aside from the obvious misconception, that burlesque is just stripping, what’s the other big misconception about the art form?

Maybe this is just the first thing that pops into my head, but there’s a misconception from people who want to put things into a box. That burlesque is just one thing, just girls who wear sparkly costumes and take off their clothes in a tease-like manner. Really, burlesque is a general term that encompasses a lot of different kinds of art under the naughty or risqué umbrella. But it’s not just the classic fan dance. It’s also the comedic dances, and the aerial burlesque, and boylesque and drag. Lots of stuff can fit under the term burlesque. It can be interpreted in so many ways. I’m not a fan of some things, but it does encompass a lot.

There was a golden age of burlesque that people still associate with it, a ’30s and ’40s jazz thing. That’s fantastic, but there’s a sense that it has to be that way.

Some people are very opinionated that it has to be that. Some performers do that, a tribute to the old style. They’ve learned the classic bump-and-grind and panel skirt moves, all the stylized moves from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s. I love that style, but I also love performance art, rock & roll, edgier theatrical performances. I like being a classic burlesque performer, but I’m also a big fan of doing crazy, out-of-the-box stuff too.

But if everyone was doing the classic style it would be less special.

It would get boring. If art doesn’t change and grow with the times, it will die. Burlesque died because the strip clubs opened and the tease wasn’t seen as exciting, and for other reasons. But burlesque is surviving now because it’s changing. If you don’t add a spin to it, a flair, it’s not going to last.

Photos courtesy of Lola Van Ella and Sara Finke.

Learn more about the Show-Me Burlesque Festival at the event Web site.

Posted by | May 3, 2010 | Culture, KDHX | Comment 

Comments