From a family of dancers, Bettie Bombshell stumbled upon Burlesque Bar in Melbourne, Australia in 2013 and attended a call-out for budding burlesque performers to join their ‘Debut Darlings’ Thursday night show.
Since then, burlesque has taken her all over the world, from her first interstate show in Sydney at Red Light Confidential, the Colorado Burlesque Festival 2015 and a debut at the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend 2016 in Las Vegas, to headlining the Australian Burlesque Festival, winning Miss Burlesque Australia, and featuring in multiple Sydney Opera House productions and European festivals.
Here’s her 21.
1. How would you define yourself in three words?
Driven, loving, adventurous.
2. Who would play you in a movie about your life?
My ego tells me Catherine Zeta Jones, but in reality it should be someone like Nathan Lane.
3. What is your biggest strength?
My curiosity and dedication to the things I love. If I am all-in on something I am completely, totally and utterly in. I will run with that thing till the shoes have fallen off, the socks have holes in them and nothing else can be explored. I love adventure and I love to learn, so I will ‘yes and’ everything to see where we end up! Oh and I can sleep anywhere, anytime; it’s my super power.
4. What is your biggest weakness?
That I hate everything to do with numbers and accounting. In my mind I just wave pretty fabric and frolic naked with my fabulous friends all day long and never worry about my tax return ever again. Oh, and that I believe you can get wherever you need to be in 20 minutes.
5. When are you most happy and inspired?
When I am listening to music, in motion. I hear music in images and movement and I feel so stifled if I am listening to music sitting down. I gotta have room to dance it out baby! Give me a summer day, at dusk, with my headphones and a coffee in hand on some sort of adventure. My ultimate happy place.
6. What is your favourite on-screen burlesque moment from film or TV?
I fell in love with Cyd Charisse many years ago. Her story telling, her control, her beauty and her power just completely melted me. There are two moments that I always think back to – the green dress duet in Singin’ in the Rain and the red dress reveal in The Band Wagon.
7. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
Work smarter, not harder.
8. If you could switch lives with one person for a day, who would it be?
I would say someone who sees numbers like I see music or dance. I would love to understand the beauty and feel what it’s like in that world.
9. What’s the biggest myth or misconception about burlesque?
That it’s ‘classy stripping’. That it’s somehow better or fancier than stripping. We are all cut from the same g-string darlings, so check that privilege and grow up.
10. If you could only perform to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Shania Twain – Man I Feel Like a Woman. That act never gets old, and the joy I feel when I get to whirl that tiny cowboy hat and neon fantasy grows with each performance.
11. What surprisingly useful things do you have in your show case?
I always pack an extra everything. I am a big over-prepared kind of performer. But the things I have that regularly save my skin are: an extra set of crackers for my whips, dozens of earring backs, nail glue, a razor and a container for all the rhinestones that fall off my costumes. I collect the fallen rhinestones and then glue them to my face! Oh and my portable charger; I have a terrible sense of direction and without that portable charger I would still be lost, stumbling through the streets of NYC somewhere.
12. Do you have a backstage ritual?
I like to be at the gig an hour and a half early so I can get in, get lost a little, set up my station and say hello to everyone on the show. I tape my pasties right away and let them marinate, warm up and go over my act with my music. I don’t want the first time I do the act or hear my music to be on stage! I am a serial rehearse backstage over and over kinda gal. Also I ALWAYS wear my show shoes during tech.
13. What advice would you give to new performers starting out today?
Take it slow and learn everything you possibly can. Don’t be in a hurry to do it all right away! Do your research and make it a priority to develop your own style. Stand out for your own reasons; don’t copy someone else’s schtick. Remember, burlesque can be anything you want it to be. Explore, change, grow and develop in any direction! Support your community and be an audience member. Be a part of the community and actively show up. Remain professional. Even if you get a no, even if someone doesn’t get back to you, even if you think you should have got that gig, and even if you don’t get along with someone. All you have is your reputation, and once it’s gone it’s incredibly hard to get it back.
14. What is your proudest achievement?
Being someone that people need to see on stage. I realised and decided a long time ago that my role is to educate and to inspire those that have been told that they shouldn’t or can’t be up there. I would let go of all the accolades and awards if it meant I could keep asking people, why not you? Why wouldn’t it or couldn’t it be you?
15. What is your biggest regret?
I don’t think I have any. Everything that’s happened has brought me to this very moment. All the hard times, all the silly decisions, all the trust broken, are all incredibly important lessons and knowledge to take with me. Those moments are when we learn and grow the most, and I am grateful for when and how I have had to learn certain things.
16. What is the biggest challenge facing today’s burlesque scene?
The damn economy. Audiences are getting smaller because people just don’t have money for extras, like seeing a show. This is such a high cost industry and I see productions on every scale failing. Venues are closing, there is no funding or support from the government (yet everyone looks to the artists when times get tough), and companies are going bankrupt without paying artists. I think we need to seriously re-evaluate how all this works, and step into the next chapter of our industry, because it’s not getting better.
17. If you could go back and tell yourself one thing when you started out in burlesque, what would it be?
Don’t get so upset about it. It’s just burlesque, it’s not that serious.
18. What is a cause or issue that’s very important to you?
Wow, I don’t know where to start with this one. There is so much happening in the world that needs addressing and that I am passionate about. But I will say, free Palestine, protect the trans community, and punch a Nazi.
19. What are you currently reading, watching, and listening to?
Reading a book about Marie Laveau, watching The Simpsons, and listening to A LOT of jazz and blues.
20. If you could share a dressing room with one performer for the rest of your career, who would it be?
I would say my good judy Ruby Slippers. We’ve been through it, and she just gets it.
21. What would you like your life and career to look like in 10 years time?
I would like to own a tiny house with lots of wild flowers and a big sunroom, have a successful touring production that showcases unique and mind-blowing talent from around the world, and continue to educate and inspire folks to express themselves and experience joy.
Follow Bettie Bombshell on Instagram and visit her website.
