Thursday, June 26, 2008

Women A Go-Go

To my great delight, today's San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about my former dance troupe, The Devil-Ettes. This warms my heart and tickles my nether regions like you cannot believe. I'm thrilled that, after 10 years of shimmying, these fine ladies are being celebrated and that the great glitter-horned force continues to wow 'em in the City by the Bay.

Tonight, they're having a big show - a Prom Party Au Go Go! at the Rickshaw Stop. God, I have so many memories of insanely weird and incredibly fun gigs in random places. There's the time we opened the new drinking hole, The Hemock, by dancing - literally - on the bar. There's the Exotic-Erotic Ball ... the Saks Fifth Avenue gig ... street fairs ... 12 Galaxies ... and of course, Tease-O-Rama. Plus a few other gigs where the details are fuzzy but it was always a very low-tech, vaudevillian scene.

I do recall one gig that also featured cockroach races. Mind you, these were not the icky black bastards that we all know - these were very beautiful, exotic creatures from places like Madagascar and Morocco. Each bug had to have special papers as they were technically imports. They were also as long as my hand sporting streaks of green and gold - gorgeous. Made me look at the lil' fuckers differently after that.

This was the same gig where I agreed to be lowered into a giant vat of (cold) baked beans for reasons unknown. Ultimately, there were not enough beans to make it entertaining but hey, I was willing. Anyhoo, here's how we looked back in my day:

This was from a photo shoot for German GLAMOUR magazine. Such a life I led back then! I wouldn't trade these memories for anything. My character was The Rough Rider (named for my favorite President, Teddy Roosevelt) and my best pal was The Assasin - whom I love dearly.

They are having a big 10-year anniversary performance in February 2009 and I can't wait! Hopefully, they'll take me back for the evening; I've still got all my go-go boots and they are READY.

But I will still need help with my make-up ... Jamie? Andrea? Doe?

5 comments:

fyrchk said...

I just want to know how you got involved with them?

Heather Clisby said...

I had to audition, which is a story in and of itself. Long story short, I was the last to sign up and by the time it was my turn, it was late and time had run out. I BEGGED them to let me perform but the dance studio (where auditions were being held) had to close. Therefore, I had to audition in the parking lot across the street on a cold January night in front of 15 exhausted women and a handful of homeless guys.

I gave it everything I had and then some and evidently, it worked.

Unknown said...

Wait, can we pause for a sec and reflect the fact you were in German GLAMOUR? R-A-N-D-O-M

Heather Clisby said...

Agreed. Life is like that sometimes.

Anonymous said...

Did the reunion performance happen?