Suicide gurls: revue
After a long drive home in the cold from Bendigo (formerly Sandhurst, but this isn't a history lesson) , I was looking forward to a nice warm shower and the opportunity to see my favorite SuicideGirls perform live as they tour the world with their outlandish modern punk rock burlesque show.
Yup.
So, I arrived at the HiFi bar and found the end of the queue. Now I had only heard of the Suicide girls in passing. When I bought my ticket last month, I was expecting to be blown away by gorgeous talented smart funny girls that could do amazing things like contortion and magic tricks and make me want to give up my dreams of becoming a clergyman.
I did read an article in the street press about the debate as to whether the SG show was demeaning to women, some of the former dancers being allegedly exploited and but tried to put those rumours aside as heresay and innuendo. Being an open-minded person, I left all my preconceptions in the cloak room.
I went and had a $7 beer, and looked around. It was only 7.30, and the main show didn't start until 10.30. The room was filling pretty quickly, and there were a surprising number of girls in the audience. And it was funny to see all the Kd Lang hairdos, bad angular fringes and flannel shirts.
The DJ was also a magician, and he was wearing a gas mask or something. I went and had another $7 beer.
When I came back there was a band playing. Sorry don't remember the name, but they had that bland sort of 70s sound that the kids are doing these days. They had a keyboard player too.
Gee 10.30 is still looking a long way off.
Fast forward another few $7 beers.
The first girl came out to open the show with her disclaimer. She had a thick American accent and plenty of attitude.
"Rule number fucken one"
The fucken girls can fucken touch you, but you can't fucken touch the fucken girls."
"Rule fucken number two"
Fucken the girls can touch fucken each other as fucken much as they fucken like. And then had a couple of girls demonstrating by clutching each others boobs.
"Fuckin rule three"
No fucken cameras fucken. Theres like a fucken big guy who'll bash you if you take fucken pictures.
Like whatever.
So one by one the girls came out. They all had "attitude" and lots of energy. They all had tits. Although most of them didn't have enough "attitude" to bare their nipples, with strategically positioned electrical tape to protect their modesty.
Each act lasted a few minutes, and mainly involved two girls in some pretend mild bondage scene. They would strut out onto the stage in some leather outfits, take their bras off, shake around for a bit before strutting off again. They would occasionally kiss each other at some point, much to the delight of the audience. But to me, it came off as a 'tacked on' ratings winner.
The girls were all fairly cute, even the girl with the huge painful looking implants. I was hoping that she wouldn't jump around too much.
So was my $47 ticket wasted? Well, I would say yes. Considering that I could have gone to the stripclub up the road and seen totally naked girls do exactly the same thing for free. And I wouldn't have called it burlesque either. Apart from one girl that had a hula hoop, there was no performance angle to the show what so ever.
Where was the fire breathing? Or the spectacular acrobatics and light show extravaganza? Where was the love?
There was one Australian girl on the tour, and it was nice to hear her familiar accent. Only for her to tell us that there are like a thousand Suicide Girls TM in their global chain, and she was lucky enough to have been selected from the Australian chapter. "
Good for her, I guess.
The only time any of the girls did actually speak was to mouth colourful expletives.
So the girls came out for their big finale.
I'm just glad I wasn't up in the front row. I'd still be trying to get the silly string out of my jacket.
Needless to say after being packed into that smoky room for four hours, it was nice to pick up my preconceptions from the burly man at the door.
Yup.
So, I arrived at the HiFi bar and found the end of the queue. Now I had only heard of the Suicide girls in passing. When I bought my ticket last month, I was expecting to be blown away by gorgeous talented smart funny girls that could do amazing things like contortion and magic tricks and make me want to give up my dreams of becoming a clergyman.
I did read an article in the street press about the debate as to whether the SG show was demeaning to women, some of the former dancers being allegedly exploited and but tried to put those rumours aside as heresay and innuendo. Being an open-minded person, I left all my preconceptions in the cloak room.
I went and had a $7 beer, and looked around. It was only 7.30, and the main show didn't start until 10.30. The room was filling pretty quickly, and there were a surprising number of girls in the audience. And it was funny to see all the Kd Lang hairdos, bad angular fringes and flannel shirts.
The DJ was also a magician, and he was wearing a gas mask or something. I went and had another $7 beer.
When I came back there was a band playing. Sorry don't remember the name, but they had that bland sort of 70s sound that the kids are doing these days. They had a keyboard player too.
Gee 10.30 is still looking a long way off.
Fast forward another few $7 beers.
The first girl came out to open the show with her disclaimer. She had a thick American accent and plenty of attitude.
"Rule number fucken one"
The fucken girls can fucken touch you, but you can't fucken touch the fucken girls."
"Rule fucken number two"
Fucken the girls can touch fucken each other as fucken much as they fucken like. And then had a couple of girls demonstrating by clutching each others boobs.
"Fuckin rule three"
No fucken cameras fucken. Theres like a fucken big guy who'll bash you if you take fucken pictures.
Like whatever.
So one by one the girls came out. They all had "attitude" and lots of energy. They all had tits. Although most of them didn't have enough "attitude" to bare their nipples, with strategically positioned electrical tape to protect their modesty.
Each act lasted a few minutes, and mainly involved two girls in some pretend mild bondage scene. They would strut out onto the stage in some leather outfits, take their bras off, shake around for a bit before strutting off again. They would occasionally kiss each other at some point, much to the delight of the audience. But to me, it came off as a 'tacked on' ratings winner.
The girls were all fairly cute, even the girl with the huge painful looking implants. I was hoping that she wouldn't jump around too much.
So was my $47 ticket wasted? Well, I would say yes. Considering that I could have gone to the stripclub up the road and seen totally naked girls do exactly the same thing for free. And I wouldn't have called it burlesque either. Apart from one girl that had a hula hoop, there was no performance angle to the show what so ever.
Where was the fire breathing? Or the spectacular acrobatics and light show extravaganza? Where was the love?
There was one Australian girl on the tour, and it was nice to hear her familiar accent. Only for her to tell us that there are like a thousand Suicide Girls TM in their global chain, and she was lucky enough to have been selected from the Australian chapter. "
Good for her, I guess.
The only time any of the girls did actually speak was to mouth colourful expletives.
So the girls came out for their big finale.
I'm just glad I wasn't up in the front row. I'd still be trying to get the silly string out of my jacket.
Needless to say after being packed into that smoky room for four hours, it was nice to pick up my preconceptions from the burly man at the door.
posted by Adrian at 5:00 pm
3 Comments:
Although, I haven't seen the show, my experience with these kind of 'erotic' ventures is that the 'indie porn' industry really doesn't know how to follow through with concepts, and also many of the participants are only doing it for half the reasons the concept exists anyway.
Take Anais Nin for example, her polygamous lifestyle, sampling of sexual delights, and her exchanges with other writers whose thought process swayed along the same path, including her own very well established but of growing views - was what made her personal discoveries and fictional treaties so exquisite. This sets her apart from people perhaps doing the same thing but without the perceptive desire and broad steps.
It would be as if Tom Cruise attempted to carry on what Stanely Kubrick was doing with "Eye's Wide Shut" - lets face it, he just wouldn't bring to fruition what ideas were originally planted.
So, a cash cow to some, a movement for others. At least you can say you were 'there'.
rups
Yes, a good point Rupert.
Being an interested onlooker in the theatre of "alternative culture", and in particular, "nude alternative" culture I am not really surprised that the SG show did not hit the mark with any sort of conceptual clarity.
Certainly the amount of promotion and hype (not to mention the $40 ticket price) should have set bells ringing. But I was hopeful.
The beauty of Anais Nin and her work is that it truly is a sexual self-discovery in a time of religious and gender- based oppression and antiquated male- female relationships dominated society. Passion and pleasure was almost seen as evil, and to embrace it took great courage (and perhaps a little madness).
Her exquisite journey could never be repeated simply for the fact that society nowadays is more sexually open if not more aware and popular and alternative cultures these days are so similar it is extremely hard to break new ground either artistically or
That is why I have such respect for those with the imagination and dedication that can still offer something new (your fine self) and retain a sense of wonderment above the hum-drum.
There is more great talent out there. You just have to look a little harder now.
Oh, and allow me to go New Weekly for a second...
I wonder just how much of an effect the movie Eyes Wide Shut had on the marital breakdown of Tom and Nicole. The themes of jealousy and fidelity were quite strongly examined. I'm sure Stanley Kubrick would have made them both think...
And it must have been a very difficult movie to make as a married couple, what with all the nudity and simulated sex with non-spouses.
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