Swedish Burlesque Gala

Saturday June 3 the first Swedish Burlesque Gala took place at Kägelbanan at Södra Teatern. This is a burlesque event that only focuses on Swedish artists, created and produced by Fräulein Frauke and John-Paul Bichard. Over thirty artists came together to create the show. And what a show it was! I was really proud to be able to share the stage with so many fantastic singers and burlesque dancers, and the audience was completely amazing! I seriously don't know how they managed to scream themselves through all the acts, but they really made us up on stage feel loved. So thank you to the audience!

After the last act all artists came up on stage for a last thank you bow. Then somehow a conga line was created, and we congaed off stage and down to the dance floor, where many of us spent the rest of the evening. I hope this gala will come back next year, and am so grateful to the producers who got this idea - to showcase the burlesque talent we have here in Sweden - and then for putting it all together! And also to all the people who helped make this happen.

Here are a few pics from the evening. As there were so many performers I can't show you photos of everyone. But you can see more of what happened both off and on stage during the gala here (photos by John-Paul Bichard), and here (photos by Peter Bodhi Anand Ullberg).

I did my Moonlight Sonata act.

Kenta was the evening's emcee. I'm secretly in love with this man... Kenta for president! Haha!

Aurora Brännström and Johanna Fossum did a fantastic singing act as Marilyn and Marlene.

Mr Gunner and Sugar Dandy had an old fashioned fight on stage! It ended well though...

Vaudevillians Burlesque Variety did the cancan!

Lord Beaverbottom sang a beautiful song, while stripping down to, well, pretty much nothing...

Fräulein Frauke did her wonderful act The Human Cupcake! I almost ate her before she went onstage, but didn't want to ruin her costume.

And this is what it might look like backstage at a burlesque event - glitter, naked flesh, and a man (Seymour Bottoms) in a beard made of condom packs. Completely outrageous!

As I said above, there were many more acts, and here you can see all of the evening's performers. Before the audience was let in, we took the best "class photo" ever! Although not everyone of all the Swedish burlesque entertainers were able to come to the shoot, this is still a lot of us. Being pretty much of a nerdy outcast during high school, and then getting to where I am today, I have to say this is the class photo I'm most proud of. There are no bullies in this family. Bullies are only week persons with the need to "be" something to be seen. To be one of the cool guys you have to dare to be friendly to other people though, and not be afraid to give others compliments because you think it might diminish what you do yourself. And that's what we do in my burlesque class. We compliment and help each other, and have SO much fun together! I'm really glad I found this world, and dared to be part of it. Lying in the front of the class are the two producers, Fräulein Frauke and John-Paul Bichard. It's not often you get these two together in one pic, so this is a photo I hope will end up in the history books one day! Haha!

All photos by Jouh-Paul Bichard.