This Weekend in Nerdlesque: Pre-BHoF with Bronson. May 24, 2013
Like many others, I’m busy preparing for next weekend’s BHoF. For those unfamiliar, BHoF is sparkle-shorthand for the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekender. It’s a pilgrimage of sorts. Performers and fans from all over the world descend with doe-eyed wonder on Las Vegas to celebrate the “best of the best” in modern burlesque. While everyone else is frittering away with last minute rhinestone application marathons, I’m fretting over an insane weekend schedule full of research research research. Nerdlesque has made exciting waves and splashes at other burlesque competitions (see past posts). Therefore, I’m travelling with the intent of discovering if nerdlesque will make an appearance on burlesque’s biggest stage. Or, you know, maybe I will only feel the “force” while lounging poolside next to Black Mariah in her Wonder Woman bikini.
Because I’m otherwise mentally occupied with preparations, I will spend this moment to half-assily pontificate on a topic that I’ve probably touched on before. In nerdlesque, how specific is too specific? Answer: nothing.
When Mercury Troy first mentioned creating her Bronson tribute number I wondered how the heck an audience would understand an act about a movie that so very few people saw. It’s an indy British film starring Tom Hardy about a prisoner who spent most of his adult life in solitary confinement. It’s a brilliant film. It’s a daring film. It’s a very theatrical film. But it’s also a cult film. Have you heard of it?
Damn that girl made it work. Mercury admits that most of her audiences may only read her character as “creepy mime.” One cannot rely merely on reference. She did the work any performer must do in creating act. She developed character. She had intention. In this case, she wanted to explore hyper-masculinity as a female performer. A producer who booked the act referenced it as the ‘arty’ one in a line up. Which, I think, is a word that is often felt as a dig in burlesque but I know is actually a supreme compliment. She made art. Art referencing other art that stands on its own two disturbingly sexy legs. 
