How does your performance relate to the burlesque genre?
I call my work Neo Burlesque as it harks back to the original meaning of the word burlesque, being a parody or a comic turn usually performed by women and often including an element of striptease. So I say ‘Neo’ as being relevant to the 21st century and not just adopting a classic retro style, as more of a revival.
What are the major influences on your work?
I did performance art initially, but it was in the gay clubs that I really found my niche and started my own solo shows. I have always been drawn to the heart of queer culture and have an enduring affection for drag queens, whose performance style massively influenced my early work. I borrowed heavily from their ‘drag bags’, applying larger-than-life eyelashes, a healthy dose of glitter and an ample smattering of diamantes. Once suitably adorned I proceeded to lip synch my favourite tunes whilst balancing precariously on a pair of 10-inch stilettos.
You have worked with some of the best drag king, sex-positive and burlesque performers of our time. Now dish the dirt! Sexy Galexy?
Sexy Galexy is amazingly talented; she is a brilliant visual artist so we always had a great set, and she is also really good at developing choreography which I find tedious! I introduced a more a twisted perspective to her quite classic drag acts, and in one performance, for a lesbian S/M event, I pierced her inner labia. Though for the most part the acts were lighthearted and colourful and futuristic … one of my favourites involved a paddling pool full of jelly.
Dita von Teese?
I worked alongside Dita at Erotica, which is huge mainstream sex expo in London. She gets lot of flack for having ridden Manson’s coat tails, which is unfair as her work has always been of an exceptional quality. She has popularised burlesque and opened the door for a lot of women to explore their sexuality through this medium.
What do you think of local girls Sex and Glita and their [bent striptease] Gurlesque shows?
I think they are mutually inclusive and there is something in it for everybody. Sex and Glita’s work is twisted and fun.
Tell us about your character ‘Dolly Diamante’.
Dolly Diamante and her fictitious life include murdering a Nazi officer whilst working as a spy during WW11 à la Salon Kitty, living a brief period of the ’50s American Dream, burning her bra in the ‘60s, working the door at Studio 54 in the ’70s, aspiring to be Margaret Thatcher in the ’80s and trying to save the world in the ’90s, and of course ‘Swinging from the Chandelier’ – which was the time of her life and ultimately the end of her life when eventually she killed herself by hanging (performing a neck spin) from the chandelier. Despite her misdemeanors God spoke and she tap-danced naked to heaven to Louis Armstrong singing ‘Hello Dolly’. I say it is fictitious but it’s also semi-autobiographical, in the sense of fantasy, and is probably not far from the truth!
So what’s next for Empress Stah?
I am bringing my show The Very Best of Empress Stah to the Adelaide Fringe Festival this month, in the event called The Garden of Unearthly Delights. I haven’t done these works in Australia before so it will be a bit of a homecoming. I hope to bring it to a few more Australian cities soon. I am also embarking on some astronaut training in zero gravity, and can’t wait to perform in outer space one day!
How does your performance relate to the burlesque genre?
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