Burlesque

A guide to Scotland's cabaret, circus, magic and puppetry festivals and organisations

Groups and festivals working in live art, including Conflux, Club Noir, Manipulate and Surge

Cabaret artiste The neo-burlesque scene has gone mainstream thanks in no small part to the efforts of Club Noir, which runs events all over the country from its base at the O2 Academy in Glasgow. Claiming a place in Guinness World Records for being…

La Clique's Agent Lynch talks cheese, crystals and Caribou Island

The burlesque star loves cheese, both musical and edible

First record you ever bought Michael Jackson, Dangerous. Last extravagant purchase you made 4500 Swarovski crystals. First film you saw that really moved you Romeo + Juliet when I was 13. I cried for two days. Last lie you told That I…

Chilling at T in the Park

Don’t hit the eject button just yet. There is more to T in the Park than the moshpit, and loads of other non-musical activities and events have been organised too. Thursday-night campers can ease themselves into the weekend by taking in a film on the…

Crate Digging: Club Noir on the records required for a burlesque club

Featuring Urban Voodoo Machine, Imelda May and Gogol Bordello

We all know about the burlesque shows that are the centre piece of every Club Noir, but what about the music? We ask their resident, DJ Loveless, to tell us what sets the dancefloor shaking as they prepare for their Fringe special

The people for whom sex is part of their job

The advisor, the sex toy manufacturer, the sex worker and the burlesque dancer

We speak to four people for whom sex, and sexuality, play major roles in their daily lives

Burlesque

Ill-advised directorial debut is dross, despite effort from Christina Aguilera and Cher

(12A) 119min Burlesque is the type of film that made musicals go out of fashion. It plays up the kitsch in order to cover its many deficiencies. At best the film has curiosity value as it features the acting debut of Christina Aguilera, who also…

Burlesque may star Cher and Christine Aguilera, but there's too much glitter

So there’s a new musical out about burlesque. They’ve made the wrong movie writes Paul Dale

Burlesque starring Cher and Christine Aguilera is a film that has missed its moment. The resurgence and revival of burlesque dominoed by club nights in New York, Los Angeles and New Orleans, and later globalised by Dita Von Teese, now seems to belong to…

Meow Meow - Feline Intimate

Cabaret will never be the same

The former star of La Clique, who counts David Bowie among her fans, strips away the mystique of cabaret in this riotous postmodern deconstruction of her art. That’s literally the case when during the first few minutes of the show she’s interrupted by…

Confusion is Sex

Things are always a bit strange at Confusion is Sex, and here they take a turn for the even weirder as CiS host a ‘Hentai Tokyo Party’ for a dose of cortex searing neo-gothic Japanalia as drag acts, Manga erotica, the Kamikaze Girls, burlesque and more…

Club Noir and Scottish Opera collaborate on A Night At The Opera

Burlesque night prepare for unlikely pairing

Henry Northmore talks to the burlesque night as they prepare for one of this festival’s most unlikely collaborations

Cabaret set to take Edinburgh Fringe 2010 by storm

Variety show fever is sweeping the capital for the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe and cabaret is back with a vengeance. Steering its way back into mainstream entertainment culture by popular demand, the all-singing, all-dancing performances on offer this year…

Club Noir: Summer Holiday

‘No-one’s got any money at the moment. Everyone’s unemployed or worried about their jobs. Volcanic ash clouds are spoiling people’s travel plans, and who would dare go to Greece on holiday right now? So we thought, for anyone who can’t get away on…

Confusion Is Sex

Confusion is Sex strives for something different – mixing burlesque, leftfield cabaret, electro, live bands, pole dancers and more to create a unique world within itself. ‘It’s an underground freakshow,’ explains Gamma Ray Dali, the mastermind behind…

High Tease & Vegas!

Another classy team-up from two of Scotland’s most glamorous events, which offers something for boys, girls and all of Glasgow’s most stylish performers. First, High Tease presents a host of burlesque performers, including Des O’Connor, Jonny Woo, Gypsy…

Halloween Guide: T - Z

Our final tricks and treats

T is for Tours It’s the eve of Halloween and you’re feeling a bit like an overgrown trick or treater – excited, but not sure what a sophisticated adult like yourself should be doing to celebrate. Chapping on strangers’ doors and singing for sugar…

Burlescape

What is it about burlesque just now? There’s a new club or class popping up every day, hundreds of dancers queuing up for slots at nights like Club Noir and Rockaburley, and now here comes the Glasgow Cabaret Festival, a week-long festival all over the…

Club Noir

When Club Noir was first born to proud co-promoters Tina Warren and Ian Single five years ago, it stood in a field of one. Burlesque clubs weren’t the fashion then, or at least not outside of London, and the pair succeeded in their aim of presenting a…

Lindsay Lohan happy to strip

Celebrity Gossip

Lindsay Lohan wants to strip in a burlesque show "just for play". The 'I Know Who Killed Me' actress has denied she is being lined up for a stint in racy production 'Peepshow' alongside former Spice Girl Mel B, but would consider a one-off…

The best new nights in town. This month: Confusion Is Sex

Residents Not so much a resident as a ‘creator’; Gamma Ray, former promoter of the Bongo’s Hobo, has brought this new monthly event together. Guests A live show from Berlin-based electro-punks Noblesse Oblige, a headline DJ appearance from Glasgow’s…

Life is a cabaret old chum

Get your boas out, as Glasgow theatre company, Rhymes with Purple Productions, joins The Glasgow Art Club for a series of cabaret shows. The first Art Club Cabaret is on Fri 6 Mar and will run intermittently during the year. The first night features…

Courses, classes and activities

Alternative Therapy Edinburgh Aromatherapy Far superior to a nasty blast of air freshener, learn the subtle art of aromatherapy, with beginner’s classes in essential oils and massage. An 8-week non-vocational course is available through the…

Stripper Spice Mel B

Celebrity Gossip

Mel B is to star in her own Las Vegas burlesque show. The former Spice Girl will play leading lady Peep Diva in the classy 'Peepshow' strip show next year. Mel - who is married to film producer Stephen Belafonte - told People magazine: "This…

Hobo

Not since the days of Taste's prime has Edinburgh managed to gather itself a successful Sunday night scene, and the weekly Scottish Hobo Society, as was, certainly didn't change that. Yet the now-rechristened Hobo is now under new management, and the…

Prudish Dita Von Teese

Celebrity Gossip

Dita Von Teese claims she is a prude. The burlesque dancer - who is famous for a raunchy routine she performs in an oversized martini glass - claims she has "never been an exhibitionist" and prefers to cover up when she isn't performing. She…