What inspired her to create an evening of, as she says ‘heart-breakers. ass-shakers, dirty dancers, whisky drinking sweethearts of the night’? “The space was inspiring,” she says. “It’s a huge space, just beautiful. There’s just nothing like it! For a start, the venue’s licensed til 5 am! So we’re going to dance all night.” Sounds good. “I wanted to put on the kind of night I’d want to go out to myself, and hang out with my friends.” In this case, de Jac’s friends are providing the entertainment. “It’s like a homecoming for a few Australian performers,’ she explains. “I’ve chosen these specific performers for their acts. There are some incredible performers in Australia, people who’ve won awards and have been touring. We love coming back to Melbourne. We’re like a pack – that’s why we say ‘join the pack! I’ve worked with all of them. The idea popped into my head on a flight to New Zealand, to perform in the New Zealand burlesque festival. That was only about six weeks ago.”
De Jac reckons the Australian burlesque, circus and side-show artistes are as good as you get anywhere in the world. “I’ve been in the industry for quite some time and we have some incredibly talented performers in Australia. We’ve got an innovative edge, maybe because we’re so used to having to prove ourselves. We’ve followed our own path, we’re not relying on tradition and we don’t need to repeat old patterns. There seems to be a heavy basis in circus art. Everyone I know works very hard but we don’t always realise how good we are – there’s that tall poppy syndrome where we don’t want to talk ourselves up too much.”
What kind of thing can punters expect to see at Howl? “It’s a night with a sideshow kind of vibe,” says De Jac. ”We’re keeping with the theme of very sexy, bluesy style of performance which branches out into sideshow. We don’t want to complicate it too much. And we have this awesome live music by Hunted Crows, a band makes this sound that fills every corner of the room. It’s a kind of heavy blues rock. You wouldn’t think there were only two of them, on drums and guitar. They’re amazing. I discovered them when I went out scouting for bands and they were a support act. “
De Jac’s hoping the night will take off. “We’re starting out quarterly (I’ve already got the lineup for March) but we’ll see how we go; it maybe it will become a monthly event. The quality of performance for our first show is very high. I’ve worked with all of them. We’ve got Frankie Valentine who does a very sexy, very classic performance, there’s Raven, our boylesque performer, who does a blockhead act – he was Mr Boylesque 2012. We’ve got Strawberry Siren who does a jail-break – she won Miss Burlesque 2013. Plus there’s a bit of striptease. We’ve got Captain Ruin, a sideshow performer, and our MC Mojo Juju will break a few hearts. That sort of covers it – I don’t want to give too much away.”
Such is de Jac’s love for her performance art she’s in the process of establishing Australia’s first burlesque museum, in Richmond. She’s unearthed some characters form Australia’s burlesque and sideshow past, although it hasn’t been easy. “Burlesque was a very underground art form; once they got married and had children, grandmothers and great-grandmothers often kept the fact that they’d performed burlesque secret from their families. They pretended it never happened. Australia was quite conservative for a long time. But burlesque performance goes a lot further back than people realise,” she notes. “Lola Montez, although she came from overseas, was here performing in the goldfields. We get information from here and there, from other states. We’ve talked to one guy whose grandmother used to entertain the troops and he’s got some of her old costumes. It’s a bit of a cross-over art form, with circus and striptease. Australia had the ‘hoochy cooch’ dancers in the ’50s and Les Girls in Tasmania.
Who does de Jac like to see perform? “There are so many! I love Imogen Kelly, who does a strange conceptual kind of performance. And L’Amour – I’m a huge fan. There are so many talented performers I enjoy watching!” Will she perform on the night?“Yes!” How does de Jac keep her own act fresh? “By seeing other art forms, other types of performance. Live music, concerts, fashion shows. I do my best to stay inspired.” So obviously burlesque is still as popular as ever. “I think people are looking for something a little bit different,” de Jac continues. “Burlesque is always a crowd-pleaser. People come to a show and then become devotees. They bring their friends and you see the same faces again and again. We’ve been around for a while but we’re not going away!”
BY LIZA DEZFOULI
