E98 Sassy Ray

This week's guest is the one and only Sassy Ray of Sassy Ray Burlesque. Sassy has been bringing Burlesque revival to the masses for over 15 years now. We talked with Sassy about the importance of a live capacity crowd during a show. We discussed exactly what a Burlesque show is and how it differs from a drag show or strip show.

And we cover how Sassy got her started Burlesque and how this in turn led her to teaching Burlesque as well. Also, Sassy has bringing her tough shelf Burlesque show to Sugar Run and Downtown Kitchener this coming Saturday, February 19th. Doors open at 7 p.m. So get there early as this show always sells out.

You can find Sassy Online at sassyray.com on Instagram at Sassy Ray Burlesque and as always check the show notes for all the links. And we're back with another episode of the industry podcast. I'm Kip, this is Dan. What's going on with you buddy?

Not much, just enjoying another snowfall here in lovely January. Yeah, so this is the expected. We're recording this on January 24th. We'll mention that.

We're usually a few episodes ahead. So yeah, another big snowfall. My step-kit got a job doing snow removal. Good times.

Yeah, we don't see too much of him anymore over the last few weeks. Nice. So what's the name with you? How's it going?

Lockdown's almost over, man. It's almost over. But the time you're listening to this, we'll be back open for a couple of weeks now. That's right.

So yeah, half capacity, but it's better than nothing. At least they didn't fuck us with the hours this time. We're allowed to go into regular hours. Don't worry.

They will. Yeah, so that's exciting. Happy to be back at work when that happens. Yeah, enough of this fucking lockdown.

It's a nice break. We're dead in January anyway. Yeah, so we should mention that there. And again, just so I don't fail to mention my own fucking bars while we're doing this podcast.

I should be advertising. That's Sugar Run in Downtown Kitchener and Babylon Sisters in uptown Waterloo. Yes, and how do people find those on social media? At Babylon Sisters Bar at Sugar Run Bar.

So check them out. That's how you can figure out what's going on. And I guess today is linked to that Sugar Run Bar and you'll be hearing about that soon as she is going to be performing there on this coming Saturday as you're listening to this February 19th, which is actually your birthday. Yeah, turn to 29.

That's great. Congratulations. That's good. 29.

So here's the row. Happy birthday in advance. And maybe you should come out to see the Climal Indistines at the Sugar Run Bar. Okay, so before we get to, I guess, Sassy Ray of the amazing Sassy Ray, Berlesque and Top Shelf Berlesque will be joining us in just a little bit.

They will be performing again at Sugar Run this coming Saturday, the 19th of February. So you want to check that out? It's $20 at the door. Okay, so before we get to Sassy, we should mention that if you like what we're doing here on the show, the easiest way to support us is simply to subscribe, rate and review the show, wherever you're listening to your podcast.

That's Apple Spotify. We're also available. I heard radio. That's a new one.

I edited us to that. That's good. Yep. I don't know how that works.

Amazon Music. Yeah. Okay. Great.

So any of those, the subscribe button is usually pretty easy to find. So pound it. Yeah. And if you want to leave a review, great.

Also, if you'd like to be a guest on the show, if you are in a service industry related job, then you should email us that info at theindustrypodcast.club. Or you can DM us at the industry podcast on Instagram. And that's, and we'll get you booked. Also, check out our archives.

Lots of great shows that have happened recently. We're creeping up on our 100th episode, which is hard to believe. Yeah. But we're going to do it.

So that's coming once. A couple of weeks. Stay tuned for that. We got some special plan for that.

And finally, Zacana as always, at Zacana.co for all your graphic arts needs. He does all the amazing work for us on our Instagram page. Yeah. He links to that in the show notes as always.

Okay. So enough about us. Let's talk about our guest. I'm a very curious, as you ray of Top Shuffle for the last hour, you sassy.

Oh, we can't hear you. I think you might be muted. Oh, there you go. Now we got you.

You got it. Yeah, we got it. Okay. You know, I'm a millennial, but I'm also an idiot.

In my experience, most of you are. No, I like to make, I can hear you check out the game. You're about in the Internet, like Zoom. Plug it in.

Does it turn on? Can you hear me? Well, here I'm in. Thank you so much.

Don't worry about it. I have a fucking zoom meeting coming up this next weekend. I cannot figure out how to send anybody left. We have to talk to you about that later.

I can't figure it out. So I have money all older than money all. We're all dumb. We're all a bunch of idiots.

I like it like that. Well, thanks for doing the show. It's good to see you. I feel like I haven't seen you in forever because of the lockdown, but we will see you this coming Saturday night doing your thing.

Yes. Doing our thing. It's been a crazy time. It's been an interesting two year.

Yeah. Yeah. Talk a little bit about that, about like how the pandemic's affected you, because I know you were obviously doing a monthly show at Sugar Run and two other shows as well. So for you who's like in the more in the performance side of the industry, how did you find that all these like lock down, it's affected you like open, close, open, close?

It's hard. It must be hard to build a momentum for your shows. Yeah. It's impossible.

You can't. Not only is it in some ways, like depending on what's happening in the world, it feels a little irresponsible. But then at the same time, you know, we're kind of in this, this cash, almost a cash weighty too, but that's a link in it. For circling back.

Right. So like, but you have a government who's telling you, you know, it's okay to put on performances. If you follow ABC and XYZ, but then you're dealing with backlash of people who think you shouldn't be doing that. For me, I exist in Berlin, which is a fringe art at best.

No, we're not, we're not like touring rock bands or things like that, where it's very niche. You kind of have to find your groove and also a lot of the people who work in that industry, like that was their full time thing. And to go from, you know, being in the gig industry and having the drag queens and for less answers and DJs and all of these people who there's nothing, there's no support. And like you said, it isn't like we all worked in an office and we got sent home for two years, and now we have to come back to our desks and everything's there when you lose momentum.

Yeah. You know, so it's been, it's been a trying time. But, you know, you just have to, you have to do it, or you can do it and we can do it. So we're going to do it.

So we're going to do it. Yeah. Well, I, I, we saw that firsthand because as I mentioned earlier, you were doing a monthly show and it got in so huge for us that like we were turning people away at the door and like, but it was a build, right? Like before, like it took us a few months to get to the point where we weren't seeing like just what we got to the point where you guys were selling out every single show, then all of a sudden boom, they got cut in half capacity or like whatever.

And like, you know, then the last one that you did was right before this most recent lockdown and just like people were scared, unless nobody came out. Yeah, they were terrified. Yeah. So how is it like?

This is something interesting. And I thought about that night actually was that like for a band, like you're a, a band that plays bars and you haven't made a big yet, like you're used to playing in front of sort of empty crowds and you just kind of have to do your thing and get through it. How is that with Burlesse because it's such a, your performance is so audience oriented. So how, like how do you get through one where it's just like fuck like 10 people, shoot it up?

Yeah. So it's funny. Before I found Burlesse, I was a musician. I still am a musician.

I'm saying and I play lots of instruments, but back in the old and old and old and days, early 2000s, that was what I was doing. I was doing a lot of times, a long, long ago. That was my, my thing. And to be honest with you, you know, and I was like, you said, but that's not really a crowd color.

And what really attracted me to Burlesque is the spectacle. And when I would do those gigs as a, you know, late teen, early twenties, that's really why I stopped doing it because nobody gave a shit about me. I'm like in the background singing Julie. Nobody gives a shit.

Like the next song of the song I wrote about an expert like, no one's like here. I love it. I fell out of love with it very quickly. For exactly that reason, with Burlesque, you know, if you can, and like you said, we got the momentum that shook around where people were like, oh, this is cool.

I maybe had an idea that this is going to be like share in Christina Aguilera style, you know, chorus line, but it's very different. It's a very interesting and entertaining style of performance, if I do say so. So when you have a show where you have, you know, booked all these people and they're shooting themselves at canons and people are sitting on cakes and, you know, we're singing songs and there's 10 people there. It's us.

It's really good with us. But, you know, in the four times, you know, when that would happen, you could chalk it up to you. Like, well, I didn't do a very good job promoting. Or maybe there's another event going on in town and people, or like maybe we're not very good and people don't want to see it.

That kind of thing. So it's a similar feeling. Like the last show that we did before the apocalypse was March 5th in 2020. And it was probably one of the best shows I've ever done.

We were so full in sugar and that people were sitting on the stairs. Like there was people were just slammed packed in there and it was amazing. It was so great. And then I think like 12 days later.

I hope you enjoyed your lives because they're over there. I know. But when the crowd is thinner because of those reasons, it does take a sting out a little bit because the people who are there are there to fucking party. Like, they're there to drink.

They're there to see bots and boobs and to do some LOLs. And they're going to tip you out. They're very loud and appreciative. So it's definitely so sucks.

But the people who make up the smaller crowds now, they have nothing else to do. I think it's cool. So when they get out there, it might as well be 50 people. But it's not.

Well, and I think that like coming back from the end of all this nonsense and hopefully we're getting there, people are going to be more starved to see live performances again. I definitely noticed since the apocalypse live performances are what people are really craving more than anything rather than just before. I could just open the doors and people with con because the bar was cool. And now it's like I kind of have to have a reason to bring people there.

And Berlin is always been our best night. Let's talk a little bit about for people who don't know if that's possible. Like what's the difference between say a Berlin show and a drag show or a strip-ass show or what like describe what you do? Sure.

So I like to describe like Iraq dancing and Burlesque and drag as like cousins. They're all related. They're all a little bit different. The major difference between going to a strip club and going to a burlesque show and number one is a level of nudity.

Burlesque dancers keep a G string and pasties on kind of as a rule. Whereas when you go to a place like Roxanne's or a strip club, it's erotic. The purpose of that is for a very particular vibe, which I love. That's a fantastic thing.

Just a totally different beast. Burlesque, which is very similar to to drag and 10 in compass drag as well, is a little more theatrical. But I kind of describe it to people who have never seen it before. It's like it is stripping.

There is nudity, not as much as you've seen a strip club, but it's much more in my opinion. In light-hearted, oftentimes it's very funny. Comedy and music. And it's really, if you think of the old tiny variety shows where they have the US socials and Marilyn would come out and do a dance and a girl would come out and wave her fans around and have a comedian come out.

It's kind of harks back to that era. So I find people who go into it thinking like I said before, it's going to be Christina Aguilera, costume, can dancers. They see a girl like Ruby Moon, who does a lot of the shows at Sugar and She'll do a number where she's a ballerina. And it's so beautiful and gorgeous.

And then the next number she comes out and she's Obi Wan, Kenobi. It's just a little entertaining and a couple more friends I think. It's almost like Vod Villian in a way where it's like, yeah, because it is more than just people taking off their clothes. It's a show like you're singing and like you're obviously an amazing voice.

And you have written these sort of comedic songs that go with your act as well that are hilarious. And then you have you do you have like people coming out in like specific costumes that are hilarious and yeah, it's definitely more of a show than just like I think what people are worried that Bursa is going to be. Yeah, I think that you know there there has been like there always is you know people who get into Bursa like Bursa and they really want to separate it from club dancing or club erotic dancing as you know it's classier. And that's we don't need to like shit on strippers because I think that's illegal now.

I don't think you're allowed to do another person. No, that's not that's for the VNQ. But if I having this divide between you know, oh well for less kids, you know, it's it's somehow morally superior. I mean, it's just it's not the same thing.

It's different. It's just completely different. Yeah. And I think people are usually hopefully if they're going to my shows on the means.

They're surprised at how funny and how much of a show it is beyond just watching people's shopping. Right. No, the show is hilarious. And it's like I think like with you hosting it, it's like it moves so well because there is there's singing.

There's like comedy and then there's the active like, you know, dancing thing to close up as well. So it moves and flows very well much like like what you mentioned like the US social. So I'm glad that you brought that up as a comparison. How did you start doing this?

So I was always a theater kid my whole life. I was always thinking and shocking. And everyone was like, what? Someone asked me today, like what are you going to talk about in your podcast?

But you know, that was always a big part of my life growing up was performing and then unless you're in college to, you know, do creative movement or some shit. You kind of age out of that. Like once you're not involved in stuff at school and you're not doing stuff in dance class anymore, you kind of, you know, you go to the club and we can maybe dance there. And so I had a period in my life where that was kind of had gone away for me.

So I used to spend a lot of time at a now or a piece of disease club called club Renaissance. Charles Street in downtown Kitchener. The only gay bar in a wide wide radius from here for many, many, many years. I'm a queer person myself.

So I spent a lot of my time there. And a lot of my friends were drag queens and aren't drag queens. And when I was a child as well, I was obsessed with the desert. You know, I always kind of didn't expose to this world.

And I would dance, backup dance or go go dance for the queens and their pagens and things like that. And I was doing that one night at a pageant in this club, ran in 2006. And I was like, oh, fuck, I'm just, you know, in my own and doing a thing. And this girl came up to me and she like, have you ever considered doing burlesque?

And I was like, and this was before you as well. So I had no idea. And so there were some people locally who wanted to kind of try and put this group together. I had never heard of it.

And I looked it up and I thought, like, oh, fuck, like, I'm in trouble. It's all the things I love. It's acting, it's dancing, it's being sexy, it's stripping, it's makeup. It's hair.

It's developing a character. And through the years that I've done it, I've almost like tunnel too deep into the character. People write me checks. Let's say sassy Rayleigh.

She's a real girl, which is what she sees. She doesn't have a checking account. That's very nice. I'm going to try that.

That sounds like a word for me. It's fantastic. So yeah, it just kind of, I kind of slowly started in that way. And then really around, I'd say 2010, which is a really long time ago now, I really started singing my tea.

And I started working in Toronto. I started hosting big events out in Toronto and just kind of took off from there. I started teaching and just snowballed and never stopped. Right.

So I invite you brought that up because I want to talk a little bit about the teaching. What sort of drove you to get into the sort of instructional side of it? And also, like, how does that work? Do people like, do you advertise a school or do you tap people on the shoulder when they go go dancing?

Or how does it work? So it originated really from every time I would do a show, people, mostly women would come up to me afterwards and say, like, oh, I would love to do this. Like, do you know where I can learn how to do this? And at first I'd be like, oh, like, oh, I don't know.

I've just always done this. And I just kind of found a new place to do it. So I'm not really sure if I can help you. But it started there.

And I thought, like, you know, I have a dance background. I'm a very bossy person. Like, I'm sure I could probably teach me what I'd do it. And in 2009, I taught it.

So I don't even do it for maybe like a year and a half. And I was like, can I teach you? Sure. Yeah.

Yeah. But, you know, going back to stupid COVID-19, I haven't taught since March of 2020. It's crazy for me. That's pretty much the longest break I've had maybe since I started teaching.

But I've done it a few ways. Like, for a while, it was just me. I was just renting space. Anyplace I had a mirror, I'd rent it.

And I would teach people in the class of choreography. And then we would perform it in a little student show kind of thing. And then it grew from there. And so right before everything exploded, I was teaching quite a bit at a place called Brass Butterflies in Waterloo.

So I get people that shows, I get people kind of through my social media. And then, and then you always have the odd dude who tries to front it. Like, well, I'm really interested in that. I just thought, it sounds really cool.

It turns out my information. And then I do give them all information. And they're like, so would this be a place where like, if I wore like my stockings and heels? What are you accepting?

Like, yeah, for sure. Then you would slowly realize like, oh, this is a foot fetish thing. Okay. Okay.

So I'm going to give you a point where I'm like, listen, you little worm. Like, no, you gotta pay for that. You can't trick me into dominating you. Oh, trust me.

I like to try and budgetize. Yeah. And it's really cute outfit. If only someone could see me and tell me if it looks good.

Like, you know what I'd try to. Okay. We all try to. Okay.

Well, fans, there's lots of categories just for you. But it takes courage. That's right. So if you're coming to an instructional course, like, what is it that you're teaching them about?

Or is it most of choreography or is it like trying to get them to develop a character? How does that work? Yeah. So it's kind of everything.

Exactly what you described. It really depends. Sometimes I can teach it. I should just teach it.

I should just teach it. I should do it. I should do it. I should do it.

I should do it. I should do it. I should do it. I should do it.

I should do it. Okay. I should do it. Okay.

I should do it. Okay. So I have a lot of classes where there's no performance goal. It's strictly just kind of a fitness thing and for fun.

Other classes I run are specifically for people who would like to become burlesque answers. So I had quite a few of my students then go on to be working in dancers, which is very cool. My little children out in the world. My little rayettes.

So, you know, choreography, yes. I kind of teach a little bit about the history of burlesque. I dive right into what we already talked about. This is not a place to like think that you're better than people who work in a strip club.

It's all connected. If we really want to get into it. If this was the 50s, the burlesque was the strip club. They were looking glamorous and beautiful because they were more like superior to stripers in the future.

They were doing that because at the time the laws that were written about women's bodies and what they couldn't cannot show were so insane that you could be put in jail for doing what they would call beaver shots. Oh, really? Yeah. But you know, on and on back it back in those days you'd be up dancing on a stage and they would have a light in the orchestra pit that you could see for the stage that would turn on if they were police there.

You couldn't show certain things. You're so crazy that butt cracks, no butt cracks. You could wear sheer panties, but the panties had to cover your butt and you had to have a row of sequins or diamonds down your crack because apparently, you know, the crack is what makes people feel like that's just going to bring more attention to it. Right.

Look at this limestone crevasse. It's so stupid. You know, we do all that stuff, but I hope really, you know, people, if they want to do her last group, they never want to dance ever again. Really, my aim is just to try to break people out of feeling so shitty about themselves.

A lot of the time women and sometimes different genders too, but the majority of the people that have taught them women. They come in and they're trying to connect to something that makes them feel good about their bodies. And I think that's what a lot of people relate to with or less, why it's kind of important in a modern day because it isn't restricted by body type or age or wear anything. So when you're going and you're seeing a show and you're seeing people who look like you, not just your same hair color, but like they have a back roll like I do.

And their blood is huge. Like mine is and they're the star. They're not the punch line. They're not like the fat friend in the musical who anybody who is in 5 foot 8, 120 pounds gets cast.

You know, they're the fucking star of the show. And to see that narrative switched into see people go like, wait a minute, maybe I'm not a goblin. Maybe I'm not a disgusting toad that nobody, you know, that's what you think about yourself. Somebody else thinks that.

And honestly, no one gives a shit. So it's mostly an exercise in like not being so judgmental of other people, which in turn makes you less judgmental of yourself. And then you enjoy your life more. Yeah, very liberating, right?

Like it's like the idea of like the whole burlesque like performing burlesque as being sort of a liberating experience for someone who maybe thought that their body type is not up to the standards of a live performance or whatever, right? Because forever we've been taught that it's a certain look. Yeah, it's a certain look. It's a certain age.

It's a certain weight. It's a certain race. It's all of these things that you've kind of been force fed these conventionally attractive ideas. And you know, do you see conventionally attractive people in less too?

Yes, you do. But it's more of a comment to we're not excluding people because they don't take these boxes. You'll get excluded if you're not talented. But that's about it.

You know, which is so cool. It's very cool, especially for people like myself who grew up dancing. And I mean, I knew when I was 12, I already had like double details. I'm not going to be a fucking ballerina.

I know that. But you know, to be told really cool, you have a lot of ways when you're growing up in a kid, like you'll never have a future doing anything you love because you're whatever, the box you don't have to fill is just so bullshit. I think mainstream media is veering that way now too, which is cool. But you know, it's another place to feel to feel to feel to feel fancy.

The other box that doesn't always get checked with sort of even in the burlesque field that I've noticed a little bit more so recently, at least in your performances, is male. Like, there are a lot more men doing it than there used to be or there ever were because it was when burlesque were sorry and obviously no more of the history than I do. But it was perceived as more as a female performance. Yeah, I mean, burlesque, you know, going back to its roots and the roots go all the way back to fucking Mesopotamia, probably belly dance, you know, all of these erotic ways that we've developed these dance styles from.

But certainly burlesque has a lot of people kind of see it or categorize it, I guess you could say, where they look at it as strictly, you know, old-timey, fancy, stripper-ly dancing. Which is handy. And you know, that's the kind of burlesque that I personally usually perform. We call that classic burlesque or American style burlesque.

But neo-overlesque, which is the resurgence, you know, we have the burlesque houses and then the rules change and then all of a sudden the strippers didn't have to have their blood cracks with sequins anymore. And they could show their nipples and we had poles and all of the sport and athleticism that's come from pole dancing and things. It's all connected. But you're right, back in those times, men would be involved as hosts and other more nefarious, like, participation in that.

But not, they were not stripping. They certainly were not dancing. So kind of when, you know, in the late 90s or 2000s, when this neo-overlesque kind of resurrection of burlesque, we kind of call it started happening in the States, New York City and stuff, then all genders kind of, you know, picked it up as not just a strip tease, but it's an art form. It's commentary.

It's satire. I did a show in December in Port Dover and one of my performers is a man. His name is Dr. Orpheus.

And he does mostly nerdy numbers, which is nerd-less because his whole beast people do Simpson's theme shows and gurgers of the galaxies when it comes to mind. We have all of these people doing all the same stuff. But he did a number where he was Ned Flanders from the episode where they're skiing and Homer's trying to remember what the instructor said that he can't because he keeps seeing stupid, sexy Flanders going, it feels like I'm wearing. So Dr.

Orpheus has a whole number where he comes out as Ned with a big foam butt. It's so funny. I love casing everybody. Everybody who's good.

I've had men. I've had trans people. I've had non-binary performers because they're talented. And they're interesting and they're entertaining.

At the end of the day, if you're talented and you're interested in doing it, then that's good enough to make the show. No matter what that's all the prerequisites. I'm sorry, I'm concerned. Yeah.

I mean, I also will say is something who does teach and works with beginners a lot. I absolutely think that it's cool and great to have live performance bases for people who are just starting because you'll always be shit if you never get to do it anywhere. You know, you have to have opportunities, but my performances and my productions where I'm charging the public money to come and see it. You know, unless it's billed as like, Hey, this is like a anything goes beginner student recital, you know, pay what you can at the door and you'll see what you see kind of thing.

It's really important to me that anybody who comes to see one of my shows does not leave feeling embarrassed for what they saw. Right. Most of my I brought that up because I think the first time I saw a burlesque show and there are certainly many of these going on still now. It's almost like what I like to call like almost like per less karaoke where it's kind of like anybody they just like, Oh, if you want to try and just get up on stage and do it.

And there's nothing wrong with that obviously, but like let's make the distinction that that's very different than what you're doing when you put on performance, right? It's like amateur versus professional. Yeah. And like I said, like there's a place for amateur stuff.

You know, I don't think you have to be perfect to be on a stage, but like you mentioned, you know, I want to know that walking in the door. Then I can decide if I want to pay $35, which includes a meal to see something that makes me win single like what's happening, you know, and I also don't think that inexperienced needs to lead to secondhand embarrassment. There are ways to, you know, like I mentioned before, like let's present this as open mic style burlesque. This is very specifically something where this is an anything goes everyone's welcome.

It's very supportive. I think that's fantastic. I don't like being tricked into watching a show like that. If that's not what I'm interested in seeing and that happens in, you know, I like to say every other time there's no burlesque police.

Anybody can do a burlesque if they want to. But when I do my shows and I go and I pop to people at the tables and they say like, I saw a burlesque two months ago and like it was nothing like this. They say like, well, thank you for giving in another shot because I blame you. You thought like, well, that was weird.

No, thanks. Right. So the talking a little bit about the, as you were mentioning earlier, sort of the resurgence of burlesque and like neo burlesque or whatever you're calling it. How has it been as far as venues?

Like, are there lots of spaces available for you to perform in or is that a bit of a grind in a hustle to try and find places to perform? It's very difficult. Locally, you know, I started out doing stuff at the, the now again, all these places you got on the run runner, which is in the basement of the wall for Terrace. And, you know, there were a bar that was just kind of there because the hotel was there and they were open if people trickled down and had a beer cool, if not.

And then we would start to do our shows in there and they got a little bit busier and you kind of build some momentum. But kitchen or water living in general, we don't have a lot of places with raised stages or stages at all really unless you want to pay a huge rental fee and then they're not liquor license. So coming from a place like Toronto where I really, you know, put my teeth, I would say in Toronto learning the ropes of how to produce and shit there. There were, you know, tons and tons and tons of places that had raised stages or at least a stage at all.

And also to, you know, I think we were getting a little lose there as time goes on, but 10 or 15 years ago, like still pretty conservative German men in any place to live. Not the people who are super open to the idea of like essentially bringing strippers into your little family diner. So I understand that angle as well. I've definitely worked in some places where I remember once I did a show and it's always happens this way when you're doing it with a band.

So that used to be a big deal a lot. Rockability bands would be playing and they would want to have some girls dancing. Or like a tradition or whatever. So we'd be like, yeah, sure.

It's okay. And like, this was 2009. So we're like, yeah, I'll do it for 50 bucks. We just wanted to do it back then.

So we go to this place in Burlington. I remember it was like a strip mall, well, I like English pub, whatever. I've had some like pretty crazy times in unassuming looking places. We get in there.

It's like a Saturday or Sunday night, rather. And like, people are there eating their Sunday dinner. The beef theme is on the team. I'm sitting around like, are you sure this is cool?

Yeah, I know. It's like, okay, cool. So we're like, you know, just waiting around. There's nowhere to change.

Like, you guys just use like the men's in capsule. Is that cool? No, never used to that. Like, no.

So we're there in our little outfits. These guys have not told anyone. Like, they knew a band was coming. Did not tell them girls with their tips out.

We're going to be in their family diner. We're standing there like, okay, well, if you say it's cool and cool, like, this is also back in the time where we would use CDs, like both CDs. So we have our little shitty CDs and we're like, do you guys have like a sound system or is there like a DJ? And like, oh, we got a DVD player.

Please. Please. You have a camera. Oh my fucking God.

Standing there and the poor guy is like, it's a DVD player. You can't see the tracks. It thinks it's playing a movie. So he's like, fast-forwarding it and playing it playing a second.

No, next song. Next one. No, that's not it. Next one.

Oh, yeah, that's my song. But you don't see it in the fast enough. So he hits skip again. So we just have to keep going.

Seamas. Yeah, not ideal. But the first time that I came to Sugar Run. I just walked in there.

One of my students was like, hey, there's this cool bar that you need like a password to get into. And they don't tell you where it is. Like, I don't like a theater fruitcake. So I'm like, oh, I want to go there.

And like the guy who was working the door last night, it was a poor four months start. Like, you look around and go, is it? And I'm like, can your bars like close since you hear? It was like universal studios immersive experience.

It's fantastic. Walking down into that, you know, not only divide this retro and very cool and it has this aura around it, but you're fucking sunk in middle. And I'm like, oh my God, we need to do relaxing here. You know, we need to see us.

Yeah. And that's when you approach me and it turned out to be like, sure, what the fuck we'll give it a shot. Like, I didn't really know. Like, I was like, whatever.

Well, I was like, I'm usually pretty eager to try anything. And if it works great, if not, then we just move on. But it's become our best night and it's been amazing ever since. The only thing I want to talk to you a little bit before we let you go is what goes into the production of the show.

Because it's like, yours is a very well, pristinely produced show for anyone who hasn't seen it before. And if you haven't seen it before, once again, this Saturday night at Sugar Run, you should come down. But let's talk about the work that goes into that. You obviously have tons of costume changes and your show is never, you come once a month and it's never the same.

So talk to me about the work that goes into that. So it's, I wanted to make not a lot of work, but it is. It's a combination of my career, right? I have so many numbers, so many songs that I perform all the time I have for a long-ass time now that I am at the point where we can do a show every month.

And like, you know, maybe I'll sing the same song every once in a while, but I always think like, no one's going to remember every single song I sang two months ago. And to be fair, like, I think while we do get a lot of repeat people, there's always new people. Right. And people like the hands on the lead.

Yeah. And they love me to sing sassy things like this. Yeah. So, you know, from my end, I don't really want to talk it down.

Like, it's not a ton of work. It's unmanageable for me, but I post it. So I'm doing stand-up from talking on the microphone. I'm singing.

I usually dance at least once. And then in the, in between all that stuff that I'm doing, I like to try and book three people. So I've got six numbers that aren't me and six numbers that aren't me. But, you know, it's a lot of planning, like, especially with COVID and stuff, you know, for a while.

And I was really trying to limit who I was working with to kind of the same group of people. I didn't really feel great about having people drive into my city from two towns away when that was going on. And at the same time as well, you know, sometimes I have a sound person. Sometimes I do not have a sound person.

So I'm, I'm just a resourceful gal, Kip. If there's pop up, you'll all solve it. I'm not going to show because somebody doesn't show up. So I had that happen.

Usually I animate sound person. I mean, someone's pushing pause in play. Like, it's not a huge thing, but it needs to be done. The person who was doing it for me couldn't make it.

So I devised a way where in between all of my songs, I had five minutes of silence, like as an MP3. I just keep talking shit on the microphone. And then as I'm talking, I walk back around and I can hit play again. So for me, you know, I put it together and I roll out how it rolls.

I love to do stand up. I love, like you mentioned, it's very difficult to be funny when there's nobody in the room, when you're like making jokes with yourself or you're also making jokes with your castmates who have word for word heard you say these jokes before. So you're like, hmm, hmm, it's funny. But you know, it's fun.

I do it because I enjoy it a lot. But yeah, there's, you have to be thoughtful as well, you know, like coming to a place like Sugar Run. I know we can really kind of do whatever we want. People who come to that bar, they're up for a good time.

There are certain places that I go where maybe there are certain acts that I wouldn't do or there are certain songs with certain words in them that, you know, I'm not going to sing what I suppose. If I go to like Fort Erie. If you want to sit down dinner who are expecting like Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Rowe, I'm not going to hit them with songs about dicks and bogs and stuff. Well, it's not a lie.

It's not a lie. But you don't know what that's about. You've been doing it long enough now that you have built up enough of a repertoire with your songs and your costumes and whatever that you kind of have the show for whatever venue it's going to be. Yeah, which is a really cool place to be.

Over the Christmas break, I tried very desperately to pare down my closet. I have so much shit. I just can't do it. I can't.

I can't. I can't throw it away because what if I do do do a show in four months and I need to have a camera with it. Exactly. I've thrown away.

Like really everything. When you first started and before you would put together this repertoire of songs and costumes and what have you, were there any moments where you were like, oh fuck I've got the wrong act for the venue I'm playing right now outside of the one you already mentioned but like was there a time where you're just like fuck maybe they don't want what I suppose to get a camera like costume right now. But that's what I got to perform. This is what I got.

Yeah. A few times there have been and they're usually they're usually private events. So there are people who have contacted me and like, oh my husband's turning 60 and blah blah blah blah. Or I've done stuff at like wedding receptions.

Well, I say to them very specifically like I'll send you a YouTube link of what you are booking. And if you want it, I mean, you're going to pay me a check. I'm going to show up and do it. But it's usually those moments where they're they've either like they've overestimated the tolerance of their audience.

Oh, I'm like, oh, I'm having to be into this and I'm like, oh, no, I can remember once years ago, now 2012, maybe I did corporate gig in Toronto and I got paid very well to do this. I went in with two rehearsals. They had a live band. It was incredible.

Like one of the most prestigious productions I've been involved in. They hired us to do this company and we're there. And as I'm singing, I'm singing a song about Dix and I've rehearsed it with this life band and I can just I can see the people like, like they're, oh, they're not they're not into it. And I at that time was doing a lot of stuff where I would I would sing and then I would strip the same number.

And then I would just like, oh my God, I'm going to get like these people are going to like throw their food any year or something. It's funny to mention that though, because Dan and I both we both use the D&D and we both DJed weddings and have we both had the situation where people were like, no, this is what they want to hear. Meaning that that's what the wedding couple wanted to do here. But then you get there and fucking great Uncle Ralph is not as pleased with like the house music.

It's courage. What do you hired me to do? Right. So I think I've happened before to the person who booked me.

They love burlesque and they have this great idea that their friends are like as cool as they are. Yeah, exactly. No, no, no, no, they're friends are not cool. You're friends are actually cool.

And your family are definitely not cool. No, all of them. Also not cool. Like I was hired to walk around and ask people if they want to take their picture with me.

I'm wearing a costume for this purpose. I'm not trying to steal your husband. He's gross. No one's trying to steal them.

Like, oh my God. We're fine here. Thanks. Great.

I'm so excited. You can see my class. You can see my class and sell the scene issues. I can do that.

How's that? How's that? How's that? You do it.

Just start hand-out. Yeah, ABC. Almost closed. Amazing.

Okay. Well, once again, Sassy Ray and the Top Shelfer Less Group will be at Sugar Run this Saturday, February 19th. So you should come and check it out. Sassy, tell us all about your social media shit so people can follow you.

Yeah. You can follow me on Instagram at Sassy Ray Burlesque. And I think I have a Facebook page too for people who still do that. Sassy Ray Burlesque also.

That's all I got. I got a big one TikTok. I think I'd be great on TikTok. Sassy, thanks again for doing this.

I love you, buddy. And we'll see you this weekend. See you soon. Thanks for having me.

Bye.