Corsets and Cuties ICONIC at Fringe

Posted on by Thor

After sketching Bullock and the Bandits at the Abbey, Pam wanted to extent the evening by going to the Stardust Lounge (431 E Central Blvd, Orlando, FL) to see the Corsets and Cuties show ICONIC. Stardust is a very small basement space. The main room is perhaps 10 feet wide by 20 feet deep. The venue was jam packed for this performance with standing room only.

Pam her niece and I were perhaps the only people wearing masks that evening. Rather then press into the crowd, I sat off to the side in the aisle that leads back to the dressing room for the performers. At one point the stage threatened to collapse and I was front and center to watch as several stage hands or bar tenders tried to re-assemble a microphone stand using their iPhone flashlight to see what they were doing.

Who’s your favorite iconic star? Troupe co-founder Lady Jaimz warmed up the crowd and also took part in many of the performances.  The one performance that had me laughing out loud was Barbi Rhinestone who dressed as Dolly Parton using two huge pink balloons as her boobs. She had to enter the staging area with her back to the audience for the big unveiling. I could only see a fraction of the performance but when the balloons started popping the audience roared.

I got to sketch the 27 May 2022 performance and it looks like the final performance was 28 May 2022 at 07:00 pm – 08:00 pm.

Save Me, Dolly Parton at Fringe

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Beth Marshall’s Husband presented Save Me Dolly Parton written by Megan Gogerty. This was a one woman show featuring a witty stories of politics, pop Culture parenting and how Dolly Parton saved the day. Theresa Smith-Levin as Megan described her trip to a record store and picking up her first Dolly Parton album. She and her beau thought it would be a joke, but the music resonated with her. She didn’t want to over state, but simply put Dolly Parton is the greatest woman alive in her mind.

Megan and her husband decided to have a child and of course this loaded multiple new challenges and responsibilities into their lives. She read all the parenting books she could find, book marked the pages and figured she had this parenting thing down, at least in theory. Probably her most funny story came when she described a plane flight she needed to take. Her husband was busy so she had to take the trip alone with her baby in tow. At first the flight was pleasant with passengers glancing at her child lovingly. Then as the flight wore on her child grew tired and cranky. The next part of her story was shouted over the recorded sounds of a baby crying. She screamed that that noise has been ingrained into mother for centuries and that moms would do anything to stop that sound. Passengers were no longer glancing over with affection everyone looked annoyed.

The screaming dilemma didn’t stop on the plane. After landing she had to lug all her bags through the airport to the luggage claim. There she willed the bags to appear on the conveyor. The baby carriage arrive first thing and she lunged to get it off the line. Then she saw her bag. It had been wrapped by an airline employee in industrial grade plastic, like Seran wrap but bulletproof and terrorist proof. To quiet the baby she needed to get inside the bag. She couldn’t lean over of the baby which sounded life a fire alarm right now would fall out. She had to squat down, back straight and try and rip the plastic open with her bare teeth. She decided to place the baby in the carriage so she could complete the task and in an instant he fell asleep. In her relief she started to cry. This was something she hadn’t prepared herself for. And this wasn’t the only time this might occur. she imagined it playing out again and again each time she traveled. Hadn’t feminism solved this? She wanted more feminism.

This was a highly polished one woman show that seemed to flow without a hitch. Theresa Smith-Levin is a powerhouse of a performer. I have seen her working behind the scenes on many shows I have sketched over the years and this was the first time I got to see her raw force on the stage. If you are a young parent you needed to see this show. If you aren’t a parent like myself, you still would have laughed out loud and enjoyed the ride.

The Sunburst Convention For Professional Celebrity Impersonators featured a Love Boat themed party.

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The Sunburst Convention For Professional Celebrity Impersonators is being held in the Florida Hotel in the Florida Mall, 1500 Sand Lake Rd, Orlando, FL.  The Convention’s website explained, “The Sunburst Convention is a great and
friendly environment helping promote the careers of Professional
Celebrity Impersonators and Look  A Likes. This is a rather unique
profession and we take it seriously.
You
can NOW see what it’s about on NETFLIX!  Look for the movie/documentary
“Just About Famous” and you will see what we are about!

I went to a Love Boat themed party on the second night of the convention. Greg showed up dressed up as Captain Stubing and all the attendees were encouraged to come in costume. Ginny Soskey a Hubspot section editor came to the convention from Boston. Before we were let in to the Hospitality suite she explained that there are 3 tiers in the celebrity look alike field. The first tier are the look alikes, they don’t necessarily need costumes to resemble a celebrity. then there are the Celebrity impersonators. They research their celebrity’s every mannerism and they often create their own costumes. The final tier are the tribute artists, they have the look, the costumes and they develop a complete act that they perform on stage.

One whole meeting room in the hotel had rows of tables with celebrity impersonators cards and promotional materials. Agents show up to the convention to scout for talent and Ilene Lieber who does PR for the convention told me that there were more agents than ever this year. Colonal Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame arrived and shook my hand. I thought his presence was appropriate since KFC is running ads now that have a Saturday Night Live comedian doubling as the Colonal. The actor didn’t look like the Colonal so I suddenly lost faith in the brand. It was like they stole my belief in Santa Claus. Another look alike showed up is a stunning outfit with jewels and a fur lined hood. Her lips sparkled orange. I thought she was Lady Gaga but it turned out she was Cher. Captain Jack Sparrow staggered about with some thick brown swill in a bottle. It wasn’t beer, perhaps it was a thick fermented cider.

The party was a blast. A tropical billboard was against one wall with a rail so celebrities could take a photo in an exotic island setting. As the room filled, people took selfies together.   The Blues Brothers hung out at the corner table. Dolly Parton later sat at the table to check her phone. The whole fun in attending the convention was trying to guess who was being impersonated. Yet this is a skill set I haven’t developed. The last thing I wanted to do was walk up to someone and say “So, who are you supposed to be?” I kept my guesses private

Apparently Charo had appeared quite a few times on the Love Boat, so there was a rather hilarious hoochie coochie contest. On stage, The Ladies of Soul performed along with the L.O.S. Band from Vero Beach. They definitely got the attendees out on the dance floor. This was a rare instance where I didn’t sketch the stage. Instead, I had to focus on the celebrity audience.