 Picture this: a stripper dressed as a priest spanking a naked altar boy. No, it's not the latest Dark Alley Media porn, it's Tigger!, the taboo-defying dynamo that's been crying glitter as New York's premiere boylesque dancer since 1997. Working throughout the '90s with downtown luminary Penny Arcade on her infamous Bitch! Dyke! Fag Hag! Whore! show, Tigger! toured the world and received a globe-spanning education in the art of the tease. Back in Gotham, he put his new skills to work, go-going at the Pyramid, fucking in live sex shows, and performing with the delightfully demented Scotty the Blue Bunny. "When I started in boylesque," he explains, "I wasn't thinking of the history of burlesque, I was thinking of the strippers I'd worked with [like] the fucked-up drag queens at Pyramid. I was [only] thinking of [making] a rock 'n' roll number that could go on after fire eating! It wasn't until a few months later somebody called it burlesque and I thought,'Yeah, I guess so.'"
Categories aside, New York responded. In a career that has won him three Golden Pastie awards and recently had him hosting Coney Island's first-ever all-male burlesque review, a humble Tigger! cites performing for the likes of Joan Jett, Debbie Harry, Marianne Faithful and Björk as personal highlights. His secret? Nubile newbies, take note: "Art should entertain. If you aren't entertaining you need to work on it. If you have politics to shove down their throats, make them laugh-then their throats are wide open!"
Tigger! performs as part of Weimar New York at the Spiegeltent (Fulton St @ East River) on Tuesday, Sept 18 at 10pm. For an extended interview, video clip, and more info visit scenedowntown.com
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