Last Friday I had the pleasure, nay, the privilege, to see the Blackheart Burlesque at the Electric Ballroom in Camden. Having never seen a burlesque show or anything like the sort before, it was a big deal for me. On Friday afternoon I got slightly cold feet, and managed to persuade two of my friends to come along with me. This was the first time I had ever actually told anyone that I was a member of SuicideGirls (or "that porn site" to my friend George: I was quick to point out the difference between SG and Bangbros). At the time I felt a bit embarrassed telling them, but I needn't have been. When @katherine got up on stage and asked who in the crowd was an SG member an enthusiastic cheer went up, and I was stoked to be part of it.
The show itself was absolutely brilliant. Although our view kept getting blocked by people whose retinas were apparently hardwired into their phone cameras, we managed to catch most of the show unhindered. It was a gloriously sexy, funny, and geeky night. The entire time I had a massive grin on my face and kept cracking nerdy jokes with George, and as it turns out he does know the second verse to the Pokémon theme song. Also I'm pretty sure by the end of the night we had all fallen in love with @peneloppe .
The after-party was possibly even better. It made a change to hear something other than seven different remixes of Avicii in a club setting, and the circus acts were wickedly impressive (although I'm still not one hundred percent sure on the twerking on broken glass act: I don't think the fact that the glass was broken was made clear enough). Although George left quite early I managed to charm my friend Alicia into staying out longer, and we had a refreshingly long, frank, and honestly unexpected chat about sex and kinks (I mean, what else do you talk about at a burlesque show?). Alicia left with one hour to go, so this lone ranger was left to his own devices. I was lucky enough to end up hanging out with the owner and designer of Malice Lingerie and her friends until almost 4am. Just goes to show, deliberately self-aware drunk dad dancing can really take you places (those places are mostly on the floor).
I think the point of this blog post is that going to a burlesque show with friends was an experience that I really needed; I was forced to open up and show them things that I'm into that I was previously too embarrassed to talk about. I know that I'm different to a lot of my friends and I'm into a lot of things that just don't normally come into polite conversation. I'm very conscious of being judged for liking things that my friends might think are weird, or would lower their opinion of me. Even though I'm a self-confessed maverick, I also happen to like people liking me. I know, someone call the sheriff! But what's the point if I'm letting people only like half of me? So what I'm trying to say is that I think last Friday helped me stop feeling as repressed as I have been feeling for a while, and helped me to embrace interests and kinks that are undeniably my own. Hopefully this is a good step in the identity crisis that has been my early twenties. Let's get our freak on!
Shoutouts go to @brunhild for her awesome blog post, and @heidimae for her gorgeous new set A View To A Thrill.
An extra shoutout goes to @pandapops for her BTS video for the They Don't Love You Like I Love You shoot. It is probably the sexiest thing I've seen all year, and I recommend shelling out your schmeckles for it.
As always, godspeed,
Bragi
