Obsessed Boylesque, Perfecting The Art Of The Tease
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Obsessed Boylesque is back! The Boylesque show (think the titillating art of Burlesque but with boys) makes a triumphant return to the Sydney stage for Sydney WorldPride Amplified at the Paddo RSL and Rhys Lightning, head boy and Mr Boylesque Australia 2018, had a chat with Star Observer on a car trip which included his five-year-old twins in the backseat, thankfully pointed out early on, making interviewing a “stripper” a skosh more G-rated than one would have expected!
Burlesque Is The Art Of The Tease
“Stripper” might seem like a loaded title, but Lightning embraces it wholeheartedly, enthusing, “In its essence, Burlesque is the art of the tease. It’s dirty strippers gettin’ their kit off (laughing delightedly) to some raunchy music, that’s definitely its fundamental, core origins, and everything else is just the icing on top.”
“Some people don’t love the phrase ‘Boylesque’ because it kind of engenders the art form, which is Burlesque. So what we are doing is Burlesque – for the name sake, you know exactly what you’re getting because it’s written on the tin. So in regards to our show, although we are open to various types of gender expression, it is kind of rooted in the more masculine presenting style of Burlesque, but all of those rules are meant to be broken, and it’s all up for interpretation!”
Embraces Inclusivity And Actively Seeks Diversity
It used to be that the people up on stage offering these types of saucy entertainments only looked a certain way. Still, Obsessed Boylesque embraces inclusivity and actively seeks diversity for the line-up, though anecdotally, creatives seem to find it hard to fill the spots in their shows.
Lightning agrees, pointing out, “I think we’re at a point now where people have an expectation of seeing diversity on their stages and really the whole point of why I started Obsessed Boylesque was to engage and inspire more guys to get into this world because as much as I endeavour for variety and inclusivity, sometimes it’s difficult!
It’s hard to get enough people to fill a line-up within a show, not to tick the boxes but to make sure that everyone is getting a fair shot too, so I really hope that people who do come to our show are inspired and maybe want to try Burlesque themselves and maybe can see another performance opportunity for them to explore!”
February 17 and 18 @ 8pm
PADDO RSL 220/232 Oxford St, Paddington
