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Get You A Girl Who Can Do Both 5: Lightning Talks & Burlesque

Honeytree Evil Eye and Flirt Vonnegut had me at “TEDx-style lightning talks and steamy burlesque.” That was part of the descriptor used to explain their hit burlesque show, as they sought submissions from performers. While the show, having completed its 5th iteration is based in Philadelphia, they opened up submission entries to artists across the country. I applied, REALLY hoping I’d get in and literally lost my shit when I got the email notifying me that my application had been approved.

Lightning Talks and Burlesque - shayaulait.com
“Get You a Girl Who Can Do Both 5” show flyer produced by Honeytree EvilEye and Flirt Vonnegut

In “Get You A Girl Who Can Do Both” audience members get to “enjoy informative TEDx style lectures on a variety of subjects, followed by steamy burlesque performances… by the same people.” This concept was absolutely up my alley. In addition to being a burlesque performer and instructor, I am a keynote speaker, among many other things. I’m a member of the Speaker’s Bureau for RAINN. I speak at conferences,  colleges, legislative summits and even numerous online festivals. I’m also a…

  • Photographer
  • Filmmaker
  • Project Manager in the corporate world
  • Stage Manager in the theater world
  • Writer
  • Blogger/Vlogger
  • Event Producer
  • Business Consultant
  • Advocate – specifically for sexual abuse prevention, 
  • ….and honestly the list goes on. I do a lot of shit.

So you see why I had to apply. According to Honeytree EvilEye, “The point of this show is to learn cool shit, have fun and illuminate that burlesque babes are more than just beautiful and sexy – but it’s also awesome that they’re beautiful and sexy.” Topics for our show included everything from medical nutritional therapy to techniques of scaring used by haunted houses, racial representation in stock photos to finding sexual agency after trauma and IUDs.

Besides according to the Philadelphia Magazine,  October was a great month filled with queer events and spectaculars. One of their top events….was ours!

The Cast, The Producers and The Team

What can make or break an experience for me, as a performer is the production team and cast of a show. While the audience mostly only sees what happens on stage, our experience as performers includes backstage and off-stage. After 13 years of professional stage management and performance experience, there’s a lot I notice in how events and productions are run and how it is to work with professional artist. Every single person on the team and every performer when off stage was top notch, a team player and there to support the entire endeavor. There were no divas, no attitudes and no bullshit. Just an amazing night. Here’s a bit about each.

Hattie Harlowe,“The Mom Jeans of Burlesque” is a burlesque performer, producer, and host from Philadelphia, PA. A fun thing I found while googling around was her duet burlesque number, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” That’s one of my favorite movies, so the concept of this act is so clever for me. Google her. There’s so much online and I love that one of her niches has been on “Moms and Burlesque.” It reminds me of the Maternity Boudoir photography sessions that I do, as I feel its important we show (expectant) mother’s living in their erotic expression too. (That’s how they fucking got pregnant to begin with.) I love that she has made spaces for this in the burlesque world. Follow her online – Youtube | Facebook

Minnie Crisis is a NYC and Philly burlesque performer and makeup artist. Her performance was completely hilarious and fun and subversive. A fun thing I found while googling around was her “Bernie Sander’s Striptease.“ Among the genres of burlesque, one of my favorites is Socio-Political. In essence, that’s one of the original purposes of burlesque anyway. To provide an extreme parody of society. I call this genre of political burlesque, Trumplesque. Follow her online – Instagram | Twitter

Wild Iris is a Philly burlesque performer. I believe I heard from Honeytree that her performance that night was her third solo burlesque performance. She’s fairly new to burlesque and is even currently a part of “Philadelphia Burlesque Battle Royale.  Follow her online –  Facebook

Honeytree EvilEye, a producer of #DoBoth and performer in the show as well “is not a doll. She’s an action figure.” She’s also prolific. She’s a doctor, sex educator, podcaster, writer, burlesque performer, dancer, fitness instructor, and enthusiast of all things fun. I googled her and eventually had to come out of the rabbit’s hole. I found SEXx and I just wanna be a part of all the things she does. Follow her online – Website | Instagram | Facebook 

Flirt Vonnegut was our host for the night. He’s also a Co-Producer of the show and heavily involved in the Philly burlesque team. He’s all the things. He’s funny as a host. He’s compassionate as a producer. And as a person, he’s legit. As he stripped down throughout the course of the show in between the acts, I saw he had garter socks on. HOT! All men should wear them. And he also wore pasties. His reason for it…if women had to do, he felt like he should wear pasties too. I had never seen a man wear pasties before and they actually looking amazing on him. More men should wear them. Follow him online – Instagram | Facebook 

Our production team consisted of our DJ, Brettzo and our Kitten, Kyla Ren as well as our Door, Mack Aroon. Special thanks to iPI Solutions for providing security.

You can watch all of our Tedx style lightening talks by clicking here. My specific talk is here. Its a playlist of them all. You can watch all of our performances, by clicking here.

The Little Details

What to Do Next?

Stay up to date on Burlesqueadelphia. Attend, follow, engage, donate or whatever you can to Philadelphia’s Burlesque Battle Royale. And stand by for DoBoth New York! (snicker, evil grin and booty bump!)