Dust off those tail feathers. One of Richmond’s original burlesque queens, Boo Boo Darlin’, is returning to the River City from her adopted home in New York with some all-star burlesque friends in tow.
They’ll take it to the stage at Gallery5 to perform Wilfredo’s Wild Ride, featuring Wilfredo, Lil’ Miss Lixx, Boo Boo Darlin’, Pinkie Special and a very special local guest madame, Magnolia Jackson Pickett Burnside.
We caught up briefly with Golden Pasty-winner Miss Darlin’ –a.k.a. Kendra Lansing, a beloved former Millie’s Diner waitress — to see what’s shaking lately.
Style Weekly: What’s the skinny with this show?
Boo Boo Darlin’:It’s just us bringing a New York-style show, a little more wild and edgy. Little Miss Lix, the candy-coated cutie, does high comedy and some silly stuff. She and Pinkie Special, who is an amazing hula hoop artist, together they do the Trash Can Twins, a spin on the classic cancan, to “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It’s super fun, maybe a little raunchy.
The awards keep coming for you. I saw on Facebook or somewhere that you were crowned the 2014 Porcapapessa at the Caput Mundi Burlesque festival in Rome. Cool résumé stuffer.
Oh yeah! So that was like the best newcomer award, but the word means both sexy and pig in Italian, apparently. And Papessa is a female pope, so it’s more like a sexy female pope. That reminds me, I need to update my bio because when I was in Vegas for the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekender, I won the highest bowling score for the tourney there. I got the biggest Lebowski award trophy [laughs].
Did you ever imagine that starting out in the Richmond burlesque scene would eventually take you to so many places around the world?
That was the goal. I thought I could live off doing it in New York, but that fizzled out because I like to do too many things – like travel around the world. But yeah, you can go anywhere with it. I’ve toured Hamburg, Berlin, Austria. It would be great if this type of thing that we’re bringing to Richmond could grow into a regular tour.
Wilfredo’s Wild Ride, presented by Richmond Varietease, takes place at Gallery5 on Saturday, July 22, with doors opening at 8 p.m., show at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance or $18 at the door. Show is ages 18 and up. gallery5arts.org.
