Every September the rhinestoned world of Burly-Q dancers invade the Crescent city and showcase the best of the best in glamorous tassel twirling! This year the Houston Burlesque Revue had the honor of sharing the spotlight with these beauties and brought a little H-town dance chops to the House of Blues New Orleans stage. It was four days of butts, boobs and booze... and damn, I can't wait till next year!
Day 1 - Thursday September 19th:
Opening day of the festival! I arrive with my handsome escort and quickly get ready for a delicious lunch!
We immediately head to the French Quarter from our Hilton Riverside host hotel and head for Coop's Place. This little eatery on Decatur is seriously hands down home of some of the best fried chicken on earth!! Not to mention: red beans and rice, rabbit sausage jambalaya, seafood gumbo and the spiciest bloody mary east of the Mississippi!
After lunch there was one stop I had to make before returning to the hotel to get ready for STRUT! The all boylesque showcase at Harrah's Casino! I was stage kittening for the performance and needed to be dolled up as a french maid! But before any of that took place.... I had to go to Pat O'Brien's!
YUM!
Now nice and liquored up it was time to get ready for the show!
I arrive at the casino and head backstage where I run into boylesque royalty! I just so happen to be sharing a dressing room with none other than Russel Bruner! This man is simply amazing and such a professional, he is quite handsome too. His number one gal the Pink Lady is also in the room steaming his famous striped trousers and GoGo McGregor is my partner in crime as a fellow kitten maid. The show features Russel Bruner, Dahktur Sick and the fabulous Stage Door Johnnies!! All of these gentlemen where amazing and a pleasure to meet! I had a blast backstage!!
Andreas Koch with Nolapus Photography caught a shot of me onstage with the cast of STRUT!
Once the show ended we headed to a romantic little spot on Chartres street that we happened upon called Sylvain. Little did we know that we were literally entering history.... but isn't every building in New Orleans filled with history?? ;) The food was amazing, the ambiance was just as good, and the champagne was as delicious as ever!
pan fried pork shoulder with Coosa valley grits, braised greens, mustard jus
After dinner I had to stop by my favorite bar the Jean Lafitte Blacksmith bar and then to My Bar 635 on Bourbon street where a bad ass band was playing.....
Great fun on the first day but alas... Day 1 was DONE!
Day 2- Friday September 20th:
Speaking of Andreas Koch, the next morning I had an in room photo shoot planned with him!!
I woke up and quickly started on hair and makeup so I would be ready for the noon shoot.... hey now... that IS early for NOLA, especially after such a long first day!
Sticking with the french maid theme, we started off easy with a cute little maid look and then turned up the heat with some leopard lingerie and finished off the day with some half naked shots ;)
When the shoot wrapped I was ready for lunch! Imagine that... if you haven't gathered, this showgirl loves to eat! And in New Orleans.... what else is there to do?!?
Napoleon house was not on my list of "must haves" for this trip, but it was a great place to stumble into. I wanted something light and obviously creole, seafood, or Cajun related.... so my discovery of their shrimp remoulade stuffed avocado was perfect!!
The ladies at the Penthouse Club!
Then of course FOOD..... Acme Oyster house here we come!
The partying got all kinds of crazy on this night.... we left the French quarter and headed to Frenchmen street and discovered the Spotted Cat where we danced the night away dancing to New Orleans Jazz... the only pictures I have of all this fun is the aftermath ... these should say enough:
Day 3- Saturday September 21st: SHOW DAY!!
Our morning starts a little fuzzy... after all that fun the night before an 11 am tech rehearsal wasn't necessarily the most inviting of ideas, but alas, it was what we are here for! We jump in the car and head to the House of Blues New Orleans! We had heard that we were "poster" girls for the festival but had no idea how many times we would see our faces on poster, newspapers and flyers for the festival! So to our surprise, we were tickled pink to see this as we pulled up to rehearsal:
Rehearsal was a big success and we knew that the show was going to be fabulous!
So what happened next....... lets see... uh LUNCH!!
We jump on the trolley and head for the Garden District for the original Camellia Grill and
a stroll through a cemetery and antique shops on Magazine Street.
The Queen's Ball started around 7:30 at the Harrah's Casino, and while it is the main event of the festival, we were the opening act of the Queen's Ball after party, so we decided to stay in the hotel and get ready for the show! It was a gross rainy night and we were glad to stay dry, but very sad to miss the queen of the festival be crowned.
We were thrilled to learn that Medianoche from New York was named the winner
of the Queen of Burlesque!
The after party at the House of Blues was our show and we were so thrilled to be the opening act! This show marked the return of original HBR member Motley Mayhem who was standing in for St. Stella due to her pregnancy. We shared the dressing room with our burlesque sisters the Ruby Revue and had sooooo much fun making our New Orleans DEBUT!
Backstage at the House of Blues:
We had such a blast performing at the New Orleans Burlesque Festival and will cherish all the memories we made!
Other performances at the Queen's Ball:
Ginger Valentine
Becky Lou 
The Ruby Revue
Lady Jae backstage with Luna Eclipse from Australia!
Watching the show!
The Queen's Ball Cast!
It was a magical night it New Orleans despite the rain! The party lasted into the wee hours of the morning, including the after party in the Foundation Room and then late night eats at Daisy Dukes... where we ran into Burlesque Royalty Medianoche and producer Rick Delaup! It was very hard to go to sleep with all the visions of glitter covered ladies dancing in my head, but with a few more sips of champagne I was soon out like a light!
Day 4- Sunday September 22nd:
We were not ready to go home after such an exciting weekend so of course we headed back to the French quarter for some last minute palm readings, shopping and delicious food at Stanley's in Jackson Square!
Bananas Foster French toast
Corned beef hash
Eggs Stanley
And since their sister restaurant is called Stella, we couldn't help ourselves!
We had an amazing time in New Orleans for this years festival and can't wait to do it all again!
Until next year's festival ....... pop a pastie!!
Love- Lady Jae
had a lot of fun going through your NOLA adventure blog
ReplyDeletenot as much as you all
thanks for sharing it