As I look down at my nail beds that are stained from fake blood, I recall the last three days and can’t help but smile as the movie replays in my head. This past weekend was the 3rd year I was able to perform with the Fleur de Tease at the Voodoo Music Experience. The 2 years before this were pretty incredible. I didn’t think that the energy from last year really could be topped. We had such a huge crowd, you couldn’t even get in the tent. It was so surreal. But this year by far outdid the last 2 years…
For the last few months we have been working more closely with the New Orleans Bingo Show and they asked us to perform with them at their Friday and Saturday shows. Nothing could have prepared us for what we were about to experience. Walking out on that stage do perform “Celebration” with them….oh….my…god. The lighting in the tent, the audience, the members of Bingo…it was as if we were for a moment all on the very same wavelength. As if our hearts were all beating at the same time. One of my favorite moments from that Friday show was when they started playing “I Give It All to You.” Clint asks the audience if they wanna hear a love song and of course they all started cheering. I crouched on the side of the stage to watch this particular song because it’s one of my favorites. The Turk walks past me to go back on stage but just before he gets out he turns to me, reaches out his finglerless gloved hand and says “Come on, come dance.” I took his lead and we danced on the stage to one of my top 10 favorite songs of all time to a huge audience. We gave them what they wanted for sure. A goofy little dance to one of the most heartfelt songs in their set list. And it was a hit. As he spun me around I see that Ronnie Numbers has dragged Liz stage as well and they are dancing too. And then Robert Starnes made his way to the stage. As the song closes, The Turk and I part ways…gesturing the “call me” hand signal (you know, the one where you stretch your thumb and pinky finger and put it by your ear). He exits stage right. I exit stage left. But just before I leave I see Ronnie Numbers coming at me and I jump on him and he carries me off stage. The audience went insane. There’s a certain high that you get from improvising on stage and nailing it…at that very moment, I couldn’t get any higher.
The next day was Halloween. And the entire show was set to happen with everyone in full zombie makeup in preparation for later that evening where we were convening to break a zombie world record. Everyone’s makeup was dead on (yes, pun intended..hehe). We prepared to do most of our dances in true zombie fashion…jerky motions and weird stares on our faces. I’m not too good at that though and I fumbled a few times because I was more worried about looking like I was have a full body dry heave rather than looking like I was a zombie…but I managed to make it through. During Bingo’s version of “It’s Raining” we typically come on stage in panchos, umbrellas, and spray bottles and spray the audience with water. For Halloween they changed it to “It’s Braining.” We had a fake skull head filled with red velvet cake mix and gummy worms. We walked on stage and sat our skull on the table and went to town. We started eating the bloody worms, feeding each other bloody worms, and at one point I got on the edge of the stage and threw some bloody worms in the audience. There was one little boy perched on the edge of the barricade with his Peter Criss makeup on. He couldn’t have been any older than my oldest son who is 8. I thought it was the coolest thing that his parents had him in the front row to check out this show (burlesque and all). It makes me so happy when parents expose their kids to some of the coolest stuff that goes down in the city. I honed in on him and made sure he got extra bloody worms from me. I got back up, went over by Clint and dangled worms in front of his face. As any true professional, he wasn’t distracted. I saw the corner of his mouth start to curl into a smile but he maintained his composure and made it through the rest of the song. As the song was ending, Natasha Fiore and I threw the last little bits of worm into the audience…
Sunday was our chance to shine as we were set to put on our full review at 2:45. We started off with Thriller. I don’t know anything about sound and how it works but I do know when the sound is off. And there was definitely something missing for that first number. The look of confusion on the audience’s face was classic and there was nothing we could do but just power through and do the dance. Chris Lane was so on and helped the crowd recover and get excited for the rest of the show. After the nerves settled backstage, the rest of the show went flawlessly. Everyone nailed their numbers. I did a new fan dance for this year and it was a big hit. We had the Bingo clowns make an appearance. And we finished with a version of the can-can to “Kick Out the Jams.” Collapsing on stage at the end of the show…hearing the audience go insane…hearing the clicks of cameras going on in the press pit…looking up at all of our friends on either side of the stage supporting us…
This year’s Voodoo will be etched in my memory forever. I have to admit that I am truly in the peak of my life right now. I’m doing what I love for a living. I have 2 amazing and healthy children. I have a handful of true friends. I’m glad that I have this experience to add to all that. I had blogged a few days ago about making this year bigger and better…we definitely did it.
