- Learn, Monroe County. If you don't learn, then you're gonna die. Hello and welcome back to another episode
- of Learn, Monroe County. Today I am joined by a good friend of mine. This is Clementine Delight, who's
- gonna teach me all about burlesque. But first, I don't know anything about burlesque. Can you tell me
- a little bit about the history of dancing and being sexy?
- can so I don't know too much about the deep so the history burlesque is very long and rich a lot of
- people when you look into it they'll say that it goes all the way back to like the ancient Greeks really
- yeah that I can't verify I'm not a historian I do know that in America the history burlesque goes back
- at least to like the 18 well in England it goes back to like the 1840s okay and America it goes at least
- back to like the
- late 1800s but it became really popular in the turn of the century so like 1910 so like Edwardian era
- to the 1920s with vaudeville. People loved getting naked and dancing back. They did. Now is it true
- that burlesque was invented because porn hadn't been invented yet and people needed to see women dance
- all sexy like on stage is that true? Porn had been invented by that point actually. I thought porn was
- invented in the
- 50s along with fluoride toothpaste. Is that when fluoride toothpaste was invented? I don't know. Every
- fact I say on this show is not true. That's fair. Check your facts, folks. Fact check, Ethan. I am doing
- this for you so you can become more media literate. Now porn was invented in the 50s. Continue, please.
- Sure, sure, sure, sure. So yeah, so burlesque. Burlesque became popular primarily in
- early 20th century so that the 1920s you had a lot of vaudeville performers you had people who were
- traveling around some of which could kind of you almost all like in a circus shows which were kind of
- considered more like seedier shows like you had like full nudity which wasn't necessarily kosher we'll
- say yeah but then you have
- more bottle shows that had more like the extravagant costuming where like people would did like strip
- down but not strip down all the way. So there are types of burlesque out there. There's more like you
- know like the you-hoo sort of one and there's more of the artistic bada bing sort of one. Right yes
- and burlesque today obviously like
- is more akin to, I like to say that it's like stripping meets theater has a baby. I love that. Yeah.
- Okay, so we're gonna learn how to strip for the theater audience. Yeah. Okay, and off camera, Clementine
- was telling me that we are gonna have to, there's set rules, and what was the word you used? Routine.
- Yes, there's a routine. There's a routine that we must make. Sorry folks, it's early, it's six a.m.
- So we're gonna,
- We're gonna drop that off. How long you been doing burlesque though? I started doing burlesque in August
- of 2022, so I'm three years into it. Now do you, is it like, what's the drive there, you know? Yeah,
- so it started out, I had always been interested in burlesque. I'd always been drawn to it, but I never
- really thought that I could do it. And then a friend of mine, Lucid Dream, looked them up on socials.
- L-O-U-S-I-D, dream, was doing an open stage at the back door here in Bloomington and was like, hey,
- do you want to do this open stage with me? And I said, sure. So I threw an act together in like two
- weeks and jumped in, did an open stage, fell in love.
- And then a producer friend of mine saw me at that show and asked me to be on another show like that.
- That's cool. Shortly after and was like, oh, I want to book like this act to be in a different show.
- And it just kind of like steamrolled from there. I love that. Yeah. I love that. I feel like finding
- new artistic outlets is always something someone could use. Yeah. You never know what you're into until
- you do it, folks. That's what my grandpa always would tell me.
- anyway we're gonna we're gonna we're going to learn how to do burlesque I'm gonna come up with a routine
- and then at home everyone can come with their own routine send them in along with your sketches in your
- fan mail please we have we have bags full of mail and we want more are you reading the mail I'm reading
- every single one most of its Unabomber similar like Unabomber vibes you know and occasionally it's
- It's a man from Eastern Europe who's telling me how beautiful I am. I've got some love letters. I'm
- big in the prison system out there. Anyway, we're going to figure out this whole thing. We'll cut to
- the dancing. Burlesque, as we stated previously, you need a routine. And I don't have an imagination.
- I've never been sexy for others. So Clementine's going to show us a classic Clementine delight routine.
- and we're gonna get hot. Let's do it, take it away. Perfect, okay. And we're dancing to an Arctic Monkeys
- song, which will be probably blocked out due to copyright, so just pretend. Okay, and, all right. It
- starts with hands on the head. You're gonna bring your hands down. Down the neck.
- We're going to get out of the chair. Walk around the chair. Cross the chair. Back to the side of the
- chair. Little leg action.
- Move to the front. Do you want to show off your butt a little bit? Of course I do. And then, this is,
- I would usually straddle the chair, but these chairs are not great for that, so we're going to pantomime.
- Gosh. And then, I don't know, I have a corset, so this is where I start to take the corset off.
- I can pretend. You can pantomime.
- Move to the front. So with burlesque, you always want to make sure that if you are going to want to,
- even if you're pantomiming, you want to make sure that if you want to touch your body, you actually
- touch your body. Sure, deliberate, sure. Deliberate, sensual movements.
- Okay, and then we're going to do a little sneak peek, a little reveal. Always cheat back to the audience,
- give them a little cheeky smile. Turn sexy. And then this is the floor work routine. Let's do it.
- and I'm trying to remember how exactly it goes. I think we already need to be on the floor by this point.
- Let me refer back. I haven't done this routine in a minute. It's going to... This is why I videotape
- everything so I can remember what my routine is. Sure. Yeah, I think that's fine.
- Okay, so we're down on the ground. So what we're gonna do, we're gonna take our hands, we're gonna feel
- our way down, we're gonna lower, and then we're gonna move to the ground, and then we're going to swoop,
- slide, and then press back up. Oh yeah, bend and snap. Yeah, the bend and snap, classic. And then we're
- gonna move over here, this way, a little leg action up there,
- It seems like slow, deliberate movement. It's all, yeah, yeah, yeah. If you have a slow routine, you
- definitely wanna make sure that you're really taking your time to really feel the slow, deliberate movements,
- really tease the audience. Sure, this should be titillating. Titillating, exactly. You're getting it.
- So, let me slide. We're gonna do a little bit of like, fun little leg work. Okay. So you put your legs
- up, you do a little swirly down this way, a little swirly over this way.
- Little fan kick this way and then back up and then this is the really fun part where you have to like
- figure out how to Sensuously get back up to your feet That's a way to do it And then okay and then
- your you know your your your costume. Thank you. Impeccable, beautiful. Thank you. Yeah, it's great.
- I would say pro tip for when picking out costumes for burlesque. You want to pick out clothes that are
- interesting to take off.
- Okay, sure. No one likes a sock being taken off. No, people love socks being taken off. People love
- socks being taken off. Better if it's like a thigh-high sock. Sure. Get a nice stocking peel. Pop it
- up on a leg. Pop the leg up there, there, slowly peel it off. Okay.
- and then like pull it. I can bring my stockings out and show you how to do that. We can try that. Did
- you get a good old fashioned stocking feel? But yeah, so like when it comes to like shirts, t-shirts.
- are fine but it's not like the easiest and most visually appealing to like pull a t-shirt off unless
- you do it right in the right way. What if you had seven t-shirts on and each one of them was maybe a
- little bit more transparent than the last? Does that work better? If that's what you're going for. Okay cool.
- I want my nipples to be
- Protect protect people from nipples, nipples and genitalia. Yeah, so biggest killers in this country
- that you can. You can strip down, but you have to strip down to like panties in a pasty or what or like
- a Merkin in a pasty Merkin. Yes, so like a Birkin. No, it's well. So traditionally the word Merkin is
- like a term for a vagina. OK, we can cut that. We don't know. Maybe we'll leave it in. I didn't know
- there was such thing as a vagina.
- a lot of people are learning right now but now it's it's a type of like cover all that doesn't have
- any like it just like adheres to the body and so it doesn't have any like straps to hold it up so you
- kind of just like just exists tape it to yourself on your on your your private yeah okay
- And that's called a workin? A merkin? Merkin. Yeah. Not a berkin bag, a vagina wig. Yeah, merkins were
- used in Hollywood as a wig for pubic hair. I like that. Well, I don't know if I like that. I like that
- I know the facts now. I can drop that and people think I'm freaking weird. We're talking about vagina
- wigs, Ethan. I learned it, that's why.
- Um, OK, cool. Yeah, so no nipples, no nipples, no genitals, no genitals. Yeah, I'm keeping it in my
- pants in my shirt. Yeah, so unless you have pasties, right? Which I did not bring you. It's OK, I should
- have brought my own. Yeah, it's OK. They're like $10 at Cerrillas, so Cerrillas. Yeah, yeah, where is
- Cerrillas? So this is on the West Side. OK, it's by Hoppy Wobbles.
- It is by Once Upon a Child, which is a weird place for a TV show. That is a weird one. I've been there
- when I was a child. I haven't been there in many years. Yeah, you haven't been a child in a long time.
- I'm 30 and doing burlesque. Perfect. Where are we now?
- So you want to wear interesting clothes that are like our clothes that are interesting to take off.
- So like button down shirts perfect because you can like slowly unbutton them. I did bring a button down
- if you want to play with a button down shirt. Sure, why not? Let me put it on. OK, it's a men's button
- down so it'll fit. I love this. Oh yeah. I feel sexier already.
- I feel like I, I'm sure there's more song to show, but I wanna also, I wanna just try it on my own and
- see how close I get. And I can use this and unbutton. I wish, I love having cameras around. You buttoned
- it wrong. You buttoned it wrong. I'm sorry, I didn't mean that.
- This button goes nowhere. This button. Those are the extras. Yeah, those are the extras that I don't
- take off the shirt. In case I lose one. Of course. I feel like I'm in a lab. A sexy lab. I'm not talking
- about AirBud either. Alright, we're having fun. We're having so much fun. Okay. Alright. Teach me more.
- Okay. So, um, what would be like a good, okay, let me see.
- We're going to cut the music, so it doesn't really matter what song we do. And we just got up after
- we did our floor thing. Yes, so we just got up after we did our floor thing. So... We'll move this one
- back a little bit. So you just really just want to feel the music. Yeah, there you go. You're getting
- it. Oh, that's good.
- You turned on Monroe County. And I would almost like I would almost like the last button I would. I
- would do behind the camera and then so you could do like a little like flash and like shimmy it off
- your shoulders very like slowly. Maybe a little too fast and then like look back on them. Give a little
- cheekiness, you know. Yeah, that's maybe too cheeky. I guess extra spicy for them, but.
- them too hot and heavy there Ethan. I don't want to do that. You're supposed to learn not be turned
- on. Get your morals correct, Monroe County. And then do you freestyle after that? So ordinarily, so
- the routine, once you're kind of done and the song ends, usually the stage cuts to black and then you
- exit the stage. Okay.
- Typically speaking. Okay. Yeah. I like that. I would like. At that point you're usually completely
- de-clothed. Okay sure. Yeah. Minus your merkin and pasties. Yeah or like panties and pasties. Or panties
- and pasties. I ate pizza this morning. Anyway, I want to try this one on my own. Can I do that? Here's
- the deal, Monroe County.
- Clementine Delight taught me so much that I'm ready to do my own burlesque. Little Ethan style,
- you know? Cue the music! Benny Hill!
- shoes off. I could have taken my shoes off. Play it again. From the start that you stopped.
- And then it cuts to black, and I leave. So one more thing we have to go over. Yes. You need a burlesque
- name. Okay. All right. Now, is there a specific, like, parameters? Get in frame. Let's talk about this.
- Okay. I've learned burlesque, but, and listen, no counting, you need to get in shape and want to feel
- hot, dance it out, okay?
- Clementine has let me know that I need to come up with a burlesque name. Is there something that inspires
- those usually or is it just like whatever you're fucking with? It's pretty much whatever you're fucking
- with. So like for example, I think I told you earlier, so my name comes from the inspiration as a bearded
- lady because I have an affinity for bearded ladies. And so mine was named after Clementine Delay who
- was a bearded lady from the 1890s in France.
- And then some people, you know, they like to be punny with it. Some people just like to be, like, sensual
- with it. It really, I feel like you put maybe kind of a punny name because it's you. Sure, sure. I also
- am thinking, I usually, my alias often is Gucci Warhol. It's named after two of my favorite artists,
- Gucci Mane and Andy Warhol. So I was thinking, what if we kind of switch it up? My burlesque name could be Andy.
- Andy Mayne.
- Andy Warhol, Gucci Mane. I like that. Andy Mane is here to dance. Eat your heart out Monroe County.
- I think that's great. You know what though? We couldn't get this done without the library, right?
- That's true. So important. Yeah, support your local library. Your local library. Get your library card.
- I want to thank everyone for letting us do this. Clementine Delight for being such a fantastic instructor.
- Twin Lakes Recreation Center for letting me be almost nude in here.
- talent everyone else back to the studio have a wonderful night thank you everybody thank you I felt sexy