https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/arts/2014-11-15/hollywood-motherhood-and-a-dash-of-glamour/

Hollywood, Motherhood, and a Dash of Glamour

By Richard Whittaker, November 15, 2014, 12:00pm, All Over Creation

Ruby Joule and Sassy DeLure are two busy ladies. As a cofounder of the Jigglewatts Burlesque, Joule balances their Maggie Mae's residency with touring demands. Meanwhile Delure is working on her best of Avant Glam cabaret show, and chasing after her infant daughter. But this weekend, both have big shows with big ideas.

For Joule, it's the sixth installment of her quasi-regular series with Dallas promoter Diamond Jim at the Stateside, Hollywood Nocturne Burlesque. The idea was simple: A tribute to Tinseltown. She said, "I've always been fascinated by the idea of film noir, but our last show, Hotter than Hell, had a dark and dangerous theme to it. I went, what about old Hollywood, red carpet, the old Busby Berkeley musicals and the over-the-top glamour of that."

With these big shows, Joule's intent is to carefully select the performers and the acts to go with the theme. That starts out with the headliner – former Miss Exotic World and queen of burlesque Roxi D'Lite – and filling out the roster with talented people, "performers I have worked with and trust and really admire." That includes both a current Jigglewatt, Jolie Goodnight, and one of the troupe's most vivacious alums, Miss Goldie Candela. complete with an interval jazz set by Goodnight and her Goodnight band. Meanwhile, out in the lobby of the Stateside, there will be divas, "diva-ing about," Joule said. "I like to carefully curate these shows, because I'm a big believer in creating an experience that flows. Not necessarily a narrative, but a theme that draws you in through the evening."

That means she has to fit the mood perfectly as well, so she'll bringing two of her own favorite and best-reviewed routines, starting with the first act she ever toured. "It's "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" by Marilyn Monroe, with a little bit of Nicole Kidman from Moulin Rouge."

Seattle transplant DeLure has become an Austin burlesque fixture, but her creative roots still lie in the North-West's more nouveau burlesque tendencies. Like Joule for her latest creation, DeLure has called on some friends, including Lita Luck, Lily LaFleur, and the weekend's double dose of Candela for her latest show, Baby, Baby, Baby! – or as she more simply calls it, "The baby show." It takes on a topic very near and dear to her heart, even if it seems suitably unconventional for a burlesque show: motherhood. "I was asking myself, what do I know a lot about right now, and my daughter is 18 months old right now. I thought, is there enough there to do a whole show, and the whole thing came to me in a day."

Still, there was still a lot of finessing and developing the concept into the elaborate final product: 13 acts, six performers (including at one point, boylesque star Justin F Credible standing in for DeLure), comedy, singing, video and burlesque. "It's my first multi-media idea," she said, who was inspired by her own off-beat concept to push her own boundaries. "I thought, well, if I'm going to do it, how else can I challenge myself."

The end result is closer to a variety show than her normal burlesque work, with a full-fledged narrative that goes all the way to a routine based on watching her daughter and her toddler friends pinwheel around. "We look like kids in a playground." If that sounds goofy, then that's the point. "The whole process of having a baby all seems to be full of things that are ridiculous," she said, and she hopes that the humor will be part of the universal appeal. "As a friend of mine says, as long as you've been a baby, and had parents, you'd be interested in this show."

Hollywood Nocturne Burlesque, Stateside at the Paramount, Nov. 15, 8pm, doors 7pm. www.austintheatre.org.

Sassy Delure presents Baby, Baby, Baby! A Cabaret About Having a Baby, The Highball, 1120 S. Lamar. Nov. 16, 8pm. www.babybabybaby.brownpapertickets.com.