We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elizabeth Taylor . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elizabeth below.
Elizabeth , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
As a drag king, I am constantly explaining to people what that means. My answer is usually, “well, you know what a drag queen is. So, a drag king would be…?” And I let them figure it out from there. But kings and queens generally do different types of work on a stage. Kings usually come from a burlesque background and usually do a form of strip tease. Whereas, queens usually do more of a lip sync and high energy dance . Usually. These are not hard rules. There is always a lot of blending between genres. Now, as a burlesque dancer it’s even more convoluted and misunderstood what I do. Burlesque is as old as the 1500’s. For centuries, it was an Italian word meaning jest or nonsense (early absurdism perhaps?) And slightly later on, it became french word that meant satire. Eventually, once America was colonized and stabilized, the entertainment became vaudeville, an American version of Burlesque Burlesque existed for hundreds of years without the help of striptease. And drag kings were a huge part of the development of burlesque from the early days. Back then, it was more common to see all male casts in the proper public theater, where men played women. But it was more underground, that we would find women playing men.
So, when I say I’m a burlesque dancer, (much to my exhaustion) most people either have no clue what that means or they think the movie “Burlesque”. A movie which I and most burlesque dancers have never seen. Some people think of strip tease. Some people think of Vegas show girls. But rarely do they think opera and vaudeville. Yes, in many of my acts, I strip. But you don’t always see me naked. For me, the reveals and layers pulled away tell a story or reveal a gag. I’m more like a prop comic who kinda gets naked. My tagline is “the sketch comedian of burlesque”, because I spent 15 years embedded deeply in writing, performing, and producing sketch comedy. But when I was doing sketch comedy, I was doing more authentic burlesque than the strip review shows of today. Strip shows are great. But they are everywhere and they only represent the most modern (not quite 100 years old) style of burlesque show. The shows that I produce and the acts that I perform represent a more traditional style of burlesque. The most authentic version that has been forgotten by modern history.
Elizabeth , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Clawing their way out of an Appalachian holler, Skirt Vonnegut is the sketch comedian of burlesque, here to satisfy your wildest nerdy fantasies. A classically trained dancer with over 15 years of sketch comedy, this retired karaoke DJ is the international award-winning entertainer that will tickle your every fancy. By way of Asheville, NC, Chicago and Berlin Germany, this international wandering vagabond knows no home, but travels to where they are needed. They specialize in slapstick, character-centric, and gender-bending burlesque spectaculars and blending European and American styles of performance. Keep your eyes out for the upcoming “Church of Burlesque”, a community for the outcasts. Kicking off in Asheville NC, it plans to travel and bring the good word of burly to the disenfranchised everywhere.
www.skirtvonnegut.com
Runner up at Berlin Burlesque week
Finalist for World Burlesque Games
Survived Edinburgh fringe festival
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Oh the many pivots I have had to make, but that is what has made me such a well rounded performer and producer. I started off life, early at 3, as a ballet dancer and soon picked up tap and jazz. Just at the point in my teens when I was semi professional and a soloist for some team dance competitions, eventually the dance system said no. This was before body inclusivity in the dance arts and I didn’t fit. It didn’t matter how strong or flexible I was, I didn’t fit and was told to move along to musical theater. Which I did, but was ultimately unhappy. I spent a few years messing around with magic and comedy. Became a young journeyman in the theater. For into costumes and props, while also performing. But I never stopped wanting to dance. Finally, when I was in the middle of college years, I was invited to become a founding member of a sketch comedy troupe. And that when I found my home for a while. I could use all the skills I had learned in this format. And I did it for 15 years. But, sketch made no money. Only made me happy. I had been running a karaoke business, but only managing it. Eventually it needed me to pick up a mic and become a DJ. I made a decent living but lost my life and my sould doing that. Got to practice my stand up and singing for about 5 years. But when I burned out, I sold the business and went 100% into drag and burlesque. Doing karaoke 5 nights a week, I couldn’t go to see shows or concerts. I could perform in anything because I was hosting and performing 5 nights a week. That was my entire life. And it sucked. But when I pivoted back to performing, I became alive again. Moved to Berlin, got an artist visa and learned everything I could about European styles of performance. And I have never been happier than I am now as a professional performer. I feel like all the training and all the hassle has lead me to this point. I couldn’t be who I am as a performer without all the pivots, but I can’t help feeling annoyed sometimes that it took me such a long, circuitous path to get here.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
After living in Europe multiple times and living in the US, I have seen how the arts are funded in different places. The US is about the worst at finding the arts. Taylor Mac explained it to a German audience once while I was in a show and said something like this (paraphrasing):
“I want you to appreciate how cheap your tickets are and why. In NYC, the cheapest tickets to this show would start at over $100. Most tickets are around $500. The tickets you pay for at the same show in Berlin max out at $75. Cheapest tickets are $25 and they average at $50. Why??? Funding of the arts. Germany gave this company a grant to come and perform this show. It was an easy grant to get and it was more money than an American grant would offer. Also, because of funding for the arts, the overhead is also quite low. In NYC, the overhead would take away from how much we pay all the artists who work on the show, yet we pay more for it.”
In Europe, they’ve seen what totalitarianism can do when it defunds and suppresses the arts. Their social system and concentration on the arts is a response to that. We have never exactly felt that deep form of repression in the US. Along with our ideas about tipping versus fair wage, we have a perfect storm of a thought system based on ignoring the value of art in education and therefore losing intelligent performance and art.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.skirtvonnegut.com
- Instagram: @SkirtVonnegut99
- Facebook: @SkirtVonnegut
- Youtube: Skirt Vonnegut
Image Credits
Hope Rinehart first 2 Syd Parker next 6 Last photos are by Daniel Paikov And the one drawing mixed in is by Suzanne Forbes