We recently connected with Risa Risque and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Risa, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The Blacklist Babes Caberat has always stood out by joining burlesque performances and live music since we started it back in 2015. Our motto has always been “music first.” My husband, David J. Sirois and I started writing storylines to go along with the Blacklist Babes Carbaret burlesque shows in 2019. We began with “The Lawless and the Damned,” a story about a ghost town where literal ghosts come back once a year to sing about their tragic deaths. David and I realized we really enjoyed giving the burlesque shows a storyline and we both loved writing together. We’ve since collaborated to write several burlesque storylines including: “Dystopia,” “Re-Wined,” “Canterbury Alehaus,” and “The Naughty List.” In 2021 I decided to take that format to the next level and had the crazy idea to write a full burlesque musical with all original music. I thought the perfect story would be the very strange, unique, and sometimes tragic history of our own city of Orlando. While David wrote the script, my two close friends and musical partners, Justin J. Scarlat and Paul C. Tugwell, and I teamed up to write 7 original songs. I’m so proud of this show and the response it’s gotten. So much so that we have some spin off musicals in the works (TBA!). We took the show to the Fringe Festival in 2022 and we were given 3 chances to perform our orignal burlesque musical, appropriately titled a”The City Beautiful.” We sold out all 3 shows. I’ve fallen in love with live music and burelsque, but every time I think about what my life would be like without it I think about how much “The City Beautiful” has changed my life both creatively and professionally.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I have always been a singer and performer. One of my first memories was singing and dancing around the house, so naturally my parents put me in music and dance lessons. I started playing piano when I was 8 years old and all I wanted to do was play classical music. I took every dance class I could. Tap, ballet, jazz, modern, and even hip hop and cheer (some I was good at, some I was not). I was always a “Chorus Girl” mixed in with the crowd but I didn’t step out as a soloist until college. I went to Dr. Phillips High School Visual & Performing Arts Magnet and for my senior year project I wrote a children’s musical. It was then that I decided I wanted to be more on the creative side of entertainment but life had slightly different plans for me. When I started auditoning for college theatre programs I kept getting asked to sing. I ended up being accepted into UCF’s Musical Theater BFA program. I did not think I was a soloist, I barely considered myself a piano player at that point because after 10 years of playing, I simply didn’t have time to continue lessons into college. But fate kept leaning towards music, singing, and creating.
After two years of college I fell into hospitality, as most people do. I finished by Associate’s Degree and spent the next 3 years managing hotels and travleing around Florida and Texas for work. At some point maybe because I was lonely and tired of living out of a suitcase, I decided I wanted to go back to school and finish my Bachelor’s. Because it had now been several years since I had performed or sang professionally, I decided to get my Bachelor’s in Humanities and Creative Writing from Rollins College. Although I did not pursue Humanities after college, I realized that I fell in love with writing. I thought maybe I’d end up writing my children’s musical again or writing comedic biographies about my life on the road.
This brought me to my next goal. Once I had graduated I told myself I wanted to get back into performing before it was “too late” for me to be on stage again. I started auditioning and performing in local community musicals and modeing with a local pin up social club. I always had a love for vintage culture and movies, so this felt like the direction for me. I started going to Rockabilly shows and burlesque shows and at some point I thought–hey, I want to do that “before I get too old.” So I took a risk (on the advice of my mom, yes, my mom) to audition for a Fringe Festival show that was about “bad girls” who sang Broadway tunes. My mother encouraged me to audition with a parody song, which she helped me with that was both funny and naughty.
Little did I know that this would set off and essentially birth “Risa Risque” as I am today. After being in that burlesque cabaret I set out to learn the ins and outs of burlesque and eventually started my own troupe and produced my own shows. I performed with several different troupes, trying to see where I fit in and what my “niche” in the burlesque world was. Turns out, it was when I decided to start singing and throwing myself into comedy that I figured out who I was, what I was good at, and what made me happiest. I started creating comedic burlesque routines around weird characters (like a twerking abuela, a stripping gorilla, and a cupcake-binging stripper for example.) I started producing burlesque shows with live music and writing storylines to go with the performances. The more I created, wrote, and performed the more I started to find my voice, the “me” I had been searching for all these years, and it became clear to me that my passions were never “too late/old/wild”…they were exactly what I have been searching for within myself for so many years. My life has always been leading up to being “Risa Risque.”
It’s hard to pin-point what I’m “most proud of” because I’m proud of it all. I’m proud of the pin-up contest titles I’ve won: Miss River Rumble, Miss Southern Fried Sunday, and most recently, Miss Whiskey Business. I’m proud of the burlesque troupes I’ve been involved in, Corsets & Cuties, the Ladies of the Peekaboo Lounge. and, of course, my own troupe–the Blacklist Babes Cabaret. I’m proud to be a part of the Miss Comedy Queen Family (even if I “only” placed second in the “Miss Lady Comedy Queen” pagent–twice!) and all the shows I’ve performed in and fundraisers I’ve helped organize. I’m proud of all the original shows I’ve written. I’m especially proud of “The City Beautiful” and I’m proud that I’ve cultivated and made my mark in the burlesque community doing what I love and know best: music, singing, and comedy!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Showing up is the best thing you can do to support artists but simple things like sharing an event page, making a post on social media, or even commenting on a show post goes a long way. With all of the shows and concerts we have in Orlando, I don’t expect people to spend all their money coming to my shows when there’s so much to choose from. So if I can’t attend an event I’ll do my best to at least “like/heart react” a post to show my support–and when possible obviously sharing, tagging, reacting or anything to show me, the cast, and other potential audience members that you’re interested.
On that note, artists supporting each other is how we create a thriving creative ecosystem. Taking the time to be kind, complimentary, and positive really goes a long way to foster community rather than competition. There were times during the pandemic that I went out of my way while I was stuck on the couch to at least post other local performer’s photos and videos and pay them a compliment or two. This is a place where we need to put aside artistic differences and support one another, because you never know who you’ll end up working with one day! “A raising tide lifts all ships.”
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I’m blessed that my parents signed me up for music and dance lessons when I was very young, because not everyone gets that opportunity to hone their skills at a young age like I did. So I’m grateful for those lessons and resources that have taken me far in life. I do wish I had forced myself to learn to sew earlier in life. I only learned how to even attempt to make a costume in my late 20’s. I have since slowly taught myself some sewing and quick hacks, but for someone that performs so often and has a lot of wild costume ideas, I wish I were more educated in costume design.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.blacklistbabescabaret.com
- Instagram: @risarisque
- Facebook: Facebook.com/MissRisqueBusiness
- Twitter: @risarisque
- Youtube: Blacklist Babes Cabaret
- Other: Instagram: @blacklist__babes__cabaret TikTok: @beautyschoolcopout @blacklistbabescabaret @funfunkyflorida
Image Credits
Kerill Images and Swamp Witch Photography