We were lucky to catch up with Sio Bast recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sio, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
From a very young age I knew I wanted to do something that brought people joy. Something that felt fulfilling. I want my legacy to be an inspiration for folks who want to be more artistic, to find joy, and be authentically themselves. An inspiration to bring folks a smile, entertainment, and to uplift their spirits. I want my legacy to be a positive footprint when I’m gone.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is SioBast! I am known as the GothPinUpChola and The professional chingona. I am originally from Los Angeles CA, I come from Salvadorian and Mexican descent, and have been living in Chicago for 18 years. I have been a burlesque artist for the last 8 years (9 in Jan) and the owner of Bast Entertainment. Before that, I was a Salsa/Latin dance performer and instructor for 7 years. My first exposure to burlesque was at a bar show downtown. At the time I was looking for a performance art form that didn’t require a partner. A space where I could call all the shots like wardrobe, music, choreo, etc. I was in the audience and thought “this is it”. It was what I’d been looking for! So I hit the ground running. I was accepted into a troop, started working regularly in the most popular show in the city, and performed alongside some of the biggest names in the business, all in my first year. I knew right from the start I wanted to produce. I felt the need to physically manifest all these ideas for shows I had in my head. I like to think I’m a natural leader and have a knack for organization…it all made sense. I produced my first show just months into burlesque and quickly learned that it was gonna take A LOT more knowledge. So, I started studying and working closely with the most successful producers in the city for the next 6ish years. I’d love to say that it was all calculated but a lot of it was luck and great people open to helping new folks out.
Since 2018 Bast Entertainment has been producing unique live show experiences to audiences all over chicago, and virtually, world wide. I bring entertainment that is fun and exciting but also pushes the boundaries of current acceptable standards. Not just in beauty and bodies, I make sure to put Latin and marginalized folks to the forefront. There is incredible talent that has been overlooked in the past and I want to be a part of the change that needs to happen/is happening to bring more flavor to our lineups. It is my mission to help my people, Latin people, open up their minds about the way we view women, racism, and sexuality – to name a few topics. In addition I fight for our worth as entertainers, producers, and what we deserve to be compensated as the artists making venues more interesting to clientele. I want our industry to be taken more seriously and to have acknowledgment of how much work goes into booking, stage management, and everything in between. I can proudly say that although slowly, I definitely see an incline in the right direction.
I can equally say that I’m incredibly proud of the work that has been put out. My two passion projects LatinEsque and Obscura have been received with so much love and support. I run LatinEsque with three colleagues (Vivi Valens, Ms. B La Rose, and Sally Marvel) and our mission is to bring entertainment by Latin women through the lense of burlesque. Our main production Telenovela Cabaret is a mix of scripted theater plays, burlesque, and Telenovelas in one hell of show. Episode one got a standing ovation and is back by popular demand Jan 28th 2023 at The Newport Theater. Our second episode will hit the stage September 2023. Telenovela Cabaret brings so much drama, comedy, and wit that not only works for our beloved Latin audience but to everyone else as well. Obscura: A night of gothic affair, is the only gothic burlesque show the city. We focus on cholo goth, goth, and industrial art while also leaving room for all things obscure. We call Simone’s Bar in Pilsen home with our partners over at Kombi chicago. The show happens every 4th thursday of the month and we sell out consistently. We got the attention of Danielle Colby from American Pickers through our good friend Hot Tawdry. Alongside Dannie we co-produced for Riot Fest 2022 kicking off their “Late Night” events series for the weekend. Truly something that I will cherish forever. Obscura has some big things in the works for 2023 so keep an eye out!
I’m super excited for the new year and hope that every single person involved in one of my productions feels like they had the best time and that they hold that memory as something they can look back on fondly. Weather it’s the performers, audience, or someone who just stumbled across one of the shows.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When I first started burlesque I was much thinner and came in with all of my Latin flare. In my first year I gained some weight and immediately noticed a shift in the way I was treated. I was being put in a box, I was told that I could only do Latin numbers and that I had to lose weight if I wanted to succeed. At the beginning this had a terrible effect on me. I got really depressed and felt like I was in a hole I could not get out of. After many years of letting those words drag me down, I decided that I would push and make my own path. I started to find confidence and surrounding myself with artists that appreciated what I had to offer on stage. Folks that saw my talent versus my ethnicity and size. Which by the way, doesn’t matter. There are entertaining people in all types of backgrounds and sizes. Slowly but surely I found myself again. Who I am is reflected in my brand – GothPinupChola. That in itself is eclectic, just like me! I proved to myself and my peers that I am not a one trick pony. I am an entertainer that can do everything from gothic, obscure acts, to classic feather fan dances, and everything in between. I will not be defined by someone else’s narrative of me, I am willing to grow. I have hope, compassion, and love in my heart…that is my resilience.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Before becoming a full time performer I was in the service industry for 12 years. I have an immense amount of respect for hospitality folks. I truly enjoyed the people part, at first. Things started to shift for the worst. I constantly found myself humiliated and having this sensation of deep unhappiness. It always boiled down to having a personal struggle answering to people I felt didn’t respect me as a human. The final straw was when I was working at a restaurant for two years. I bent over backwards for these people. I truly hate to say it but when you are being gas lit (in my experience) the knee jerk reaction is to fault yourself. Maybe I need to be more quiet, be more patient, smile and say yes more. I digress, it was 2 days before Christmas and I was told at the end of my shift that, that was my last day. The reason…the restaurant had been losing money for months and instead of letting the staff know early on there was a problem, they told us at the end of our shifts we no longer had jobs. I know not every restaurant owner is this disorganized, cruel, or incompetent but at that time it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I had all my eggs in that basket and found myself in trouble with no income stream. I made the choice that I would not allow that to happen again. I decided to rely on myself and become a full time performer. Sure there are gigs that will cancel last minute but I have many baskets now and won’t be completely out of options if that happens. The only thing that was equally as scary was the pandemic but even then, I learned as much as I could about video editing alongside many of my peers and we put on virtual shows and created opportunities for ourselves. Do I still have to answer to people? Of course, but now I get to choose who those people are. No matter how I slice it, pivoting into being my own boss was the best decision I ever made.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://latinesquetheshow.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sio.bast/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/siomara.rodriguez.357/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sio_Bast
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sio.bast?lang=en LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/SioBast
Image Credits
Ellen Beard, Greg Inda, Xavier Claudio, GoldFramePhoto, Harry Sudman