By Joseph K. Saulnier
The Suicide Girls. Burlesque. What could go wrong? Apparently, plenty! I had such high hopes for this
show when staffer and Nerds Do It Better admin Tasha Skalka told me about this show and we decided
to see if we could check it out when they came to El Corazon in Seattle, WA on October 22, 2013. In my
experience, Mike Thrasher Presents usually promotes some really good talent, and our experience that
night had nothing to do with them. The show just fell a little flat for us.
First, the show was supposed to start at 8 PM. Doors were supposed to be open at 7:30 PM. Things
were looking good when at about 7:30 PM they started letting in the V.I.P. ticket holders (more on
that in a bit). But then about 10 minutes later, they ushered the V.I.P.’s out of the venue. It wasn’t
until about 8:10 PM that they were invited back in, and then shortly after the general admission ticket
holders were allowed access. As the venue slowly started to fill up, we were treated to the stylistic
spinning of a DJ, who was also a Suicide Girl. While some of the music was not mine, or Tasha’s, favorite
(dubstep), she at least had a good mix going so that everyone could enjoy some music. The only thing is
that the music kept going, and going, and going. The DJ announced twice that the girls would be joining
us soon, but it wasn’t until about 9:40 PM that the show started.
Once the show did get going, there were mixed responses from the audience. It was kicked off with a
“choreographed” dance from four of the six girls that were performing that night. It was immediately
obvious that there were varied levels of dancing skill/experience in the group, and it became even more
apparent as the night went on. Now, I used quotation marks around choreographed because you could
tell that the girls were supposed to be following a routine, but many were out of sync and it seemed
more like a junior high color guard performing at points.
Also, I am not quite sure the Suicide Girls understand what burlesque is all about. It seems that their
goal was to just go get (almost) naked as quickly as possible and to do a lot of hair flips. When the
show hit an intermission, Tasha and I both looked each other and nearly spouted this exact feeling. In
fact, there was one number where the girl came out practically naked and proceeded to put clothing
(lingerie) on as she danced through her routine. Burlesque is less about being naked and more about
sensuality. It’s the tease, the story behind dance than the actual end result that makes for a good
burlesque show. I think that the Suicide Girls missed this mark.
That being said, there were some good points to the show. The music was excellent, including a number
from Kill Bill and a remix of the Doctor Who theme that really lit a fire under the crowd. The themes of
the dances were all over the place and included costumes and routines based around Skyrim, Doctor
Who, Portal, Kill Bill, Vampires, Vikings, Planet of the Apes, Fifth Element, DC Comics characters and
even Star Wars. Surprisingly, this worked very well in their favor as the costuming was definitely very
well done. While most props were excellent, some just didn’t work (a light up fan that wouldn’t light up
for example), and some were just extremely uncalled for (the Portal routine had our Emcee throwing
cake at people in the audience while smearing it on herself, and the encore had the women spitting
water at the audience).
Overall, I think the big allure was just in the namesake of the show: The Suicide Girls. These women
dancing were actual members of this world-famous group, and that was what people wanted to see.
So, in a sense they accomplished what they set out to do. Overall, I enjoyed the show, but would I have
paid to go?
That’s the question. Tickets ran $20 for general admission. I would have paid that price to see this
show, but still would have been extremely disappointed about the late start. Who do they think they
are? Kanye? But I digress. V.I.P. tickets ranged from $100 to about $400 in Seattle. Now, both general
admission prices and V.I.P. prices vary by city/venue, but this was the cost for Seattle. It included a
meet and greet with the girls, a photo opportunity with the girls, a limited edition poster, and a few
other things including dinner with the girls (depending on the V.I.P. level you wanted to purchase. The
problem is that this price did not include the ticket to the actual show. And from what I could see,
dinner with the girls was just pizza and pop.
All in all, I did have fun and would recommend checking out the show if it comes to your city. Looking
at their schedule, it seems that they may be playing some bigger venues as the tour progresses, and
sometimes the venue does make all the difference. El Corazon is not very big by any means, but they
had to work with what was there. So go check it out, but avoid the V.I.P., unless you are a diehard fan of
the girls.
