The Beginning (A Very Good Place To Start!)

It was Summer of 2007. I was 20 years old (21 that September) and avidly participating in a local Rocky Horror Picture Show cast. A large chunk of the cast had created a burlesque troupe for fun for a local Victorian convention known as Salon Con (it can be described as a Steampunk convention before Steampunk was super cool) and it looked just so cool. I saw everyone perform the year prior and it just looked so cool. I wanted, no, needed to do it. I'd heard of burlesque before (on ye olde internets) but I had never seen it before the White Elephant Burlesque Society's show in 2006. Everyone looked so amazing and sexy and everyone was just so talented. So I went to Fae and Viktor and asked if I could do the show at the 2007 show they put on "Burlesque Sucks" (It was a Vampire theme) at the Floating World. They said I could definitely come in and do it with them, and gave me a song. "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails. I knew that song. The heavy beats. The darkness of it. I loved it. I went to work on it immediately. Then raided my closets for everything and anything vinyl, pleather, and Hot Topic-y (I worked at Hot Topic when I was 17, I still had a bunch of overflow). I then went over to Viktor's house to work with him and Fae on my movement. And I needed little correction. I'll never forget how awesome I felt after that first rehearsal, and how excited I was for things to come.

The day of the show I was a huge mess. My mother's wedding was a week away, and I was just too nervous to actually be taking my clothes off in front of complete strangers (though I was doing Rocky Horror for a year prior... HOW IN HELL WAS THIS DIFFERENT?!) I got my hair done that day. And the lady messed it up. It killed me, but I had to push on. I got dressed and then proceeded to tease up my hair and was out the door and on my way! I put on my vampire teeth in the car, and a ridiculous pair of cat eye contact lenses to match.

Lily Stitches the Goth Child was born.

I was terrified. But I think it is safe to say that I rocked it. If I didn't... don't burst my bubble. It was my first time! The following events that evening I'd prefer to forget about... but the show itself went incredibly smooth, and thus... I had dipped my toes into something that I never thought I'd be doing five years in the future...