So, after doing makeup at the Art of Fashion show on Saturday I hopped on the streetcar and headed west to one of my favourite places in the city, The Gladstone Hotel. For this night, Nuit Blanche , the Gladstone much like all the performers within it that night, was going by its burlesque name- Vaudeville Hotel. Vaudeville Hotel was a 12 hour long world record breaking burlesque cabaret show featuring 120 acts! It was a spectacular event, with a lineup of talented performers and a packed house all night long. Vaudeville Hotel was put on by Great Canadian Burlesque and The Toronto Festival of Clowns and featured a number of Toronto’s most beloved vaudeville hosts including Sketchy The Clown, The Wolfman and Balonia Wry and Ginger Darling.
Over the course of the evening I performed 3 times and then go-go danced twice with my spooky music buddies “The Howling Bullets” who played some incredible sets in full on skeleton makeup. 
With 120 different performers we had major variety – clowns, strip teasers, mimes, bellydancers, comedians, pole dancers, group numbers, sideshow feats of strength, magicians, hula hoopers and more. By the end of the night I was beat, but I got to sit and watch the show for a bit before heading home around 3 am. I was lucky enough to see acts from the blindingly glittery Mitzy Cream, the hilarious Peggy Plumber and the bendy and beautiful St. Stella. 
The next day, after a quick makeup gig and a well deserved nap, I ended this amazing weekend by going for a delicious meal in Chinatown at Noble Seafood with Chris, April March, Sauci Calla Horra, Mitzy Cream, Leviticus the Strongman and Fionna Flauntit. We had many bowls of hot and sour soup and got to hear stories of wild burlesque adventures from April March about Arabian kings, mobsters and other glamorous shenanigans (she seriously has the best stories!!). April’s autobiography comes out pretty soon, so I’m sure there will be plenty of juicy burly-q stories to be found in it! Fun Fact!: April is the only burlesque legend to have a signature cocktail named after her (she tried it for the first time this weekend at the Cadillac Lounge, I had a sip and its definitely a fancy drink for a fancy lady). I’m always excited to see April, but the visits always go by quickly, glad she has been making fairly frequently stops in Toronto now!
It was such a fun weekend, and you’d think after all of that burlesque, I’d be in need of a break…but nope, I’m hard at work on my act for the Grindhouse Ghoulies halloween show at the Revival on October 27th! (details soon to come in a new post)
xoxo Vivs
theadventuresofvivs 