Convos with the European Agent (Patreon)

Sorry, dear patrons – I couldn't think of a clever title today, so I just gave you a clear one instead. 

This week, you've gotten to see a short trailer as well as the full-length run of Le Numéro Barbette (2.0?), a bit of backstory on how the shoot day went (and why the full-length act video isn't quite how I've love it to be, but, c'est la vie), and some behind-the-scenes photos.

The last thing to catch you up on is – "WELL?! WHAT DID THEY SAY?!"

I sent Dorothee (European agent lady) the short trailer and the full-length video (with instructions to watch the trailer first) on Sunday evening at around 8pm EST (my time zone in Toronto).

I got a WhatsApp message back from her at 2:30am EST (8:30am in Switzerland) saying that she'd find some time to watch it that day. I faked being patient as long as I could, and sent a follow-up message at 11:47am EST / 5:50pm in Switzerland) asking if she'd been able to take a peek yet.

"The trailer, yes!" she wrote. "The final shot is so beautiful."

YES!  I cheered inside. Go Tig with the cinematic shot-picking, win! 

She started sending me audio messages through the app because she was driving. Apparently she has to drive around the countryside to 3 or 4 different cities where's she's auditioning new talent with some producers from the Italian show Tu Si Que Vales (it's at this point that I have to fully admit I have absolutely no idea of the scope or range of what Dorothee does, only that she seems to like my work, be very well connected, and dating a clown that is seemingly well employed by a lot of the big, old European circuses; apparently her work extends to European talent TV shows beyond Das Supertalent, too). 

"I would like to know from when on I can sell this? Like, from this winter or – ? Like, what's your plan with it? How far along are you with the Moulin Rouge? Or, for example, could I send it to Crazy Horse? Or the Lido? Who are still interested in the VACUUM act – and so on."

I responded that –

• I haven't reached out to the Moulin Rouge yet at all, because I wanted to see what she thought first and just let it settle
  
• I don't have my filming schedule yet for Motherland: Fort Salem Season 3, but I've been told that it shoots from November to April. For now I've kept my immediate schedule free, in case the Zurich cabaret does run in October.
  
• We could pitch to Crazy Horse*** for their summer season, perhaps? France is very good at giving everyone an actual summer vacation – which means that the cabarets bring in different performers to fill in the vacationers spots for shorter summer contracts. Troy and I were offered a 2 month summer contract at the Moulin Rouge after we did our Christmas appearance there in 2019, but unfortunately Troy backed out when he was offered a movie (saddest face).

(***SIDEBAR: (1) I completely forgot that Crazy Horse had inquired with Dorothee about hiring VACUUM; this was way back in early 2020, so let's chalk up that massive forgetfulness to the pandemic; (2) Crazy Horse is one of the 3 big cabarets in Paris, alongside the Lido and the Moulin Rouge. I've heard it described as the 'avant-garde' cabaret to the classic timelessness of the Moulin Rouge, and the classiness of the Lido (or, at least, that's how the Lido likes to imagine themselves in relation to the Moulin Rouge, I was told - hehe). It was established in 1951 and is considered a 'nude show' as opposed to a 'burlesque show', which is the category that the Moulin Rouge and the Lido at put in). Burlesque superstar Dita Von Teese was a guest star there, for a pop culture reference that North American patrons might be more familiar with.; (3) no, I have absolutely no idea what the difference between a 'nude show' vs a 'burlesque show' might entail in Paris, so; (4) yes, clearly I have some research to do, WHOOPS)

Dorothee sent another voice message, responding first to the Zurich cabaret point:
"Yes, I'm gonna try that for sure. Tonight or tomorrow morning, for sure, I'm gonna send [it to the producer]. I just have a comedian there, this year. And they had a pre-setting, a pre-show – just a try out with lots of the artists who had been there last year. So [the producer] needs some changes, so I cross my fingers that this is still possible – but I will hear very very soon!"

"Great," I replied. Then, recalling the debacle of trying to communicate with Germans about gender identity points that fall outside the binary, I added: "Feel free to just tell him [the producer] I'm a boy if that makes the act premise easier to explain."

Accurate?
Not exactly.
Easiest way forward with linguistic and cultural barriers?
For now, yeah.

That's the thing about working overseas: it's all fun and games until you need to translate socio-cultural constructions of gender. I was sharply reminded of the impasse I arrived at when, fresh out of top surgery, I had to go to Germany for the Das Supertalent gig and deal with the fact that I could be a girl, or I could be a boy, and that was about it for my options as a barely-more-than-a-tourist performer for a 3-day gig in a new country. I decided after that contract that – if I ever was able to go over to Europe to perform again – I had to come to terms with the fact that I am not fluent enough in French or German or any other language to mess with grammar and sentence structure and conjugations.  In other words, if I was going to keep making circus-adjacent art that messes around in the wonderful world of gender performativity, I might need to have more flexibility in how I translated myself to new work contacts overseas.

Dorothee, ever the blunt European (and seemingly having fully forgotten an extended conversation we had last year in which I made a significant effort to explain what transgender nonbinary identity was, and what top surgery was, responded:

"Born as a boy? Or were you born as a girl? This is just for my interest, I'm just curious. I would say, I would always just think that you were a beautiful woman but – maybe you are a beautiful boy," she finished, laughing lightly.

"That's the trick of the act, isn't it?" I said smoothly, not feeling like providing her with the answer she wanted. "No one knows!" and followed that up with a bunch of spooky ghost emojis to keep the mood light.

"I mean –" I continued, "It's fairly old school circus, isn't it? They used to have people like me in sideshows."

Dorothee laughed. "Yes, I suppose they did!"

Our conversation concluded with a Bitmoji cartoon of her crossing her fingers.

* * * * * [ to be continued]