Nerdlesque festival! (Patreon)

This weekend was the Nerdlesque festival and I had a blast! The super nice and incredibly talented Red Rum (pictured above) stayed with me, I got to see a bunch of friends from out of town, and I got to see some REALLY amazing burlesque. I'm not going to say that I loved everything I saw but I genuinely loved at least 80% of it, which is saying a lot because I'm pretty damn critical.

I was a little worried about doing my Joker act, just because I've done it so often and for so long I was worried that people would be sick of it. But I forgot that, well, no one has seen me do it as many times as *I've* seen me do it. And even though it's my best known act, a lot of people told me they'd never actually seen it. And the great thing about this act is that *I* never get bored with it. The character is so strong and I'm so comfortable in it that I can really be present and confident when I do it. I completely forgot two props but I still absolutely feel like I nailed the performance. Knowing the act this well let me just give all my attention to the audience, which felt fantastic. This is probably why people rehearse.

I didn't get to take full advantage of all the festival had to offer; I only went to one class and I didn't go to the peer review. I didn't feel like I had an act that was in the right place to get feedback, and I had out of town friends I had to spend time with. But I got to have dinner with performers after both shows and I feel like I got the exact amount of festival I could handle. I was utterly exhausted by 3pm yesterday, but today I was actually able to move, work, see yet another out of town friend who was visiting and I don't think I could have done any of that if I'd pushed myself to DO ALL THE THINGS.

All this has made me feel really good about taking a step back from burlesque. I know that sounds paradoxical, but I now feel like I'm doing the right amount of burlesque for me instead of ALL THE GIGS ALL THE TIME FOREVER is really letting me enjoy the gigs I take. I'm not even performing that much less. I don't think anyone in the community has noticed that I've taken a step back. I've just changed my thinking about it and it has made a world of difference to me.