Read the interview here:

How do you define the term ‘Burlesque’, and what should and should not come under that term?

‘Burlesque’ – literally means to ‘send up’, starise or make mockery of. Any act which is defined as ‘burlesque’ therefore, must fit this definition - regardless of what else it may (or may not) contain.

Burlesque is an ancient theatre form of ‘musical-comedic-character-satire’ and in Britain it has remained relatively unchanged in over 500 years. The form was exported to the USA in the late 19th century and like most UK comedy exports, the satire was largely lost. Burlesque in Britain carried on regardless. In recent American history (early 20th century), the term ‘burlesque’ was adopted by the adult-industry looking  for a name to for the ‘variety’ style revues in which their strippers would perform.

The strippers were indeed the Stars of this stage. Of course, the meaning of ’burlesque’ did not actually change as there were still Burlesque performers in operation (although they were operating in the entertainment rather than adult industry). So, ‘burlesque’ would come to mean one thing in the adult industry but remain unchanged in the entertainment industry.

Borrowing from the style of burlesquers, the strippers, peelers and ecdysiasts often adopted gimmicks or themes and often included comedic skits or repartee in their routines and through these devices, each act delivered a strip-tease. Thus, the ‘burlesque-striptease’ was born. It was a new genre: a hybrid of burlesque and strip-tease. It’s endurance through time and it’s recent renaissance, proves that it has become established as a genre in it’s own right – distinct from both the ‘strip-tease’ and the ‘burlesque’.

British burlesquing has still carried on regardless, relatively unchanged.

I have read articles in which you speak passionately about your efforts to resurrect traditional ‘British Burlesque’ - the term ‘burlesque’ being one that you feel is constantly misused and misapplied…

The difference between the original ‘burlesque’ and the relatively new ‘burlesque-striptease’ is that the latter necessarily contains strip-tease (or adult based entertainment) but the former original, does not.

They were aimed at very different audiences and therefore, were composed and performed very differently. Both ‘Burlesque’ and ‘Strip-tease’ remain independent art-forms in their own right - and should not be confused or ‘interchanged’ with the relatively new ‘burlesque-striptease’.

Essentially we have three clear and distinct forms which are linked by history (Burlesque, Striptease and Burlesque-Striptease) which are often erroneously ‘lumped’ in together, as one genre.

It is important for artistes and bookers to know what their merchandise is and also, what it isn’t. I often worry that the ‘burlesque-word’ has been reduced to a media/press ‘buzz-word’. One which is diluted in it’s meaning. Both the American burlesque-striptease and the classic striptease have enjoyed a lot of press and media attention and are certainly having a renaissance, but the former component of ‘burlesque’ itself has been overlooked and also misrepresented. I feel it’s time to examine it properly, do it justice and give it an all important boost in attention. It too deserves to be celebrated for it’s own merits and rich history. Like striptease, ballet, belly-dancing, magic, circus and anything else we can take inspiration from, the form of ‘Traditional British Burlesque’ also offers performers more ways to add to their repertoires and develop their acts.

As it is not based on any adult forms and has no particular gender bias, it also means that people who do not wish to employ strip-tease can also get involved in the new burlesque scene too.

There are so many unsung heroes of the original ‘burlesque’ genre. There are pioneers of the old satirical form who can still inspire today – e.g. in 1830s, Eliza Vestris was the first woman in Britain to own her own theatre and there, she herself performed as a burlesque performer. She often played a principal boy. Now that’s ‘girl power’.

I feel the press and media have been less than impressive in their research on ‘burlesque’ often apparently opting for corporate press releases rather than research. Fortunately, the burlesque community are increasingly search-savvy themselves and are doing their own research.

Why are you especially proud of the UK burlesque scene, and do you believe it to be superior in some ways to other national movements and the way they interpret the genre in the 21st Century?

I don’t think ‘pride’ is quite the correct word – more a sense of appreciation and perhaps an anxiety for us not to lose sight of the iconic British form whilst we celebrate it’s more glamorous little cousin.

While the American burlesque-strip-tease is wonderful and represents so many great things in itself, it is entirely different from the traditional form of British burlesque and must not be confused with it. Compare American star, Dixie Evans with British duo The Western Brothers and you will see what I mean.

Similarly, we wouldn’t think Monty Python and Bettie Page have much in common either.

No, I do not think that ‘British Burlesque’ is in some way ‘superior’ to other forms. It is different. It deserves to be celebrated for what it is and to be shared and enjoyed as much as any other. Each form should be appreciated and celebrated for it’s own merits. I love them all but I also respect their differences as well as their similarities.

Also, regardless of personal preference in entertainment, it is important to protect and nourish our cultural identities and histories – if we don’t, who will?

You often compare British burlesque with American burlesque. What would be your chief criticisms of modern American performers and how do they differ in particular from those in the UK?

Nationality is not an issue. It’s about being good at what you do and doing what you profess to. I use the terms ‘British burlesque’ and ‘American burlesque-striptease’ to denote difference in genre - not performer nationality.

Many American born/based performers adopt the ‘British’ satirical style themselves and by the same token, many British born/based performers are focussed entirely on American strip-tease and fan dancing etc. Others are focused on other things – Chinese circus, Parisian showgirls, Indian magic, Egyptian bellydance etc.

My only issue is where people are unclear - as they do damage to the wider circuit as well as themselves by misrepresenting a craft. It is the same across the whole of show-business.

Do you remain strictly traditional and conventional in your performances, or do you enjoy experimenting with postmodern reinterpretations? Is the attempt to move on from and/or disregard burlesque traditions always an undesirable one?

I am an Entertainer. My speciality is in the traditional form of British Burlesque. This makes me a comedienne, a satirist and performance artiste, a burlesquer. Therefore, character performing is my personal focus.

Through my burlesques, I love sending up history and culture so, these are reflected in many of my characters. I include my dancing, writing and historical interests when creating a new piece, so my routines do indeed reflect my personality as well as the elements of theatrical ‘tradition’.

As burlesque in Britain, has always generally aimed to burlesque historical events and people, I enjoy keeping that spirit of nostalgia and funning, alive.

In my repertoire of Burlesques, among other things, I send up or ‘burlesque’:

- Victorian notions of sex,
- The image of Britannia,
- The often over-serious personality of
Belly-dancing
- The affectations of cats

I also have one act in homage to the American Burlesque-Strip-tease.  This is my espionage routine (Eye Spy) which was inspired by old photo-comic strips of Bettie Page and is true to the definition of American Burlesque-Striptease - it is a comical skit which results in a contextually relevant strip-tease.

My performance repertoire is deliberately varied as I also enjoy other things too - I love wing dancing and have developed a series of ‘Dream Dances’. These ‘Dream Dances’ are not burlesques – they just happen to be something I love doing.

When you founded the Ministry of Burlesque, did you have a UK readership and British burlesque ‘ethic’ at the forefront of your mind, or did you always intend to reach out to an international base of visitors?

When I first started out, I had no particular ‘plan’ but it has always been an international, all inclusive project. When Ministry of Burlesque was first formed, there was no burlesque ‘scene’, no clubs, no known stars and no meaningful search-engine results for the word itself. It was a personal hobby which became a mission - that eventually took over!

It started as a small group of psychology students who were the dancers for a local musical-comedy band. It grew into something more formal, very gradually. By 2003, the newly named ‘Ministry of Burlesque’ was aimed at encouraging people to take to the stage in a way that was accessible - not daunting or ‘closed’ like many classical entertainment routes can be. The ethic was ‘Why not? – Fun for fun’s sake’

I choreographed routines for solo, duo and troupe activity and our very first acts were indeed of a satirical-comedic nature, all be it with bawdy antics, - a wink-wink-nudge-nudge’, of course.

The very first routine was where we emerged as dancers in ‘burkhas’ and whipped them off to be ‘Carry On’ style belly dancers - oddly enough, dancing to disco.  I’d like to point out that we were very modestly attired underneath.

Following on from that, we developed various other satirical, aesthetic style and silly pieces too and it simply hasn’t stopped.  My favourite endeavour to date has to be ‘Victorian Values’ – the full length burlesque show which burlesque 19th century morals and was played out akin to the early 18th century burlesque format.

I did not foresee how big Ministry of Burlesque would become. However, I always knew it had the potential. I simply wanted to take it as far as I could and make the most of something fun. I wasn’t sure of any particular ‘path’ or personal career through it.

Meeting MoBFather James was the big milestone – he helped take my hobby and turn it in to a business. By helping me spread the message (‘Together We CanCan’) to as many people as possible via the online community, Ministry of Burlesque is now a full time occupation.

Are you excited by the growing popularity of burlesque, and numbers of performers in countries around the world?

Yes and No. Yes because the more people who are having a go, then the more fun that is being had and the more ideas that are being shared. The flipside is that there is an undeniable bandwagon - one which has already cost the newly emerged professional industry a lot of money and effort.

Everyone should feel included and encouraged to have a go. That’s the beauty of it. For those who do wish to pursue it as a formal career, they must remain realistic as well as ambitious. It is important to note that although burlesque is a niche, in becoming an entertainer of any kind, they are entering an established industry called show business – one which insists upon quality and substance in both aptitude and attitude.

Would you rather burlesque did not enter the mainstream and popular culture?

Here in the UK, burlesque was always mainstream. It has always been popular and part of pop-culture.

In Britain, burlesquing never died - it just morphed in to television sketch shows, musicals and bawdy films (Carry On, Monty Python, Borat/Ali-G…). The Swinging Sixties didn’t kill burlesque here because our burlesques were of a different kind of ‘tease’ and were unaffected by the new wave of nudity, free love and such.

If on the other hand, we are referring to the American burlesque-striptease and strip-tease itself, then I really think that a mainstream shift will allow those how wish to have broad appeal, to do so. If you wish to be subversive or underground, then you can choose to remain so - but everyone should have the right to decide where they want to take their art. The more options and opportunity there is - the better.

The two forms are different – they have had different histories and will have different (although linked) futures.

What do you believe the future of British, and indeed International burlesque, to be?

I think that what the overall burlesque resurgence has mainly done, is given a glorious boost to the idea that performing is in fact, totally accessible. It offers a creative and sociable hobby with real opportunities for those who have the desire, aptitude and attitude to follow them.

In America, the burlesque-striptease resurgence has been going on for over a decade and they will continue to celebrate that which is peculiar to their entertainment history and culture. I think that the UK interest in the vintage American style burlesque-striptease will rise and fall and eventually it will find equilibrium with all the other forms of Variety, cabaret and stage craft. I think that the form of British Burlesque will carry on as it always has done and hopefully regain its prime-time live entertainment slot in our comedy loving hearts.

Aside from yourself, who do you see as leading the way as key figureheads in the UK today?

Immodesty Blaize is definitely the leading lady of the striptease-showgirl style of performing in Britain.   She has developed her own style and brand and as such, she has become a fashion/lifestyle icon for many.

As for ‘burlesque’ itself, many of the key protagonists are enshrined in history – Chaucer, Eliza Vestris, Gilbert and Sullivan, Western Brothers etc.

Because ‘burlesque’ itself is in fact an entertainment that does not necessarily attract the glamour/fashion industry, we need to not be distracted by current fashion trends using the ‘b word’ and instead, look to modern day writers and character actors.

Today, we still have Carry On and Monty Python - but only just. As with every generation, the new breed of burlesquers are emerging via television as well as theatre and many of the MoB troupe are indeed trailblazers of this quintessential British genre.

In many ways, Sacha Baron-Cohen is an excellent example of a burlesque superstar.

Like the stand-up circuit, the ‘burlesque circuit’ has very clearly emerged. Again, as with stand-up, the circuits will go on to feed into media and event productions with a lucky few rising to become stars.

Our thanks to Kittie for her time and generosity.

You can see Kittie and an array of burlesque talent at Edinburgh High Tease at the The Voodoo Rooms  on the 7th, 8th and 9th of August.

www.kittieklaw.com
www.ministryofburlesque.com

Images
pg. 21, 22 and 24 by Tas Kyprianou
www.taskyprianou.com

Click here to read the issue.

This edition also features the Gentry de Paris and 2008 Miss Exotic World, Angie Pontani.

To discuss with the online community, visit the MoB forums here.

See here for the clip.

This episode features an interview with the MoB Mother herself, Miss Kittie Klaw who discusses the history of Burlesque as well as a few anecdotes about her career.

Featured in this episode is a sneak preview of a track from the upcoming MOB album sung by Mr Jim Devereaux!

So hold onto your feather boas and enjoy the sheer decadent pleasure of Tassel Time!

Click here to listen to the official podcast hosted by the Decadent Gent on MoB FM….

As High Tease descends on Edinburgh for three nights of frisky ‘Battle of Burlesque’ cabaret, we talk to the doyenne of feline femininity that is the ever-so-charming Kittie Klaw

5 words to describe the High Tease experience
‘Uproarious revue of subversive wit’ or ‘witty, subversive, glamorous, high comedy’.

4 things you love about the acts on the bill
The originality and diversity of the individual performers coupled with a creative team spirit and experimental attitude.

3 things you love about Edinburgh during the Festival
The opportunity, the melting pot of ideas in action that is the Festival and of course, the scenery

2 you hate about Edinburgh in August
There is nothing I hate, but it could do without the biting wind that takes you by surprise and secondly, the predictable few back-biting promoters who try to sabotage other people’s events.

1 thing you would change about the late-night Festival scene
Nothing! The Edinburgh Festival is wonderful because it is exactly so.

Ministry of Burlesque presents: High Tease, The Voodoo Room, 556 7060, 7–9 Aug, 8.30pm-late, £15.

Ministry of Burlesque founder Kittie Klaw tells Time Out why harking back to the Victorian age is a necessary step in looking to the future…

The Ministry of Burlesque started life seven years ago ‘as a bit of escapism from my student life’, says founder Kittie Klaw. Since teaming up with James Malach, the Ministry has grown, says Klaw, into ‘the world’s largest burlesque community and best-known UK organisation’. Not bad for a business that started as a hobby on the side. This week is its first major show in ages – Victorian Values.

‘We wanted to create a British burlesque show,’ says Klaw. ‘So far, the original genre has not be resurrected or reinterpreted since Gilbert and Sullivan. The twentieth century American form of burlesque (which is enjoying a massive revival) was not a continuation of the British form, it was a complete reinterpretation which simply continued to use the same term. People erroneously use the term burlesque when they actually mean “striptease”. The Traditional British Burlesque and the American Burlesque Striptease are the two forms of burlesque theatre. They are a century apart in style and purpose. The drive for doing this show is that British burlesque has gone ignored so far in favour of the American tradition. The British burlesque pre-dates the invention of music hall and was a middle class pursuit of satirical theatre.’

But shouldn’t burlesque’s premier peeps concern themselves with pushing the genre into uncharted territory, rather than presenting a museum piece?

‘Victorian Values is a first in the burlesque world, a celebration of the older British form of burlesque. Besides, the MoB is almost alone in actually making any real effort to move the genre forward. We provide free networking services, forums, listings and advice. Other promoters advertise and sell their tickets through our website – all for free. We support the Exotic World Museum in Las Vegas as well as the Britannia Panopticon Theatre in Glasgow [a restored 150-year-old music hall]. In 2006, we held a general meeting of burlesque performers, agents and promoters to establish a fair charter of conduct for everyone to help prevent exploitation. We were supportive judges at the Exotic World pageant and pleased to see a British striptease queen take the crown.

‘We are equally supportive of and passionate about both forms of burlesque – US and British – and believe it’s time to make room on the burlesque stage for our own heritage too. The number of organisations and groups operating under the name burlesque, who are unaware of the British method’s roots and the impact that it had on the creation of operettas (and later musical theatre) has been deeply disappointing. The burlesque bandwagon is huge and it’s almost entirely focused on striptease. Now there is the danger of the genre being diluted and made insipid with the British tradition being corrupted for good. If we are not careful to make distinctions now, it will either disappear into a box (as the British tradition did) or up a pole (as the US tradition did). There are so many talented performers under the term burlesque. Some are avant-garde, some comedic, some adult-based, some a mix of all three. If we are to debate the exact lines of where burlesque striptease becomes burlesque and where that becomes performance art and where that becomes something else, we will all be talking pointless piffle for years!

Burlesque theatre should be accessible to everyone. This is our mission and, as our motto says, “Together We CanCan”.’

Hello Kittie

Frequently hailed as ‘the Queen of British Burlesque’, 25-year-old Kittie Klaw is at the forefront of the international burlesque renaissance. She is a founder of the Ministry of Burlesque which this month presents High Tease in Glasgow. She tells her story.

The Kittie Klaw story is rather strange. While studying at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities as a psychologist specialising in parapsychology I accidentally became one of the highest-earning and most sought after burlesque artistes in the world…
(more…)

This article first appeared in Fortean Times issue 233, March 2008

Kittie Klaw, nipple tassle-twirling, fan-dancing Queen of Burlesque is one of Britain’s best known burlesque performers, as well as a manager of other burlesque acts and a tutor of skills through her Ministry of Burlesque. She’s famous in the alternative scene as a cover model on the front of ‘fetish’ magazines, and as a burlesque performer at comedy, music and even fetish clubs such as London’s notorious Torture Garden. But – stop tittering at the back there! - I wanted to talk to Ms Klaw about her other passion – parapsychology.

Kittie was celebrating the runaway success of Victorian Values when we met. This is her theatrical-length music hall revue, which sends up the dark side of Victorian hypocrisy, and which had its debut at the suitably grand old Hoxton Hall in East London’s Shoreditch last August. Victorian Values sends up the Victorian séance, and features girls who can carry off that Victorian look well, and who look the part in period ‘tight lace-up corsets.’ Kittie directs and plays several characters in the show, including the two de Winter-Fairbottom twins, Kittie and Lilly. One is a bit of a prude, the other is ‘more experimental.’

Of her plans for future productions of Victorian Values, Kittie says that ‘a West End theatre performance is the Holy Grail at the moment.’ Meanwhile, a shorter, stand-alone sketch taken from Victorian Values, that ‘sexualises’ aspects of the Victorian séance, is doing the rounds as part of Kittie’s regular repertoire. See www.victorianvalues.info for updates.

We began our chat by discussing the connections between Victorian music hall and Spiritualist séances. The expression ‘knocking shop’ to describe a brothel originally comes from the table-rapping spirit world of the séance. The preoccupation with death and ‘the other side’ was often a code for another taboo that couldn’t then be spoken about at all – sex. ‘Sex sells, death compels,’ says Kittie. The hint of eroticism around the séance – sometimes it was more than just a hint – was justified by an ethereal veil of Spiritualist respectability. If you said you believed in the afterlife, you had an explanation when the police came calling and found scantily-clad women in the dark behaving strangely.

Then there’s the example of famous 1850s girl medium Florence Cook (See Fortean Times 179: pages 30-37), who used to disappear into the ‘spirit cabinet’ in séances and give rise to the materialisation of ectoplasmic ‘spirit form’ Katie King, a bawdy character from a pirate family who looked remarkably like Cook, and who would move among the sitters and touch them with remarkably solid hands, and who seemed to enjoy letting the sitters touch her too.

Accordng to Kittie, ‘there has always been a crossover between music hall-style entertainment and belief. Burlesque plays on this.’ Some of the most famous stage mediums, especially the phenomenally popular Davenport Brothers, who started their act in 1859, acknowledged that they were always showmen and never claimed to be mediums. But the Davenports were caught up in the burgeoning Spiritualist movement of the time and their show was hailed as genuine proof of spirit phenomena.

Kittie’s Victorian Values sends up the ‘elaborate farce’ of the Victorian séance. The play’s protagonist, Lord Dashwood, estranged cousin of Queen Victoria, is based on the real Francis Dashwood of the Hellfire Club. In Kittie’s revue, Dashwood is running a fake séance when Queen Victoria walks in, looking to make contact with her dear departed consort Prince Albert. Lord Dashwood panics, but it would be giving away the plot to tell what happens next in the ensuing procession of fake and real phantoms and pint-sized, flapping vampires. Victorian Values also sends up the erotic appeal of Gothic Horror. Kittie describes Gothic Horror’s enduring erotic appeal as ‘legitimised S and M,’ with ‘lots of Freudian sex and death.’ For example, ‘Dracula is the perfect hybrid of Mr Darcy and the Marquis De Sade – ideal husband and depraved sexual mentor in one’.

Victorian Values takes the art of burlesque, which until recently enjoyed a somewhat smutty reputation, back to the traditional burlesque form. Kittie is one of the longest performing artists in the traditional form of burlesque, a tradition for which she vigorously campaigns. Traditional burlesque theatre is largely a British invention from the 18th century, and to ‘burlesque’ (the word can also be a verb) means ‘to send up, satirise and parody.’ The very first burlesque acts were short operettas, which inspired Gilbert and Sullivan. Trad burlesque could be Blackadder-type historical satire. Napoleon was a favourite subject. P.G. Woodhouse’s Jeeves and Wooster are in the tradition of burlesque, which also mocked the class system as well as history, and told a funny story whilst it satirized taboos. The humour also included what Kittie calls ‘body satire.’

How, then, did the association with American strippers come in? The British burlesque performer and former pub landlady Lydia Thompson, after reaching the pinnacle of the British burlesque world, took her successful act to the US in 1868, with her troupe, the British Blondes – ‘none of whom were actually blondes.’ They may in fact have been among the world’s first peroxide blondes. They were dressed as boys, which meant they could show their ankles.

A variety of complex factors led to American burlesque dropping satire. The Depression, and Prohibition complicated US theatre licensing somewhat, and ‘there was no-class system’ to satirize in America, or at least none that Lydia Thompson and the British Blondes could easily discern. Striptease took over the American burlesque genre, but it was still called ‘burlesque’ because the strip acts alternated with stand-up and sketch comics.

Kittie, like Lydia Thompson, came to the performing arts early. Kittie was a professional child ballerina until the age of 12, and some of her burlesque dance routines are en point – right up on tiptoes, ballet-style. But from an early age Kittie showed strong academic achievement, which her school keenly cultivated her science talents. ‘As a girl, if you were one of the few who happened to excel in science, you were automatically pushed to have a career in science.’

A four-year Honours degree in Psychology at Glasgow University followed, with a thesis on ‘remote staring detection,’ in which Kittie felt she got ‘little or no support’ from her department. Glasgow University had just bid unsuccessfully for the Koestler Chair in Parapsychology, (see (See Fortean Times 201: pages 32-39), losing to traditional rivals Edinburgh. While an undergraduate, Kittie was active with the Scottish Society for Psychical Research (SSPR), along with astrophysicist Archie Roy. Kittie took part in investigations of a few a cases of hauntings and related phenomena, but never found anything that was convincing beyond someone’s ‘emotional needs.’

Kittie graduated from Glasgow in 2003 with a good mark in ‘straight’ Psychology and was taken on as a student under the personal supervision of Professor Bob Morris, who headed Edinburgh University’s Koestler Unit, to study for an MsC/PHd in Parapsychology.

Her only year at Edinburgh University was ‘the most difficult year of my life.’ The ‘exorbitant’ fees meant she held down a part-time job alongside her full-time research position, and had to scratch around for bits of funding here and there. She set up the Ministry of Burlesque agency at the turn of the 21st century, but the re-emerging burlesque ‘scene’ was still only in London, and she was travelling to and from London from Edinburgh twice a week to perform. She toured student unions and Scottish venues as one of the dancing girls for local cult band ‘Hugh Reed and the Velvet Underpants’. As one of the band’s dancing girls she often dressed in a makeshift burkha, which she would rip off for some appropriately costumed comedic belly dancing in the style of Carry On Up the Khyber. Her other dance routines included a ‘Producers-esque’ ‘naughty Nazis, satirical comedy rich in ironic slap-dancing and wrestling, very tongue in cheek.’

Meanwhile, Bob Morris was very supportive, and Kittie has fond memories of ‘many an eccentric chat, end of term parties at his house, (Bob) in his inimitable style, extremely charismatic.’ But Kittie’s research project was dogged by strange mishaps and coincidences.

The experimental part of Kittie’s Masters/PhD research followed from ‘remote staring detection,’ in the area of Direct Mental Interaction with Living Systems (DMILS, pronounced ‘dee mills’). ‘You don’t want to say “ESP,” it’s a wee bit “woolly”. It’s a loaded phrase, full of implications… The DMILS research is the examination of a communicative phenomenon which could easily be completely normal but not yet understood. Perhaps even evolutionary.’

At the Koestler Unit, Kittie looked into ‘anomalous transfer of information between creative individuals.’ She found acrobat twins and lifelong double act jugglers from the Edinburgh festival. There were reasonable and pedantic questions raised by research staff about the definition of ‘creative,’ however, ‘nobody bothered to point out that the computer system was suspected of being broken at the time. Only after I reported it, did anyone offer the knowledge that it had been acting up for some time, unbeknown to myself or Professor Morris.’ The research involved one person in a ‘creative’ team meditating on impressions seen by an other in a different room, whilst being shown a random sequence of scenes on video. Kittie became convinced that the sequences weren’t showing in a random order - that they were appearing in an pattern.

The department had to take apart the ‘broken’ computer system, to eliminate the possibility it was a computer fault leading to this apparent non-random pattern in video sequences. Instead, Kittie and Bob had to use slides from the 1970s, which were difficult to run, and the subjects they’d brought in for the original experiment with the video begun to move on as the festival left town.

Then ‘the rest of the equipment started to fail.’ Monitors and light bulbs started to go wrong, a computer cable melted. There were so many electrical faults that it became a running departmental joke that Kittie was jinxed. Bob showed her books on people who appear to interact with electricity. Kittie was ‘trying to be cheerful’ about all this bizarre equipment failure. She re-calls Bob, joking, after the third projector/hardrive/general systems failure: ‘One of us isn’t going to make it to the end of this’. Bob died suddenly in August 2004 (see obituary in (See Fortean Times 192: pages 26-27). In the time leading up to his death, Kittie had dreams of attending Bob’s funeral. She took his death as a final signifier that ‘I’m not meant to be doing this.’ Her performing work was taking over by then and she decided parapsychology was something she could always come back to…

But the paranormal had come into Kittie’s life long before she chose a career in parapsychology. She had a near death experience aged 10, as a result of an allergic reaction. Another childhood experience she describes was a ‘bizarrely accurate vision of the death of Princess Diana a year before she died… ‘A black shadow from the North West Atlantic coming over Paris, the sensation of being trapped in a tunnel at high speed,’ the feeling that she should ‘watch her back.’ Kittie has also had shared dreams with people/or witnessed other peoples’ dreams as they dreamt them.

She grew up in East Kilbride, south of Glasgow, although she didn’t know at the time it is a ‘UFO hotspot’. The sky round her house would be full of the searchlights of helicopters chasing escapees from the mental hospital over the moors. She remembers one night watching a searchlight moving around in the sky above the woods for ten minutes, ‘then I realised there was no sound beyond the rustling of trees, I couldn’t see a craft, just the light – not a source.’

Kittie’s interest in Ufology extends to a friendship with Ufologist Nick Pope, who got in touch with her after reading her interview in a UFO magazine. Says Kittie of Nick Pope, ‘he’s a lovely gent.’

Fortunately, Kittie saw the funny side of Ufology, as evidenced by the three-minute alien abduction burlesque routine, written by Kittie but still awaiting a debut. This skit ‘burlesques’ (sends up) The X-Files with a chorus line of aliens. It’s got ‘a medical Carry On style sequence, complete with alien surgical clichés referencing what people actually report. Although, as it is a burlesque, we don’t show any of the more “intimate” horrors.’

On a more serious note, Kittie says ‘I still have a problem with electricity… I once famously crashed the whole library network at Glasgow University.’ Bob Morris saw her apparent allergic reaction to electricity, which Kittie’s business partner and fiancé James, an IT expert and world-class programmer, can confirm. Says Kitty, ‘I go through laptops at an alarming rate, I have been known to interfere with TV signals, I get headaches and rashes when vacuum cleaners and computers power up. Light bulbs rarely last around me, cameras often don’t work and I have allergic reactions to the London Underground (seriously!) – I’ve often wondered if it’s the electricity… I get dizzy, over-hot and develop a sudden peculiar rash.’

Then there was the time she participated in an experiment in Glasgow in which electrodes were attached to her head, and they didn’t pick up any data from her at all. This is supposed to happen ‘only if you’re dead.’

BBC Scotland once engaged Kittie as a ‘psychic detective’ as part of a programme that followed young paranormal investigators working in the reputedly haunted Britannia Panopticon Music Hall at Glasgow’s Trongate. At 150 years old, the Panopticon is Britain’s oldest surviving intact music hall. It’s said that it didn’t burn down -– like all the other Glasgow music halls – as there was so much urine soaked into in the wood. Stanley Laurel debuted at the Panopticon aged 16 in 1906, and Kittie has done fundraising gigs for the venue.

The investigators of Kitty’s SSPR team started with some serious archive research and then set up equipment in various parts of the Panopticon – ‘TV cameras, infra-red cameras, mini-disc digital recorders to record EVP, absolutely nothing happened.’ The BBC team suggested focusing on a mediumship demonstration from a circle of people who believed themselves to be psychic. The result was ‘wordy, incongruous to facts and rather dull actually. It wasn’t data that we could use.’

While Kittie’s team was setting up, there were – understandably given the age of the venue – ‘knocking noises from the pipes (which the BBC got excited about and filmed three times). The suggestion that it was in fact plumbing was vetoed.’ The whole investigation was a ‘non-conclusive event. Those who went in believing came out believing, those who didn’t were unchanged.’

Kittie stressed that the SSPR have many mediums among their members and on its council. SSPR mediums attended the Panopticon vigil as part of the investigation. For this investigation, ‘myself and a few colleagues were approaching from a scientific viewpoint and had designed the vigil as such. Were at loggerheads with certain (other) mediums who showed little regard for the importance of protocol and ignored our requests for structure.’

After the death of Bob Morris, strange stuff continued to happen. During a photo shoot for a Marquis magazine at the Erotic Museum of Hamburg, Kittie was posing with straw and porcelain Victorian theatre dummy, when a soft, masculine voice came to her in German, and the dummy’s eyes appeared to look at her. ‘No way! I’ve not enough sleep,’ Kittie told herself. She ‘didn’t tell anyone for a few hours, (thinking) it could be lack of sleep.’ Then she found that the incident coincided with the failure of the photographer’s camera, and her boyfriend said that at the same time he’d chased a light up the museum’s stairs - the same stairs which a fellow model fell down on a shoot shortly before. ‘So many people had experiences’ of the very specific space, Kittie found out. Photography equipment seizing up on Kittie Klaw modelling shoots is, she says, something that happens often.

For the moment, being a global burlesque phenomenon and etrepraneur pretty much precludes a return to professional parapsychology any time soon. Kittie says she remains a sceptic in the academic sense, ‘I haven’t yet formed a firm belief’ one way or another. How does Kittie’s grounding in the science of parapsychology inform how she feels about the strange things that keep happening to her? ‘Studying parapsychology keeps me rational about it. To say that I’m only going to consider certain possibilities, that’s ridiculous… I’ve always maintained my interest in the paranormal… I’m a sceptical enquirer in the academic sense, but a fascinated enquirer with a desire to be convinced.’

‘Sceptic,’ according to Kittie, is a word that has come into disrepute over the years, like ‘burlesque’.

See also www.kittieklaw.com

© Matt Salusbury 2007