Click here to read the issue.

The current 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.

 Kittie is set to appear for 3 nights only at the Edinburgh Festival:

Ministry of Burlesque presents the infamous, notorious and uproarious ‘HIGH TEASE’ show at the Edinburgh Festival!

Ministry of Burlesque are hosting Edinburgh High Tease featuring “Battle of Burlesque” heats in conjunction with Bizarre Magazine, Rhymes with Purple & The Voodoo Rooms

This event is an uproarious evening of tremendously witty, dangerously frisky and oddly eccentric antics and acts handpicked from the festival’s hottest stars and London’s premier circles. Hosted by the King of lyrical carnage, Mr. Desmond O’Connor (winner of best lyricist in the 2007 MTM:UK Fringe Awards) and featuring London’s favourite Vaudeville and international burlesque stars, Sirens of stage and an assortment of nostalgic musical treats. This show is guaranteed to tickle more than just your fancies.

Furthermore, amidst the choreographed mayhem and magic, there will be a prestigious contest in the name of glossy weird-world favourite, Bizarre Magazine, who are searching for whacky and inspiring people. With strategic ‘insider’ advice from Scots agents Rhymes With Purple, this Battle of Burlesque is a war of wits where pre-selected and talented contestants take to the stage to battle it out for supremacy and prizes! The winners will also go on to perform at the Bizarre Ball, London set for 10th October.

Be part of this riotous, theatrical milestone in new world of Variety!

The Cast List

Desmond O’Connor
Rhymes With Purple
Dolores Delight
Gypsy Charms and Viva Misadventure
Missy Malone
And Ministry of Burlesque founder Miss Kittie Klaw

with special guests
US Burlesque star Kitten on the Keys (Thursday 7th)
Molly Crabapple – Founder of ‘Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School’ and performer extraordinaire! (Friday 8th)
Pustra and Vile-een – London’s most talked about Vaudeville duo and stars of The Devil May Drag You Under (Saturday 9th)

Book Now!
Event contents may be filmed for MoB and Bizarre use.

From 8.30 p.m ’til late Performance begins at 9.00 p.m.
To book: http://www.thevoodoorooms.co.uk/events-ministry-of-burlesque.php
Advance tickets £15 (stbf) from Tickets Scotland, Ripping, Underground Solushun, The Voodoo Rooms, online at www.ticketweb.co.uk or by phone on 0132 220 3234.

More info at
http://www.battleofburlesque.com
http://www.ministryofburlesque.com
http://www.bizarremag.com/

See here for the clip.

Thrusday 24th July sees the re-launch of the newly restored Grand Hotel in Jersey. This beautiful 1890s Victorian hotel was once the lavish luxury retreat of the Royals and has enjoyed many parties thrown by the Queen herself.  Our own “Recherché leader  of the Reanissance” Kittie, will usher in a new era in this landmark building’s historic existence withbawdy antics.

Kittie will perform selected pieces from her highly befitting Victorian Values show including her notorious ‘Toff and Tales’ double act with the highly talented Mr. Jim Devereaux.

It contains various inclusions from Kittie and her Ministry of Burlesque too.  Be sure to get a copy and read all about Britain’s great history and culture of burlesquing, the UK’s best and the world’s most bizarre acts, an intervuiew with striptease queen Dita Von Teese and a look at the ‘darker side’ of the ‘Golden Era’ of American burlesque.

Visit Bizarre to find out more about the magazine and the forthcoming Battle of Burlesque contests and Bizarre Ball set for October 10th at SEONE in London.

The Burlesque Special is out on 5th Juy.

Now moving forward with new media and events partners, the future looks exceedingly exciting for the MoB.

Read the offical statement… (more…)

The series begins on Channel 5, this June. Tune in for ‘How to Do Everything’ show (inspired by the book of sexperts Em and Lo) to see Kittie train a new performer (Miss Rose duBois) to seduce her lover from the spotlight of the stage….

This years celebrated Cannes Film Festival will see an exciting new addition to the line up of A-list attractions and party places.

Custom Media have invited Kittie and the Ministry of Burlesque to hold court and entertain at the The M1NT Festival House where the famously ostentatious M1NT world of wealth and exuberance meets the very best of vintage entertainment to provide a private party experience for hob-knobbing film festival glitterati at this beautiful 3 acre villa in the heart of the festival.

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….

Interviewed by Matt Salusbury last year, the current edition of Fortean Times features a fascinating article on “London’s Burlesque Queen” Kittie Klaw.

Get a copy today to read up on her darker, spookie side.

Before becoming an international burlesque star, Kittie was well known for her expertise in the ‘paranormal’ – It’s totally true!

Having been an official paranormal investigator for private investigations, a lab research student, a consultant to the BBC and as a graduate of the renowned Koestler Parapsychology Unit of Edinburgh University, Kittie might just surprise you a little more than usual this month.

After a life time of ‘unusual experiences’, Kittie makes for a rather unusual pinup icon - one who evokes the avant-garde in both art and science.

Article features images by Doralba Picerno (pictured above) and Tas Kyprianou.

Check out the FT website - The Fortean Times

Kittie and the very cream of her Ministry of Burlesque have been invited to host the VIP and press room for the elite and lavish Metropolitan Hotel on Old Park Lane for the forthcoming Fashion Week (11th-14th February).

The infamous Pink Drinks Party on the evening of 12th will also see Kittie and Co making a daring show of their friendships with top theatrical designers including What Katie Did, Yuki (of Yukiness Wigs) and Terry De Havilland couture shoes.

With her own selection of handpicked burly inspired designers, interactive games and tuition featuring performers from Britain’s best, this exclusive 4 day fashion highlight is the word on every fashionista’s pout.

Press should contact Ministry of Burlesque for details and interviews.

Summer of 2007 saw Kittie and her MoB Academy working hard to create the first professional instructional guide – suitable for all eager, active and arm chair burlesquers!

Priced at only £12.99 (+P&P), this easy to follow step-by-dainty step guide is the ultimate professional guide for all aspiring burlesque starlets and features the essential performance skills, techniques and theatre facts needed to make it in the entertainment world as a real burlesque performer.

This guide is perfect for anyone wishing to get started, get ahead - or simply get their tassels on.

Click her to order your copy Now!

High Tease appears at the beautiful Hanbury Club in Brighton.Tickets are £15. Book via the Hanbury Club for dinner reservations.

http://www.thehanburyclub.com/modx/

Come and join the uproarious ‘High Tease’ Burlesque Spectacular on Thursday 20^th December for a decadent evening of frisky burlesque frolics, witty cabaret and festive lyrical carnage in the MoB’s naughty with spice, ‘Festive Pantymime’ revue!

Presented by the infamous Ministry of Burlesque and hosted by the ‘Dark Prince of Cabaret’ himself, Mr Dusty ‘Dorian Black’ Limits, High Tease is a showcase of the very best professional acts in London.

Starring 1^st class burlesque routines from:

- MoB Founder, Miss Kittie Klaw – “The Recherché Stage-Fox!”,
- The adorable Lord Dashwood – “Tickling Fancies since 1848!”
- Seductive guises from Mr Jim Devereaux – “The Silken Charmer of a Thousand Voices”,
- The delicate curves of Miss Vicky Butterfly – “The Dainty Ecdysiast”
- Elven frolics from the incomparable Miss FiFi Darling – “The Frisky Thesp of Burlesque!”
- and the ‘rather respectably raunchy’ adventures of Toff and Tales – “Utterly Spiffing British burlesque Duo!

Kittie performs with her Ministry of Burlesque in this Festive Spectacular in London’s prestigious Met Bar.Come and join the uproarious ‘High Tease’ Burlesque Spectacular on Wednesday 19^th December for a decadent evening of frisky burlesque frolics, witty cabaret and festive lyrical carnage in the MoB’s naughty with spice, ‘Festive Pantymime’ revue!

Presented by the infamous Ministry of Burlesque and hosted by the ‘Dark Prince of Cabaret’ himself, Mr Dusty ‘Dorian Black’ Limits, High Tease is a showcase of the very best professional acts in London.

(more…)

Today Kittie toured the radio stations and magazine offices as part of her campaign to help Britain get Filthy. Meeting personalities like Eamon Holmes, Neil Fox and John Osbourne and posing for personal photographs with editors and celebrities was just one of the many highlights of the tour.

Look out for Kittie and the Filthy Food company in publications such as FHM, Loaded, Maxim, GQ, Bizarre, Arena, Men’s Health and many more!

Those who were listening to the radio today will have heard Terry Wogan and other presenters give credit to the delicious merits of the chocs - so be told and Get Filthy!

Kittie is one hand with MoB co-stars Gypsy Charms and Viva Misadventure to add some burlesque sparkle and oomph to the proceedings. Will Gok get his tassels out?

(more…)

Kittie is putting her name to the dizzying merits of a new range of sumptuous chocolate desserts from those naughty culinary wizards at the Filthy Food Company.Their new ‘Obsessed by Pleasure’ range includes chocolate treats so filthy in their indulgent nature, that you’d need to wash down each sinful bite with champagne in order to cleanse your palate before the next wave of luxury ingredients.

Look out and listen up for Kittie as she pairs up with Filthy to promote pleasure and seduction to the masses in a forthcoming campaign of magazine and radio appearances!

The new edition of Mal Life from Malmaisson and Publicis-Blueprint is circulating hotels, bars and design offices with Queen Kittie charging in on the cover as a modern image of Britannia. Images were shot by Fergus Greer and cover illustrated by Sarah Howell. and the magazine features a story on how the internet changed Kittie’s life - how the online growth of Ministry of Burlesque, spearheaded by James Malach, has led to so much success.

Brighton lifestyle magazine Kaleidoscope interviewed Kittie about the world of Burlesque just before a show at the Hanbury Club and here is the resulting article…click to see the article… (more…)

Kittie has returned from the UK’s most beautiful city, Edinburgh after a triumphant party for the Vegas! 10th birthday extravaganza where she headlined in a glittering, kooky tribute to Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas.Described as ”Burlesque Superstar” by the Scotland’s leading events publication The List, Kittie was also interviewed about her experience as a Vegas! regular and supporter of this pioneering vintage club.

Kittie has been muse once again to the exceptional talents of U.S Pin Up artist, Jessica Dougherty.Jessica is a celebrated artist working in the USA and her website is offering original artworks and merchandise too.

Follow on to see a larger image of the painting. (more…)

Today, Matt Salusbury interviews Kittie on her rather more ‘dark’ and spookie side. Kittie is well known for her expertise in ‘the paranormal’ - having been an official paranormal investigator for private investigations, lab research and even on camera for the BBC and as a graduate of the renowned Koestler Parapsychology Unit of Edinburgh University where she was the last ever student of the late and great Professor R.L Morris.After a life time of unusual experiences, Kittie makes for a rather unusual pinup icon - one who evokes the avant-garde in both art and science. Interview due out in the forthcoming February edition of The Fortean Times !

On 26th, Kittie by special request and a selection of her favourite Ministry of Burlesque performers are to entertain at the prestigious Met Bar in London’s Park Lane. The party is a special one for the MoB as it is not only a members party for their friends at the Met Bar but it is also an impromptu birthday bash for The MoBFather (James)… See here for more details.

On 18th, Kittie opens the fashion show for Eternal Spirits luxury lingerie along with her Ministry of Burlesque cohorts. The celebrity bash is held at the Crystal Room and she is also interviewed for Fashion TV.

Today, Kittie was shooting exclusive shots for Mal Magazine with leading fashion photographer Fergus Greer. The images are to highlight an interview with Kittie which explores the story of how the internet changed her life. Kittie’s burlesque career began with the humble origins of a hobby during university life where as a double psychology graduate she looked for escapism in performance art.

Her ‘mission’ became formally known as the ‘Ministry of Burlesque’ in 2001 and was turned head over high heels by James Malach’s entrepreneurial expertise in 2005. Today, The Ministry of Burlesque receives over 16,000 unique visitors and is globally acknowledged as a dominant force on the burlesque scene.

Another of the MoB’s monthly installments of frisky burlesque and uproarious cabaret at the Hanbury Club. Show produced by Ministry of Burlesque.

Evidence that Kittie is at least ‘OK!’ has emerged on the shelves. This week’s OK! magazine features snaps from the event including Kittie’s wing dance.Next week she get’s ‘better’ in an ironic play on words - Kittie shoots for a spread and interview for Mal magazine (’Mal’ however is used as an abbreviation and not intended as the French word for ‘ill’).

Kittie and The Ministry of Burlesque return to Glasgow for a special fund raising High Tease show on 16th September. The event is designed to help restore the Britannia Panopticon Theatre which 150 years old this year and marks a unique history in British entertainment.This special show has a special guest star too - Miss Immodesty Blaize - who was crowned Miss Exotic World 2007 this year in Las Vegas where Kittie and James were judges at this prestigious affair.

The show takes place in Oran Mor in Glasgow’s west end and tickets are tipped to sell fast. also appearing are Dusty Limits, Des O’Connor, Fancy Chance, Sugar Kane, Lucky Charms, Gypsy and Viva and many others.

Tickets (standing and seated with dinner) are available online here.

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.

‘TICKLE MY FANCY’
British Burlesque: Funny Ha-Ha or Funny Peculiar?

The art of traditional (sometimes known as ‘classical’) Burlesquing is currently being thoroughly misrepresented and therefore misunderstood. It is not the same thing as the 20th and 21st century strip-tease cultures. It has in actual fact, very little to do with glamour, striptease, American fashion trends or the adult industry. Instead, it has everything to do with satire, theatre, comedy, spectacle and social change.

Any assertion otherwise, is an attempt to further an already misdeirected bandwagon.

The true story of classical burlesque in Britain is one of social commentary, taboo breaking and indeed - it is one of genuine female empowerment through the Arts. To fully appreciate the importance and significance of classical burlesquing in British entertainment and why it is now so misunderstood, we must thoroughly examine it’s roots, it’s history and it’s wayward adventures in language.

“Burlesque literally means, to send-up, satirise or make mockery of.” This has never changed.

Burlesques are deliberate and purposeful send ups. They are devised, planned and written to affect change in opinion or provoke a reaction. They are performed to tease – to make fun of.  It’s endurance and influence in popular culture both here and abroad is as rich and puissant as was Victoria’s Empire.

Largely unchanged in 500 years, the British tradition of burlesquing exemplifies the very essence of what makes British humour so peculiar to Brits. We laugh best when we are ‘not supposed to’.

We rib, jest, fun and extract the Michael given any opportunity. We are a nation of self-effacers and eye pokers with a repressed penchant for guilty pleasures.  It therefore comes as no surprise that we just love to dress up, act out and get bawdy - and the bigger the taboo, the bigger the laugh. And we did it best, in the Burlesque Theatre.

British burlesquing has a rich and impressive history with a lot to say for itself but today, it is subject to much misinterpretation. Many of the misconceptions about this quintessential British form comes from retrospective prejudice, lexical laziness, continental mid-drifts and an epidemic of press releases over research.

For example: Because Music Halls attracted working class audiences and burlesques were at one point performed in Music Halls, it is often assumed that the working class audiences would not have understood anything beyond the low brow owing to their social status and therefore the form must have aimed ‘low’.

Such suggestions are utter piffle.

Having always been a popular culture entertainment, born out of middle class writers, the form although full of double-entendre (and a nudge, nudge, wink, wink) did not necessarily contain anything of an adult-only nature. British burlesque was always performed by men and women alike and typically involved song, dance and physical comedy. Evolving from the pens of journalists, satirists and poets, burlesques were always considered witty, intellectual and high brow. They were in fact supported by top Oxford scholars and critics. It was subversive, creative and boundary breaking - and it still is.

In fact, British burlesque with some historical peculiarity, seems to have been an industry in which the women, quite literally wore the trousers.

But where did it all begin? No doubt, for arguments sake, burlesquing originally began when the first man (probably a woman really) decided to take the piss out of his cave-neighbour’s haircut by wearing a dead stoat on his head and mincing around for the amusement of others, but speculation aside, the British form has an exceptionally vast history which transcended continents and centuries of cultural difference.

- Threading the Sequins Together -

The form was notably refined through the poetry of Hipponax of Ephesus in 6th Century, and no doubt through many unsung others peculiar to their own loci and eras of influence. One could even argue that some religious doctrines are in fact burlesques of others – who ever said that God didn’t have a sense of dry irony?

Similarly as the Greeks, in Britain our fixation with poetic burlesquing can be seen in the 14th century verse and prose ‘The Canterbury Tales’ by Geoffrey Chaucer.

However, in terms of what we mean by the British tradition of burlesque theatre, we are talking about a form which evolved out of a soupy cocktail of social politics, entrepreneurialism and a national obsession with puns. The form took shape in the 18th century through caricaturists, satirists and the ‘burletta’ playwrights O’Hara and O’Keefe with the form gaining popularity and style in the 19th century through elaborate stage craft and production values. It’s punchy attitude has endured in our arts, media and tabloid headlines ever since.

Traditionally, a burlesque show was a cheeky satire of a known opera, play or historical event. It had a plot, a cast, a witty musical score, high production values - and a point.

In a country where Italian operas and theatre plays were often a privilege for the few, it’s not hard to see why the Italian word for ‘mockery’ would become an English turn of phrase for ‘mock Italian opera’.  Bored of the sober-serious nature of operas, writers developed laugh-out-loud spoofs packed full of political puns and social shtick. So here, the ‘burlesque theatre’ was christened - in name and personality, subverting the need for respect and making a mockery of it’s deeply established roots. The audible yawns became roaring laughter.

Burlesque was thus, a wayward offspring cut from the same cloth as it’s classical parent, but instead of following suit (boomboom), it turned on it’s heel and presented a well bred, delicately gloved middle finger to it’s critics and audiences alike.

It’s power to make bold political, religious and social commentary was also not overlooked by either. Laughter is a reaction, not an emotion and humour has always allowed us to explore even the most taboo of subjects. The power to burlesque something equalled the power to have it frankly discussed in public.

Burlesque is entirely based on caricature-characterisation. In many ways, it is a high-brow pantomime which lampoons some high –society trend or issue. It transcends demographics and pokes fun at everything and everyone.

In understanding Britain’s bawdy burlesque backdrop, we need to examine where it all took shape.

It was easily the late 18th and early 19th century burlesques of the great operas (i.e. Moncreiff’s ‘Giovanni in London’ - a burlesque of ‘Don Giovanni’) that started a cultural revolution of all singing and dancing, slapstick, gender-bending, toe-tapping Travesties.

It may surprise many ‘female empowerment’ protagonists to learn that in burlesque, the real unsung heroes and heroines were undoubtedly found backstage as well as on stage. The pioneers of the old satirical form are truly inspirational and yet are almost lost under the waves of misconceptions and modern marketing myth.

For example, in 1817, opera singer Eliza Vestris became arguably, the first burlesque star when she played Don Giovanni in Moncreiff’s famous burlesque. In 1831 Eliza also became the first woman in Britain to control her own theatre – one which she dedicated to burlesque (The Olympic Theatre, Wych Street).

In her employ, Eliza commissioned the best. She comissioned Mr. James Robinson Planché (a satirical writer for Punch magazine) to write burlesques for her theatre. Planché also pioneered the art of historical accuracy in costuming in British theatre and his wife too, went on to write shows for Eliza’s theatre.

Subverting the gender-roles and norms even further, Madame Vestris continued to tread the boards herself, dressed as a ‘principal boy’, clad in figure-hugging ankle worthy breeches. Her legs are reputed to have inspired many poems and plaster replicas that gentleman could keep at home, although the casts stopped ‘just above the knee’.

So here we have Eliza - a star, a male impersonator, an entrepreneur, a producer, a manager and a woman. Now that’s ‘girl power’.

This seductively talented, eye-wateringly costumed, role-playing, historically detailed disregarding of political correctness coupled with lyrical ingenuity, high production values and the incessant use of the immortal ‘pun’ have made up the backbone of British burlesque ever since.

The early 19th century works (i.e. Planché’s ‘Olympic Revels’ and his ‘Baron Factotum - The Great Grand Lord Everything’) were also the inspiration behind much of the subsequent work of Gilbert and Sullivan. Burlesque therefore, is oft regarded as the roots of Musical Theatre itself. Gilbert and Sullivan were practical jokers and proud of their own burlesquing – they deliberately included blatant and saucy burlesques of important figures including HRH Queen Victoria herself. In ‘Iolanthe’, Queen Victoria is cheekily portrayed as the Queen of Fairies gagging after her magical lover (John Brown).

In the 1860s, British burlesque star, Lydia Thompson having exhausted her stardom here (and becoming tired of the continent), set sail for the USA. To join her, she created an all girl troupe known as the ‘British Blondes’ of whom legend has it, that none were actually blo