Secrets out, I am a burlesque performer and pinup model. Hello. It all sounds super glamorous, and sometimes it is, but mostly it’s not. I’m here to break it down. How I came to learned about burlesque, why I became interested in doing it, and ultimately how I became the award winner performer I am today (yes, I said award winning. I’m fancy that way).

It’s safe to say I grew up loving the old Hollywood glamor. My mother and grandmother, who helped raise me, love to antique and would expose to me to lots of old movies of Audrey Hepburn, Esther Williams, and Marilyn Monroe, along with countless musicals and vaudevillian type things. I remember seeing plays, touring magic shows and other live events which just fueled my wonder and imagination. Of course, growing up in a time when Madonna was queen and Britney and Christina were also rising to the top helped. You see these women singing and dancing across stages like there was no tomorrow!

As I became older, I discovered Bettie Page. I was probably 12. I know because we did actually have internet in the home already so I would search on whatever non-Google search engine I used. Through my hours of pouring over her photos it would link me to other pinups of day past and burlesque performers like Tempest Storm, who she even did a video with. It also brought me to rising star Dita Von Teese, now the Queen of Modern Burlesque. It was around this time the Pussycat Dolls troupe was becoming popular too, so burlesque was becoming a bit of a thing.

I loved it all. The rhinestones, sequins and feathers. The beautiful, elaborate lingerie pieces. Garters, corsets, stockings. I was sold. It quickly became an obsession and I started wearing them all the time. To this day I hate regular tights and still cut many tights to thigh highs so I can wear them with a garter belt. Way more comfortable.

I would watch videos and look at pictures online all the time as I got older and into college. I had a boyfriend at the time who was controlling, so he was against me even seeing a show! Obviously that relationship didn’t last, and when I moved onto my own an old friend from high school and I reconnected. He was an actor with a local education theater, but also did burlesque with a troupe in Flint Michigan, called the Fischer Bodies. The boylesque performer was Twiggy Boylust. I went to a show of theirs and was totally hooked. I had no idea something like this existed near me!

I started going to shows more, showed my support on Facebook, and took part in their workshop. Before the work shop I was already day dreaming about what my name would be, what my persona would be like, and what songs to perform to and how in the hell would I afford those outfits? Eventually, I came up with the name Lolo Lombard. Lolo, a nickname I was given in school, and Lombard being a nod to Carol Lombard, the Hollywood starlet who was married to Clark Gable and tragically died in a plane crash.

To this day, I still go back to the playlist I created on Spotify of songs I would like to make burlesque numbers too. Some songs I’m like ‘Really, Lolo? Come on.” and quickly remove. But when the song sounds right I can imagine every step and reveal, and every detail of the costume.

I feel like now is a good time to put out there that I do not have the perfect body, and no one does. Everyone I have ever met has something they would change about themselves. So of course when you lack confidence in something it can be hard to bare it all (well, most of it anyway). Oddly enough, I feel like it has made me more confident. Like, “Yeah, this my body. Admire it while I am allowing it.” And in a day and age where women are constantly fighting to have control over their bodies, it’s great to have that consent as to what I will and will not show, and to also being as serious or as silly as I want to be.

After seeing a few shows, giving my support, (fangirling a bit over them at events….), and attending the workshops, The Fischer Bodies asked me to stage kitten for them. A stage kitten would normally come in between sets, pick up and clothing stripped off and set any props or anything that would be needed for the next act. Usually, a stage kitten is wearing some sort of lingerie or burlesque-worthy outfit. Pretty much every performer starts as a kitten, and even some established performers will still kitten for others out of love and respect.

Kittening for a Fischer Bodies show is like that and more. Normal shows for the Fischer Bodies are more intense shows, more like a theatrical play with lines and burlesque happening within scenes. So in addition to picking up clothing, you have to be up for pretty much anything. I have been furniture, and auctioneer girl, and even stepped in to be MC for my two burlesque mama's Dish Delish and Victoria Nightshade when they performed at a metal bar in Cleveland, Ohio.

Eventually through all my efforts they recognized I was very serious about this, so they gave me an audition. New Year's Eve they were doing a variety show at a local gay bar. They invited me and one other potential to do a solo act. I work so hard on that number for over a month, and it really showed. I had never felt more on point in my life. I was formerly asked to become an official member of The Fischer Bodies, and a real burlesque performer!

It's been a few years now, and it was slow at first. This year has changed a lot though. Fellow Fischer Body Dish Delish and I created a duet title ‘The Maid’ where I, the sexy maid, has to follow around my drunk boss and she drunkenly takes off her clothing from a night out, in which I end up taking off her clothing for her. Eventually I get so fed up I strip off my uniform and storm off. This duet even won the award of Masters of Comedy at the 2016 Michigan Burlypick Regionals, allowing us to compete for Master of Comedy at Burlypicks 2016 in Pittsburgh. Now I have three festivals under my belt and am starting to feel like I have arrived. I’m not winning any top awards yet, but I’m still learning and growing. The community overall is extremely open and friendly and encouraging. Even if I am never top dog (which I never expect to be), I have set out to do what I wanted and I have no intention of stopping anytime soon.