Hendrick's Gin - Burlesque

burlesque (a theatrical entertainment of broad and earthy humor; consists of comic skits and short turns and sometimes striptease) - from WordNet Search

You can probably imagine what a burlesque would look like, in New Orleans, at Tales of the Cocktail, sponsored by Hendrick's Gin...

Charlotte Voisey, the great Brand Ambassador for Hendrick's meets us outside of the entrance door. Dressed as a Fairy, Charlotte must have enjoyed all of the attention when she walked through the door to be greated by hundreds of attendees waiting for the event to start.

Chained to the gates upon entering the room were two creatures like this. Almost disguised enough to say they weren't people, the creatures flailed their arms at unsuspecting party goers as they walked by. I'm sure by the end of the night it was pretty hot under the costumes.

A pair of the entertainers, brightly dressed and wandering throughout the room during the night. The gentleman, if you can call him that, was leashed and guided by his mistress. Get too close and he'd hiss at you. Later, these two put on a great show for the crowd up on stage. My camera failed to take a decent picture so you won't see them.

Random entertainers were spread out through the room and this is another example of some of the costumes that were made for the show.

Almost Alice in Wonderlandlike, this young lady was part of the table you see here. Of course the drinks were replenished throughout the night so if you wanted a quick chat with a table and a fresh drink, you didn't have to go far.

Speaking of drinks, here are the bartenders for the night. My apologies for not getting their names, but as you can see they were very busy. The line-up stretched into the room and they were doing a wonderful job shaking up some great cocktails.

One more random encounter, the aerobatic swinging girl. Why wouldn't you have one in a truly unusual experience? Carine was nice enough to acquire a drink for the poor girl, who by late evening was getting rather thirsty.

The crowd was deep, the lighting poor and our old camera didn't take very many usable pictures of the show itself. This part of the show involved this young lady using fire and removing most of her clothing. No, the clothes didn't burn off, they were flung to the floor to be gathered up at the end by a very strange creature (I'll have to find a picture someone else took).

Here we conclude the photos of the burlesque with one more entertainer. This is early in her show as the clothing got even less as she went on. As the definition at the top of the page says, and sometimes striptease

Ok, I mentioned the strange creature cleaning the stage after each show, well here she is. Thanks Cheryl Charming for this photo!

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