Filmmaker and nightlife entrepreneur Leah Meyerhoff is the director of the titillating Team Queen music video, featuring music by the queer- post-punk phenomenon Triple Crème.
Calling her production "a gender-bending, fire-breathing, burlesque-performing, post-punk rock 'n roll prom," Leah has cast the "quadruple cream" of New York burlesque, including "the hardest working middle-aged man in show business, Murray Hill, dancer and performance artist Julie Atlas Muz, Scarlet Sinclair, Tigger, and that stiletto-heeled, pointy-eared MC Scotty the Blue Bunny.
Summing up the "plot" of the video, Ms. Meyerhoff explains: "The new girl in school is thrown into a topsy-turvy madhouse of high school hellcats. The cheerleaders are drag queens, the nerds are nymphomaniacs, the punks breathe fire, and the prom band is none other than Triple Crème."
Ms. Meyerhoff is throwing a Brooklyn bash to celebrate the music video's premiere. The star-studded main stage lineup will include all the tantalizing talent from the video. Your host Murray Hill will offer his inimitable emcee shtick, introducing Triple Crème, who will play a short set. Molly the Dolly will perform a simple striptease, Starshine Burlesque star Little Brooklyn will debut a comedy number, Creamy Stevens will dance inside a giant balloon, and Scarlet Sinclair will pay homage to her heritage with a gypsy striptease. Kit Kitastrophe will sing a Spinal Tap song in drag, Miss Ruby Valentine will present a classic fan dance, Gigi La Femme will perform her Princess Leia act, Tigger and Julie Atlas Muz will do a little pas-de-duet, and Cherry Bomb will combine handcuffs, a gag, electrical tape and The Sopranos to dramatic effect.
Adding to the evening's excitement, roving ambient entertainment on the
floor will be provided by magician Stuart Palm, BYTE co-producer and go-go
girl Clea Cutthroat, diabolical New York City roller derby team the Gotham
Girls, go-go dancing nun Lady Satan, "fashion deconstruction" performers
ShowroomXS, burlesque troupe The Barbarians, glow-in-the-dark stiltwalker
Chelsey J, and the Drag Queen Cheerleaders.
All of this takes place in Williamsburg's most infamous art and performance
space, Galapagos. And the audience will no doubt be encouraged to participate
in tawdry and unexpected ways.
Currently pursuing a Master's in Film at New York University, Leah Meyerhoff served as the writer, director and editor of the hilarious hipster video. Meyerhoff's previous films have been quite successful on the festival circuit, including Slamdance and Cannes, and she is currently working on her first feature.
The band providing the music for the video is Triple Crème, described as a post-punk rock band, combining Radiohead's poetry with the Yeah Yeah Yeah's fury and PJ Harvey's passion and energy. Their sound is a combination of textured melodic rock and rhythmic dark pop. Murray Hill, the singing, dancing, schticking throwback to vaudevillians of yesteryear, requires no introduction. He continues to play to packed houses, entertaining such bold faced names as Ivana Trump, Alan Cumming and John Waters.
Julie Atlas Muz has been described as "one of the most acclaimed and prolific conceptual performers and choreographers in New York." You may have seen her in an aquarium as a mermaid, at the Coney Island Sideshow by the Seashore peeling off outlandish costumes, reeling around the PS 122 stage in her one-woman show or in any number of downtown, underground spaces doing her thing. She recently participated in the Whitney Biennial. Scotty the Blue Bunny is one of the city's most recognizable nightlife personalities -- hmm, could be those big ears! He was voted "Best of 2002" by the Village Voice, deemed a "New York nightlife fixture" by the New York Post and has been featured on NY1, VH1, MTV, E! and HBO's Real Sex.
Tigger is New York's leading "boylesque stripper" -- he's been stripping
and go-go dancing from Austria to Australia since 1992, performing with
a variety of downtown stars such as Penny Arcade, Quentin Crisp, Annie
Sprinkle and Karen Finley. Molly the Dolly is a performance artist,
singer and actress currently appearing at the Va Va Voom Room. She most
recently she appeared in "Rockets Redglare" with Steve Buscemi and Willam
Dafoe.
Scarlet Sinclair is a New York City native from a long line of gypsies,
cabaret entertainers and creative folk. Show business has been in her blood
for generations. She brings her own delicious concoction of classic burlesque,
Hollywood glamour, old school blues and rockabilly charms. Miss Sinclair
won the Golden Pastie Award at the 2005 NY Burlesque Festival for "Hottest
Freshman." Miss Ruby Valentine, the Sweetheart of Burlesque, has been performing
in New York since 2003. Kit Kitastrophe is a cabaret singer whose one-woman
show "So Fucking Happy" debuted in June 2005 to rave reviews.
Gigi La Femme's sultry moves and scandalous sex appeal have made her one of Manhattan's most in-demand burlesque babes, and Cherry Bomb is another relative newcomer, a proud and out loud blogstress and burlesque performer for over a year.
Team Queen Music Video
Release Party Quick Info:
when
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
where
Galapagos Art Space, 70 North 6th Street, Williamsburg,
Brooklyn, NY