When I was transitioning my career from dressing in the Marilyn drag for 17 years, I needed a place where I could go to find my own voice and voices. The owner of 'PIECES' in the West Village in NYC, Bob Esty (not the same Bob Esty who worked with Cher & Streisand) told me that he would let me have the little stage once a week Mondays at Midnight. He told me to just come in to do whatever I wanted to do. I was afraid but I took the job.
I wanted to learn how to stand on my own as a performer exploring my own identity without having to be a "look-a-like." I was anxious to move on and explore life without Marilyn. What people don't understand is that even though I was the best in the world at what I did as Marilyn, the sad truth is that the real showbiz industry looks down on look-a-likes. It was never going to be respected beyond just some small clubs. I could not grow anymore from this act. If I hung on any longer, inevitably, it would all be sad for me. I retired from performing as Marilyn Monroe in 1997.
For 5 years every week I forced myself to practice. Every week I came up with a different show. Every week I stretched myself to incorporate more comedy and tried to get better.
These recordings are RAW from my SONY Mini Disc Recorder. The premise for these recordings was so that I could listen the next day to hear mistakes with lyrics or wrong notes. Over 22 shows were recorded and after several years I decided to make a CD of some of the best moments. These are some of the best moments hand-picked by me.
There are some magical moments for me in these recordings but...The recordings are not perfect. My performances are not perfect - it's all RAW and I learned so much. It made me a much stronger performer.
No comments:
Post a Comment