My weekend at ABSfest 2010 in Asheville, NC

Well, I went to Asheville, North Carolina to perform at ABSfest. Its been a couple weeks now, and while I’m not honestly super glad with my performance over there…it was still a really fun weekend.

As soon as I got there Thursday (June 10th 2010) night, I walked around downtown for a little bit. Not long though because I was pretty exhausted from the drive. I easily fell asleep that night.

Friday morning (June 11th 2010) I had hotel breakfast, went to visit a friend and ran-though my routine one last time. Also I did a lot of looking around the shops downtown. I personally think that the shops there are a on the tad-expensive side

Friday night was my Asheville performance.

While most other performers are probably flexible as to where they can perform, I along with my stage pole, have special needs. We need a room large enough to accommodate the stage, both width and height. Due to scheduling changes I was moved from the very large spacious room to a much, much, much smaller room where the stage pole just barely fit. Unfortunately, I had created a new routine for Asheville involving adding a topper/cap to the pole, adding about 4 inches to the top…which is a lot to be added for a small room.

The dressing room was really hot. My make up didn’t go on quite right. We had to get our stuff out of the dressing room before the show was over, and I’m so glad I didn’t loose anything in the shuffle.

I was the last of the performers of the evening, which I appreciate that they wanted me to close the show, but that also meant I had a whole show to sit there and stress over performing. I did the best that I could. A few things went wrong during my routine, and of course I didn’t mess up during my practices so I felt a little caught off guard. But with all the practices I did in the weeks before, me kind-of loosing my place in my performance, I was almost able to remember and continue on. Everyone thought I did great, but I personally felt otherwise. Never-the-matter.

After my performance they played the Paolo Garbanzo film about him becoming the official jester of England. While this would have been interesting to me on another occasion, I had just performed and I had to re-gather everything, change our of my costume, take apart the stage pole, and mingle. It was enjoyable to meet new performers and talk with others I had met attending ABSfest last year. Unfortunately, my body seems to hate me and I had suddenly came down with an awesome case of Laryngitis and I was hardly able to talk…I pushed myself, but it wasn’t easy.

The evening ended sooner than I had thought since most people left, and I packed up my stage pole into my fancy rental car and retreated to my hotel and microwaved some soup, hoping to help my thought.

The next day (June 12th 2010) I was ready for a very busy day. First thing, I woke up and had the hotel breakfast and then made my way to downtown to take Michelle L’amour’s advanced burlesque class. I was not exactly sure what this was going to be; a motion class or a sit-down class. It was a motion class, and it was very interesting to see all of us shimmy and shake behind her…and of course she does it all so perfectly. You would be surprised as to how tiring it can be to wiggle your shoulders for 3 full minutes. The class involved posture, poses, hands…everything to make you look the best you can. I appreciated the class very much.

Right after that, I ran across the street to the Orange Peel to take Lula Hoop-Garou’s hula hoop class. She is totally my hoop-tease hero…and I don’t even hula hoop! Yes, hula hoop tricks are harder than they look, but of course that goes for almost every skill out there. I even got a tiny little bruise on my knee attempting knee hooping. Of course, as a pole dancer, I’m used to getting bruises.

So right after the hoop class, I met up with “Hat and Rat” whom performed right before me last night, and we headed to Ed Boudreaux’s for some real North Carolina BBQ. We walked in just as the FIFA game was ending, and the place cleared out quickly. The wonderful sauces they have there are so yummy! I went there last year and I waited anxiously for a whole year to eat there again. I even had some food left over for a midnight snack. (My hotel room had a fridge and microwave)

I quickly went back to the hotel and whipped myself together to get ready for the big burlesque show that night. I took another shower, curled my hair, put on blue eyeshadow and glitter and I dashed back downtown for the show. The Orange Peel opened the doors later than they say they will, and I got there at a decent time to be kind of near the front…meaning I was able to get in and save a few seats for “Hat and Rat”.

As I mentioned, I was not at my healthiest. I had Laryngitis, plus my eyes were hurting as well. I am assuming it is a combination of an allergic reaction to mascara as well as allergys from the local air…my eyes were red, irritated, burned and were overall generally gross. At the Orange Peel they do not have AC, but they do have a gigantic overhead fan, which probably did not bother most people as much as it bothered me and my sensitive eyes. I spent much of the show squinty-eyed and shielding my face from the wind.

The show was a little hit and miss with me. Overall it was a good show. A big miss on the event for me was the lack of the more apparatus-type acts that were so prevalent at last years show. I was disappointed when I entered and did not see any silks, hoops, or trapeze rigged up and ready for use. The show last year had so many such acts and this year there weren’t any.

My most favorite performances were of course Lula Hoop-Garou, Michelle L’amour who made me swoon, and Cherry Typhoon who is practically a human Japanese cartoon, she was fantastically funny! I really enjoyed the juggling antics of Forty fingers and a missing tooth, the quick wordiness of Sidetracked, and the silly retro Star Trek attitude of Salome Cabaret. I missed Pearl Pistol because I had to run to the bathroom and splash water in my eyes to relieve them from being so dry because of the gigantic fan.

When the show was over, all of the chairs were quickly cleared out and more mingling…of course difficult for me with the Laryngitis. Conversations went until the wee hours and then I was truly exhausted.

Sunday (June 13th 2010) was the Tiki Brunch at The Yacht Club. Of course I got there later than I should have and only saw the last few performances. The yacht club is rather amusing since, well…its very tiki-ish. I ate my breakfast, and much to my surprise in walked Michelle L’amour (swoon) and she sat next to me at the bar (squee)…it was the only available seat. We talked for a little bit which was nice.

I went outside and talked with some other performers for a little bit longer. A few people were to be heading home that afternoon, but I was glad I decided to stay the extra day so that I had a full day left for whatever. Standing outside, Lula Hoop-Garou and Pearl Pistol came by, but they arrived too late for the tiki breakfast, and they had decided to go elsewhere for food and invited me to join them. Seeing as how I had nothing planned, of course I jointed them. I hugged Michelle L’amour good-bye and went to join them for Breakfast 2.0.

We went to Tulepo Honey cafe were I felt I had no choice but to order a large sweet potato pancake (yummy), even though I had just eaten breakfast. We talked about performing in our cities, them from Chicago and me from Baltimore, and talked about what we thought of Asheville and other fun stuff like that.

After that I went to the house they were staying at. It was a large house on beautiful property (my husband saw the photos and said “I want a house like that”). We all got plastic round tube-floatys and went splashy-splashy in the creek behind the house. It truly was fun and lovely to be water relaxing and splashing in North Carolina.

After a few hours I left them for the evening and went to spend my last evening in Asheville walking around downtown again. Sure most everything was closed, but I still enjoyed myself, I ate more soup at The Noodle Shop and later I got ice cream.

Monday morning (June 14th, 2010), I woke up, loaded the fancy car with everything, checked-out of the hotel and headed downtown one more time to check out some more shops I did not have a change to see before. It was a hot day out, and I walked around for a little over an hour and a half. Eventually I just was not in the mood to walk in the sunny heat, and I also had to get my candyass back to Baltimore.

My very last stop in Asheville was Double D’s, the double decker bus coffee house. That place is small but cute, and the iced mocha coffee drink I got was quite refreshing.