Stars of the AVT #6: Raven Snook
This post is one of a series profiling the hundreds of performers I’ve presented through my American Vaudeville Theatre in celebration of its 15th anniversary. Don’t miss the American Vaudeville Theatre’s 15th Anniversary ExTRAVaganzain the New York International Fringe Festival this August!
Raven’s done my show a couple of times: at New-York Historical Society in 2002, and at Theater for the New City in 2008. I have already done some ravin’ about the Raven at length here, so let that serve as my tribute. Now, on to the facts:
Raven has been emceeing New York-based burlesque shows since 2003, when she discovered that audiences enjoyed her combination of raunchy Borsch Belt humor, Ethel Merman vocals and Elvira clothes and cleavage. She has hosted Starshine Burlesque, Red Hots Burlesque, Le Scandal and the all-Jewish revue Kosher ChiXXX, which she also co-created. But her real burly-Q baby is Hot Mama Burlesque, the world’s only all-moms burlesque review, which she produces and hosts annually. Other performing highlights include: acting in the original downtown cast of Urinetown; being typecast as a vampire on the ABC sitcom Talk to Me; appearing as a “female female impersonator” on The Maury Povich Show; playing a dominatrix-like self-help guru in the award-winning short film Slo-Mo, telling stories at The Moth and Heeb Storytelling; and her autobiographical one-woman show How I Became a Drag Queen Trapped in a Woman’s Body. As a writer, she has contributed entertainment-related articles to Time Out, The Village Voice, The New York Post, TV Guide, New York Magazine‘s Web site and Heeb Magazine. Oh yeah, she’s a mom, too, and hopes to hand down her sequin-studded pasties to her daughter someday.
Says Raven, “I’ve been performing ever since I was a kid. My dad used to show me old MGM, Warners and Fox movie musicals, but I didn’t realize they were old. I’d tell him, ‘One day I’ll go to Hollywood and they’ll teach me how to sing and dance!’ I was a very naive kid. Throughout high school and college, I regularly performed, and right after college I did cabaret in NYC. But producing those shows is expensive, and I always felt like I was a bit of a freak on that scene. No one else was singing Lou Reed or the B52s with a big vibrato. When the neo-vaudeville and burlesque scene started to take over NYC in the ’90s, I knew it was where I belonged. But frankly, I’m better at hosting than just doing one act. From 2003-2006 I regularly hosted burlesque shows around town. Once my daughter was born I had to chill a bit, but I still try to host a few times a year, including Hot Mama Burlesque, the world’s only all-moms burlesque show.
I’m inspired by Golden Age of Hollywood musicals, mixed with Rocky Horror. Judy Garland, Tim Curry, Liza Minnelli, Justin Bond are all equal influences. And all those old Borscht Belt comics. If it’s funny, outrageous or wrong, I want to say it. Or better yet, sing it!”
To learn more about vaudeville past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.
