Stars of the AVT #11: World Famous B*O*B
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 ExTRAVaganza in the New York International Fringe Festival this August!
World Famous B*O*B has been one of the most prominent fixtures on the New Burlesque scene since its origins in the mid-90s. Like all pioneers, she is one of its funniest, brightest, most inventive stars. I like how her name is a sort of palindromic pictogram of her legendary paps, each B a topographical map of her chest, the asterisks…nipples? pasties? I’ve already done a bit on her background in this review of her one woman One Man Show here.
We were lucky to have her star in our burlesque adaptation of Ed Wood’s Orgy of the Dead at Surf Reality in 2001.
The show was one of our biggest successes, with B*O*B one of our biggest draws. I learned tons from working with her as a performer, several lessons that I continue to tap into to this day. One is nem di gelt. B*O*B cheerfully commanded the highest fee I ever paid a performer — and then earned it, by pulling the audience in, and by entertaining them with professional consistency. So this was a lesson to me as producer, too. As a performer: get the money. As a producer (when it is worth it to do so): pay the money. (Producers: B*O*B is worth the money). Two is: “Do whatever it takes to make the experience pleasant for yourself”. B*O*B literally told me, “No, No, you always have to be late!” This sounds like immoral advice, and it goes against my uptight, Puritan grain, so it is very important advice for me to listen to. She doesn’t mean be late for a curtain. But be late for a call and DEFINITELY be late for parties. If you’re in show business it’s infinitely better for you to be in a carefree, happy mood and entertain the audience, than to show up on time with a furrowed brow, pleasing only the stage manager. This one is real tough for me, as I’m generally also the producer, but I put some aspect of it in practice whenever I can. Also: take a car! This again goes my Scottish nature, but damned if it doesn’t make sense. I hailed a taxi for B*O*B and put her in it every night, and I know she arrived in one. For the performer it means kicking back in a comfortable seat enjoying the ride like a star…as opposed to saving a few bucks and getting into a bad mood (and showing up late for all the wrong reasons) like a sardine.
A few months after Orgy BOB and I were both featured prominently in this Adam Gopnick New Yorker piece about New Burlesque (TravSDNew Yorker article0001). ‘Twas I led him to BOB. He asked me to name the significant players, somebody colorful. Her’s was the first name that sprang to mind.
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.
