Think back to the last burlesque show you saw in Fayetteville.
Chances are, it was either a really long time ago, or it was never. More than likely, it was never.
That might change, though, if you happen to find yourself at Smoke & Barrel Tavern when Go-Go Amy and her Pretty Things Peepshow come to town on Thursday night.
Amy got her start as a Go-Go dancer in New York City when she was just 16, and since then, she has become somewhat of an icon as a pin-up girl, model, seamstress, and burlesque performer.
She teaches “how to be a pin-up girl classes.” She makes her own costumes. She eats fire, and since Pretty Things Peepshow hit the road in 2009, she’s performed about 300 shows all over the world.
The show is $10, and will feature performances by Go-Go Amy and her traveling companions Heather Holliday (sword swallowing, stunts) and Donny Vomit (stunts, juggling, other awesomeness).
We were able to track Go-Go Amy down this week, and she was nice enough to answer some questions for us.
Fayetteville Flyer: What have you been listening to lately?
Go-Go Amy: Mostly just the music for the show. But when we’re driving down the road or when I’m getting ready for the show, I like to listen to bands we’ve played with that really inspire me like The Two Man Gentleman Band and Tinhorn Molly. My all-time favorite is Sasquatch and the Sickabillys. I could listen to Dave (Sasquatch) sing all day long and never get tired of it. He’s ass-kicking musical perfection!
Go-Go Amy
FF: Give us a bit of history. How long have you been doing burlesque?
GGA: I’ve been doing burlesque and performing in general for a long, long time. I don’t want to date myself but I can tell you I hit the stage before anyone had e-mail.
FF: According to your website, your shows are a little bit different for each venue. Do you have an idea of what acts you’ll be performing in Fayetteville?
GGA: We rearrange our show depending on the needs of the event. When we played Ozzfest, we did eight 20-minute shows a day. For the Harley Davison gig, we did a “family friendly” show, which means less boobs/more swords, but for Fayetteville we’re bringing the full 2-1/2 hour-long extravaganza. Expect to see things you’ve never seen and will dream about for years to come.
FF: Tell us a little bit about the sideshow acts that are traveling with you this time.
GGA: We’ve got two fabulous sideshow performers on tour with us – Miss Heather Holliday and Donny Vomit. Heather swallows swords and has a collection of other amazing stunts up her pretty little sleeves. Donny is our host and he also cracks whips, juggles, does an animal trap act and is famous for his human blockhead stunt. In fact, Heather and Donny are so famous for their acts, they have been immortalized as their own flavors of beers by the Shmaltz Brewing Company. You can also see me doing an act called “The Chinese Execution Blade Box,” which is something you have to see to believe.
FF: You guys are on a pretty extensive tour right now. Do you enjoy being on the road?
GGA: I love being on the road. I can’t possibly describe how proud I am of this show. I’m so lucky to be able to have such talented performers traveling with me, and to be able to bring this much talent to a different city every night is an amazing experience.
FF: I read that you make your own costumes, which is really awesome. Can you describe one of your favorite costumes that you’ve created?
GGA: Designing and making costumes is one of my favorite parts of the show. My grandmother was a seamstress, and I’ve been sewing since I was 6 years old, so sewing is in my blood. It’s hard to pick a favorite but I had a lot of fun teaching myself corsetry recently. I made four fabulous corsets for the show in only two days.
FF: I noticed that you guys do a discount for roller derby, and we happen to have a few pretty badass roller derby teams here in town. How does that program work?
GGA: We love having roller derby girls (and boys) at our shows and we like to support other people who are working their butts off to make awesome happen, so we offer a discount to all active roller derby members and do cross promotions with them as often as possible. If you want to get on the discount list, go to our website.
FF: I know you were in Little Rock a few years ago. What was your impression of Arkansas? Have you ever been to Fayetteville?
GGA: We’ve played Little Rock and Hot Springs in the past and will be back at both those cities on this tour. We love playing Arkansas. Our shows in your state have been some of the best crowds we’ve ever had. A lot of people from Fayetteville drove down to our shows in other cities and asked us to come to their home town. Here at the Peepshow, we have a policy; if you ask for it, we’ll give it to you. As soon as the Fayetteville requests started coming in, I got to work looking for a venue and lucked out when I found Smoke & Barrel. The owner there has been a dream to work with and I’m looking forward to being able to call him a friend as well as a business contact.
(Possibly NSFW video embedded below)
