Dr. Lucky has become a regular fixture in New York City clubs and theatres and has performed at the Slipper Room, Galapagos Art Space, Coney Island's Sideshow by the Seashore, PS 122, Ars Nova, Webster Hall, The Supper Club, Crobar, Avalon, Bowery Ballroom, the Marquees, Marion's, Jane Street Theatre, Cutting Room, Rafiffi, Collective Unconscious, The Stonewall, Triad Theatre, Lillie's, Manhattan Theatre Source, The Producer's Club, Lanski Lounge, Swing 46, Lotus, and a host of others. She can often be caught out of town with her pants down and has performed across the country to critical acclaim! She joins forces regularly with Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey to cause havic and spread glamour around the world. Their original full-length show -- described as "smart, funny and dumb in all the right ways" and "better than Wicked" -- premiered at the Washington DC Fringe Festival in 2007 and Ars Nova ANT Festival in 2008. "Dial P for Pasties" has since been reprised in venues across the Eastern Seaboard to standing ovations and critical acclaim.
Dr. Lucky was honored to perform at the Miss Exotic World Competition in 2006 and 2007 and co-hosted the Legends night with the World Famous *BOB* in 2008 and 2009. She has performed at every New York Burlesque Festival since its inception. She headlined the New York Burlesque Festival in 2007 and headlined the Toronto Burlesque Festival in 2009. Since the late 1990s, she has been a featured performer in countless World Famous Pontani Sister Productions and starred with the sisters in the Los Straight Jacket music video Mad Scientwist (2006).
Music
Dr. Lucky has been producing shows and curating performances for many, many years. She currently co-produces a monthly show with Julie Atlaz Muz called "Wanted! The Wild Bandits of Burlesque" at Rodeo Bar in NYC. Every final Tuesday of the month, the Double D Ranch Wranglers take over the Rodeo Bar and present the best and brightest side show freaks, art stars, and burlesque queens.
Lucky is also the master mind and producer behind Sin-O-Rama, an evening of blue burlesque starring the brightest and bawdiest stars of the burlesque stage including Miss Exotic World 2006 Julie Atlas Muz, Mr. Exotic World 2006 Tigger!, and Miss Exotic World 2006 Best Duo Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey. Sin-O-Rama premiered at the Palace of Wonders in Washington DC and was met with critical acclaim and the occasional threat from police for "indecency". Some of her evening-length shows at Galapagos Art Space include "American Beauty: the 2004 Election" which featured an installation art "voting booth" constructed out of Village Voice "escort" pages in the shape of an American flag as well as countless holiday and themed shows. Her New Year's Eve 2007 "Burlesque O-Teque" was selected as the #1 Pick for "New Year's Eve in New York: Avoiding Times Square" Top Picks! Other evening-length shows include her "Dr. Lucky's School of Burlesque" which features a lecture on the history of burlesque with original dances, skits, and acts performances by her NYU students. In 2006, she conceived and performed a 12-hour durational performance art piece in the Coney Island Museum entitled "Coney Island and Spectacle as Total-Body Experience - A 12-Hour Academic Spectacular in Which We Find Our Heroine Chained to a Podium for an Interminable Period, With All the Agony and Sublime Joy That This Might Entail." Lucky produced and curated Strip Search NYC in 2009 to find the finest peeler in all of the big apple to be NYC's Ambassador of Burlesque at the Toronto Burlesque Festival. She also regularly hosts student showcases with the New York School of Burlesque.
Movies
Dr. Lucky has been featured in Bust Magazine (April/May, 2008), NPR's Morning Edition, NY1, Washington Square News, Time.com, The WIC, and her image has graced the pages of the Washington Post, Washington Blade, Express (DC), Bizarre, L Magazine, and many others. She has appeared in documentaries including 5'2" and Showy and WCTV's critically acclaimed Chronicle, among others. Other awards and accolades include being voted "Sexiest Alien" at Coney Island and being featured in the New York Burlesque Calendar as "May."
Television
See me on NY1!
http://www.ny1.com/content/ny1_living/arts/89830/the-pontani-sisters-bring-burlesque-back/Default.aspx?ap=1&Flash
And hear me on NPR's Marc Steiner show: http://www.steinershow.org/radio/the-marc-steiner-show/july-9-2009-hour-2
Books
CLASS STARTS SOON!
NEW YORK SCHOOL OF BURLESQUE
register at www.schoolofburlesque.com
Persona and Character Development
What do drag queens and clowns (good ones at least) have in common? They are able to “pull off” their characters by creating and sustaining believable (or unbelievable) stage personae. The stage persona can be anything from an extension of self to a fantastic flaming creature and finding your inner "queen" is an effective way to connect with the audience and tell a story. Through theatre and improvisation exercises, writing prompts, and movement activities, this workshop will provide a framework, techniques, and the creative space to begin the process of birthing and developing a flamboyant stage persona. Some burlesque or performing experience suggested but not required.
Advanced Act Development: Sparkle on the Burlesque Stage
This course will help you improve your performance skills as you gain confidence, know how, and a few "tricks" of the trade. The course will include group activities and exercises as well as an individualized session with the instructor and fellow students. By giving and receiving constructive feedback, you will learn to rid yourself of bad performance habits as well as encourage you to develop those skills that make your act and character unique. Performance experience required. Bring one completed or in development act that you want to workshop. Class limited to 8 participants.
Heroes
Miss Piggy was my first role model. Since her others have joined her ranks including Lucille Ball, Michel Foucault, Auntie Mame, Judith Butler, Idah Isaac Menkins, Roland Barthes, Kiki & Herb, Texas Guinan, Jacques Derrida, Gypsy Rose Lee, Rem Koolhaas, Lydia Thompson, Phyllis Diller...those thinkers and doers revered because they bring about major epistemic shifts in the intellectual and cultural landscape of our modern world... there are gazillions more and the list grows every day the more i learn...
www.lukki.com
About me:
Dr. Lucky is a seasoned performer, producer and educator. Over the past 10 years, Lucky has carved a space for herself with her unique comedic timing and over-the-top theatricality. She has been hailed a “big, bad, bold drag queen" by Bust magazine and has been featured on NPR's Morning Edition, NY1, Time.com, Washington Post, among others. Career highlights include co-hosting the Miss Exotic World Competition, headlining (and crowd surfing!) the New York Burlesque Festival, headlining the Toronto Burlesque Festival, sharing the stage with the Flaming Lips in front of 10,000 adoring fans (Virgin Music Festival), and performing at the Establishment (Rothbury Music Festival). Lucky is happy to collaborate with Julie Atlas Muz in their monthly show, Wanted! Wild Bandits of Burlesque and with Trixie Little & The Evil Hate Monkey in their evening-length mystery show, “Dial P for Pasties.” Though a huge fan of hyperbole, the prefix to her name is the one "real" thing about her: she is the only burlesque performer in the world with a PhD. For the past five years, she has taught unsuspecting drama students at New York University how to twirl tassels and think critically about burlesque.
Dr. Lucky’s (Brief) Resume of Classes:
She has given lectures and taught practicum workshops about burlesque at New York University, CUNY, Miss Exotic World, The New York School of Burlesque, Toronto Burlesque Festival, Movement Research, City Paper (Washington, DC), Palace of Wonders, Performance Studies International, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, North East Popular Culture Association, and the Carnal Knowledge Conference, among others.
Sample Practicum/Performance Workshops:
• Advanced Act Development
• Persona and Character Development
• Melodrama
• Pasty Making and Tassel Twirling
• Pilates (Certified Beginner and Intermediate Mat Class, Power Pilates)
• Burlesque Moves & Choreography
• Act Feedback
• Burlesque for the Boudoir
Sample Lectures:
“Naked as the New ‘Ethnological Village’: In Situ Display at the Century of Progress Expositions” (forthcoming, PCA/ACA, 2009)
“What is Burlesque; What is Burlesque; What is Burlesque?” (CUNY, 2009)
“History of American Burlesque, 1860s-1930s,” (BurlyCon, 2008)
“Performing Naked Ladies on the Gayway and the Amusement Zone at the Golden Gate International Exposition and the New York Worlds Fair, 1939-40” (PCA/ACA, 2008)
“Ephemeral Scenes: Unveiling the Female Form at World’s Fairs” (PCA/ACA, 2007)
“‘It is the Ugly that is so Beautiful’: Performing the Monster/Beauty Continuum in Neo-Burlesque” (Carnal Knowledge Conference, 2007; PSi International, 2008; CUNY, 2008)
“Girls! Girls! Girls! The World of Tomorrow” at the New York World’s Fairs, 1939-40 (NEPCA, 2005; Exotic World, 2006)
Class Lectures:
• Emergence of American Burlesque: Lydia Thompson and the British Blondes
• Burlesque Influences: Vaudeville, Minstrelsy and Feminized Spectacle
• Commodification of the Exotic and World’s Fairs: Little Egypt, Salome, Loie Fuller, & Ruth St. Denis
• “Burlesque at Century’s End”: Wheels, Working Class and Women’s World(s)
• Glorifying the American Girl: The Birth of the Ziegfeld Show Girl
• Minsky’s Burlesque & Burlesque on the Big White Way
• Outlawing Burlesque in New York City: Moral Reform & The Midway
• Burlesque goes Visual: Burlesque Films, Pin Up & Patriotism
• Performing Personas & The Queens of Burlesque: Gypsy Rose Lee
• Demystifying Striptease in Strip Clubs
• “Mother Camp”: Drag & Burlesque
• “Is that a DUDE?”: Performing Gender, Gender Performativity
Do visit my website at www.lukki.com.
UPCOMING CLASSES:
* History of American Burlesque, NYU (Summer 2010)
* Character & Persona Development Workshop, New York School of Burlesque (srping, 20010)
* Intermediate Act Development, New York School of Burlesque (Winter, 2009)
Email me at lukkiny@yahoo.com for more information about these classes or to schedule your own "tittorial"!
MySpace Layouts
Who I'd like to meet: Dr. Lucky is is available for lectures and performances! If you want the Doctor to come to your town, send us an email at lukkiny@yahoo.com.
Here's a sample of what other students have said about Dr. Lucky:
• “The BEST professor I’ve had at New York University. She was captivating, intelligent, and funny.”
• “Best teacher I’ve had at New York University. She was organized, understanding, fun, thrilling, inspirational, and extremely intelligent.”
• “She made learning FUN.”
• “She was very personable, passionate, and cared for her students.”
• “She was enlightening. Her command of the class and the information was amazing. She was inspirational.”
• “The instructor had a complete understanding of what she knows and willingness to share it all while admitting that she doesn’t know everything and willingness to learn new things from her students.”
• “One of the most fun and productive workshops I’ve taken in my already long life.”
• “This class absolutely exceeded my expectations.”
• “The instructor was fantastic! Amazing ability to provide specific and hugely effective pointers/tips/feedback.”
• “The instructor was inspiring and constructive.
• “She’s smart, innovative, and in a class of her own.”
• “The instructor was completely honest and frank with us, yet earnest and fun!”
• “The instructor was fantastic, honest, tough, critical, loving, encouraging, and inspiring.”
• “This was the most fucking fun I’ve ever had! I love Lucky!”
We want to hire you! That’s right, BurlesqueCommunity.com will pay you to upload your photos and videos taken at either the New Orleans Burlesque Festival or the Montreal Burlesque Festival.
After two weeks traveling from festival to festival and sponsoring two great events the staff of BurlesqueCommunity wants your help sharing the fun with everyone in the community. Please upload your photos and videos from the New Orleans Burlesque Festival and the Montreal Burlesque Festival this week. As a special incentive for anyone who uploads a photo of a performer featuring one of the fashionable red & white canvas tote bags featuring the BurlesqueCommunity logo we are paying a premium.
Beginning today, September 20, 2009, at 12noon EST all members are invited to update and add festival content to their profile and be paid for their efforts. George "The Administrator" of BurlesqueCommunity.com who made appearances at both events announced the promotion at the conclusion of last night’s performance in Montreal. He said, “Our support of Burlesque Performers is one of both time and money.” He added, “Based on the current membership of the site this promotion represents another US$2,700 commitment and one that will be beneficial for the entire community.”
BurlesqueCommunity.com will pay, via PayPal, to each member of the site a participation fee as per the following: festival videos = $1.00 ea., festival photographs = $0.10 ea., photos of a performer holding a BurlesqueCommunity canvas tote bag = $2.00ea., referral of a new performer not already listed = $5.00.
Rule & Guidelines: All submissions must be directly related to burlesque performance, modeling or production, must not be duplicates or previously uploaded items or other’s copyrighted material and must be uploaded no later that 6pm EST September 25, 2009. BurlesqueCommunity.com reserves the right to deny payment based on any content deemed inappropriate for the site.
hullllo there dr. sally! i was just thinking about your class today and thinking i need to look at the website to make something happen! ...in regard to friday's burlesque, i am weeks away from turning 21 but would looove to go, is there any way i can, or no? i'll wear an obnoxious bracelet if i have to
We just want to send you a quick reminder that applications for the New Orleans Burlesque Festival are due in by June 1st. This year’s festival will be held at Harrah's Casino at the edge of the French Quarter. More details can be found at BurlesqueCommunity.com
