Side Stage Magazine recently had the chance to talk with Missy Suicide, founder of Suicide Girls, and creator of the Blackheart Burlesque show; we talked about how to become a Suicide Girl as well as the current Blackheart Burlesque tour.
Side Stage Magazine: How did the Suicide Girls come about?
Missy Suicide: It started in late 2001 in Portland, Oregon I wanted to create a place where girls who weren’t the norm and weren’t being celebrated in mainstream media as beautiful, I wanted to create a place where they could be themselves and share not only their images but their thoughts and feelings with the world, so I created a website called Suicide Girls, which was a social network. At first people said I was crazy that this wasn’t something people wanted to do, by putting their lives online, it’s too permanent, too scary, and there’s too much information. Fast forward 14 years later and your breakfast is probably online, lol where you had it, who you were with, it’s probably on Instagram. It turns out that people do think that the girls I thought were beautiful are beautiful and they are celebrating their tattoos, piercings, and rainbow colored hair and that they are a lot more prevalent these days.
How does someone become a Suicide Girl?
You apply on online at www.suicidegirls.com/freshmodel we have a models coordinator team who help each person thru the paperwork process by making sure you get everything submitted and helping you get a photo set whether it be with a staff photographer or having a set done on your own. Once you have a set that is acceptable and fits along our guidelines it will go into member review. At that point the girls get an account on the site and become Suicide Girls Hopefuls at that point they interact with the community and get to know everyone; you can join groups with people who share similar interests whether it is about politics, cooking, or animal rights. The other Suicide Girls give feedback and advice on their photo set as well as guidance if the set is really great it will get selected as set of the day and they then become official Suicide Girls and can post in pink.
Has there been any type of backlash towards the site?
Well we celebrate all types of beautiful women; we have over 3000 women from around the world, every continent including Antarctica. We have women of all shapes and sizes and thousands of hopefuls on the site so where not every girl may be someone’s cup of tea there are probably several women that are. I feel that having the depth of beauty that is represented is very important.
You are currently promoting the Suicide Girls: Blackheart Burlesque show. How did the idea of taking the Suicide Girls concept, and putting a touring burlesque show together happen?
Well in the same way we did the photos on www.suicidegirls.com taking the kind of sexy spirit of classic pinup photos and mixing it with our own spin on classic burlesque and bring the same kind of confident energy that’s present on our site and bring it to life with a live version of the site.
How does someone become a dance with the touring show?
We hold auditions before each tour where the girls come out and try out, the girls are definitely trained hardcore dancers who put a lot of effort into the performance. The girls put so much into it, so much love, sweat, and tears.
So who are some of the dancers who are out on tour?
The current tour we’ve got about 30 girls who are trained for the show and we rotate them in and out depending on who is available, if someone gets sick on the road, if there’s an emergency, or if someone has another gig we have girls who can take their place and fill in.
How does the Blackheart Burlesque show differ from some of the other burlesque shows that are out there?
The Blackheart Burlesque show is all pop culture themed, I call it a pop culture nerdgasm. The themes appeal to our audience like Star Wars, super heroes, TV shows, movies, and video games. It’s all set to a kick ass soundtrack and features some of the best choreography that you are likely to see.
What are some of the themes for this year’s tour?
We have a sailor moon number, Adventure Time, Game of Throwns, which we are really excited because we got invited to play George RR Martin’s theatre in New Mexico, who’s the creator of Game of Throwns and wrote the books. Some of the other routines are 50 Shades of Grey, but I don’t want to give them all away.
Do you bring your own DJ out on the tour with you?
We do have our own DJ, I’m not sure who is out right now on this leg of the tour, but we do have our own DJ who tours with us, it’s usually one of the girls from our site.
The tour is not only in the U.S. but also Canada as well as the UK. Are there any plans on expanding to more countries?
We’re going to Santiago, Chile in January, we’ve done Australia, and we are in talks with putting an Asian tour together as well. So I guess you could say we are going worldwide.
Do you offer any type of VIP packages for the tour?
We do, we offer a VIP that includes a meet and greet a picture with the girls, you can get merchandise signed and it comes with a VIP laminate.
Where can you purchase tickets for the current tour?
You can buy them online www.blackheartburlesque.com
Other than the tour in Chile what other 2016 plans are in the works?
Wave announced our Canadian tour and our London dates, so we are starting fill up the year.
Ok well I think that is all I have for you; it’s been great speaking to you.
Everyone should come out to the show it really is kind of an amazing experience.