Cali Kid Oral History Interview

Cali Kid describes Burlesque in the late 1990s to early 2000s as a theatrical performance art form coming from a Punk Rock + retro artistic aesthetic, similar to the 1990's interest in swing dancing, Tiki scene, Lounge scene, and space age cocktail music. He details the style of the events he produced, citing his artistic influences and producing partners, from Cirque du Soleil to Penn & Teller to Nancy Sinatra. He celebrates the fluid creative scene at the time and how he reveled in it, while simultaneously building it through creating these themed performance events. He says. "you would see The Avengers and The Dead Kennedys, but then you would see some guy just reading weird poems, or juggling, or, you know, whatever, like an old Ed Sullivan show, but, weird."

He further explains that Tease-O-Rama Burlesque was a political act in that it created community and gave a space for the weirdos to express themselves creatively. Tease-O-Rama was never about sex, Cali Kid explains. It was about women's power and about capturing the woman's view of herself. It was about the interpersonal relationship between the performer and the audience, it's about the art of the tease and subtlety. He further states that live theatre is the most important art form today, in that it creates community and connection in this technological world.