Interviewer: Laurie Kurutz
Interview Date: March 19, 2022
Location: Ashland, Oregon; interview conducted over Zoom
Duration: 0:50:05
Leo Prowl introduces himself as a Burlesque performer, producer, and director. He states that Burlesque is freedom. The freedom to express who you are in a group who accept you. He emphasizes that Burlesque is a statement that we refuse to accept anything less than the freedom to express who we are as individuals, who we are as a society, and to be empowered in that moment.
Prowl describes in depth his experiences as an escort, a male stripper, and a Burlesque performer, and the differences in those activities. He analyzes the mindset and psychology of those diverse performances. Given that he has a demanding career in senior living communities, he prefers to space out his Burlesque performances to one show every-other month or so.
Prowl shares the difficulties in running senior living facilities during the lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic, but is grateful that his facility didn’t see the fatalities that others did.
Prowl has performed across Oregon and Washington. He details several anecdotes about the interesting audience character studies he has observed when performing Burlesque in smaller towns. He likes that being a male stripper/Burlesque performer challenges the male members of the audience around issues of gender and identity. He believes that the art form of Burlesque provides the opportunity to be intensely human, tell a message or story, and gives other-wise marginalized people a meaningful voice.
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Description
Prowl describes in depth his experiences as an escort, a male stripper, and a Burlesque performer, and the differences in those activities. He analyzes the mindset and psychology of those diverse performances. Given that he has a demanding career in senior living communities, he prefers to space out his Burlesque performances to one show every-other month or so.
Prowl shares the difficulties in running senior living facilities during the lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic, but is grateful that his facility didn’t see the fatalities that others did.
Prowl has performed across Oregon and Washington. He details several anecdotes about the interesting audience character studies he has observed when performing Burlesque in smaller towns. He likes that being a male stripper/Burlesque performer challenges the male members of the audience around issues of gender and identity. He believes that the art form of Burlesque provides the opportunity to be intensely human, tell a message or story, and gives other-wise marginalized people a meaningful voice.