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Burlesque Muse 2021 On Demand

By June 27, 2021No Comments

The 2021 Burlesque Muse Competition

Burlesque Muse (formerly Burlesque Idol Australia) 2021 was an opportunity for me to step up and bring new life to a beloved competition. In January this year the 2020 Burlesque Idol Australia Grand Finale was held in a hybrid online and in person format, based out of Melbourne.

As the 2021 competition kicked off in February, an opportunity arose for me to take over as National Director for this year’s competition. Sadly the opportunity arose due to online activity that made a large number of competitors, judges, and sponsors no longer felt safe to support the Idol brand.

I grabbed the opportunity with both hands in spite of the large workload.

The Name

Mae de la Rue wearing a purple heart shaped Muse pillbox hat and lingerie

Photo by Purvore Photography

After consulting with competitors, it became clear they were not comfortable to continue under the Idol name in 2021 and expressed a desire to compete under a different but similar name. As per their wishes, I temporarily renamed the competition Burlesque Muse, after the academy I run, the Muse School of Burlesque.

“A muse is a person who is a source of artistic inspiration. My Muse School of Burlesque students inspire me each and every day with their passion and desire to grow. Watching performers put their hearts and souls in to competing is equally as inspiring. As 2021 Director of Burlesque Idol, it is my great pleasure to rename this year’s competition shows as Burlesque Muse.”

The Shows

I worked alongside the existing Australian co-producers to deliver terrific burlesque shows for all involved. It’s a great showcase for both upcoming performers and established performers.

The competition saw me travel to Canberra, Darwin and Adelaide to co-produce local shows, as well as support the Perth, Melbourne and Queensland shows from afar. It allowed me to reach out to National Sponsors and help to get their products and services in front of our enthusiastic audiences across Australia.

Covid-19 of course continued to impact the competition with Perth suffering a snap lock down causing a reschedule, as well as Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide all operating under strict capacity restrictions. Adelaide Fringe Festival in particular was one of the most challenging shows to produce with promotional activities restricted to reduce and almost eliminate person to person contact.

It became clear that the 2021 Grand Finale was also almost impossible to run in an in person format that would allow competitors to attend and feel safe. As such, I teamed up with sponsors, The Great Debacle, to produce and present a live stream online Grand Finale show.

Changing to an online format meant the usual show at Kurri Kurri Nostalgia Festival would not host the Finale. Instead I engaged long time supporter and MC Bettie Bang Bang to produce an extravaganza showcasing local Idols and Inspirations to entertain and delight the local crowd.

Check out my write up on Burlesque (Idol) Muse 2021.

The Grand Finale

Moving online opened up never before explored opportunities to welcome judges from overseas. With competitors producing exclusive online ready performances, our esteemed judges joined from around the world, bringing burlesque excellence to the Australian burlesque scene. Joining from LA was The Golden Goddess of Burlesque Egypt Blaque Knyle, and from Europe, one of BHoF’s Most Dazzling Chris Oh! Australian Cabaret Royalty Victoria Falconer rounded out the judging panel, all provided feedback to performers live on air. Egypt and Chris also both presenting electrifying online performances.

In this all online virtual event, to ensure ticket holders were able to vote and to reduce the opportunity to cheat, text messages became the key to gaining the all important audience vote. A link to our online voting platform was text to viewers live during the show, supplying a unique link to each ticket holder with only 10mins to cast their vote to help decide the winner.

Unfortunately on the night, the live stream experienced technical issues, however our audience still saw performances and had access to the replay until 30 June.

Watch On Demand

The Burlesque Muse Grand Finale is now available to watch on demand for all those who did not watch live on the night, for a low price of $10, available until 15 July.

Burlesque Muse 2021 Grand Finale Replay from Mae de la Rue on Vimeo.

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