Glitter, Grit, And Goodtime Mama Jojo - 48 Years Of Stagecraft, Sensuality & Self-Belif

What if a single dare changed your life? British burlesque legend Goodtime Mama Jojo takes us from a pewter-tankard tip jar to standing ovations, showing how a spontaneous first strip became five decades of stagecraft, sensuality, and radical self-belief. We dig into the real mechanics of tease—how stillness, breath, and timing electrify a room—and why burlesque and striptease belong together as sister arts rather than competing labels.

Jojo opens the scrapbook on London’s cabaret clubs, private members’ afternoons, and the 2000s resurgence that brought glamour back to the scene. She shares the origin of her London School of Striptease and London Academy of Burlesque, sparked by activist Tuppy Owens, and the teaching philosophy that made her a sought-after mentor: no clones, no cookie cutters, just bespoke coaching that amplifies each performer’s strengths. Along the way, we talk about polishing West End acts, coaching actors and models, and creating space for performers of all genders, sizes, ages, and abilities.

This conversation also faces the tough stuff: snobbery between genres, the erosion of sensuality in favour of acrobatics, and ageism that tries to sideline seasoned artists. Jojo counters with lived proof—legend honours, a roaring Hall of Fame crowd, and a now-iconic C-string escapade that turned near-chaos into triumph. Her closing message lands hard and hopeful: life might be one run, so do not live small. Choose what lights you up, own your body, and take the stage—whatever that stage looks like for you.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Lifting The Glittery Curtain
• 0:55 Meet Good Time Mama Jojo
• 2:48 Finding Home On Stage
• 4:52 First Live Stripper And First Performance
• 9:45 Burlesque And Striptease: Sister Arts
• 12:50 Mentorship And Validation
• 16:08 Teaching Sensuality And Unlocking Confidence
• 19:21 Founding The Schools And Tuppy Owens
• 24:20 Students, Stars, And Crossovers
• 28:01 Industry Shifts: Glamour, Diversity, Ageism
• 32:45 Self-Acceptance And Body Story
• 36:40 Legend Status And Hall Of Fame
• 40:19 The C-String Saga And Live Chaos
• 44:10 How To Learn From Jojo
• 46:05 Live Boldly: Final Message

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

It's not just feathers and fishnets. Welcome to the real world behind the sparkle. Welcome to Behind Burlesque, the podcast that lifts the glittery curtain on the lives, lessons and real talk of the burlesque world. I'm your host Isabella Bliss, international showgirl, Marilyn Monroe tribute artist, coach, and eternal lover of sequins and storytelling. Each month I sit down with incredible performers, producers, creatives and misfits who've made their mark on the world of burlesque and beyond. We talk career highlights, backstage breakdowns, body image, empowerment and everything in between. Whether you're a fellow performer, a fan of the art form, or just curious as to what really goes on backstage, this is your space to feel inspired, entertained and maybe even a little transformed. Make sure to subscribe and follow for your monthly dose of truth, tassels and behind the scenes brilliance. My guest today is British burlesque legend Good Time Mama Jojo, who has been entertaining audiences with her enthralling performances for 48 years. Known for her tongue-in-cheek humour, tantalising tease and effortless sensuality, her professional manner and vibrant personality catapulted her into immense popularity in the Western cabaret clubs throughout the 80s and 90s. In 2000, she became the visionary founder of the UK's first Ballet Striptease School, where she empowered and inspired countless individuals. Through her journey and her unique style of teaching, she has paved the way for hundreds of aspiring performers, enabling them to grace the stage with confidence and continue the legacy of this fabulous art form. Please welcome the legendary Good Time Mama Jojo. Wow, I'm fabulous to you. You are! How are you? I'm really well, thank you. Very excited to be here. I'm so excited for you to be here because I get to, as you you know, as one of my mentors and my dear friends, I've got to sit and listen to your inspiring stories for well over a decade, and I get so much joy from listening to your tales. And so I feel so honoured and privileged that you've agreed to come here today and share some of that with our listeners at home.

SPEAKER_01: 2:21

Bless your heart. I'm happy to do it.

SPEAKER_00: 2:23

It's really and what a whirlwind. 48 years in the industry. Does it yes, absolutely?

SPEAKER_01: 2:31

48 years. I don't know what that is.

SPEAKER_00: 2:33

Somebody's vibrated.

SPEAKER_01: 2:36

Yeah, 48 years. It's a bit mad, isn't it? Especially as I've given up so many times.

SPEAKER_00: 2:43

Did you imagine when you first started that you would still be performing 48 years?

SPEAKER_01: 2:48

No, because I didn't I never set out to do this. So I I I always say I fell into it sideways, really. I mean, uh yeah, it's one of those things I have given up many times. Um as one of the publicans who used to run a um a strip pub in Shoreditch, uh, Johnny Bristow, he used to say he said, joking, because that's my real name, she's had more comebacks than Frank Sinatra. So yeah. So yeah, I feel like um Good Time Mama Jojo just doesn't want to hang up her G string just yet.

SPEAKER_00: 3:27

And long may she reign, indeed. I think none of us will let you give up now.

SPEAKER_01: 3:32

I'm gonna be doing it out there when I'm even wrinklier than I am already.

SPEAKER_00: 3:36

And I love that, because you've just come back from performing in is it Highway to Hole?

SPEAKER_01: 3:41

Yeah, Highway to Hole, a weekender by um Roxy Royal and Tawny Kay. They they organised it.

SPEAKER_00: 3:47

Oh, brilliant. And it's just like, yeah, I love watching you perform. It's always like getting a masterclass in burlesque. Whenever I get to be, you know, in the same space as you and watch you work your craft. I always take so much away from it. Thank you, darling. It just that finesse and just the way that you command the stage and hold that presence. I don't know anyone else like it. It's a little I think there are other people.

SPEAKER_01: 4:12

I think I just it's the weirdest thing because I always think I'm I'm quite a normal person, you know. Well, I like to think I'm normal. No one else says I'm normal, but you know, I'm a I'm a single parent, I'm I'm you know, uh a friend to lots of people who aren't in the industry. I've done lots of regular jobs, but something happens to me when I get on a stage, and I can only tell you, and not just get on a stage. I like to I do talks as well, but when I get on a stage and I'm performing, be it burlesque or striptease or a combo, I just feel it's where I belong. It's just the strangest thing.

SPEAKER_00: 4:49

Finding your home. Yeah. Brilliant. And can you tell everybody how did you first discover burlesque cabaret or striptease or what one came first for you?

SPEAKER_01: 4:59

Okay, so the discovery, the discovery, the first time I ever saw well, I mean, okay. I used to watch musicals with my mum on a Sunday. There used to be a musical every Sunday, and my mum was a fanatic because my mum when she was 18, World War II broke out. And so uh one of their joys, if there were any at that time, was to go to the pictures, to go to the movies. And so she was a bit, and they used to in the 40s, there were a lot of musicals made to try and uplift people's spirits. So when I was a kid, you know, I'd be like 12, 13, um, we used to always watch every Sunday, we'd watch the movies, and I remember seeing Gypsy. Yeah, that was probably as corny as it sounds, that was probably the first time I'd ever seen any burlesque striptees, and I just I loved all the musicals, but that one just was brilliant. I just loved it. Also, I loved Natalie Wood, she was amazing. So then the first time I saw a stripper live was in a pub in the Harrow Road called the Windsor Castle. And I was there with friends having a Sunday drink. We'd been to a club the night before. We were there having drinks the following day, and this woman came in and she looked quite dishevelled and in a rush, and she kind of made a beeline across this uh big kind of dance floor area to the ladies' toilets. And you know, I noticed her because like quite a lot of people kind of notice her, so I noticed them noticing her. And I did also notice that my girlfriend and I were possibly, other than the barmaid, the only two women in there, but it hadn't really struck me that that was it, because I was always one for the boys anyway, so it didn't matter. Anyway, she came out and she came out in this kind of a little bit like you would see a belly dancer wearing, you know, so like a a very bejeweled bikini top and the this skirt made of kind of veils, scarves kind of thing, and with her makeup all done and her hair done, and it like a completely different person to the person that went into the toilet, and then she danced, and then she removed her clothes, and most of the men moved to the edge of the dance floor to watch her, and I was absolutely like, oh my goodness, and I just thought she was amazing. She must have been well, I don't know, because I was very young, I was about I was probably 17, I probably shouldn't have been involved. Um, but I think she would have easily been in her 40s then. I'm trying to think. And I didn't realize but her body was that of a 20-year-old. I mean, it was unbelievable. But I realized many years later in retrospect that she'd had plastic surgery, a breast um augmentation, but I'd never seen one before, and we didn't talk about all that kind of thing that much then. So I didn't remember, which is which but I do remember her moving and her breasts not moving. And I remember thinking, how does that happen? I didn't know because I didn't have particularly big breasts yet. Yes. Um, so that was the first time I ever saw a performer, never thinking for one minute that I would then be one. And I met her many years later when I worked in a club in Good Street, and she worked in that club too, and in a club a few doors down, and she was scatty as anything. And her name, I think, was Serena, I seem to remember. And she had something like seven cats, and she walked from one club in Good Street, five doors down, or whatever it was, this other club, in that outfit in the daytime, because they were afternoon clubs, like just without a care that everyone going around their normal lives was looking at her like she was, what is this half-naked person doing walking along the street? But yeah, so she was quite something. So her image has always stayed with me.

SPEAKER_00: 9:05

And what inspired you? Was it that moment that inspired you to want to be a performer? I never wanted to be a performer.

SPEAKER_01: 9:12

Well, okay, my mum wanted me to be an actress. She always thought I should be an actress because when we used to watch those musicals, as soon as they were over, I would then dance and sing the whole thing again for her. Not that I could sing, I couldn't, but I would still do it. She thought that was amazing. She thought I should be an actress. My dad wanted me to be a barrister.

unknown: 9:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 9:29

I did do Latin for two years. Caikilius Estinforum. That's all I remember. And sex was six. Of course I remember that. Um so uh I didn't. I I I was a travel agent, uh, my first job out of school. I was kind of bored. I after a while I left that. I got myself, I didn't know what to do. I used to buy the stage uh just in case there was anything in there for dancers, because I love to dance, but I wasn't a trained dancer, but I had always danced. I had my own troop when I was 15, 16 that I put together, disco dancing. Um so I saw this advertisement for uh waitresses at a luncheon club. In the 70s and early 80s, there were licensing laws for pubs. So the pubs used to open, I I uh someone will tell me I'm wrong, but I think they used to open about 11 in the morning and they would close at three in the afternoon. And then they'd open again maybe at half five or six, and then close again at eleven. So you couldn't drink between those hours before in between. But to get around that, lots of places started opening what they call private members' clubs. And private members' clubs could have a license because it was private members only all day long. Okay. So they opened and they stayed open until they wanted to. So this club was advertising for waitresses because they had been open in the night time, but they were going to start a luncheon thing. So they were looking for waitresses. So I went for the job and got the job. A beautiful little club, uh very near Carnaby Street, in a place called Kingley Street. You went downstairs called Miranda's. You went downstairs, and there was a bar as you went in, very plush, lots of red velvet, bar as you went in on the left, then down a couple more steps, and there were all these like what they call bonquettes and lovely tables. It was really lovely. And at the very back, behind some beautiful red curtains, was a stage. And what the manager then explained to me was that you know, was I okay with it? Because every hour they had a burlesque striptease artiste perform one an hour. I was fine with that, didn't bother me. But what I did find was when I went there, I couldn't take my eyes off them. So if I was serving, I used to stop serving, all the waitresses used to, just out of respect, while the girls were on. But they were on for about 15-20 minutes a time. They used to perform to maybe three tracks in the old days where they used to they used to tape all the music onto cassette. Yeah. In the evening, they used to work to a band, but in the daytime it was a DJ, and he could play records, but there wasn't the DJing like there is now where you blend one into another. So most of the girls used to tape their music on cassettes and give the cassette, you'd have your own music and take that with you. And one day, one of the girls didn't turn up, one of the women didn't turn up. And uh one of the punters, clients, customers, um, uh, he was an old guy called Philip. He had white hair and he looked like that crazy guy out of Back to the Future.

SPEAKER_00: 12:42

Oh God, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 12:44

And he said, uh, Tom announced, I was serving Philip, and Tom announced that whichever one of the dancers wasn't unwell and wasn't going to show up. Sorry, gents. And there were about eight men. There were eight men in there at the time. And people used to go there, they'd take a friend, they'd take business deals in. Sometimes they'd bring women, rarely. It was usually kind of mostly men. Um because in those days, really, you know, m men had the big jobs and women were secretaries. So, you know, the women didn't go out to lunch that in in drinking clubs. Women went to lunch to go and eat and back to do their work. Men were the ones that went and had four-hour lunch hours, you know. Um, so Philip turned round to me and he said, Uh, why don't you get up there, Joe? And I said, You dirty old man, you just want to see my tits, because I was never shy. Um, and he said, Well, yeah. And I foolishly, well, not foolishly in retrospect, but at the time, I said, Well, put your money where your mouth is. And I went back to the kitchen to get whatever else was needed to serve other people. When I came out, he had been up to the the barman, Nino, and Nino had given him this big pewter tankhead, and he had put some money in it, Philip had put some money in it, and he'd gone up to the other men himself in the place, unbeknownst to me. And when I came out, he went, There you are. And I could see there was money in the tank, and I didn't count it or anything, I just saw it, and I went, Oh shit. So I I couldn't, you know, he called my bluff. I wasn't gonna say no. So very often, uh, the girls that had performed would stay around. If they didn't have anything to do, they'd stay around and maybe have drinks with customers or drinks with the barman or the manager or with me. They were always so lovely. And so a couple of the girls were there and they were gonna stay to watch. And the other waitress was there, um, and obviously the manager, the bar staff. And I went up to Tom and I went, Tom, Tom, what do I do? And he said, Well, you just get up on stage and dance around and take your clothes off. Thanks, Tom. That's really helpful. So I just had what I was wearing, I think it was a little black skirt, a little white shirt, but it was mainly used to wear like a shirt and a skirt. Um, and I always wore court shoes because I was a little person. So I always wore heels since I was about 16. And I always wore also stockings and suspenders. Have done since I was about 16. So prepared. Yeah, not always. I just I wore them as a dare years ago. My life was full of dares. And then when I went back to tights, I couldn't bear them because tights used to wear a pair of knickers and then tights and then a pair of knickers over the tights to keep the tights.

SPEAKER_00: 15:29

Because they're always feel like you've got a saggy crutch everyone.

SPEAKER_01: 15:31

Yeah, it's horrible. Don't want a saggy crutch ever. Um or crotch. Is it crotch or crutch? Crotch. I think it's crotch, one of those. Yeah. Um a saggy gusset. Okay, so so as opposed to a soggy gusset, which is a whole other thing. Um, so I so I always wore stockings anyway. I chose three tracks. I have no recollection what they were. They were probably pop songs, because I used to go to discos all the time. I loved to dance. And I was a good dancer, she says modestly. Um and I we there was a little dressing room. I went into the dressing room and came out on stage, and I what they used to do usually is the first track, if they had props and stuff, they would kind of introduce you to the props if it was umbrellas or a swing or a whatever, and they would it would be all about that. Second track would be outer clothing. Third track would be undies, so it would be like bra or or whatever, bra, um, and and knickers. And although it was Westminster, they did get fully nude in those days.

SPEAKER_00: 16:35

So you didn't have to wear like no, no pasties.

SPEAKER_01: 16:37

There were no pasties. Some girls wore pasties, but there were no rules about nipples and fanny. So they'd take their knickers off, but literally the majority of women took that off 30 seconds before the end. We used to call it a flash of the gas. That's I know. Sorry, that top yourself. So so literally, you know, blink and you'll miss it. Do you know me? Low the tone. So I did all my dancing, but I danced like a mad person, like I would in a club. Exhausting. I don't remember how I undid my blouse, I don't remember how I undid my skirt, I don't think I did what I teach all the time is being still. I don't think I knew about being still, even though I'd watched a lot of these performers. And somehow all my clothes came off. The first track ended, the second track ended, the third track ended. And although I had remembered to take my bra off, I had forgotten to take my knickers off. Because I'd never done that before. So I remember the music stopping and I looked at everyone and I went, oh, and I came out of my knickers like a like in the most ungainly, unsexy way imaginable. Held them in my hand and went, thank you very much. And what they all went mad, they thought it was hysterically funny and brilliant and everything. And then I went in the change room and I was shaking.

SPEAKER_02: 17:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 17:54

Because I didn't know about adrenaline. I didn't know about that. And I counted the money, and there was 80 pounds in that turn code. Philip had put in a tenner and had gone up to each man and they'd all done the same. Which was a lot of money then. I didn't earn 80 pounds in tips in a week, usually. Because I was just working for tips. There was no wage. Um and and grown men very often weren't earning a fortune in those days. Um, but I did go, ooh, waitressing or stripping. I mean, I carried on waitressing for quite some time. But um the other I used to talk to all the other burlesque striptease artists and ask their advice, and then they'd advise me where to go. And eventually I auditioned in other places, and I started doing the West End Circuit, which was mainly evenings. There were some afternoon clubs. But that's how I started.

SPEAKER_00: 18:44

Good question. So do you remember what it felt like to do that first performance?

SPEAKER_01: 18:49

Um I remember thinking it was hysterically funny that anybody would pay me to see me naked. I thought that was mad. I thought I was completely mad, but uh I wasn't nervous, yeah, really. It was only afterwards I was shaking, and I could say that was adrenaline. I just thought it was funny. I mean, and also, you know, my bluff had been called, and I was like, I'll show you. So I was young, I was 17. No, I was 18. I was 18. Because I couldn't have got the job if I wasn't 14, I was 18. But only just. I mean, it was yeah, maybe 18 and a half. Yeah, I was about I was young. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 19:25

And it's so fascinating to hear that story as well, because obviously in Burles now we don't go nude. You know, you have to wear tea string and pasties, and quite a lot of the time you always had to. So it's interesting that in these clubs it was like fully nude. And I think that would make some people faint at home.

SPEAKER_01: 19:41

I think it's because I think it's because these were private members' clubs. Yeah, these weren't clubs that anybody could come in off the street to. So I suppose the whole thing that you could drink all day, yeah, that you had nudity, it was kind of it was so private, yeah. It was like privilege. Privilege, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 19:57

You know, so and that's kind of like what we were saying, what we've talked about before, between the crossover of striptease and burlesque, of them being one and you know, the sisters, aren't they, of the same they are.

SPEAKER_01: 20:08

Well, actually, I always say that burlesque gave birth to striptease. I always say burlesque is striptease's mama. Yes. And burlesque is very proud of her daughter or son of striptease. Yeah, I don't I've never understood this divide. I don't I mean, I'm not saying I know in burlesque now there are people that perform burlesque per se and do not take their clothes off. It is apparently a form of burlesque. I don't know if burlesque should be the right word for it, I'm not sure, because I don't know, but then burlesque strip tease to me is the real burlesque. I like to see personally, I like to see removal of clothing. It doesn't mean you have to be naked, obviously, but I love that tease that goes with stripping.

SPEAKER_00: 20:50

Which is an art in itself.

SPEAKER_01: 20:51

Oh, it's such an art. They are different. I mean, I think there are burlesques that could probably profit from learning how to strip properly. Because there are a lot of people that remove their clothes but don't necessarily do it as well as they could. And there are a lot of striptease artists that have no idea about burlesque and could learn that art form too.

SPEAKER_00: 21:16

Yeah, because I remember when we first met, and because when I first got in the industry, striptease was very much frowned upon. It was like, you know, burlesque wasn't for strippers, and I was a stripper that came into burlesque, and I remember having to try and hide it because it was really frowned upon. And then uh you booked me for a gig, and I did a gig for you, and I remember afterwards you coming up to me and going, You're a stripper, aren't you? And I was like, Oh my goodness, I'm busted. And I was like dying inside, and then you let in and you were like, It's your greatest superpower, lean into it. And I felt such a sigh of relief to feel that the art forms could be one and the same, and that actually I could bring everything that I knew from being a stripper in a strip club and bring that into my stage presence. And you made me feel so comfortable and so valid in a time when I didn't necessarily feel that in the industry, and I'm always so grateful because I feel like in that moment you helped me develop the part of my burlesque that is who I truly am now. And had I not met you, I wonder what performer I would have been trying to always hide that element. That's crazy, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01: 22:20

I mean, there have been a few people along the way who I can nearly always tell if someone has been a stripper. I mean, although I started in burlesque striptease, I still maintain I'm a stripper. I might be a burlesque legend or legend, as I like to call myself, or a burlesque artist, but I'm a stripper. I take my clothes off. You know, the uh to me, if you are removing your clothing, you are a striptease artist. Whether it is within the burlesque genre or any other genre, you're stripping, you are an ecdesiast, you are the remover of clothing. So, yes, um, I can nearly always spot it. I would say 99% of the time I can spot it. There are stripping is quite different now. It's quite there's a lot more of the uh floor work now and pounding oneself into the floor and all of that, which governors I used to do too.

SPEAKER_00: 23:20

Not quite so um yeah, you put it in.

SPEAKER_01: 23:24

It's probably do you know what I couldn't do floor work for two years because I used to go down on the floor like a fairy elephant until I found a way of getting down there gracefully. Now, if I get down, I can't get back up. So it's not so dodgy. Um, but yeah, I think I I think sometimes uh some some strip tease has lost its sensuality and sexiness because it's become so and I I kind of it's not my thing. I think it's great if people want to do it, but it doesn't really move me. The same as pole dancing. I like pole dancing to be it's great that it's acrobatic, but I like it to be sensual too. Because I think I think there's something about sensuality, whether it's male, female, trans performers, whoever, that I just I I find that such a oh, I love it. It's uh it's a bit of a turn-on, but I don't mean that in a necessarily a sexual way. I just oh I love it. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Well it's the same as when you hear sexy music and you go, ooh, that's kind of feeling the vibe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 24:27

And do you think that sometimes maybe like people want to disassociate burlesque and striptease because stripping comes with such that you know people's fear of like sexuality and sensuality and all this like British stiff upper lip, and like, oh no, we we don't do sexy and I don't think it's about a British stiff upper lip anymore.

SPEAKER_01: 24:45

I think it's just about a ridiculous snobbery. Um I I've never understood it. I've never understood that you would look down on anybody that does it's like uh for many years actors look down on people who did cabaret. Cabaret people look down on people who did burlesque, burlesque people look down on people who were strippers, strippers look down on prostitutes. I'm not saying I don't know this for a fact. You know, prostitutes very often look down on the people that pay them. Why are any of us looking down on it? We're all just doing whatever we need to do to get by in life and hopefully, hopefully, what makes you happy. And I don't think anyone has the right to feel superior to anyone else or to judge anyone else. I think just, you know, live and let live. I don't get it. I don't get it. Never have done, never will.

SPEAKER_00: 25:41

And it's always that you want more people to embrace that part of themselves as well, isn't it? Which is what when you teach women and you teach empowering women, you kind of nurture that spirit within this within every person, isn't it? Oh everyone has that ability to connect with their sensuality and sexuality, and I think you're great at bringing that out in people, aren't you? I try.

SPEAKER_01: 26:02

I mean there are some people that will never connect with it, and the reason they won't connect with it is because they hold trauma in their body or they hold memories that have affected them for whatever reason. Sometimes that can just be uh a really religious upbringing, or it can be that something happened to them when they were young, not necessarily something awful, but maybe someone laughing at them, or it doesn't necessarily always have to be abuse, although abuse is you know one of those things that affects people hugely, obviously, that makes them feel different about their sexuality and sensuality and and owning it. Um I've dealt with uh lots of different issues. I've had, I mean, I used to teach men as well. One of my students was a man in his 80s who had been married, had had children, and when his wife died, he found a night dress in a charity shop that reminded him of a night dress that she wore, so he bought it. And uh when he got home, he tried it on. And he suddenly discovered in his 80s that he liked the feel of women's clothing on him, and he came to me to learn how to strip out of women's clothing. I mean, how amazing that maybe he would have liked to have done that 40, 50 years earlier, you don't know, but it's something unlocked in him. You know, I just think I I people always often say to me, Thank you so much, you gave me this or you helped me do this. I would say, I just I just give you the key. You have to unlock it. I can't unlock it. If you're not willing to take that key and unlock it, it's gotta I just I just give people the key.

SPEAKER_00: 27:55

You're good at handing over the key.

SPEAKER_01: 27:57

I am good at handing over the keys. I've given lots of keys out.

SPEAKER_00: 28:01

What was your inspiration or your driving force for opening and creating the London Academy of Bellesque and the London Academy of Striptease in the 2000s?

SPEAKER_01: 28:11

Yes, London School of Striptease. London School of Striptease, so well, my inspiration was a wonderful woman who unfortunately died earlier this year called Toppy Owens, Dr. Toppy Owens. And Toppy was oh my god, she was an activist, she was uh um uh she studied all about sex and and she taught a lot to do with sexual things for people with disabilities. So she opened a charity called The Outsiders, and the Outsiders still exists. It's a charity for people with disabilities who can then meet other people, not necessarily the disabilities, sometimes able-bodied people, with the idea. I mean, Toppy's idea was that they'd meet people to have sex, really, that's the truth. But also some of them, it's just that they would have a relationship, it could be a love relationship, it could be and lots of relationships um happened because of that charity. So Tuppy used to come to me and ask me, she also ran something, she also created the Sex Maniacs Diary, which I started buying at the age of 18, not knowing who Tuppy Owens was. I thought Tuppy Owens was a man, because it was all about sex. You didn't expect a woman to be writing about this thing, which is dreadful, isn't it? Because that's all we do now. Um, and then she used to go around the strip clubs to try and find strippers to perform at something called um the the um she had the night of the senses, and it was a sex because she had the sex maniacs diary, so she had something called the Sex Maniacs Ball. And she had lots of people funding it, lots of wealthy people donated and booking tables and everything. And at the Sex Maniacs Ball, there would be uh people performing, and then eventually she started doing a night where there was a competition, and then she did the sexual freedom awards. Um, I have one of Those for I can't think, I don't know, outstanding contribution or something. It's a gold penis with wings, sexy freedom, rainbow wings, and a gold penis. Love it. I want to have my daughter to take the wings off and put bangles on it and pretend it wasn't a penis. But anyway, um, so Tuppy used to come and she often asked me if I could perform, and invariably I wasn't available or whatever. And then eventually she came to me and asked me if I could host. And I hosted, I was judging one thing, and then I was hosting with Matt Fraser, lovely, wonderful uh disability activist and actor. Matt Fraser, he's amazing. If you don't know him, look him up. He's something else. And we hosted a show together. And when I was having meetings with Tuppy about what we were going to do, I also was judging. I was judging all these porno films and everything. I had to watch a lot of uh uh lesbian and gay porno. It was very enlightening. And um uh and I used to have lots of meetings with Tuppy. And one day she said to me, Why, you know, what are you gonna do? And I said, I'm giving up. You know, I'm giving up. I've given up. I think I'd given up, then I've given up. And she said, What are you gonna do? I said, Well, I've always wanted to open my own school. I'd love to teach striptees because I think it could really help women, you know, like regular women, ordinary women. I know we're ordinary women as well. I just say ordinary women doing an extraordinary job, but anyway. And she said, Well, why don't you? And I said, Well, Tuppy, you know, who's gonna want to come? Ah, come on. And so, what would you call it? And I said, I don't know, London School of Striptease, because I'm a Londoner. The night of the show where I'm meant to be hosting, well, I was hosting with Matt, on every table is a pink flyer that says it's got a picture of a woman kind of on the floor doing a bit of sexy stuff, and it says, Want to learn striptees? Contact joking, London School of Striptease, my phone number and a thing. She hadn't told me she was gonna do it. Flyers on every table. Then she got me an interview with uh FHM magazine, which was a men's magazine.

SPEAKER_00: 32:13

Oh men's reporters.

SPEAKER_01: 32:14

With their female reporter whose name is Athena Duris. She was billed as a lesbian reporter. I don't know if she was a lesbian reporter, but it was a men's magazine. So obviously, having her as a lesbian reporter made it better than just female reporter, obviously. Anyway, she interviewed me in her hotel room. Um the interview took about an hour, and then I gave her a little striptease lesson, and she did a write-up on me two sides, a whole page in FHM magazine. And that was in the days where we didn't have emails. And from that, I think I got something like 50 letters asking to learn, and that's how it started. That was because of Tuppy. I mean, I didn't literally, it was a throwaway comment. I would love to have a school, I would call it London School of Striptease. And then I found I did teach a lot of people, but I also found I advertised it and I went to dance works in the West End and said, This is what I'm doing. And they were the woman that managed it was Dutch, and she was like, There's only one thing that I can say about having you here teaching striptees. And I said, Oh dear, what's that? She said, I want to be in your first class. So brilliant. Because Pineapple Studios wouldn't take me on. So we don't have striptees here, we have children here. So I wasn't going to teach the kids, okay. So yeah, they're own bottoms at the time. Now that you know. Um, oh, how things change. And so I started teaching there, and then I realized that a lot of people are scared, which is what we're going back to, of the word striptease. Because it has a connotation and association to something that is not not so much now, but then I'm going back, this was early 2000s, that was still not quite deemed acceptable. And in some circles to this day, still isn't.

SPEAKER_00: 34:05

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 34:05

So I thought, I know what I'll do, because I cut my stripping teeth in burlesque, I'll open another business called the London Academy of Burlesque. Still me.

SPEAKER_02: 34:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 34:14

And so I started teaching burlesque. So I taught props and all the burlesque stuff without strip. I mean, I taught them how to take gloves off and a boa routine. And then nearly every student that came and did my burlesque course, because of course they fell in love with me because I'm so lovable and so modest, um, they then signed up for a strip tease course.

SPEAKER_00: 34:35

And you've taught some of the big names in the industry that our listeners would know if they know through the history of burlesque in the last 20 years. Who would you say who's the people that you've taught that people would recognise?

SPEAKER_01: 34:48

Um, I suppose, well, um unfortunately she's not doing it anymore, but Polly Ray, who was the first person to have like um uh a big West End show, I would say, um, straight into the West End. Although, although Polly had uh a troop called the Hurly Burly Girlies. I remember Polly came and did a course with me, and then she became my PA. So I used to teach her in my home, and then she said, I want to do this thing with the girls. So I would teach her, I remember we we got buckets and turned them upside down in my room and pretended they were all the girls, and then she'd go away and teach the girls. And among those girls that I taught, or Polly taught, because I taught Polly to teach them, but I also taught, were Lori Hagen, who is now in Vegas. Um uh Betsy Bonbon. Yeah, uh, I taught her to. Um, I'm trying to think who else was amongst them. Uh Rosie Rollins, who now is more of a circus performer, but I taught Rosie. Um, she was one of Polly's girls, but she also did a course with me. I taught um, I don't know if you'll know Miss Honeylulu, uh Crimson Sky. A lot of these girls probably aren't in the business anymore. Um, Trixie Sparkle was one of my students. Um uh Rose Thorne, who runs the Double R Club. Yeah. Uh I taught Rose. Um, who else? Oh, of course, uh Immodesty Blaze. I met Immodesty, she was already performing, but she bless her heart, always says if ever she wants a performance polished, there's only one person should come to. And when she's got an act, she comes to me to have it polished, which is, you know, uh Immodesty was Miss Exotic World in 2007, I think. Yeah. Uh uh the Bellas Hall of Fame. Um, and I've also taught actors, actresses. Um, I taught some of the girls out of the Saturdays. Um, I taught Agnes Dean, who was a supermodel when she wanted to transition into film. She was doing a number where she had to strip for a boyfriend, and they hired me to teach her how to strip. And she said that no one had ever told her that she could because she was quite androgynous. And she said no one had ever she felt like she owned her body when she was with me, and she said nobody had ever told her that she could do that, and it was through working with me. And then Dawn Porter, who's now Dawn O'Porter, who did lots of documentaries, done quite a lot of documentaries, so lots of lots of bad people.

SPEAKER_00: 37:16

And that's the thing, isn't it? The beauty of like you light up this unashamable part of people, isn't it? Of like you just have that magic of bringing that out and encouraging people to own who they truly are and express that through dance and through striptease, um, which is a beautiful gift to have, Joe.

SPEAKER_01: 37:33

Very special. I think it's I I I I I have a certain way of teaching, and actually what I do is I I love teaching uh groups, but I but my favourite is teaching one-to-one. Because what I do is I always give them um uh a questionnaire and I ask them lots of questions and I uh tailor it always to suit them. I have never taught uh so that you would then better perform like me because you're not me. So what I do is I see what you do, what works for you, what your strengths are and your weaknesses, and then I work to make it the best thing for you. Because that's that to me is the way to be the best teacher you can be, is to make it for that person. It's not about me showing you what I know and you doing what I tell you to do. I mean, I do have I always say I have some rules, rules can be broken. I have some laws. You love breaking rules, yeah. I have some laws, they can't be broken, but in you know, my burlesque, my striptease rules, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 38:41

So and would what would you say has been the difference that you've witnessed in the industry, you know, being in as a performer in this interview for 48 years, like what would you say is the changes that you've seen in that time, yeah, in the industry and how women are represented or what's changed that you've observed in the class?

SPEAKER_01: 39:01

What's funny is in a way I came in on the arse end of if you'll pardon the expression, of the arse end of the fabulosity of it. Because when I came into a lot of the performers, I mean, I'm I said to you, 15 and 20 minute shows. Yeah. I mean, these girls, they were bought gifts. They were given gifts like you can't imagine, you know, fur coats, beautiful. They were lovely perfume, taken to Paris for the weekend, not not for anything, but just because they were seen as almost treated like movie stars, a lot of girls. But it started waning over the years, and and that's why I went into stripping in in pubs, um, which I actually loved probably even more than the clubs, just because I I loved how raw and real it was, you know. Um but in burlesque, I think it's it's kind of coming back now to that old glamour. We I think it lost the glamour. Well, actually, burlesque was not around for quite some time. You know, there was a resurgence in the 2000s, you know, which is when I opened my school, but also Whoopi Club were happening, um, the Ducky Club was happening, I think the Ministry of Burleste started up the same time then. Um, so lots of people were on the burlesque bandwagon all of a sudden. It was like it was a new thing, which obviously it wasn't. But to them it was, to me it wasn't. It was like, oh, jolly good. Back around again. Yeah, back around again. Um, because uh most things have cycles, like fashion has cycles, and you know. Um but I would say now, I mean, I think uh you get a lot of people talking about having people of colour more involved now, uh trans people more involved now. See, when I started, I obviously there weren't as many of us anyway. It wasn't such a big industry. So actually, I remember working with a lot of people of colour, and I and I had loads of trans friends and drag queen friends, although most of my drag queen friends were drag queening. Um, trans friends, a couple of them were in the industry, but but kept the fact they were trans very quiet because it was, you know, listen, people kept the fact they were gay very quiet still back in the early 80s. You've got to remember we went through some harsh stuff in the 80s. Um so now I like the fact that people are much more open about their sexuality and and much more accepting and diverse. I also like the fact that now burlesque and striptease are much more welcoming of all shapes and sizes. Um, we've still got a little bit of ageism going on. I think, you know, I'm 66. If I wasn't British burlesque legend, would I still be getting work? I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, you do because you're biased, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 42:05

You are exceptional on stage, and Joe, you'd still wipe the floor with anybody in their 20 years.

SPEAKER_01: 42:10

You give them a run for their money. But it is just that thing, there is definitely ageism within our industry. Um and there is in every industry.

SPEAKER_00: 42:18

Do you think that also becomes from people's sex in that expectation that we still sometimes hold on to of like women have to stop being sexy at a certain age?

SPEAKER_01: 42:27

Definitely.

SPEAKER_00: 42:28

And like I love that you fight that so fiercely and such an ambassador for it. And I hope to be as an ambassador as you are, because I I it's really important to, you know, we still continue to be a sexy, sensual person, no matter what our age or gender or background. It's so true, it's so true.

SPEAKER_01: 42:48

I think it's really hard because obviously most of us go through the change and and that does affect you. And aging is not for the faint-hearted, let me tell you. You know, I have wrinkly skin, very wrinkly skin, I have lots of broken veins, I've age spots, I bruise so easily. I'm still one of the sexiest women I know. Um I just think I just, you know, this goes funny and that no one warns you about it. And actually, if you're used to being on stage or filmed or photographed or anything where you're in the public eye, even if it's only our small public because of the genre we're in, um it's harsh. But I fight that because it happens to everyone. I mean, I've not had anything lifted or tucked. I think fair play to you if you want to. I just I'm allergic to the whole world. So if you know, you'd probably cut me open and I'd drop dead, so I'm not gonna do that. Um, and if I want my tits lifted, I'll just get some cute man to do that. Um but yeah, I think it's I think it's really important that we don't make women feel less because they're aging. I think that's a really bad, you know. Years ago there was this thing, you needed to be um, you know, slim and and I think that's why I fought it when I was teaching. I think a lot of people would come to my class. I think that's why I was so successful with my business, teaching pole dancing and and striptees and everything. Because people would come to the class and they would see me. I'm five foot and a flea called burt. I've always been very curvy, I'm a little dumpy thing. Do you know what I mean? I've got a good thing, but I'm a little dumpy thing. And you know, I'm not drop-dead gorgeous. I know I'm attractive, but I'm not drop-dead gorgeous. No, I'm not. I'm not how people envisage someone to be. And then I'd be there moving and they'd go, oh my god, she's sexy. And it is that thing with she can do it, yeah, I can do it. And I love that because I know sometimes when I had other teachers who were younger, who were very pretty, it made some women feel less. And that's and that's their shit, that's their mindset, which you know, I I aim always to try and change people's mindsets about themselves. I try and get them to unlearn all that horrible negative stuff they hold on to. You know, I say when you come in my classroom, leave your negativity at the door, and when you go back out, do not pick it back up. Brilliant.

SPEAKER_00: 45:21

Do you have you found that you've had to learn learn to re-love yourself in every decade? Has anything changed for you like the throughout, you know, your twenties, your thirties, your forties, your fifties, your sixties? Have you have you just always found that comfortable space of loving yourself and embracing who you are?

SPEAKER_01: 45:40

Okay, so when I was a teenager, um I was made fun of at school because of my nose. Because I've got a big nose. Okay. Gorgeous, you know. Um, because boys always pick on and I had a friend who was overweight, and I remember this boy used to call her Fatty, and and I stuck up for her, which is funny because she could have fought. And then he called me Beaky, and I remember picking up a metal chair and trying to wrap it round his head. I had a bit of a temper. I had a bit of a temper when I was younger. And I used to walk down the street. If I saw a group of boys, I used to walk down the street and do that so they wouldn't see my nose. And then I always say, I don't really believe in God, I'm not religious at all, but for the purposes of this story, and then God took pity on me and God gave me tits, and no fucker noticed my nose ever again. Nobody commented, they were too busy looking at my tits. So as you say, my face is up here, hello. Anyway, so yeah, so I I remember up until the age of about 18, it was something that bothered me because I always thought all my friends were pretty, and I I knew I knew that I wasn't, right? Because when people have made fun of you, you know. And then I don't know what happened. No, I kind of do. I'm very like I said to you, I'm quite allergic to to regular drugs. Any drugs, actually, but you know, like m medicines. And a uh a lover of mine knew that. And an aunt of mine died, I don't how know how old I was, I was early 20s, and I was thinking, she left me£2,000, and I was thinking, Shall I go on some wonderful holidays or shall I have a nose job? Because I used to go in front of the mirror and I say to my mum, what if I just do this? And she said, I think you're beautiful. And I go, No, you're my mum because anyway. So I was saying to this friend lover of mine, I said, I think I'm gonna go and have a nose job. And he went, That's great, that's a really good idea. Of course, we can all just tell you how pretty you look in that coffin, because I could have had an adverse reaction to the thing and died. And it just gave me the biggest kick up my ass. And so that money went on holidays instead, and I didn't get a nose job. And something happened that he changed my mindset, and I just thought, and I also saw a documentary years ago uh called I think it was called a boy called David or a boy named David, about a little boy that was adopted from I don't know where, somewhere out in South America by a a Scottish couple, and this and this and the the man was a plastic surgeon, and they adopted this little boy whose face had been eaten away by something, and he had no nose. And the the dad took something like 13 surgeries, but he built this boy a nose and a an upper palate. And I remember this little boy saying to his dad, his adopted dad, can you make me the biggest nose possible because I've never had one? And it just made me feel so ashamed of myself for thinking anything negative about myself. And I I don't know, I got to 26 and I just something happened when I was 26. I mean, don't forget your frontal lobe, your full frontal cortex thing hasn't formed until you're about 25. When I got to 26, I just went, yeah. I like this bitch.

SPEAKER_00: 49:11

I mean I've done all right since then, really. Brilliant. And so you're I can't even get my words out because it's so profound even saying this. You are a British burlesque legend, which is iconic. How does it feel to be a legend?

SPEAKER_01: 49:32

Do you know what? It makes me laugh. It's another thing that makes me laugh. It is lovely. I am very look. Immodesty Blaze was the one who said, Joe, you should, you know, you should go to the Burles Hall of Fame. And I said, Well, apply for the competition. She went, Don't be silly. You've been doing this for years. You've been doing this. You should be a legend. And I went, really? So she put me forward, and Lara and Tamara from the Whoopi Club put me forward. And that's when they asked me to go out there in 2008. So I went out there in 2008 as a legend. You know, they recognized me as a legend. I met Satan's Angel, I met Dixie Evans, who ran the whole thing. Uh, I met Alexandra the Great, 48, who's no longer with us. Dixie's no longer with us, Angel's no longer with us. I met Tempest Storm, also gone, unfortunately. Um, that I met iconic women, just incredible. But I shared that stage with with uh Satan's Angel and numerous other fantastic performers, and it was it was just the most that was an incredible experience being recognized. And also I I I thought I knew what I was gonna do, and then I changed my mind at the last minute. And I danced to two tracks I'd never danced to before. So I kind of made it up as I go along, story of my life. Um, and and they went mental, the place went mental. And you've got to remember in America, very often people don't know what's going on in the next state. So they don't know who we are. We're in a little island, we're nothing. So for me to be a British performer, I mean there were some people who knew me, but the majority of those people didn't know who I was. And the reception I got was amazing. And then I was invited back last year. The first time I went, maybe there were 150 people in the room. Now they've got a much bigger stage, a much bigger venue that were 800 people. And I was like, what am I doing? I'm 65, what am I doing? And and I got a standing O. I mean, they went crazy. So it makes me feel very blessed, very lucky, uh, but also I still know that I'm just a normal human being who's a single mum who's just actually really very lucky.

SPEAKER_00: 51:49

Oh, that's amazing. And so that feeling of stepping out on stage. So obviously, for the last podcast, we had Jezebel Thunder, who's the reign in Miss Exotic World at the moment. So if you haven't listened to that yet, you can go back and listen to that one. So we were talking all about the burlesque Call of Fame weekend and the Miss Exotic World competition and explaining to people that it's such a kind of like mecca for burlesque performers. So huge.

SPEAKER_01: 52:12

It's the biggest, it's the biggest competition and it's the biggest weekender in the world for burlesque performers. I mean, it is really something else. And and you know, I I mean I did the same thing this time. I didn't I had a costume and I'd had all the underwear blinged by lovely Polly Ray, who that's what she does now. House of bling, check her out, she's fab. She uh but I hadn't put it all on together, and I've kind of thought, oh, I haven't tried it all on. So I I tried it all on in the morning. I went, oh yeah, it all fits, took it off again. Went and did a tech, but not in costume. I never do tech in costume, and I just listen, I just I never do the whole thing. I'm I kind of can't be asked. I just want to hear the music works and the lights work and walk around, check I'm not gonna fall down on the stage, but I still don't know what I'm gonna do. Have I got time to tell you about the story of this time, the special story about what happened? Yeah, go on. Okay, tell the people. We need to know. I bought a C string. Now, a C-string is like a G string, but it's got no sides. It literally cups your bits, right? And and I've often had them and I've never worn them, and for some unknown reason, I decided to bling that and wear it. And I thought I might go down to a C-string, but I also I'm famous for two pairs of knickers. So I then also had a G string over that and a pair of big knickers over the G string. The big knickers had side clips, like stripper knickers, uh, but I'd had them done with um, you know, when you have a bikini, those things. So they had those, and then the G string was a G string you had to take down your body. So I had had the G string blinged. I'd bling the C string and the knickers had stuff on. Okay. So the idea was that I would take the knickers off, and at some stage I would take the G string off down to a C string. On the day I go to put my sheer stockings on. Now the G string has been blinged by Polly, who's not only put lovely ordinary crystals on, she's put pronged crystals on. So the little clasps with the clasps that catch on all kinds of things. Yeah. So if you've got sheer stockings, that would be fine. You could probably avoid it. But obviously, you couldn't wear fishnets with those. There's no way you could take those off if you're wearing fishnets. No way. I mean, no way. So I go to put my sheer stockings on. I brought the wrong bag down. We're running late, someone hasn't turned up, I'm next on. Oh my god, but they're tights, they're not stocking. So I go shit. Luckily, I have a pair of stockings, but they're fishnets.

SPEAKER_00: 54:48

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_01: 54:49

So okay, no one knows I was gonna take my G string off. I just won't take my G string off. Fair enough, fine. I've often finished in just a G-string. Great. Got everything else, lovely, go on stage. But the audience, I mean, they were screaming so loud I could hardly hear the music. Wow. Right? And it's a big, big stage at the new at the at the aullions. And you know how you have a devil and an angel on your shoulders. Well, I have two devils. And something happened. I got a bit carried away, and they went, go on, dare you, go on, dare ya. And something in me decided at the last minute that I was gonna take the G string off. And I start and I bend and I take the G-string off, and as it gets to my ankle, it catches on the stocking. So it's gonna rip the living crap out of that stocking, isn't it? It caught and I was like, and as I went, oh, like no one can see, I'm wiggling from behind. It looks like anything as quickly as it came stuck, it came unstuck. I do not know how. I do not know how. And I came. I came out of it, I turned around. And because I am the age I am and I'm a legend, and I went down to a C-string, and you know, I've got my big tummy and my big boobies and my bit the I hate the word boobies, breasts. Um, they went apeshit. They went apeship. So yeah, so that was a bit of last-minute madness.

SPEAKER_00: 56:18

But that's like the beauty of live theatre and live performance, isn't it? You can like change on a dime, like a costume can get stuck, or you're on stage and you just get this crazy inspirational moment, and you kind of trust your gut and run with it, and that's when the beauty and the magic happens. Absolutely. And it's like trying to explain to people at home, like a C-string is literally, I think sometimes held on by hope.

SPEAKER_01: 56:40

Well, can I I'll tell you something else. Lily Snatchdragon, my burlas daughter. She said, Mama, use this, this tape, because I said, Well, double use this. She gave me something to stick it on with a carpet tape. Oh Lord. What she didn't tell me was that it leaves quite a lot of residue behind when you remove it. And I went to my room to what I couldn't get this stuff off my bits. It was like you know, like the thickest glue. And I didn't have any astringent or anything. Nothing. It was I was picking that stuff off my body for days. I was like, I'm gonna kill you, Lily. But anyway, it did the trick at the time.

SPEAKER_00: 57:29

Amazing. And so do you see if people wanted to learn from you now, do you still teach?

SPEAKER_01: 57:36

Oh, I absolutely still teach. I love teaching.

SPEAKER_00: 57:38

So, where if people feel inspired by you today, where can they find you and come and learn from you? Because I mean, you're one of the best to learn from, so I would uh easily ask everybody to come and have a lesson with you. But where how would people find you?

SPEAKER_01: 57:51

Okay, so the best way for people to find me is um on Instagram. Um you have to look up Good Time Mama Jojo, and it is Mama M-A-M-A, J-O-J-O, but Good Time is at the beginning. There is something else that says Good Time Mama, and it's got a picture of me, but it's not mine. So Good Time Mama Jojo. Or they can find me on Facebook as well. Um if they look up Good Time Mama Jojo, that should come up on there. And or they can just uh email me directly, and it's a long email, sorry folks. It's London Academy of Burlesque at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_00: 58:31

Brilliant. And do you have anything that you would want to share with people listening in that you know means a lot to you if you could share one message with people about burlesque or confidence or sexuality or connecting with themselves?

SPEAKER_01: 58:48

Yeah, I would say, I would say, you know, I I would love to think that there is such a thing as reincarnation, but the romantic in me would like to think that. But the logical person thinks this could just be it, kids. And if this is it, if this is game over, don't waste it by being less than you are, by allowing anyone else to put you in a box or tell you how to be or live your life for you. Look inside your heart, look inside your mind, and decide what you want from this life. And whatever that is, whatever that is, I would say go for it. Wholeheartedly, isn't it? Wholeheartedly, with every fibre of your being. And if what you want is, you know, by that I mean if what you want is to get married and have babies, that's cool. You know, I don't like this whole feminist thing where you say, oh, but you're not a feminist if you do that. For me, feminism is doing whatever the fuck you want as a feminist, and the same for men and the same for trans people. Just do what works for you. Don't let anyone anyone ever tell you how to live your life. You live it the way you want to. I mean obviously I mean don't go around you know hurting people. Well we all hurt people but you know really hurting people but find what is in your in your gut what is in your spirit what sings to you what calls you and go for that.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:19

It just lights you up from within when you live like that isn't it and I think like your magic and your power and your charisma comes you've lived your life Joe on unapologetically you which I love and like every time I see you and speak to you you tell me a story that I just it makes my heart sing because it's just so inspiring to hear stories from a woman that's you know lived her life so unapologetically not even I think you know now women have a lot more freedom to do what they want than they've ever had but you've been living your life unapologetically through the decades defiantly just being an absolute trailblazer and I feel so grateful um to you for living your life that way because it's meant that it's opened up spaces for women like myself or other people coming forward through the industry performers to be able to live our truth and our honesty because people like you opened up those doors and those spaces for us to do that. And so I'm incredibly grateful for you as a person because I bless you.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:22

Thank you. I also just want to add one other thing I I I've worked quite a lot with people with disabilities I've worked with I I've worked with blind people I've worked with deaf people I've worked with people in wheelchairs. I want everyone to know that no matter what able bodied or whether you have disabilities you know burlesque is for everyone is for everyone it really is for everyone. So don't let anything hold you back. If that's something you think you just want to give it a go give it a go.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:49

Yeah everybody has the right to it isn't it the right to fully express yourself in that freedom. Yeah for sure Joe it's been an absolute pleasure and a joy to speak to you today and thank you so much for joining us and sharing all of your beautiful stories. Thank you for inviting me I'm sure people have a lot of nuggets of information and joy and wisdom hopefully to take away from what you've shared with us today. And please give Joe a follow on the socials because you just your life is just glorious to watch yeah and and you know in the words of Batman Turner overdrive you ain't seen nothing yet brilliant well thank you so much for joining us today today Joe and I have so much love and respect for you and just keep shining brightly and keep being fabulous because you're just a joy absolute joy thank you darling you too thank you for joining me on this podcast episode of Behind Burlesque with Good Time Mama Jojo our burlesque legend make sure you give us a like a share and leave in the comments of any dying questions that you have for me to ask our burlesque icons on the next podcast I'll see you on the next ones my darlings stay fabulous