CABARET / SHOWGIRL / BURLESQUE
Wiggy Darlington is born
After singing as a classical singer for many years, I decided in 2007 to branch out into cabaret, burlesque and the business we call "show". Classical music and music theater were wonderful places to explore serious music...but I was feeling less serious and ready to experiment. The San Francisco era of dive bar shows, DNA Lounge extravaganzas and epically inventive shows like Tourettes Without Regrets drew me to them with crazy good performances that let my imagination out of its classical strictures.
So many wild times! Skotty the Blue Bunny towering over us MCing in skintight blue lycra and sky-high plastic heels, Jamie DeWolf, mastermind of one of Oakland's cultural gems (Tourettes Without Regrets) onstage with me in a full-size boxing ring during their "F*ck America" show-- me as Lady Wiener in a full-body hot dog costume--singing a mashup I rewrote of "On My Own" from Les Miz and "Rose's Turn" from Gypsy in a sendup of my character's love/hate relationship with America. Bunny Pistol's excellent variety show at Yoshi's when it was on Fillmore, shows at The Plush Room, singing at the Regency for Edwardian Ball....backstage at DNA with the cast of Hubba Hubba. There is nothing as close to my heart as a raunchy group of artists having hysterically good times backstage -- which is where the *real* show happens!
Over that period of my performing life, I performed with the Hubba Hubba Revue, the Golden Follies, the Fishnet Follies, Red Hots Burlesque, Barbary Coast Burlesque, Tourettes Without Regrets, Sin Sisters Burlesque, The Edwardian Ball, and the Grant Avenue Follies.
Performance venues have included: The Oasis, The Chapel, The Castro Theater, Paramount Theater, Regency Ballroom, Herbst Theater, Bimbo's 365 Club, The Rrazz Room (now Michael Feinstein's) at the Hotel Nikko, The Firehouse, Cafe du Nord, Club Deluxe, DNA Lounge, Yoshi's, The Plush Room, The Purple Onion, Amnesia and all the way back to The 16th Note. I've been proud to perform in many of the glorious (and or) seedy dives that San Francisco was famous for -- may many more crop up to entertain and keep the underground thriving.
