2.07.08 Backstage Magazine Review

This Is Burelsque- Backstage Magazine Review
by Leonard Jacobs

In terms of audience, there's some overlap between New York City's legit theatre and nightclub scenes but not much. With the possible exception, that is, of Gotham's flourishing burlesque scene, which ties together everything from stage work and performance art to specialty acts, comedy, music, and dance.

Aside from being one of the savviest insult comics in the business, what makes performer Murray Hill very interesting is his ability to keep one foot firmly in both worlds. Branded a downtown talent since starting his performing career in 1996, the self-proclaimed “drag-king” is increasingly seeking-and landing- mainstream performing opportunities and drawing mainstream audiences. That is why This is Burlesque, co-created by Hill and burlesque performer Angie Pontani of the Pontani Sisters, is the perfect hybrid. Indeed, it’s running at a new and intimate SoHo space called Corio- named in honor of Ann Corio, the legendary burlesque star.

“I appeal to a very broad audience now, although obviously I started in downtown where it was downtown people living downtown,” Hill says. “I think I’ve gotten much more mainstream in the last two years. And my audiences are bigger and more diverse. Any given night at Corio, we have bachelorette parties, bankers, lots of straight couples, models, older guys with women half their age, gay guys, and lesbians.”

Certainly This Is Burlesque is a classic example of the form, with the Pontani Sisters dazzling audiences with glitz, glamour, and feats of derring-do and don’t; Peekaboo Pointe astounding all with tassel-twirling talents; songbird Melody Sweets delivering tunes that set crowds atwitter-plus a revolving cast of special guests. Hill, whose knowledge of old-time burlesque is disarmingly comprehensive, kicks off each show with a long monologue that shows, he says, a mastery of the way insult comedy works.

“I think what I bring to the show is that I’m not a threatening character. Neither is Don Rickles,” he says. “There are some comics who are insult comics that come from a negative place. I’m coming from, Here’s all these different people in this melting pot together. If you start at an equal place, you can roast people because you’re basically good-natured.”

Not that Hill resists going for the jugular. “I develop material right in front of the audience,” he says. “And if you improv in front of them, it grows. So I do impersonations-lately I’ve been nailing Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Angelina Jolie, Renee Zellweger, Rosie O’Donnell, and John Travolta.” Interacting with the audience is a prime skill.

Once per show, Hill coerces three civilians to the stage for what he calls a “Murray challenge”: such as asking them to dance like Britney Spears. “The gay guy always wins that.” Hill quips.

“I also talk a lot about gentrification in the show,” he continues. “What I think is cool about Corio is it’s in the opposite direction of the way clubs are going. Today, all you’ve got are these big venues, the red ropes, you’ve got to pay all this money to get in, and it’s just this kind of big experience. Whereas we’re all about that intimate, old-school feeling- it’s more of a box shape 70-seater that really feels like a lounge. And every show is different. It’s like a sexy burlesque den, and I’m kind of the ringleader.”

Hill is also a survivor. When prodded, he says he thinks he’s closed virtually every club he’s played in. As if to prove the point, soon a list of extinct venues pours forth: Fez, Spy Bar, Life, Limelight, Cake. Yet it hasn’t all been for naught: Those were the venues where he polished his act. “They say performers in the old days took 10 years to really know their craft,” Hill says. “It takes time to develop the intuition to know who not to bother, who to wear special kid gloves with. And whether it’s for this show or The Murray Hill Show, I haven’t gone too far for a long time now. I used to throw my jacket into the audience, but one time at the Gotham Comedy Club I knocked over three glasses of wine on three lesbians.” Ironically, that club is still open.

“This Is Burlesque never gets too raunchy-we think of it like Sammy Davis Jr., where you’d feel you were part of something special,” Hill concludes. “And I always want to be a part of the burlesque scene. I want to do The Murray Hill Show Off-Broadway. And I want to do TV. I’ve had a lot of people interested in me, so we’re trying to find the right people who-you know- get me.” It’s taking time, he says “because there isn’t anyone else out there like me, so there’s some fear factor.” Fear factor? Who’s afraid of Murray Hill?