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L’estrange Menagerie: Blurring the Lines Between Burlesque and Drag

L’estrange Menagerie: Blurring the Lines Between Burlesque and Drag

A typical Friday night in Denver offers all kinds of entertainment, from drag and strip shows to highbrow theatre, and all manner of concerts. To keep it competitive, you have to offer a little something unexpected. Clocktower Cabaret’s L’estrange Menagerie does that by keeping their repertoire diverse, inspired, and queer.

Some of their recurring performers include Brian the Circus Knight, a shirtless male juggler and circus performer; local drag queen and queen of weird Yvie Oddly; Tovio, a male performer who specializes in awkward stage presence and weird music; sexy hoop and rope artists; and a whole host of guest performers. The show is hosted and produced by the lovely Tatiana Tata, who not only looks great and can perform herself, but is expert at taking the crowd through the menagerie of weird artists.

“I’ve tried to incorporate more performers that are not regulars of the Clocktower, people you won’t necessarily see in a Thursday or Saturday show,” explained Tatiana, aka Adrienne Jadwinski. “I also feel I’ve brought more of the circus to the circus; I tried to hunt down and find other performers who are performing circus in a different way. That is good for the Clocktower because it is a really intimate space. To see circus that close and personal isn’t something that happens very often. I also try and include a lot of performers from the community, including those from the drag community, those with theatre backgrounds, and just a wider variety in general.”

In addition to the recurring talent at L’estrange Menagerie, Jadwinski specifically seeks out drag and queer talent to include on her stage. Working for a while as a backup dancer at Tracks, she made friends with many queens in the community, including Yvie Oddly, whose work she admires.

She also regularly gets out-of-town, queer-centric talent, such as Dottie Rot, a traveling burlesquer who does a lumberjack act. When Rot performed in Denver, she started out in drag, stripped down to a sexy lumberjack-themed burlesque getup, and kept on the mustache.

“I feel like it’s another platform that perhaps some of these performers may not in the past have gotten a chance to use,” Jadwinski explained. “I feel like the Clocktower has always been open to everyone, but I have been contacted a lot by queer performers. I think it’s a safe space, and it allows the brand and performance of queer people to get out to a different audience. The people who come out are maybe not necessarily people that would go to a drag show.”

Because of the straight and queer crossover of burlesque, and the Clocktower’s location on the Sixteenth Street Mall, which draws tourists, Jadwinski feels that the message of queer art and identity can truly be spread. The Clocktower Cabaret also makes sure to give back to their community with charitable donations.

“We work a lot with various groups around town,” explained Selene Arca, sales and marketing manager with Clocktower. “In addition to our regular shows, we very often collaborate with groups to do fundraisers, benefits, and launch parties. All this is done with the idea that we are supporting and uplifting the community. We do a huge drag bingo show, and it’s all to benefit the Rocky Mountain MS Center. We’ve done that night for 13 years, and we are also privately doing a performer clothing swap where we all clean out our closets, and then we choose different places to give our remainder too. This time we are working with Rainbow Ally. They are going to get all of our costume stuff. So as much as we can, we aim to not only be inclusive, with lip service, but to walk the walk as well.”

Regardless of whether the audience or performers identify as LGBTQ or allies, it is important to the people at Clocktower that everyone feel’s safe and accepted. Jadwinski hopes that seeing burlesque acts performed on stage will not only tantalize and turn on audiences, but also inspire them to be comfortable in their own skins.

“I’ve always admired people that just are living their best and true lives,” she explained. “So watching all of these people bare their souls and bodies and ideas onstage is great. I think really more than ever people just are latching onto that and loving that. Even if they don’t feel like it yet, I hope that eventually they will feel like they can do that for themselves. I also think that now more than ever is about embracing who you are and your body, and I think for that reason burlesque is physically appealing to everyone and inspiring.”

Although Jadwinski admits that it can be challenging to work in an arena where you are putting yourself out there, literally and physically, even when you don’t want to, she thinks the very act of baring all even when you’d rather shut down is important and sends a message.

“I think the thought of being open with your sexuality and embracinging who you are and what you are about and putting yourself out there is really important right now,” she said. “More and more people are feeling that power and taking it, and it looks really uplifting to have so many people on that stage that just go out there and bring it, no apologies.”

“We know that our place in society is trying to brighten up some of the crap that happens and also allow people to express themselves and be expressive,” added Arca. “We have so many people who will come to the show in full drag; outside of the cabaret they never dress in drag. We have employees who leave and move away and say they’ve never been able to feel the way they felt when they were here, and we try and share that with our audiences as much as with our artists.”

L’estrange Menagerie happens late night every Friday underneath the famous clocktower in downtown Denver. Although a few of the usual suspects are hanging around every week, you can always catch new and exciting acts, many of them queer or queer adjacent.

Photos courtesy Dave Wood Photography 

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