Interview - Sebastian Angelique

Sebastian Angelique, welcome my love to Spill the Tea! 
Thank you for having me!

To start, when did you discover you wanted to do burlesque? 
Let’s just say thank god for second impressions! I fell into burlesque really. I had trained to be in musical theatre and was creating a one man show at the time when my friend was graduating from The Cheek Of It and invited me to the show. I fell absolutely in love with the venue, the performances and the costumes and the host announced before the interval that anyone can sign up to be part of this school. By this point however I had a lot to drink and so I ran up to the head of the school and was drunkenly shouting ‘I want to do this! I want to be part of the show! How do I do this? Have you had a boy? I’ll be the boy!’ Luckily, they were all very sweet and said I was really lovely and took me under their wing. 

Then the training began! It was wonderful, delightful, freeing and an extremely welcoming environment, there wasn’t a sense of gender or competition like I found with acting and going to auditions, there was just this unanimous feeling of adoration for one another. I then debuted my graduation performance and became the first boy to graduate from The Cheek Of It! Since then I’ve been very lucky to have a very exciting and sky-rocketing career as a boylesque Artist. 

“ Burlesque is one of the most inclusive and diversive art forms and it doesn’t matter what your body type is, your race, whether you’re Male, Female, Non Binary, Trans, burlesque is open and welcoming to all and its’ the same with cabaret audiences. “

How did you choose your stage name? 
There were two choices that I had settled down to, the first was “Oliver Bon’Ass” which I liked, but I also thought at the same time, best not just in case Oliver Bonas ever got in contact! Wouldn’t want to be in trouble. The second choice was “Sebastian Angelique” and it just stuck and felt right. It gave this air that I could play naughty and nice and I liked the way it just rolled off the tongue. 

What do you love most about the art form of burlesque? 
Honestly the biggest thing I love is the audience. Their reactions are always so different in every show it’s fun to walk onto a stage and not know what they’re going to think of your act. The most wonderful feeling is taking off a glove, peeling off a corset, stockings etc and hearing cheers and applause for doing so. Or if you happen to be in the audience and you see someone you admire, someone you know and cheering for them, seeing them succeed and doing well and really killing it! It inspires you to do better and be better, and depending on the style of the act if you can really have fun with it, the audiences love when you let loose and encourage them to party with you and I can’t wait for that feeling to return when cabarets open up again. 

Have you ever found a gender-bias towards you as a burlesque performer?
No. Burlesque is, as I said, one of the most inclusive and diversive art forms and it doesn’t matter what your body type is, your race, whether you’re Male, Female, Non Binary, Trans, burlesque is open and welcoming to all and its’ the same with cabaret audiences. They all react in an incredibly inviting and admiring way that’s respectable and makes you feel good about yourself after you’ve come off stage. 

Who is your burlesque icon? 
For me there’s never been just one particular character I’ve admired. Tigger!  will always remain the biggest inspiration as he is still to this day the King of Boylesque and really made it a more mainstreamed art form. Jett Adore is another big favourite of mine, if you ever visit Jett’s social media you’ll be as blown away by the elaborate and huge costumes he wears it’s just mind-blowing to see him move and really see this costumes of his come to life! 

How has Covid change the way you do burlesque? 
Well the reality is Lockdown 1.0 just completely stopped all forms of work for a while. There was struggles to try and put out content that wasn’t just another selfie taken in the bedroom and it became a real challenge but then came the birth of mainstreaming online content for burlesque performers. A lot of us have really had to adapt how we perform and utilize what technology we have to still maintain an income. 

 Dr Sketchy London  A life drawing show I model for and help run was, pre-Covid, purely an in the room on stage life drawing and cabaret show. During lockdown it became an regular, weekly online show that myself and the host Dusty Limits, consistently and successfully kept going and we managed to build a much wider audience from connecting with various people across the globe. When performances were permitted during the in-between stage, the show became this hybrid that was both live on zoom and in the room cabaret and it’s really changed the way the show works.

 Now coming out of Lockdown, this one and various other shows I’m connected with are all preparing to once again be open to real life audiences and we’re all so excited but still very much wanting to keep the online presence and keep that consistent too! 

What would you say to someone who has never tried Burlesque but wants to get into it?
DO IT. DO IT. DO IT. DO IT. DO IT. 

Legit this is always what I say. If you’ve never done burlesque before, or you’re intrigued by it or you maybe just want to try out a class or two – DO IT. I can honestly say, even from when I started out that just doing a simple burlesque class is so freeing and I’ve never felt better, it’s easy, welcoming, a safe space and if, like me, you decide you want it to be a career path then even better. Once again, it doesn’t matter your body shape, how you identify, if you’ve had dance training or not, there are so many wonderful classes, teachers, performers out there who can help. Or slide into my DM’s I’d be more than happy to point you in the right direction! 

 Any last shout outs? 

‘HOUSE OF ROUGE’ 
International and award winning anarchic burlesque trio Ménage a Rouge present a monthly pop-up style cabaret at the Looking Glass Cocktail Club in the heart of East London with multiple performances, guest acts, troupe numbers, signature cocktails and “the cage” 

Launch show 15th July
Doors at 6pm
Show starts at 7pm till late.
It’s time to throw a house party and you’re all invited.

Tickets available here- 
£10 Gatecrasher (discounted for low income, NHS or students)
£12 Houseguest (standard tickets)
£15 Housemates (VIP tickets, only 2 left!)

‘DR SKETCHY LONDON’ Returns! 
Life drawing with a cabaret twist!
Every 2nd and 4th Monday @tlvenue
Live and Zoom
Featuring the evil headmaster @thedustylimits & resident in-house model @seb_angelique

3 tier ticket system is as follows and can be purchased here  - 
£10 ‘support the arts’
£8 ‘pays the rent’
£5 ‘wine donation’

You’ll also be able to find me performing at Proud Late  from May 29th, 4th June and onwards and at Midnight Lounge Soho every Friday at Saturday, 7pm till 10pm from May 21st onwards. 

You can follow Sebastian Angelique on Instagram here

Image credit Light By Dan, RML shots and Angus Stewart