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[The Weekly Q&A]

Burlesque star and ‘Quarantine Cabaret’ creator Michelle L’amour wants you to feel better about feeling good

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Michelle L’amour
Photo: Tigz Rice / Courtesy

An interview with Michelle L’amour could go in any number of directions. We could talk about Bare Book Club (formerly Naked Girls Reading), the often-imitated, never duplicated “live nude literary show” that she founded in 2009. We could talk about “Butthoven’s 5th Symphony,” her viral video that got some 4 million views in 2013. We could even talk about her striptease appearances on America’s Got Talent. (David Hasselhoff was into it; Brandy, not so much.)

Today, though, we’re all about Quarantine Cabaret (quarantine-cabaret.com), the donations-driven online variety series she began producing during the early days of the pandemic—and what convinced the celebrated burlesque performer, producer and instructor to relocate to Vegas from LA to continue making it.

Right from the beginning, Quarantine Cabaret handily served two purposes: It brought Vegas-quality entertainment—dancers, musicians, comedians, contortionists, magicians and more—into our homes during the bleakest stretches of 2020, and provided a financial boost for the performers themselves, nearly all of whom were forced out of work. But even as live entertainment slowly reawakens, L’amour is sticking with webcasting, albeit with a different focus: education. She’s ardent about body-image issues—she spoke frankly about her alopecia in a 2018 HuffPost editorial—and about embracing pleasure without guilt. She hosts classes, seminars and even a podcast on sexual wellness and intentionality, and still finds the time to hosts a “burlesque-inspired fitness class,” Tease & Tone, through Vegas Dance Hub (vegasdancehub.com).

You moved to Vegas from LA last year at the height of lockdown. Why? Well, LA is ridiculously expensive. When the shutdown happened, I lost all of my income, and my landlord was actually raising the rent during this pandemic. … It was a bit of a panicky situation. I’m really grateful that my lease ended so that we could come here and get some freedom financially, and also just actual space. We moved into a place where we could have a whole area of the house completely dedicated to production.

Before that, everything was in the living room, and we had to put it up and tear it down every single time. And we were producing a lot of content. So, suddenly, we found ourselves living in a theater, which maybe sounds romantic, but it wasn’t—because it was the theater plus the place where we binge-watched Tiger King. We’re super happy to be in Vegas, and that’s really allowed us to really get creative.

Quarantine Cabaret was kind of a godsend for both performers and viewers. Two days into the lockdown, I was like, “OK, all the jobs are gone,” and my brain just took off. … The original idea was to have people come over, just one at a time, so we could film their acts. And then it quickly became, “No, that’s a bad idea.” Then we asked people, “Hey, can you film yourself?” And this is not necessarily a skill that performers have. I mean, I don’t have that skill; I can barely take a selfie. I’m grateful that Franky, my husband, can do all this magic. Suddenly, the whole world became available to me; I could work with anybody anywhere. That got really exciting.

Does this feel like an inflection point for you, production-wise? Yeah. To be honest, even before the pandemic I was getting really burned out on the hustle and going from gig to gig. Granted, I’m grateful and fortunate to have the work that I have… but I’ve been doing it for over 18 years, which is mind-boggling to me. I was just looking for something different—not necessarily leaving the performance world, but to speak into a different space. I’m really working in the empowerment space; I’ve been teaching this class called Pussy Confidence, which I developed during the quarantine as well. That’s something that was a nugget of an idea back in 2014, and I’ve always been wanting to flesh it out. This [lockdown] gave me opportunity to sit down, really study, put in the time, create the class and then begin to teach it. That’s been truly life-changing.

What can you tell us about your podcast, Look Down There? That came to me during the pandemic, as well. I like to call myself a recovering vulva hater (laughs). Even though I’m known as “The Most Naked Woman,” I was very careful about what I showed to the audience. I carried with me a lot of shame about what was between my legs; I thought it was ugly and gross and didn’t look like the pretty little packages that you see in Playboy.

I’ve done a lot of work over the years to heal this shame, [and] if I can talk about it, then maybe that will help to heal other people. I know it’s very strange to be disconnected from such an important part of your body—something that gives you so much pleasure, that creates a life. … You have to be really intentional about seeing it. You have to literally grab a mirror and look down there.

Now that restrictions are lifting, do you think you might perform or teach on Vegas stages? I am really open to anything and everything at this point. I’ve learned during this time not to say “I’m never doing that,” because all the things that I’m doing are things I said I would never do. I’m pursuing everything that makes me happy, that I have a passion for—and if that means that I get to produce a show here, that would be amazing.

Michelle L’amour michellelamour.com lookdownthere.com

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