I sat down recently with Suzanne Ramsey, aka Kitten on the Keys, one of the stars of On Tour. We had met last year at the Cannes Film Festival closing ceremony party, and she’s back in the US promoting the film as the closer for the 54th San Francisco International Film Festival.
On Tour, or Tournée, is about a troop of New Burlesque dancers on tour in France trying to make their way to Paris. Can you describe to people what New Burlesque is for those who don’t know?
I’ve been calling it Tournée for so long that when we got back here and people said ‘On Tour’ I said, “What’s that? Oh yeah, it’s a movie I’m in!” Burlesque is a form of entertainment and this is kind of like a comedy. As a word, it’s been around forever and usually they will take a notion like, let’s say something that’s happening in the news today and you would dumb it down and dumb it down and dumb it down until everybody in your audience could understand what you were talking about. So it’s basically taking information and dumbing it down and giving it to the masses. However, through time that’s changed. It was even happening in the Greek world, burlesque, but burlesque transformed into this American art form which was you had the parodies of what was happening in the world, dumbed down for the masses.
So it’s almost a little like Beach Blanket Babylon here in San Francisco.
Yes! That is like burlesque on steroids! Absolutely. So what you would get is maybe a dog act and you would get the juggler then striptease became a part of it. And they say that a woman known as Lydia Thompson introduced the striptease here in American popular theater in the 1800s. She brought over some beautiful ladies (known as her British Blondes) and they were basically wearing these mesh body suits and they showed their ankles! And so these types of things, these variety shows, they kept coming up and transforming and up to the 1940s and 50s burlesque was done in beautiful supper clubs, there was a band; it was a very classy, sexy striptease. Now what has happened is since the 1990s, women themselves have taken on these personas and have a larger than life personas and are women doing shows for women as opposed to a man putting together a cast saying, “ok, now you’re the stripper, you’re the clown and you’re the juggler.” It always seems to happen, this type of entertainment, when things are really bad economically. So, when you think of the late 90s when neo-burlesque first started happening I also see a correlation with punk rock. I come from a music background and you know, you get your own dresses, you record your own stuff, you write your own songs and one of the things I was so attracted to was vintage clothing. Believe it or not, there is a lot of history in burlesque. You can either go back in time and learn from the greats, which is something I think is super cool, or create your own thing, which people are doing right now. I’m making such a long, huge explanation of burlesque but when Bush came into office, there were economic woes; you can see anything and everything sexually on the internet. I mean, think about it; you can see giant boobies and giant pee-pees! It leaves nothing to the imagination and I think people became crazy desensitized and would just stay at home in front of these little boxes. So, these burlesque shows are all shapes, all sizes, all genders and you know basically what’s going to happen, there’s a beginning, middle and end and at some point someone’s gonna get naked. But it’s how you do it. What’s so great about our show is that there’s something for everybody. We’ve got Roky for the women, and the men, and you have someone like me – sex can be funny and silly, why not? Then you have the beautiful, unattainable ‘ooh, I’m really not gonna show it’ Evie, the gorgeous blond bombshell Mimi, who’s super hot and has the curves and just works it and then Dirty Martini, who’s just one of the most incredible performers there are, she’s always #1 in my book and someone who’s incredibly creative and artistic in Julie Atlas Muz. Look at that, it’s like, everybody is different and can appeal to a wide audience and that’s why I think our little show became successful. I’m glad that Mathieu ended up using us, you know, real people. He started coming around and I’m like, “who the hell is this guy?” I had been in Cabaret New Burlesque, which is a troop, as an idea starting in 2003 but as an actual troop since 2004 and a lot of people think Mathieu started this troop but he did not, it existed already. So do you think people know what burlesque is now? (laughs)
Yes, definitely. I think it’s important people understand the difference between burlesque and a striptease so that if they’re interested, they’re interested for the right reasons.
Yeah! I mean, it’s a theatrical show. It’s retro, glamour, rock and roll. You get great costumes, great music, a little humor, a little fun, a little seltzer down your pants. It takes you on this crazy journey and you never know where it’s gonna go. It could be beautiful, it could be kinda ugly, it could be thought-provoking, it could make you laugh, it could get you turned on. There’s so many things that a show can do and I’m really proud to be a part of it.
Who, if any, were your early influences as a performer and who do you like now?
(Squeals) Ok, when I was a little girl dad was a drummer and my mother is very religious, she sang in church. I got all of my formal musical training in church but I hated it! So, I would always pretend I was sick on Sunday mornings so I could stay home and watch Shirley Temple and The Little Rascals. All of those Shirley Temple songs became my favorite things in the world and anytime there was a man who played the piano and who had funky teeth or who happened to be queer or wore funny costumes also became really dear to me. I would also say Elton John, I was probably 10 when “Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road” came out and I’d hear words like ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ and I’d be like, so confused. I just loved him. When I was 11 years old, even though my mom was a church mom, she also thought going to see cultural stuff was good and my older brother, I begged him, I have to go see Queen because I had heard this band on the radio and to me it sounded like The Little Rascals. It sounded almost like the 20s, “Killer Queen” and a lot of their early stuff. So here I am, 11 years old, 2nd row at the Berkeley Community Theater and I’m watching Queen. And of course, Freddie Mercury had fucked up teeth and played the piano. Elton John; fucked up teeth, played the piano. Mercury came out and did a striptease, he did “Hey, Big Spender,” which, because I was into theater, I knew that that was from ‘Sweet Charity’ and I was like, so confused. I didn’t understand what gay was but these flamboyant men with fucked up teeth who played the piano in crazy costumes that did these outrageous sexy things, it’s like I completely idolized them. I used to take out a calculator, remember when calculators were this big? (simultaneously) Texas Instruments! And if you had one, oh my God, you were so cool. So I’d go, ok, if Elton John was born in 1949 and I was born in 1963 and the legal age of marriage in California is 18, how am I gonna….see, that’s the type of thing that would go through my mind. Also, Shirley Temple had this whole thing called Baby Burlesques where she would wear a diaper, I mean, they couldn’t get away with that shit now, it’s too Jon Benet Ramsey. So, those were my big influences. Mae West, Marlene Dietrich too, of course.
You’re a Bay Area native; I lived in your hometown for a while in fact. Tell me a little bit about your history.
I always felt, even as a younger kid, that I was sort of born in a different time. I was supposed to play Debussy at a piano recital and I convinced my mother than Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” was a classical piece. So at the last minute, I didn’t tell anybody, I ditched the Debussy and I played all 12 pages “Bohemian Rhapsody” instead and everybody was so fucking angry at me. That took some guts, didn’t it?
That’s amazing. I think it’s a great idea!
So without really realizing it, of course I loved musicals; I loved Annie, my dad was a jazz musician and jazz was the only thing, or classical, and I hated that because to me it’s too restrictive. I started taking classes at ACT when I was about 14 and my parents let me take the BART over myself, I’d go to ACT, I’d go to these acting classes and then I’d come home. And the whole time I was smoking pot, drinking and that’s how I discovered punk rock and I was so young but I saw some amazing bands. I’d come home and my mom would be like, “Where’d you go, honey, an all night party?” and I’d be like, “I sorta slept in the gutter with a bunch of punks.” That’s how I found out about John Waters, Rocky Horror Picture Show; I was really little! And it was because of all these cool theater geeks in San Francisco. Even though my parents were so religious and so strict, I know my dad was a pervert, I used to steal his Playboys and that really upset my mother. But I liked ‘em, I liked looking at ‘the bits.’
Did you and the other girls know each other before filming On Tour?
I knew everybody really, really well. I didn’t know Julie very well and I was the one that found Evie. I started with a group in San
Francisco called San Francisco’s Famous Burlesque Orchestra. They were so cool, they had an eight or nine piece orchestra and I remember there were all these kind of underground talent shows. I didn’t sing at the time but I played piano for a lot of drag queens and people would come up to me and ask, ‘you know, why aren’t you singing?’ So, I started taking lessons from a member of The Cockettes and he really, really helped me and I started introducing a lot of vintage numbers into this orchestra and Roky’s wife at the time was one of the dancers and, in fact, I remember her being eight months pregnant and doing the French can-can and the splits. One day Roky was like, “you know, there aren’t any men represented.” He is truly a pioneer because he’s not queer, although he relishes his status as queer icon, he loves it; such a cool guy. So I knew him for years. This troop, they would travel to this event called The Exotic World Striptease Reunion and literally ladies with walkers and blue hair and crazy costumes would go to this goat ranch in Helendale, California, which is between Barstow and Vegas. It took two days to get there but it was where the ashes of some of the famous dancers were. You could see Marilyn Monroe’s dresses, Jayne Mansfield’s heart-shaped couch was there but it was on this goat ranch and it was all falling apart. We would perform outside and like, three years in a row we won Best Troop. Roky would always come along, I would sing and play piano but we needed someone to be the emcee and I became the emcee, it was crazy. The next thing you know Tempest Storm, very famous, comes out of retirement and comes up to the band and was like, “Do you think you could learn a couple of songs for me? ‘Don’t Stop Believing,’ and ‘Something in the Way She Moves.’” My boyfriend was like, “Yes, Miss Storm. Oh, no problem, Miss Storm.” So we spent every hour trying to learn these songs because how often does somebody, Tempest Storm, a burlesque legend like that, ask you to play for her? It was 115 degrees, the wind was blowing, there was dirt all in the air, but yet it was beautiful. We went every year for several years. That’s where I met Mimi. I had met Dirty in New Orleans through a different burlesque convention, Tease-a-rama. Tease-a-rama is a burlesque convention that started here in San Francisco and by some crazy luck of faith I became the emcee of that. Julie I met in New York and Evie I met because I went on the very first burlesque tour in 2003 on a bus, aromatherapy bus, with this band called Devotchka, which is now hugely famous, and they followed behind us in this little van that was breaking down all the time while the five of us girls were living in luxury in this aromatherapy bus. We went all over the US and Canada and Catherine Delish, she’s my favorite burlesquer, and the thing about Catherine is she designed and made all of Dita von Tease’s stuff. Dita was in the gentlemen’s clubs and wanted to transform and so she wrote all of her numbers and did all of her costumes, which is a pretty ginormous feat. Evie was her assistant and they wanted a really super shy girl who wanted to take her clothes off Evie was the shyest person I knew. I had just gone on tour with her, just spent four days in a van with her and I recommended her to the film crew. I called Catherine Delish and said, “Can I please borrow your assistant?” and the next thing you know our gorgeous, raven-haired beauty is this huge, sought-after model in Paris.
Mathieu started watching us in 2007. He had read an article about us in 2005, which included a different cast at the time; three
members have left since then. He said these people closely resemble this ‘Collette’ thing that I’m influenced by. He saw our picture but wasn’t able to come to our show but when we were in Nantes for three months he said, “Oh my God, I have to come see them.” We had no idea who the fuck he was. The French were freaking out about him because he had just done The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and was just starting the James Bond movie. So, we didn’t know but he stayed in Nantes for three days and hung out with us and since we didn’t know he was famous, we were just ourselves and we’re fun, we’re a freakin’ party, you know? The next thing you know, he shows up in Italy and then he came to San Francisco for Tease-a-rama. At this point I was mad though, it’s not like I didn’t like him but I knew he was working on a script and I thought he was videotaping us ‘cause he was then going to show skinny, French actresses who smoke too much and don’t eat how to do these moves. But, that was because I didn’t understand. They really kept it on the DL. Then I saw him once again in Italy, in Napoli. He was sitting there eating olives and smoking at the same time and I’m like, ‘Does this dude ever not have a cigarette in his mouth?’ Then, lo and behold, he called me in December, I was with my costume designer making a new costume down in the Mission at this cheap, gaudy fabric shop and I screamed. I said, oh my God, my life is going to change. She made me all of my costumes for the movie and got credit for it. She actually worked at Beach Blanket Babylon for many, many years. Go figure. So see, I didn’t trust Mathieu. I had been fucked over before; I was in a band with Courtney Love and that should tell you everything, I have trust issues.
So, I have a question that I hate to ask you but really want to. Did you see the Cher/Christina Aguilera movie and what did you think? Do you think it had an impact on the collective culture and knowledge of burlesque, negatively or positively?
I have a lot of feelings about it. So many people were so excited for that movie for so long. I did a pre-party for it and I had a French film crew with me, it was hilarious. We were trying to teach a Hispanic audience what burlesque was so that it would reach a wider audience. They just did not get it at all. I got all of these advanced screenings to go to the movie. Well, first of all, I love Cher and I always will and she’s such an icon and she’s so rad. I did love that number, “Welcome to Burlesque,” but it’s only three chords and it seems they took every word that rhymes with burlesque and put it in. I’m like, “Come on you guys, that’s too easy!” That bummed me out. I also feel there is no real burlesque in that movie.
It resembled Cabaret so much and Bob Fosse, it pissed me off! The stage got bigger and bigger, but couldn’t pay their rent, they had a band yet they were using canned music. To me, there was one burlesque scene only and that was the Famous Amos cookies when the guy (Cam Gigandet) had the cookies in front of him. To me, that was the only moment there was a funny, burlesque sensibility to it. I have done that one song, the dentist song, which is a classic. Only I did when I had no front teeth and teeth pasties. To me, that’s funny, right? I just feel like they could have gone for it and they didn’t. It gives people the wrong idea and now they don’t know and don’t understand what burlesque really is and that makes me really, really sad. One thing that happened that was actually in our favor was that that movie was released in the UK and Tournée (On Tour) was released about a week later. It was great for our movie because they would say, ‘If you really want to see a real burlesque movie, go see On Tour.’ So that, to me, is very positive because we are the real deal, that’s what we do. We travel around the world and make our living doing this. I mean, I’ve been doing this for years, so that was a good outcome of it.
On Tour premiered last year at Cannes, won Best Director. Now it’s here in San Francisco and has been everywhere in between. What’s it going to take to get this movie US distribution? How can we make this happen?
You need a lot of money. This is sadly what I heard. I have fallen in love with this distributor, LePact. They do so many cool things, they distribute so many cool movies and what I heard is that it’s some of the music in the movie is going to cost like, 330,000 euros, which is like, so much money. So you figure it’s going to play in small art houses, people haven’t heard of it here so I hear it’s only going to do the festival circuit. Ok, it’s been to Mumbai, it’s been to Moscow, it was in Helsinki, it’s been to all these places where the response has been overwhelming and I want that to happen here so badly, but it’s going to take some money.
What’s next for Kitten on the Keys?
Oh, very cool news. Cabaret New Burlesque by a touring agency that does Woody Allen, Marianne Faithful, like big, big people. So I go to Paris for four weeks in May and I’m staying with these two gay guys, they’re called Bart & Baker and they’re DJs. They do this thing called electro-swing and because I collect all of this vintage music, which of course you can’t tell by Tournée because I’m rocking out to Radiohead and Aerosmith, and I’m recording with them. I didn’t realize what a big deal they were so that’s super exciting. Then I’m going to Italy, then I’m recording a new solo CD with people I’m working with now. We didn’t make a lot of money off of Tournee, we call ourselves the Slumdog Millionaire kids of burlesque. I don’t know if that’s a good thing to say or not. At least my uncle isn’t trying to sell me.
Kitten on the Keys appears monthly at the Madrone Art Bar and On Tour closes the San Francisco International Film Festival on Thursday, May 4th at the Castro Theater at 7:30pm. Tickets are $30 for the film, $85 for the film and after party, and are available at www.sffs.org.