Interview with Scratch of The Boston Babydolls

By Scarlet Apron*
Sure, everyone wants to run a burlesque troupe, with visions of gorgeous, scantly clad girls, scarlet hilarity and endless applause.  But there’s more grind to the bump that meets the eye.  Enter Scratch, founder, manager and MC of the lively Boston Babydolls.  A native New Yorker, Scratch (not his real name, duh) entered New England by way of Boston University in the 1980s and stayed to become an onstage and backstage fixture in the theater and club scene.  Here, we talk to the handsome, hardworking guy in the red suit who keeps all those tassels twirling.

 
What got you hooked on burlesque?
I saw Gypsy on Broadway when I was a kid, but it didn’t make an impression.  I think I came to burlesque through various old traditions.  I studied and performed comedia dell’arte, which is the Shakespearean-era great, great, great, great grandmother of burlesque.  I love scripted acting, but I like to write my own material, too and I don’t particularly like doing straight ahead stand-up comedy.  Burlesque has a mix of everything – music, dance, variety acts – and I find that mixture very appealing.  And burlesque has beautiful women, of course... and that makes everything better.

 
How did The Boston Babydolls form?
Miss Mina, the co-founder, and I knew each other from way back.  She taught strip tease and burlesque at private parties and needed a driver/stagehand/director.  We got pretty good at it together and were making OK money for two people working part-time.  Then, we booked a 35 minute show and you can’t do a 35 minute burlesque show as just one dancer.  So, we invited our friend, Betty Blaize, who was a Middle Eastern dancer to join in.  I MC’d and did some comedy and magic, Mina did burlesque, and Betty belly-danced, which gave Mina time to change for her next number.  When it was over, we thought, “That was a lot of fun, but if we want to do this seriously, we need a troupe”.  We held auditions, contacted a few people we knew and invited them to join, and the rest – as they say – is history.

 
What do you look for in a Boston Babydoll? 
I look for enthusiasm, dance skill, a sense of humor and creativity and a love of “The Golden Era of Burlesque,” which is a time which never really existed – but which we draw inspiration from.  A desire to be fabulous.  A willingness to make a commitment to the troupe.

 
What can people expect to see at your shows?
When you come and see The Boston Babydolls, you’re going to see a mix of burlesque striptease.  Nobody gets naked, just stripped down to pasties and panties.  There’s variety acts: magic, juggling, hula hoping, whatever weird and unusual skills we happen to have on tap that night.  You’ll see what I’d call ‘straight dance’:  tap,  Middle Eastern, tango... it could be anything.  You’ll also get a certain amount of broad comedy. We’re a classic burlesque troupe.

 
What’s the best thing about managing The Boston Babydolls?
It’s a terrific creative outlet.  I can’t speak for every burlesque troupe, but the people I work with are fabulous and the response from our audience is always enthusiastic.

 
Worst thing?
The same thing as managing any group of people – logistics.  Coordinating everyone’s schedules; making sure everyone is happy; dealing with unforeseen occurrences, like someone getting sick or a car breaking down.

 
Who is your audience?  
It’s funny.  We really run the range.  We get very very young people and we also get people who remember Scollay Square and burlesque in Boston as it was.  Most of our audience is late 20s, early 30s, professional, smart folks.  Burlesque isn’t just a girlie show.  It’s got a subtle sense of humor that you need to be a little smart to get.  And we get as many women as men.  Maybe more.

 
Biggest on stage flub so far?
Thankfully, we’ve had no major mistakes or disasters.  There’s the usual; every couple of shows, someone loses a pasty.  I mean, we don’t use staple guns to attach them.  So... maybe the audience gets a little bit more than they paid for, but that won’t bring the house down.  I introduced the wrong number once, the DJ has played the wrong music once or twice.

 
Not to play faves, but if you had to pick favorite routine?
My favorite routine is the one the audience responds best to.  We try to cater to our audiences’ special interests. For example, Betty Blaize has a number we call “Geeks Gone Wild,” that’s a wonderful updating of classic burlesque.  She comes out dressed in a flannel shirt, jeans, sneakers and a lap top.  She then sees something on the internet which drives her wild and starts this striptease.  Underneath the frumpy clothing, she is, of course, wearing fabulous underwear.  Her pasties are the shape of the logo of TUX, the penguin mascot of  computer programming language called Linux.  We did that number at an MIT party, and the audience went absolutely insane. 

 
Tell us about making the Guinness Book of World Records for tassels twirled?
We set a record, a hundred and twenty on 64 performers.  There were people who twirled tassels in places other than their breasts.  A good tassel twirler should be able to twirl tassels off her nipples, her navel, her crotch and butt cheeks.  Not all at once, of course!  But those are the places tassel twirling looks really attractive.

 
Dream prop you’d love to have?
There is one thing I’ve been looking for a long, long time – a clear plastic bathtub.  If anybody reading this knows how to make one or has one lying around….

 
What’s the best reception you’ve received so far?
It was one I wasn’t on stage for, as it turned out (laughs). We did a show at the Coolidge Corner Theater that was only for women.  It sold out in a heartbeat and the audience was incredible. At the top of the show, Miss Mina had everyone get up for a burlesque version of a 7th inning stretch and a two-minute lesson on how- to-do a bump, a grind and a shimmy.  Ann Corio, burlesque queen in Boston, did something similar back in the day.  Burlesque isn’t like ballet.  The audience doesn’t think of burlesquers as having years of training.  All of my dancers are really talented, but sometimes the audience thinks, “I can do that!” but they don’t.  I think Ann Corio wanted to show them they could do it!  It was the 1950s, pre-dawn of the sexual revolution.  Women had been to the work place and were home again.  They wanted to learn more about themselves and were becoming more sexual aggressive and burlesque, then and now, is a great way to be sexy without being sexual.

 
Are you in competition or cooperation with the other burlesque troupes in town?
There’s no competition. The styles that we do are very different.  Each of the troupes has their own look and feel. 

 
How can the audience get the most out of the show?
Let yourself go and enjoy.  Catcall, wolf whistle…. In many ways, The Boston Babydolls are accessible rock stars.  Do the whole fan thing, hang around afterward, get an autograph on a souvenir photo you bought.  And dress-up!  We say “We recreate a golden age of burlesque that never existed.”  Part of that is the elegance, not only of the dancers, but of the audience.  So, guys, wear a suit.  Ladies, wear your faux fur wrap and a string of pearls.   Drink a Manhattan or Cosmo instead of a beer.

 
What are your hobbies?
I’m a big fan of history of all ages.  I like Plimoth Plantation and Old Sturbridge Village.  I enjoy the small and not-so-small independent theater scene in Boston.  I volunteer over at the American Repertoire Theater, ushering and stuff.  I write.  I cook.

 
CD in your CD player?
Glen Miller’s In the Digital Mood, the original stuff dusted off and remastered.  The new Lyle Lovett CD, It’s not Big, it’s Large.   A band called ‘The Wages of Sin’ from Seattle.

 
Book on your night stand?
Comic books.   For actual book-books, some professional theater stuff, Theatrical Magic by John Pykka.  A travel guide to the Mayan Riviera (Mexico) and a generic mystery.

 
Food you can be seduced with?
Really good French food.  Cassoulet makes me weak in the knees. 

 
What’s your motto?
“90% of everything is just showing up.”  I get people who email me and want to be a Boston Babydoll.  I say, ‘Sure, let’s talk.’  And they never show up for the audition they scheduled!  And that’s a shame.  I don’t know what people are afraid of. 

 Find them online at bostonbabydolls.net. 

*Contact Scarlet Apron at scarletapron@yahoo.com with fetish news and events.