Meet the Contributors

Monthly online, and biannually in print, our contributors work their pasties off bringing you the most fabulous interviews, burlesque and pin-up tips, and herstory articles.  Meet Divertida Devotchka and Femme Vivre LaRouge, two of the fabulous gals who make Pin Curl Magazine possible!

Divertida Devotchka by DallasPinUp.com
Divertida Devotchka by DallasPinUp.com

Known for her juggling skills, killer rack, and love of bacon, Double D joined our team in 2009 and has been cranking out fabulous interviews ever since!

How did you become involved in burlesque?

In the summer of 2006 I was living in Denton with Femme Vivre LaRouge, and she and our dear friend Amy Marquez (Saint Luna Laguna) started a troupe called Minx Burlesque. I was actually just the photographer at first; performing didn’t even occur to me until months after it got started. I really wanted to be involved, so when they started adding more variety acts, I decided that my juggling would be the perfect way to contribute to the show. Then in January of 2008, Femme and Luna started the Vixens of Vaudeville Revue along with Dr. Q and me. I started writing for Pin Curl in the summer of 2009 and I still get excited about how I’ve been able to combine my love for writing with my love for burlesque and performance.

What is your guilty pleasure?

I’m not-so-secretly a total nerd. I LOVE puns and bad jokes; I’m usually the person to laugh at jokes that make my friends groan. I also have a very juvenile sense of humor. Oh, and I really like video games, particularly first-person shooters. (Goldeneye on N64 is my all-time favorite.)

If you could have dinner with any 5 people, living or dead, who would it be and why?

Hunter S. Thompson: Even before I began my studies in journalism, I had an affinity for Hunter S. Thompson, and that I only grew stronger the more I learned about him and the more of his works I read. Of course, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is my favorite. His writing style is unparalleled and I’d give anything to be able to have a conversation with that man.

Dirty Martini: After meeting her a few times and even getting to interview her, I still get all nervous fanboy in her presence. She’s just so gracious, warm and wonderfully creative- who wouldn’t want to know her better?

Charlie Day: The co-creator of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” who plays the character Charlie Kelly, a mostly illiterate, inhalant-abusing crazy man who I absolutely adore. Charlie is by far my favorite part of the show and I’d love to drink a beer with him, possibly dressed as Green Man.

Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim: If you’ve even heard of “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” chances are that you love it or hate it. I fall into the love category. Don’t get me wrong- they’re weird as hell, but their absurdity makes me laugh (most of the time). They seem like they’d be really fun to hang out with, so maybe one day…

Divertida Devotchka by DallasPinUp.com
Divertida Devotchka by DallasPinUp.com


Favorite burlesque memory?

It’s hard to narrow down just one memory, but I can say that most of my favorite memories so far occurred during my days with the Vixens- being creative as a group, making asses of ourselves to make each other laugh during rehearsals, the out of control afterparties, BHOF 2009 with Femme Vivre, Honey Cocoa Bordeauxx and Crystal Pistols (pants off dance off party, drunk fu, hot tub afternoon with the champagne of beers, whiskey breakfast on the pin up photo safari… I could go on and on.) I also had a blast at the New Orleans Burlesque Festival last year with the Pin Curl production crew swilling hurricanes, dancing and playing drinking games til the wee hours of the morning.

You have an interesting stage name, how did you choose it & what does it mean?

I chose my name because of my interest in language/wordplay, I suppose. I began studying Spanish about 12 years ago and have a passion for the language, so much so that I have a Bachelor’s degree. In Spanish, Divertida means funny, amusing or entertaining. The last name, Devotchka, means girl. I took the last name from the Nadsat language in Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. Devotchka has the same meaning in Russian, but I chose it because Clockwork is my favorite book and I’m rather fond of the Kubrick film as well. Plus, I really LOVE the way the two words sound together. Bonus- I get to go by the nickname Double D and because I’m juvenile, that makes me giggle.

Little known fact: you are a badass at the gangsta rap karaoke!  What are your top three song picks?

Haha! I am a BIG fan of 90’s gangsta rap and hip hop. My all time favorite karaoke songs to sing are: “Who Am I? (What’s My Name?)” and “Gin & Juice” by Snoop Dogg and “Regulate” by Warren G & Nate Dogg.

It is a well known fact that you have an obsession with bacon & love to cook.  Care to share your favorite recipe?

I do LOVE me some bacon! It’s a pretty well known fact among my friends, family and co-workers. Two years ago I even dressed up as a piece of bacon for the costume contest at work! As far as a favorite recipe, that’s impossible to choose, but I make mean carnitas, flautas, and salsa verde, and I can make one hell of a cake ball!

Femme Vivre LaRouge by DallasPinUp.com
Femme Vivre LaRouge by DallasPinUp.com

Femme Vivre LaRouge, a true cowgirl, could ride a horse before she could walk, and always had a love for history and old movies.  She put her skills in writing & her love of history together when she joined the Pin Curl crew in 2010 with her monthly Burlesque Haunts & Legends contributions.

How did you become involved in burlesque?

I began my performance journey in theatre (both school and community) and dabbled a little in film, as well.  Shortly after I graduated college in May of 2006, my friend and cohort, St. Luna-Laguna, and I were dancing around my living to a Marilyn Monroe cd, lamenting the fact that no one in the area was putting on the type of show we really wanted to see, and we decided to put on our own show.  We recruited some friends who were in a play with us that spring and founded Minx Burlesque, which ended up being a sort of artist’s collective, drawing our influence from vaudeville, film noir, cartoons, musical theatre, and all manner of variety arts.  I convinced my then-roommate to put her wicked juggling skills to work for us and Divertida Devotchka was born.  We enjoyed a wonderfully creative year as a group and then had a spectacular falling out, as happens in showbiz.  In 2008 we re-formed as The Vixens of Vaudeville Revue, adding the talents of Crystal Pistols and Honey Cocoa Bordeauxx.  In 2007 I also began doing gigs as an artist’s model and joined Circus della Morte sideshow, as Nurse Narcissa, and I’ve been up to all kinds of trouble since!

What is your guilty pleasure?

While I have lots of pleasures, I don’t feel very guilty about most of them!  I do, however, enjoy The Gilmore Girls, Sookie Stackhouse, and all things food.

If you could have dinner with any 5 people, living or dead, who would it be and why?

That’s such a difficult question- history holds so many mysteries and colorful characters that it’s dreadful to choose, but at the moment I’ll say:

Humphrey Bogart – because he is my number one heartthrob.

Nellie Bly – for her anachronistically daring and noble exposes (this brave lady was a Victorian era undercover reporter and humanitarian who stopped at nothing to expose the truth, and we happen to share a birthday).  I’d love to recreate her 1890 trip around the world, in which she broke the fictional record set by Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days!

Robert Johnson – to meet the man behind the mystery and the music.

Prohibition Rose – because she was a total badass, and it is extremely difficult to find information about her (she built an underground empire in Portland during Prohibition, running multiple operations as madam, mob boss, and microbrewer).

Jasper Fforde – because of his incredible creativity and wit, and the absolute joy I get from reading his novels.

Femme Vivre LARouge by DallasPinUp.com
Femme Vivre LaRouge by DallasPinUp.com

Favorite burlesque memory?

“Minxmas” in 2006 was a magical evening; we had a mantel, hung with a variety of ladies’ stockings, and a fireplace DVD playing in the center, we started out on stage in huge, wrapped packages, Dr. Q wrote ‘The Night Before Minxmas,’ we danced with lawn-size candy canes and had jingle bells on our bosoms, we kidnapped a very sexy Santa Claus (Divertida) and tied her up, then I gave her a lap dance while our fellow performer sang Santa Baby, and I also sang my very first number, Baby, It’s Cold Outside.  The theatricality, the variety, the magic, it was all there!  “Fatal Follies,” in which we attempted to string together the whole show with a murder mystery storyline was also splendid, although admittedly unfinished and unpolished.  Our productions as The Vixens for The Plaza in Carrollton were also some really grand, if backbreaking, affairs (as we used to say, “I break my back for burlesque!”).  “Hangin’ Out with the Hungover”, “Bustin’ Out with The Vixens”, and “Vegas or Bust” were all of a truly vaudevillian nature.  At one show we even had our own Statler and Waldorf to heckle us from their balcony seats!

The last three years I have also had the great pleasure of attending the Burlesque Hall of Fame Reunion in Las Vegas and each has been uniquely wonderful, full of fantastic people, performances, and experiences.  The great success of this year’s Legends Challenge was truly rewarding.

I hear you have an amazing historian project in conjunction with the Burlesque Hall of Fame- do tell.

The Burlesque Oral History Project was founded by Dr. Lukki and endeavors to preserve the history of burlesque by gathering and archiving memories of yesteryear from the remarkable ladies (and gents) that lived it.  This year I volunteered, along with Tempest Devyne, to help curators Elsa Sjunneson and Julie Vogt at the Burlesque Hall of Fame Reunion, and although I’m afraid I was very little help this time, I do hope to continue to volunteer for the project.  I did have the honor of interviewing legend Val Valentine and I also have plans to interview Dallas’ very own Tammi True.

We know history gets your rocks off, but what are some other more little known facts about you?

*I also share a birthday with Karl Marx.  Cinco de Mayo!

*While I adore my Maltese (Detective Sam Spade), my favorite pet ever was my adventurous, intelligent, sweet, and social little rat, Lilith.

*I had an unusual childhood as I grew up almost as if we were living a century behind.  We were very poor, but we grew our own food and raised our own animals.  I started riding horses by myself when I was just over a year old and was bucked off for the first time at 2, I was homeschooled for years and first learned to read from The Bible, and since school attendance wasn’t an issue, my mom and I would often hit the road and visit our widespread relatives, and I very much enjoyed that gypsy lifestyle.

*I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in General Studies, with concentrations in Sociology, English, and Art History, and I’m about to begin graduate studies in Humanities.

*I’m a huge old movie geek.  I especially love film noir, slapstick, romantic comedies from the 30s, and pre-code films.

*My stage name, Femme Vivre, came out of my love of film noir, but with a desire to be more of a bacchic beauty, a descendant of Dionysus, than a femme fatale, thus Femme Vivre, the woman who loves life.

*My slogans are “Have boa, will travel” and “Chillin’ like a Vaudevillian”

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