Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Day 22 - Roula Roulette

I love burlesque names. What a performer chooses for themselves can be something that sounds close to their real name or the name of a celebrity, it can be evocative of the aesthetic they want to evoke on stage, or just a clever pun or turn of phrase. I just assumed Roula Roulette chose her name because it was alliterative and Vegas-y, but about a year ago I had a great conversation after a show with several Georgia performers about why they chose their names, and I got her story. "Roulette" means she never wants an audience to know what they'll get when she performs.


Some performers know what they do well and stick to it, and there's nothing wrong with that. Others like to push themselves, maybe even challenge their audience, and Roula is definitely in that category. I've been amazed and delighted to see her growth and breadth as a performer over the past few years. And the international community has clearly taken note, too. As I write this, she is visiting Australia to perform in Tricky Thick: A Fat Burlesque Revue!

Roula may be best known for conceptualizing and being the central performer in Candybox Revue's "#MeToo" group act, which has played several festivals and always gets an audience emotional. It's an act with an overt political agenda, but executed with grace and ending on a hopeful note of empowerment and solidarity.

Besides being the organizational guru who helps keep Atlanta's Candybox Revue a thriving troupe, Roula manages to be one of the deepest-hearted people I've met while also being a huge damn goofball, so you never know what she's gonna give you in life as well as on stage.

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