Miss Burlesque NZ 2010 on 20/20 (3rd June 2010)

It has been nearly 2 months since the Miss Burlesque NZ 2010 competition and the wait is over! Tonight, we’ll finally get to watch the filming of the event on 20/20 (a NZ current affairs television series) on TV2 – yay!

Grace had emailed me earlier this week to find out if I wanted to catch up and watch the show together. Sure, why not? Had her and Dan come round to my place (they are my first guests to my new flat!) around 9pm and we(them, me & Jono) took over the lounge to watch the show on our big TV screen.

Our segment was featured in the first 15-minutes of tonight’s 20/20 show entitled The Big Tease and had the 20/20 crew and reporter Beth Bates following Kimberley Grace (organiser of Miss Burlesque NZ) as well as contestants Leda Petit, Courtenay L’Amour and Anastasia. 20/20 looked into the lives of these women, some who lead a double life (juggling responsibilities of being mum and businesswoman or student by day, teacher and performer by night) and just how far they have to go to be the glamorous, seductive and talented burlesque performers they are today. We also learnt interesting facts such as Courtenay and Anastasia are good friends, and Leda squeezes herself into an 18 inch waist corset (I think I would pass out wearing the corset!) and owns a custom made bird bath which she uses for her shows.

The segment also had some highlights from the Miss Burlesque NZ event itself, with flashes of our friends who were in the audience including my sponsor and gf Amy, as well as snippets of the happenings backstage and performances. We all cheered in the lounge when we saw Grace on TV and 20/20 interviewing her after her crowning of Miss Burlesque NZ 2010. She had such a big beautiful smile on her glowing face and still had a look of surprise of her recent win! I’m SO happy and proud of her – you could see a 5 second shot of me on stage with the other contestants cheering madly when Grace was announced the winner :) For those of you who missed out 20/20 on TV, here's the video link to the show: http://tvnz.co.nz/20-20-news/big-tease-11-56-video-3578515. Check it out!

“So, where to from here?” you ask. Well, to be honest, I’m not sure. I haven’t had any gigs since Footlight Follies so it has been quiet on the performing front and frankly, I’m feeling the itch to get up on stage again (something about being on stage gives me an adrenaline rush). There’s going to be a Miss Burlesque NZ tour happening second half of this year where the 3 winners (me, Grace and Anastasia) , Miss Congeniality (Courtenay) and Kimberley Grace will be performing and promoting the event around the country. No set dates yet but will keep you posted when I find out!

Oh, and I bought a new camera, an Olympus Tough Mju 8010 to replace my old Canon camera - I love my Canon digital camera but recently it has started emitting little smoke puffs whenever the flash goes and it smells really bad too! Got a quote to get it fixed but it wasn't worth the cost (as good as paying half the current price of a brand new camera) so decided to get the Olympus which I had been thinking of getting for sometime now - it's a digital camera that I will be able to take with me on snorkeling/scuba diving trips (water resistant up to 10m). And it arrived today in time for the paint party Jono and I are attending this weekend. Yay! Photo of me taken by Jono to test out the new camera: