A lady who bubbles over with character and just oodles with charm is the voluptuous, Desiree Burch. Bringing two shows to the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe, you can see Desiree in Smut – Free and 52 Man Pick-up. But before that, let’s chat….
1. Describe yourself?
Big, black, bawdy, beautiful, brilliant… Burch, Desiree!
2. Tell us about your show/s at this year’s 2011 Edinburgh Fringe?
There are 2:
SMUT – Laughing Horse at the Hive, Aug. 5-29 (not Wednesdays) @ 17:00 hrs.
It is what it says! This is the Festival’s dirtiest variety show. That ranges from scandalous and sexy, to dark and deviant, to raw, weird, unabashed, (a)political, daring, new.
We like people who do it differently. So we’ll have people like Des O’Connor around & Pistol ‘n Jack with twisted cabaret, Bob Slayer, who just has to be seen to be believed and Adira Amram who is glam pop plus twisted comedy. Political comedian Lee Camp, who has been compared to George Carlin will be there and brilliant. There will be a German Hooker and a Gay Storytelling Frog. And that’s just the first couple of days. From talented theater artists, filmmakers, comedians, singers, dancers, poets and those who defy description… we are giving the Fringe the white glove inspection and coming up with everything SMUT.
52 Man Pickup – Hill Street Theatre, Aug. 5-29 (not Wednesdays) @ 22:30 hrs.
This show is basically my whole sex life on a deck of cards. Each card is a different person I have been with. I shuffle the cards at the beginning of the show and deal them out at random through a series of card games to tell the stories. Underneath that is the story of me trying to grow into my sexuality, identity, body and all of that cerebral sociological stuff. It is brutally honest, riotously funny and packed with words of wisdom, advice, tales of horror, mystery and intrigue… and ultimately a lot of poignant musings on what happens when we try to overcome our isolation by throwing ourselves into the night. Because of the natural randomness of shuffling cards and the intermingling of audience participation, the show is really an event, and changes every single night.
3. What lasting image can be captured from seeing one of your shows?
Boobs!
4. What’s your catchphrase?
SMUT: The Festival’s dirtiest variety show!
52 Man Pick-up: My whole sex life on a deck of cards!
5. What inspires your creative processes?
Desire & deadlines…
A desire to share myself and my life with people because I was a middle child and no one gave a fuck what I had to say…
My abilities to make poetic illusions and allusions about my life experience…
My desire to have those experiences and bits of poetry matter… cause meaningful thought/change for my audiences.
6. How would you describe the perfect “Review”?
Stars running into the margin and off the page. Vows of devotion, naming of a firstborn child after me. Stalkers solely based on the review. An invite to the White House. Scratch that, an invite to Space!
Seriously though, any review that gets that I actually have a lot of substance under the funny sex talk and the flashy corseted outfits and gets that the power of the show comes from it’s honesty and daring. That also gets that you can take the most base road to reach the divine…. and that the universality is found in all of the dirty little details… that’s a great review.
Of course for it to be perfect, I would have had to blow this person’s ever-loving mind, which I aim to do, and anyone I book on my variety show does the same.
7. What really bugs you travelling from show to show?
Or festival to festival…..?
Just always having to start all over again with the marketing and all of that, and being a solo show when I travel. It’s being on my own in doing everything: putting up the money to do all of that… always thinking, what the fuck is the point? I hate all of this? I hate people, why do I want to stare at a bunch of them down in a dark room and reveal my heart to them? They are all jackals? What’s wrong with my fucking life? This is pathetic.
AND… then of course doing it anyway, and always having a wonderful, meaningful, life-altering experience. But the doubt and the weariness forms a supernova/black hole that always occurs in there somewhere.
8. Have you ever thought of leaving the arts and pursuing a so called, “steadier career”?
Yeah, in times like the aforementioned, but really, NO. I mean, I need to do this. I am thankful that people find it interesting when I do, but it’s a compulsion, fed by the ever-dangling carrot of success. It’s an emergency, a necessity, you don’t make decisions about that shit, it makes them for you.
9. You’re ruler of the People’s Republic in your local area. What’s the first law you would enact?
More sleep for everyone! Really, it’s surprising how much better people we are when we’ve rested.
10. A film is made of your life. What would it be called and who would you choose to play you?
“Do You Wanna Fuck Me? I’d Fuck Me. The Desiree Burch Story”. I’d be played by Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs, in a flesh dress made out of me, or a girl that looks like me. A slightly less employed and overfed Jordin Sparks.
