Hi … I’m Porcelain Pistol … I am a burlesque performer … I am originally from the Boston area … a small … fishing town … about an hour outside of Boston … Technically … I grew up on an island … off the coast … What was it like growing up there? … It was very boring … except in the summertime … in the summertime it was great … Lot’s of awesome beaches … It was a big tourist town … so … a lot of people would come to go to the beach … so … you couldn’t always enjoy it because everyone from the neighboring towns would come … and take up the space … but … we found all of our own secret spots … and … it was small … and it was boring … in the winter time … and everybody new everybody’s business … and … but … it was beautiful … When I was a child … I liked to … dance … and act … and draw … and paint … all sorts of different kinds of creative expressions … and play make-believe … I lived there until I was twenty two … I think … When I was growing up … in school … I did different things at different stages of my life … So … I did … though it was more when I was younger … dance … and ballet … and gymnastics … and cheerleading … things like that … and then later … I started to have more of an interest in photography … So … I took the photography program they had at my high school … and got really interested in that … I went to a trade school briefly … in Boston … and then … I kind of lost interest in it … because … I was trying to make it a career … and I didn’t want it to be a career … I wanted it to be something fun … So now I get to be in front of the camera … which is a fun way to contribute … to photos … Growing up … my grandmother would take us to Boston … to plays … circus … Disney on Ice … all sorts of different things … to get us into the city … I always loved that … taking the subway … acting like a monkey on the bars … Did I ever think I would move to a city? … Yeah … I think so … I always wanted to … I would always daydream about … having adventures outside of my small little bubble I grew up  in … When I was very young … I wanted to be an actress … I was just so shy … thats why I think a lot of the art I did when I was younger was more like … being the photographer behind the camera … or drawing … or something where I didn’t have to be on display … or paid attention to … because that made me uncomfortable … and so I never would have expected to be performing on a stage in front of people … I did it … because I started taking classes … burlesque dancing classes … and did a student showcase … and I was shocked … that I really … enjoyed performing … That was here … I didn’t start doing any burlesque until I moved here … Before … when I was studying photography … I liked doing fashion photography … I liked doing staged scenes … I really liked doing portraits … I liked landscapes too … But mostly I really liked … trying to capture some sort of emotion … in a person … specifically … Yeah … I was taking a business and photography class … and they were talking about how much money it was going to cost … for your business … I was already going to be $30,000 in debt when I left the school … They were talking about different ways to be able to support yourself … as an artist … doing things … shooting peewee football teams … and different things like that … I just didn’t have any interest in doing anything like that … and I realized … the more I thought about actually making it a career  … that it might take everything that I love … out of it for me … And so … I dropped out of school … and I moved to Chicago about a year later … Between dropping put of school and moving to Chicago .. I started working more in video … and shooting … sketch comedy web series … that me and a friend were working on … Then I moved to Chicago … and just stopped … doing any kind of photography … Why did I pick Chicago … it was the cheapest (laughter) … But I’m so glad I did … because I love it here … I haven’t been to L.A. … I have been to New York a few times … Obviously its different visiting then living there … But I think … I just love Chicago … It’s so great … especially for artists … Being here as opposed to the east coast … It definitely felt more midwestern … in a few ways … But also just like the people … the biggest thing I noticed … right off the bat … was how much more friendly people are … then on the east coast … That was different … I think there’s just a much bigger art scene … at least with performance … and the type of things that you can see here … I just don’t think there’s much of a scene … there … maybe its just more underground … How I started … burlesque … I went to a show … and it was the first time I had seen burlesque … and it was just so exciting to me … The performers that I saw were just so inspiring … it just made me feel that I wanted to do that … So … I think I enrolled in classes the next month … I have always had a hard time going to classes … of any kind … I’ve struggled with attendance … This was the first time in my life that I didn’t struggle to get to class … every time … Even going from Rogers Park to the West Loop … in the polar vortex … a few time a week … I really enjoyed it … It was at Studio L’amour … in the West Loop … and then they moved to Ravenswood … But … it closed down about a year ago … She moved to L.A. … I think she still does workshops … and she does online classes … so she’s still teaching … And now there’s a brand new burlesque school in Chicago … It just opened up … which is awesome … it’s The Chicago Academy of Burlesque … From taking classes to performing … It was … I definitely had nerves … in the few weeks prior to leading up to the performance … But … the actual day of the performance … I wasn’t nervous at all … because I was running late … so I just didn’t have time to feel nervous … It was just … hurry up … and get dressed … and get on stage … It was different then just taking classes … because your dealing with the audience … But … it’s almost … it’s just better … and it’s more exciting seeing the audiences reaction … It’s a big reason why it’s so fun … The first place I performed … it was in the West Loop … The dance studio I was taking classes at was also … on one side it was a dance studio … on the other side it was the Everleigh Social Club … which was kind of like a members club … that would put on shows … and do figure drawing events … and things like that … Now … I perform a lot at the Drifter … That’s one of my favorite places to perform at … I’ve been performing there for three of four years now … When I first started performing there … People didn’t know that performances would be happening … so … the audience would react kind of … it would be a mixed bag … Some people would be clutching their pearls … because they didn’t know there was going to be a stripper … and then some people would be excited about it … Now … everyone knows … there are shows there … People go there for that … So it’s just a really fun environment … everyone already excited before you’ve even come on stage … My fashion style … When I was younger … in high school … my style wasn’t quite what it is now … it was more funky … and bright … more 70’s inspired … I’d say … For the past six years or so … It’s gotten darker and darker and darker (laughter) … I really like black … When you have lot’s of black … it’s easy to match everything … When I perform … I try not to wear dark outfits … because all of the acts I’ve ever wanted to make … whenever I’ve had an idea … it’s usually black … mostly black costume … And then I tell myself … that I can’t have too many costumes that look exactly alike … and I need to try to mix it up … My first costumes … that I ever made … there was a lot of black … but the newer costumes all feature a lot of color … I’ve made some things from scratch … A lot of things are just embellished … I’ll buy a cheap corset off of Amazon … and do a lot of embellishing to it … which I do all myself … I’ve also just found things that were … perfect as is … at a thrift store … I’ll make my own accessories to go with it … That’s one of the things that I really like about burlesque … is … that I get to make my own costumes … That’s another thing that I always had an interest in  … and enjoyed doing … when I was younger … was sewing … I’ve made friends through the burlesque community … Which is awesome … because when you move to a new city … where you don’t know anybody … it can be hard to meet people … if you don’t work a day job … where you’re interacting with people …If you’re a waitress … there’s a good chance you’ll meet a lot of people … but … I was not … And it really helped me … I went to trade school … briefly … But I never went to college … so … I kind of missed that whole socialization aspect … and … was very shy … And doing burlesque … and networking … just meeting more people in the community has really helped me to work on that … As far as how the attitudes towards sensitivities have changed … from a number of years ago … to now … I don’t have anything to compare it to … because I am still relatively new to the performance scene … I do see in general … not even related to the performance scene … things have changed … I think in a lot of ways … it’s good … for people to be more aware of other people’s feelings … and how ones actions might effect another’s … But … it can also make you question yourself because you want to make sure you’re not pissing anybody off … How have I been treated by the public? … My social media is private … So I don’t have to have random peoples opinions of me … showing up in my comments … of things … So … I don’t know if I really have a great gage of the publics reaction … Most of the reaction from the public … that I see … Is right in front of me when I’m on stage … and those are all people who are there because they’ve wanted to see burlesque … so … of course they have a great opinion of it … for the most part … But … I think that’s definitely one of the reasons why I choose to keep a lot of things private … Because I know … you can … get some negativity … Or just unwanted attention … So … I prefer Instagram … definitely … I have my account … private … And I will … go through … and accept … people who I’ve met … or who I know … or somebody else I know has worked with them … or knows them … or can vouch for them … Just the idea of having a bunch of random people who I don’t know … having access to me … freaks me out … It makes me nervous … I like it that I can still use it to network … I’ve still met a lot of awesome artists … that I’ve got to work with … through social media … while still being selective about … my audience … I get most of my business I’d say through social media … or word of mouth … But even word of mouth … if a person then can go … look at your profile … and actually see what you’ve done … that helps … When I’m not performing … My favorite thing to do is to cuddle my cats … (laughter) … I have two cats … They’re my world … They’re happy … and very needy cats … One of them was following me around all morning because he didn’t feel like he got enough attention yet (laughter) … Traveling to perform? … I actually have not travelled at all to perform … I would like to … But … I would like to do it … within certain comfort … traveling with people I knew … or even if I was traveling by myself … if I could afford a hotel … as opposed to going online … and finding another person whose in the community … in that state … or country … or whatever … or just crashing on someones couch … It’s great that our community is supportive and that options like that are available … But … For me … it’s just a little bit too far outside my comfort zone … to stay with people I don’t know … I would like to travel and perform … To start … just traveling to the states … around here … I know a performer that lives in Grand Rapids … That would be a place I could perform at … She would always talk to me … and say … Oh … if you want to do a show … I could … try to get another performer who has a car … also booked on it … who lives in Chicago … so you guys can carpool … But at the time … I had a full time day job … and … it was usually on a weekday … and I wasn’t able to leave the city for the night … I have goals … I have a lot of work to do … with … just … everything … Marketing myself … Updating my website … It’s not been updated since March … That’s not good (laughter) … Learning more … Taking more classes … Dance classes … Making new acts … Just figuring out the best way to manage my time … because I struggle with that …