It will come as no surprise to anyone that Loverboy adores anything on the sleazy side of the spectrum. When we heard that there was to be one last Sleaze – the cabaret game show extravaganza – we had to get the low down. Fallon Gold – aficionado of all things trashy, sleazy and camp – spoke with the goddess Trixie Malicious about creating fun distraction in the capital, Silence Of The Lambs themed game shows, the best of Sleaze, and the future of Sleaze

Loverboy: Can you sum up Sleaze for the uninitiated?

Trixie Malicious: Sleaze is a Wild Cabaret Gameshow with lots of Shocking & Fun Cabaret Acts, Go-Go Dancing, Gameshow Games, Bad Jokes, Trivia Quizzes, Spin-the-Bottle, Raffle and Prizes! I love gameshows and wanted to add ridiculous games alongside the cabaret acts that I really love in order to give an evening of varied ultra-entertainment. The show has an overarching theme of promoting Freedom and Silliness. We pay a lot of money to live in London- I wanted to have a cheap and unpretentious night where people can let loose and get cheered up and remember why most of us gravitated here- to be with our glorious fellow weirdos!

 

LB: How do you come up with the perfect Sleaze games?

TM: I try to use or invent games that fit each theme- usually each show is loosely themed and I try to weave that into the games. The signature Sleaze game is Spin The Bottle. We’ve played this game every time since the beginning and as far as I know Sleaze is only night to play Spin The Bottle as a gameshow format! I’m extremely proud of the Spin The Bottle Gameshow wheel. It’s a proper real to-scale Gameshow wheel! My friend Alex (a female Alex) helped me to make it from scratch and I feel quite proud that us two girls made an actual spinning arm mechanism without any help from any men. It’s really beautiful- the spinning arm has a glittery bottle and big red lips. The other popular games are Drag-In-A-Bag, Dreamphone and It Puts The Lotion in the Basket. Dreamphone is based on the 80’s/90’s boardgame for girls where you have to put aside all dignity and doggedly hassle local hunks as to their whereabouts in order to figure out which one likes you. I became sickly fascinated with it as it really is a game of neediness and then ensuing rejection as the hunks inform you in a haunting robot voice over a pink plastic phone that they do not like you. I thought it would be great as a gameshow! The hunks in my game are a bit more encouraging and ask trivia questions about my favourite topics- much improved hunks I believe! I am also proud to venture a guess that Sleaze is the first ever to have a live gameshow version of Buffalo Bill’s lotion commandment from Silence of the Lambs! This one is a true representation of my afore-mentioned theory that you really cannot oversimplify a good stage game. One of our Drag Queens or GoGo Dancers lie to stage right with a customized laminated Jodie Foster aka Detective Clarice Starling mask to protect their makeup and a small basket held between their akimo legs. An audience participant stands stage left and using only their thighs squeezes a bottle of lotion (with a customized Sleaze label of course) causing a thick cord of lotion to shoot across the stage into the vicinity of the basket whilst sound clips of Buffalo Bill’s foreboding order to put the lotion in the basket are played. The winner is the entrant who gets the most lotion in the basket. Drag-in-a-Bag is exciting too because it has a catchy theme song that the audience all sings together. I love a good theme song.

LB: How did Sleaze begin?

TM: Sleaze has been going for almost 5 years now. I originally started it with my dear friend Mat Fraser at the Lockside Lounge in Camden. They were looking for a monthly cabaret night and Mat and I wanted to create something more NYC style and a bit more informal than the supper clubs and expensive looking burlesque and cabaret that was prevalent at the time. We wanted something a bit more punk and messy and very silly.

 

LB: You’re a singer, burlesque performer, Sleaze Queen – how did you enter the world of showbiz?

TM: When I was a kid I was always very obsessed with specific tv shows, specific aesthetics- I always like kitsch and vintage and purported bad taste. I use to watch PeeWee, Elvira, Science Mystery Theatre 3000, Tromavision. I went through weird phases all the time like getting obsessed with miniature scale doll furniture or Cajun cookbooks or collecting the unclaimed photos from photo developing kiosks or infomercials or the stock photos that you find in old photo frames, all sorts of random little things would spark my interest. As I got older I started wanting to do some sort of performance that conveyed/shared my interests as a green light to other space cadets. I started in the early 2000s doing burlesque in Vancouver and then continued that as I moved over to London. But London was such a great scene to expand my performative interests – I started a girl group band here called The VanDorens, I started to GoGo dance at a lot of 60s and garage rock festivals and events, DJing, reviewing films and then finally started hosting and producing Sleaze. Anything I do has always been in order to pin my interests and my heart to my sleeve in order to bond with other enthusiasts.

 

LB: What are some of your favourite Sleaze moments?

TM: There are so many!!! This is gonna be hard. In a general sense it has always been when the pleasure I get in feeling a unity amongst myself, the performers and the audience – when I feel like everyone is having so much fun and all just loving the heck out of each other and we collectively feel like we’re excelling as a team at having fun. Having fun is important and it takes work actually. Some random specific moments that are popping up right now are: When Benjamin Louche perfectly impersonated PeeWee Herman for me and performed Tequila in white platforms; when Tigger impersonated the Virgin Mary and birthed baby Jesus; when Julie Atlas Muz did a perfect nude headstand while Mat Fraser sang American Trilogy by Elvis; watching Lilly and Cairo and others in the Sleaze family grow and blossom into stellar performers; when Trixie Little who is now the reigning Miss Exotic World/Queen of Burlesque windmill spanked the hell out of me on my birthday after peeling out of a banana suit; When Jonny Woo dressed as a gorilla and spectacularly slipped on a banana; every time Fabulous Russella ever flipped a pancake whilst doing the splits; when ArtWank came and projected rare and weird vintage porn movies for us; when Timberlina hosted Bingo; when Marawa hula-hooped a new record amount of hula hoops; recreating a “Don’t Do Drugs” afterschool special with Anita and Luki that involved an elaborate overdose; when I got Miranda and Slinky –  two beautiful models – to have a “Models Eating Competition” and plow through cakes, pies, and hotdogs in order to get T-shirts that said “I Can’t Believe I ate The WHOLE THING”. And I always have a special spot for the Christmas show when we have a snow machine and an amazing Santa impersonator and we make a Glam Shot Santa’s Grotto for people to sit on his lap. Ooh god I have to stop because there are trillions more I could go on and on and on!

 

LB: Did you ever want something for Sleaze that never happened?

TM: Well there are a lot more amazing performers I wanted to have and who were asking to perform. Dirty Martini and World Famous Bob always said they wanted to do Sleaze when they came to London and I was excited for that. Also I wanted to incorporate more projections – we did an informercial special that was amazing and I thought it would be great to do it again with informercials projected on a screen in between each act and game. I would’ve liked to have some “Looky Likey” contests. Also I always secretly really really hoped to play cupid and that one day two kissers in Spin the Bottle would actually fall deeply in love and ask me to officiate their wedding. I feel like I could officiate the fuck out of a wedding.

 

LB: What can we expect from this ‘last’ Sleaze?

TM: The usual Sleaze extravaganza of acts, games and prizes but maybe with me feeling ever so slightly more emotional and my little heart bursting with tender love. We do have amazing acts and Kitten & Lou from NYC are headlining and they are incredible. Jello Wrestling, A DJ in a latex Devo gimp mask, a Thai bride, Drag Queens, dreamphone, spin the bottle, Lotion spurting, a Serge Gainsbourg puppet, a barbed wire hula hoop… Lotsa good stuff! Be there or be square! April 28, 8pm, Moth Club Hackney Central!

 

LB: What’s next for Trixie? Sleaze will return, right?

TM: This is the last regular monthly Sleaze. I’ve loved every morsel of it but have been doing it for a long time and a monthly show is a lot of work and so it’s been hard to try other things I’ve wanted to try. Sleaze will not disappear though! I’m going to do a few one-offs throughout the year I think so keep your eyes peeled for some Sleaze specials! Or I’m toying with changing the format- maybe Sleaze TV on youtube? A Sleaze podcast? I’d like to do some writing- perhaps a column or podcast or such. I’d also like to declutter my house and have a holiday maybe!

 

 

Say Yes Please To Sleaze and come along to the last ever, regular Sleaze