Paco Fish: Blog

Hi everybody!

I hope you're thawing out okay.  Are you going stir crazy?  Well I've got just the things to get you out of your cabin fevered insanity and back into the beautiful surreality you've come to love.  LIVE PERFORMANCE!!  I've finally found a new home for Vive La Decadence! and I'm proud to say that it's in one of Baltimore's best long-standing art spaces, the gorgeous 14Karat Cabaret!  I'm also proud to say that this week I'm going to be performing with the hosts of this year's International Drag King Community Extravaganza (IDKE), the Charm City Boys!

IDKE - The International Drag King Community Extravaganza

Yes, you read right.  IDKE, the International (mhm) Drag King Community (yep) EXTRAVAGANZA (tha's right) is coming to BALTIMORE this year!  October 20th - 24th.  This year's theme : Gender Justice : and you guessed it, the collective that's organizing it, of which I am now a part : The Gender Justice League!  And we need YOUR help!  We're looking for volunteers and community organizers and venues and sponsors and workshop teachers and daycare providers and, yes, and PERFORMERS!  More information will come in the following weeks, but in the meantime start investigating the twelfth (12th aka XIIth) annual IDKE at http://www.idkexii.com

Baker Artist Awards - Voting ends TODAY!

I'd also like to remind everyone in Marlyand that the Baker Artist Awards voting ends today.  I know the registration is kind of annoying, but this is an entity that is REALLY worth watching, and they didn't spam me at all after I signed up last year, so don't worry about that.  But this year I created a profile for myself and am hoping to win one of the Baltimore's Favorite Artist Awards.  So please help me achieve that goal by going to

http://www.bakerartistawards.org/nomination/view/thepacofish

and voting for me!  Remember, VOTING ENDS TODAY (if you're reading this on Monday, Feb. 15th)!

Donations by PayPal - Paco now accepting

I've got some very exciting news!  I've been accepted to be a performer in BOTH the Windy City Burlesque Festival AND the London Burlesque Festival!  The London Burlesque Festival (along with Exotic World and the NYBF) is one of the three largest burlesque festivals in the world.  And they want me to perform in it, not once, not twice, not even four times, but THREE TIMES this year!  And there's only one problem!  It's in London!  At the end of April, and I can't really afford to go.  I can't afford NOT to go, but it's very expensive.  So I'm turning to my friends and fans for support.  If you'd like to help me get across the pond and show another continent what's going on in Baltimore, then please donate whatever you can through PayPal by going to my website and clicking the donate link:

Thank you.  Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you.

I love you and am grateful to you for giving me a chance to be who I am.

Sincerely, Fondly, Eternally yours,
-Paco T.F. Fish

Ahhhhh... It's good to be back.

I had a soothing holiday back in the warm waters where I'm from and now I'm ready and excited to get back to flopping around hard wooden stages!  I've got big plans for the new year.  Check 'em out in the calendar section!

I Love You!

Wow, I guess it's been a while since I've posted any news.  Oh, what, since July?  Bah, it's only November!  So, here's new news:  I'm on vacation (sorta).  October was a very busy month for me.  But I made it through thanks to a vacation I took with my brother to Hawaii at the end of September.  If I hadn't had such incredible downtime, I would have burned out about a week into October.  So I'm doing it again, only bigger!  2010 is going to be a very full and rich year for me, but in order for it to work, I need to take the rest of 2009 off.  So, I'm only doing 1 show in November and maybe 1 show in December, but while I'm not performing, I'll be laying the groundwork for the marathon months ahead.  You see, I've set a deadline of New Years becoming 2011 to get out of my day job, to free myself of the tedious toil of sitting in a chair looking into a microscope all day, and giving my life to making laughter.  I'm shooting to get out by June and dreaming to get out by March, but determined to get out by the end of next year.  And I need your help.  I need your support, so when I come back to the stage, I want to see your beautiful smiling faces.  That's why I do what I do.

I love you.  (but that's not new news)
-PaXOXO

Well, I guess it's almost back to school season, so let's get our education on! My beloved best friend, Ariel (http://www.arielbellydance.net) and I are going to be teaching a workshop on expression and comedy for the stage starting this month. It's a 4-part workshop with an optional recital. You have to pre-register for it, and I'll give you all the details on how to do that... so here they are, and details about the workshops!

Make ‘Em Laugh, Make ‘Em Cry
Learn how to entertain, enchant, and tease your audience. This 4-part workshop will provide tips and techniques for creating comedy and enhancing emotional expression. Participants will create a stage-ready piece that they can choose to include in a performance this fall, hosted by Paco Fish and Ariel! Everyone is welcome!

Classes are held on Sundays from 3pm - 5pm
at Studo Artemis
2945 Woodstock Ave.
Silver Spring, MD 20910

Week 1: Sunday, August 23rd: Dynamic Expression So you always wanted to be an actor. Learn how to access and express different emotions on stage. We will provide exercises for getting into character, learning to respond to other actors on stage, and tapping into your emotional reservoir.

Week 2: Sunday, August 30th: Comedy Don’t you know everyone wants to laugh? This workshop explores how to make your audience laugh, relax, and have fun. We will study the work of famous comedians and provide exercises to improve your physical comedy.

Week 3: Sunday, September 6th: Getting Into Character Participants will come with a character piece in mind and music they’d like to perform to. We will provide constructive feedback and work on some exercises for establishing and strengthening the persona you’ve chosen.

Week 4: Sunday, September 13th: Putting it on Stage Final critique. We’ll also talk about stage makeup, costuming, and ways to relax and overcome last minute nervousness before going on stage.

Friday, October 9th: Performance The WindUp Space in Baltimore, MD
Performers will be paid after expenses, based on profits!

Price for 4 Workshops: $170 -or-
Want to learn some theater techniques but don’t have time to work on a piece for the show? You can take “Dynamic Expression” and/or “Comedy” separately.
$45/each, $50 at the door.


TO REGISTER FOR MAKE 'EM LAUGH, MAKE 'EM CRY:
Email makelaughcry@gmail.com with:
*Your full name
*Your stage name (if you have one)
*Your address
*Your phone number (in case we need to reach you quickly)
*Your age (if under 21, you might not be able to be in the show)
*and which classes you're registering for.

We will respond with a confirmation of registration and instructions on how to pay and other important information.


Hope to hear from you soon!
-PaXOXO

Good evening (or morning, probably by the time you read this)!

How are you all? I'm getting better! These Monday Mailings are getting closer to Monday! Soon I'll be so caught up you'll be getting them on Sundays! But probably not if I keep having weekends like this one.

Friday I went to see Rebecca Nagle's A Dozen Things I want to do on stage. It was big & intense & rich. Saturday I took a workshop on editing music that was part of the ReOrient festival so that was awesome. Sunday I spent the day swimming in Prettyboy reservoir, where I had never been before and that was beautiful. We swam across to the other side, and when we returned, found some familiar and friendly faces. So we had a party on the rocks by the water. Then Sunday night I went to see ReOrient, which was awesome. If more belly dance shows were like that, I'd go see more belly dance shows. After the show, I didn't sleep. I hung out til about 2 AM, then drove to New York. Well, okay, I made it about an hour out of Baltimore before I pulled into a rest stop and slept from 3-5 AM. Then back on the road just in time to hit rush hour into NYC. Why was I doing this? to go shopping!

There's a store called Odds that is full of old Broadway shows' wardrobes & it's going out of business so it's liquidating everything. I picked up $350 worth of stuff, then put $200 of it back, leaving only with the essentials. But this place was a mecca. I met Emilie Autumn, who was shopping there for costumes for her upcoming videos, and ran into my friend Larisa. Then I had lunch with Lefty Lucy and snuck out before afternoon rush hour. I can't wait to display my Odds finds on Saturday at Trixie Little's Burlesque Bootcamp Recital at the Ottobar...

But before I forget again, I was mentioned in Las Vegas Weekly in a review of the Burlesque Hall of Fame pageant!

Article here: http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/blogs/the-playground/2009/jun/08/taking-it-many-queens-miss-exotic-world-2009/
Pictures here: http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/photos/galleries/2009/jun/07/exotic/33372/
YAY!

Hellloooooo my peoples!!!

Happy June! Thank you to all of you who came out to see Vive La Decadece! this month. You were the best audience! You really cheered me up and helped me out of my anxiety about Exotic World. Now I'm SUPER excited for it! But first, we have another IP on Wednesday. For those of you who can, would you please bring your stilts? A bunch of people expressed interest in learning to stilt-walk, but I only have my custom stilts and my jumping stilts, so we could use all the peglegs we can get!

And then, when I get back from Las Vegas, there is some ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE stuff that I'm looking forward to attending. Specifically 2 things:

1 - Rebecca Nagle's one-woman cabaret A Dozen Things I Want to Do on Stage. I and maybe you have seen exerpts of this at Minás, my VLD!, and the Charm City Kitty Club and if those few pieces were any indication of the kind of intense, exciting, terrifying, hilarious, mind-bending, heart-wrenching, and exhilerating experience of Rebecca Nagle's full show, we are in for something that will transform us. I would forever regret missing this performance.
More info here: http://www.rebeccanagle.com Tickets here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/68989
and 2 - ReOrient (Artistic Perceptions of the Middle East) - Where all my bellydancers at?! This is a 2-day series of workshops with what looks to be an expansive showcase of Belly Dance and Middle Eastern-influenced music. I'm really excited because the workshops are NOT just for belly dancers. There's one on editing music into a cohesive mix for multi-song acts, one on beatboxing, one on fan dancing, and several on veil and other belly dance techniques.
More info & Tickets here: http://www.bellydancebaltimore.com
And although I won't be attending, this is going to be amazing too: Nana Projects' Parade School. I went to be a part of the Parade last year and the quantity and quality of things that had been learned and created in 3 days were staggering. I wish I were going. Maybe I'll go for one day, since I can't go for all 3.
More info here: http://www.nanaprojects.com/paradeschool.html
and now for details of MY events, followed by an events digest for June.

I love you all dearly! Thank you for being in my life and making it possible to do what I so love to do.
-PaXOXOXO

Hiiiii Everybody!!!

Happy Monday! I had ANOTHER inspirational weekend this weekend, can you believe it?! Let me tell you alllll about it. First of all, I GOT IN TO EXOTIC WORLD!!! (http://www.burlesquehall.com) The first weekend of June, I'm going to competing in Las Vegas against the best burlesque performers in the world! EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday: Elegance at the Hustler Club. Oh my god! It was surreal. There's no other way to describe it. I've seen Miss Astrid many times before, but she REALLY brought it on Friday. She slayed the audience. And Catherine D'Lish is a goddess. Hers were those performances that you can't consciously tell what's so great about them because you're so subconsciously connected to what's going on and absorbed and consumed by it. Oh my god! Trixie and Monkey (http://www.trixielittle.com) are Emperors. They rule the stage and the show, and now the Hustler Club.

Saturday: I missed the Kinetic Sculpture Race! But Sugar's anniversary Red & Black Ball at Bourbon Street made up for it. I was a little disappointed with my performance but I had a lot of fun. Dance party was kickin; everybody looked hot in red & black, and E-Clef stole the show with a Chris Brown and Michael Jackson dance extravaganza.

Sunday: Pow Wow was half rained out, half still on. It was wet, but lively. I went to see Consider the Source (http://www.myspace.com/considerthemusic), but didn't make it long enough to see them. I did, however, get to see MC Armanni Reign's new project, The Living Sample (http://www.myspace.com/thelivingsample), which was definitely a fair trade. We danced in the rain and the mud and partied and loved and it was great. And Pow Wow part 2 is happening next Sunday.

I decided to try doing this thing again that I used to do with the Brigade, out of which people seemed to really get a lot. It's a digest of events that are coming up. This is stuff that I'm not necessarily involved in, but I recommend, support, and will most likely attend. We'll call these Sponsored Events. updated 4/20/09.

CALLS FOR ARTISTS/PERFORMERS:
1. Emily C-D: Baltimore, MD: Fri Apr 24 from 3-6pm, Sat & Sun Apr 25th & 26th from 10am-3pm. seeking help painting mural at 24th & Camp (near Barclay) St. contact: shout@emilycd.com

2. Sowebohemian Arts festival: Baltimore, MD. Sunday, May 24th. Noon-9pm. seeking: creative performers. contact: kristen_faber@hotmail.com

3. Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America: Baltimore, MD. Sunday, May 30th. 4pm-8pm. seeking: family-friendly roving performers. contact: lois_m_t@msn.com

4. The Arts Politic magazine seeking submissions of political art and reviews: theartspolitic.com
5. Hampdenfest: Baltimore, MD. Saturday, Sept 12th. 11am-7pm. seeking: roving busker-type performers. contact: biariaz@yahoo.com


Events Digest (Paco is not Performing in these unless noted):
Tuesday, April 21st: 8pm - Wrath of Khan - Annex Theater - 419 E. Oliver St.
Thursday, April 23rd: 7pm - Time Machine - the LOF/t - 120 W. North Ave.
Friday, April 24th: 7pm - Pinned Up - Block Gallery - 120 W. North Ave.
Friday, April 24th: 9pm - Glitterama 6 - the LOF/t - 120 W. North Ave.
Friday, April 24th: 11(8)pm - World/Inferno Friendship Society - the Ottobar - 2549 N. Howard St.
Saturday, April 25th: 7pm & 10pm - Glitterama 6 - the LOF/t - 120 W. North Ave.
Sunday, April 26th: 2:30pm - Jessie & James - the Inner Harbor Amphitheater - Pratt & Gay Sts.
Sunday, April 26th: 4pm - Three Days of Rain - Mobtown Theater - 3600 Clipper Mill Rd.
Thursday, April 30th: 9pm Pretty Things Peepshow - Black Hole - 216 German Hill Rd. Dundalk, MD

Friday, May 1st: 9pm - ELEGANCE...on the Block - The Hustler Club - 409 E. Baltimore St.
*Saturday, May 2nd: 9pm - PACO PERFORMING: Sugar's Red & Black Anniversary Ball - Bourbon Street - 316 Guilford Ave.
*Wednesday, May 6th: 6pm - Independent Practice - the LOF/t - 120 W. North Ave.
Friday, May 8th: 3:30pm - Bio Blast - Goucher College - 1021 Dulaney Valley Rd.
Sunday, May 10th: 8pm - Robin Hood - Zodiac - 1726 N. Charles St.
*Wednesday, May 20th: 6pm - Independent Practice - the LOF/t - 120 W. North Ave.
*Friday, May 22nd: 7:30 & 10:30pm - PACO PERFORMING: Gilded Lily Burlesque's The Nearly Naked Truth - Mobtown Theater - 3600 Clipper Mill Rd.
Saturday, May 23rd: 12:30pm - Fluid Movement Hoop-a-thon - St. John's Community Center - 2640 St. Paul St.
Sunday, May 24th: 12pm - Sowebohemian Arts festival - 1300 Hollins St.

This blog is going to be full of links, because it will make the most sense if you know what I'm talking about.

I love this city.  There is so much wonderful stuff happening and I love that I get to be a part of it.  Two weeks ago was the 6th annual Transmodern Festival (transmodernfestival.org), for which I joined up with The Cause Company and Ambush Theater for "Get Strolled," an act in which the city itself comes to life and escorts strangers on their strolls down the street.  I was a traffic barrel.  see here: (Click for Photo)  Then the day of events culminated in Fluid Movement's Love Parade, where all of the separate performing groups and a bunch of other volunteers and freaks joined in a parade around the neighborhood, making our way to a big gathering in the park.  Walking up to the park, seeing all these colors and smiles and hearing the Barrage Band Orchestra(BarrageBandOrchestra.com) playing, I was rejuvenated and filled with a joy and love of Baltimore's community of artists.

It happened again last week at Independent Practice. We had about the same number of people attend this second session, but almost all of them were new! So that's very exciting, word is getting out. It was so precious to have new people teaching new skills. A gentleman named Brad brought plates and a ukelele and taught us how to spin plates, while several new people learned how to juggle, and some acrobats practiced their new act. See:

Lizzie Lyra & Brent Balancer practice their acrobatics while Shelly practiced plate-spinning:


Then, this weekend, yesterday, in fact it happened again in a huge way.  I spent from noon until 2 bouncing around the BMore Fair in Carroll Park on my jumping stilts & with my hoola hoop, then zipped up to Druid Hill Park for Ecofest to see The Frontier Dentists (myspace.com/thefrontierdentists) and run around dressed as a bush with Ambush Theater.  Then BACK to Carroll Park to put my stilts BACK on to march all the way from Carroll Park to the Inner Harbor with the United Workers Association (UnitedWorkersAssociation.org) protesting working conditions and human rights injustices in the Inner Harbor.  I only made it about as far as the arena, where there was a 2-day cheerleading contest going on.  It was really interesting to see all these painted up adolescent faces peering out the windows of the arena in confusion and wonder at 200 protesters marching down Baltimore St.  But that was as far as my legs could take me on as little food as I had had all day.  Fortunately my next destination was Zella's (zellaspizzeria.com), where Sarah House (Click for info & artwork) was opening a new art show.  Free really good pizza, water, oh my god water, half a glass of wine, and some wonderful company later, I was feeling tip top again!  We left there to go to the Whole Gallery (wholegallery.blogspot.com), where "Off the Wall," a show of sculpture and installations was opening.  It was beautiful. 

I don't know if I've ever been to an art show where I loved EVERY piece in the show, but last night I did.  There were 18 different artists and each piece had its own identity and style and none were quite like the others, but they all hung together beautifully and warmly.  The same went for all of the people in attendence and I believe that was highly influenced by the mood in the space that the show created.  It was otherworldly transformed.  There was a large installation by Alzaruba (Click for info & artwork) that felt extremely womb-like with soft colored fabric, foil, and plastic hanging from the ceiling and draped over furniture with well disguised oscillating fans and shifting lights over blankets and pillows and a giant yarn egg.  I swear I thought that was going to turn into a piggy pile by the end of the night.  The only thing missing was the ecstacy and vapo-rub.  It was a party, but it was wholly more than that.  An incredible installation by Melissa Webb (inamaterialworld.com), attendants were sprawled across the kitchen floor crafting their own pieces of fabric art, attaching them to lines on pulleys and lowering them into the installation on the roof of the light-shaft.  It's genius.  People were so focused on their little piles of yarn and cloth that the party going on around them was completely background.  The same happened with Liz Zacharia's hanging domes, which I took to calling "thinking caps" because of the way one's entire world was isolated when the head was put up into these domes.  I want one for home use so I can get some thinking done.  It would probably make things like writing this blog not take all day.  Anyway it was an awesome show with some talented artists, beautiful people, loving community, righteous action, and peaceful joy.  What a wonderful day!  I love this city!

Here are a couple pictures from Off the Wall:
Work by Freda Mohr & Christina Martinelli:


Rebecca Nagle pictured with work by Liz Ensz, Matt Gemmell, Rebecca Habtour, and Jeanne Marie Burdette:


Freda Mohr pictured with work by Melissa Webb:


Work by Jen Kirby, Phuong Pham, Sarah Matson, Annie Gray, & Liz Zacharia:


Work by Edward Knapp, Jill Greenberg, Rachel Schmidt, & Gina Denton:

I'm back from San Francisco, where I performed at El Rio's weekly Friday night Red Hots Burlesque show. It was a wonderful trip! I'm so glad I went out there and I'd love to go back as soon as possible. But right now, I'm home, fighting with the internet overloaded with other last-minute tax-filers. Ah well, it'll teach me not to procrasturbate so much. ;)

See you at practice!
Love, PaXOXO

Abbreviations are neat!

These refer, of course, to Gilded Lily Burlesque's Drunk Loose & Sloppy at the Palace of Wonders and the Transmodern Festivals' Pedestrian Service Exquisite at the H&H building!

Now, I probably really don't need to say anything about them because the names kind of sum them up pretty well. GLB's DL&S show was exactly that: drunk, loose, and sloppy. Halfway through the day of the show I decided to change the character I had planned to be and had to completely rewrite half the script. The other half of the script I had to make up on the spot. But it seemed to work out pretty well. We had a lot of fun. And, for the record, we LOVE Shortstaxx! and so does DC!

And the Transmodern Festival's Pedestrian Services were Exquisite! I was part of Ambush Theatre & the Cause Company's "Get Strolled" project. Basically, the city itself comes to life and strolls with the pedestrians. I was a traffic barrel; Valeska was a lamppost, Kes a mailbox, Annie & Lizzie were am-bushes. We had a lot of fun . . . and then . . . the most beautiful thing of all . . . Fluid Movement's 2nd annual LOVE PARADE!!! It really made me very happy to be living in Baltimore with all these amazingly wonderful artists.

There are some pictures here: ROOTBALL'S FLICKR SET
For those of you who don't know what the hell I'm talking about I'll provide some links, but I'm too tired to explain more right now.

TRANSMODERNFESTIVAL.ORG
AMBUSHTHEATER.COM
FLUIDMOVEMENT.ORG
Thank you to everyone who came and be'ed a part of this fantastic stuff.

IP was great tonight! It was small and intimate, but we did some stilt-walking, juggling, poi, fire-staff, yoga, acroyoga, DJing, and hooping! I learned a new hooping trick, two people learned to juggle, and three people got up on stilts for their first time! I'm so excited for this series!

One thing we were thinking is that anyone who is interested in debuting an act and getting feedback is absolutely welcome and invited to use the stage to test it out in front of an audience. It's a very comfortable, no-pressure, place to test run new work.

And if you aren't a performer per se, you can come and learn some tricks!

ALSO! People with trapeze or lyra can rig to our beam clamps (we have 2) and use the Independent Practice time for that!

So, in conclusion, I think you all should come to the next IP. Wednesday, April 15th, 6:00 PM at the LOF/t.
See you then (if not before)!

First of all . . . a HUGE THANK YOU to those who came to Vive La Decadence! this weekend. We had a lot of fun for both shows and hope you enjoyed it as well.

Second . . . Could you PLEASE do me a HUGE favor? If you're reading this, I assume you're interested in what I have to say, so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE join my mailinglist. All you gots to do is put your name in that slot at the bottom of the screen, and then a few more lines. Takes exactly 37 seconds!

Third . . . INDEPENDENT PRACTICE STARTS TODAY!!!! (wednesday) see calendar for details.

Thanks! I love you!

Hi everybody! Guess what I got . . . a website! YAY! Come get caught in Paco Fish's .net! Get it? hahahahahahahahaaaaaaa!