2016 For Me.

January saw me recovering from my second laparoscopy. I was still in recovery when I forced myself onstage for a Mon Cherie Entertainment Show at the Backstage Bistro. I covered up my glued together puncture wounds with stickers, and had Totalie onstage with me in case I fell over, or gave him the "get me the hell offstage" sign. I was so happy to be in my bed after that, but it was worth it because a few more people became aware of The Trulie Awesome Show.

The Trulie Awesome Show continued it's performances at the Ooh La Las Varietease Show until December of this year, when it was canceled by the producers of The Ooh La Las portion, due to their lack of people in their half. I wasn't happy about all the work we and the Sick World of Dr. Show did, being shoved in the garbage without any discussion (in fact it was put to us that there would be no discussion) but there wasn't anything to be done about it except sit in my room and watch music videos from the 90's until it was time to perform with ElectroCult Circus that night.

I performed at several Mon Cherie Entertainment gigs at the Shrunken Head throughout the year as well. I really enjoyed bringing out new material at these shows. I did a little bit of work with The Sick World of Dr. Show and I performed at a few Bossy Grrl's Shows too so it was a very packed schedule heading into the summer.

February and March I took time to build all of my old costumes, and worked with Taryn Lindsey to record my numbers so I had them for keepsake. It was a ton of work. Building all those costumes and then performing them one after the other was a bigger undertaking than I thought it would be. We got all of the signature numbers down which was good.

In April we did a 24 hour stream (which Totalie forgot to pull off of Twitch so we lost all of that footage dang it!) We had some people on to make crafts for DRAUMA and read stories and play games. It was kind of a mess but most things I do are.

In May I competed in the BurlyPicks Competition and won first place. I was so shocked I won. Really. The entire time waiting for the National Competition portion was just so surreal. I couldn't believe it was happening, and I had no idea what I was doing...which usually I don't, but in this case I felt like I should. That was one of the happiest performance days of my life. DRAUMA was a disaster for me. Most of the costumes fell apart before they hit the stage, and I am pretty sure my models were going to revolt. I got them ready to be onstage at the time we were supposed to be ready, but the show was running behind and we didn't know that. So everyone was making their way up the stairs (which is when things started to break because steps and paper clothing don't mix) about 30 minutes before they had to be. Then they had to stand there and wait. And these were not comfortable things to wear. After this show fell apart on me, I vowed I wouldn't do this to myself or anyone else again. If I do a big show, I have to do it where I can build the items in the venue and not have to transport them. AND NO STAIRS. Button got some good stuff out of DRAUMA though. Someone hired her to make a mask like she made for the show, and she did a photo shoot in some of the costume pieces so at least someone got something out of it! I think I just aged a few years and felt shitty for a few weeks.

June we did Origins which was more fun than the year before. We got to go to more of the panels and we had time to hang out with the other volunteers. We also did the Columbus Arts Fest for two days which was sweaty but really fun. It was a huge stage and the staff was awesome. And Comfest which was hilarious because when Totalie was testing the sound, it was turned all the way up and a giant fart scared everyone at Comfest. Yep that was us. Sorry.

July we did the DooDah Parade which is my favorite parade of the whole year. Up to this point, we had 19 ElectroCult Circus shows under our belt as well.

August was GenCon which was so much fun and full of classes and shows and adventures.

September was the BurlyPicks Nationals. I had a fantastic time in Pittsburgh and I won Most Innovative which was another shock. I didn't even know that was a category. Another happiest day. Plus ECC got to play at The Rex, which I had been trying to make happen for two years. September also started my Heels of Horror Rehearsals so it was a very good September.

October was Performance Art Day and Heels of Horror. Both totally new and unique experiences to me that kind of kicked my butt in a very good way.

November was our last Varietease Show (unbeknownst to us at the time) and my last Girls Gags and Giggles of the year. We also got to do a Creative Mornings event which is like TED talks but oh so early in the morning. We got paid in bananas. I found a blip of us at the event on their website, but they cut out everything I said which I think was something like "There's art and theater and drag and burlesque and music and all kinds of things to do in Columbus" to "and music and all kinds of things to do in Columbus" or something like that. Marking the second time this year I was basically bleeped out. (CD102.5 bleeped out my "suck it" on an ECC song)

December was mostly ElectroCult Circus gigs since our TAS gig was canceled, so the year wound down pretty quickly.

Personally 2016 was a jam packed year with some very cool things happening so, while most people want the year to burn, I was okay with this year. I learned a lot about myself.