Elly Squire

Hello!

By Jove! I'm gosh hecking jazz hand jazzed! I'm hitting the road next year and I'm taking this whacky shindig aka my most recent and very best, Award-nominated show, The Worst, with me. Perth! Adelaide! London! Edinburgh! New Zealand! Los Angeles! Other places! I'm hoping you wonderful darlings can give me 8 legs up and send me on my way!

About Me

I've been performing burlesque since 2007 when my friend and fellow lindy hopper, Adora Derriére founded Sugar Blue Burlesque in Perth, Western Australia. I draw inspiration from the vaudeville acts of the 1920s, the comedians of the silent film era and the jazz music I love. Combining authentic jazz dance, circus, clowning and old fashioned sensibilities, I've derived my own unique and quirky style of burlesque. I'm a prominent artist in the Australian Burlesque community and an active historian of 1920s era burlesque and vaudeville. My critically acclaimed debut solo show, “The Merchant of Whimsy”, was nominated for the prestigious Golden Gibbo award at the 2015 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. My follow up show, Hot Patootie, was nominated for Best Comedy at Fringe World in 2016. My current touring show (This one! It's this one!), The Worst, was again nominated for The Golden Gibbo in 2017 and was the recipient of the Adelaide Artist Fund. 

The Show

"There are few performers who can put on a burlesque show and make it utterly hilarious, fewer still who can make it heart-warmingly nostalgic, and fewer again that can do it all in an outlandish and cumbersome costume. And then there's Clara Cupcakes." - The Music 4.5 Stars

"Sometimes theatre is at its absolute best when it isn’t tidy, when it colours outside the lines. Clara’s performance was fun throughout, ending on an unexpectedly sweet and truthful note. There’s some bravery under all ‘dem hijinks’. "- Australian Arts Review

This has been one of my favourite shows of the festival so far and I highly recommend it to all. It has a bright future ahead of it touring, at fringe festivals and wherever the fabulous Clara Cupcakes takes it next. Strap on your ‘Start Game’ buttons and get your tickets - Theatre People 4.5 Stars

"the best video game you’ll ever play, and all you have to do is press that START button." - The Plus Ones

The Worst is an interactive, immersive, vaudeville comedy spectacular directed by the incredible Geraldine Quinn. It a very silly story about an Octopus queen who is trapped in the worst video game of all time. A terrible game that just so happens to be one she made. And the hijinks ensue. HUZZAH! Critics were lashing praise upon it and it was nominated for The Golden Gibbo, my second which not many people have done. It's been selected for the Adelaide Artist fund for 2018. It's been an amazing rushing rollercoaster of a journey so far. I can't even begin to express the pure joyous feeling of it all to you. 

It's all based a very real, terrible 18 months of my life where I was actually the very worst version of myself and it was gross. But six years later I turned that gross into a smash hit piece of art so I'm grateful it happened. 

Why Are You Doing This?

Great question! Thanks for asking. I have some real momentum going on with the show and I need to strike while the iron is hot to keep that momentum going!

Now you can help me continue that success! I've already been kindly gifted $3500 from the Adelaide Artist Fund which is amazing but unfortunately, that still leaves a large gap in my expenses. I've got a bunch of awesome things for you in exchange for your generosity. T-Shirts! Tote Bags! Limited edition burritos! My cats! Yelling at a whole country! Each item has been designed, handcrafted or facilitated by me. They are all things I would want myself so I hope you're into them too!

Touring is a huge, tiring undertaking. It also makes holding down a regular job with regular money a little tricky. I've been schlepping all around the joint on my own for a good long while. I put together most of the elements of the show myself, including all the animation, a good deal of the props and the entire soundtrack. I'm a one stop show making machine. It's crazy but luckily crazy is what I do best! Taking this show to some of the tippy top Fringes about the world is something that will boost my profile as an independent artist immensely and receiving an investment fund from you wonderful people means it's more likely to be a success!  I love this show so much and I want to take it to everywhere and yell about feelings from the depths of my three hearts.

Here are all the good things I can do with the kindness of your investment!

Regular Goals

Normal Human Person things!

• Buying merch to sell on the road so I can have an income while I'm out in the big wide world.
• A mobile payment device I can use with my iPhone so I can take card payments and maximise sales.
• Advertising so I can make the shows as successful as possible so that they fund the tour for the rest of the year. This includes poster printing and distribution, flyers and buying advertising in programs and media. 
• A giant Nintendo controller with Connect 4 attached to it so I can flyer with it/challenge people to games of speed Connect 4 while telling them about my show. You know your girl gotta have a gimmick.
• Venue guarantees so I have somewhere to do the show.
• Accommodation so I can sleep and put my things in a place. I'll be looking at booking Edinburgh accommodation early because it fills up quickly and is crazy expensive.
• Flights to Edinburgh so I can book them nice and early and not have them cost far too much because I can only afford them at the last minute.
• Registration fees so I can get into the festivals. They can be up to $700 and it's a real killer.
• A new costume so I can wash it in the washing machine. The old one can't be washed and it is stanky.

Fancy Goals

My stretch goals if I make it way, way, over the $6000 are:

• Getting the show wig reset so I can look fresh as a daisy.
• Booking more dates and places in the USA so I can be seen by television bigwigs or something is that how it works I have no idea. SHOWBIZ.
• Buying some huge damn advertising in Edinburgh to get people into the show.  It's a monster festival and the more you can get your face out there the better.
• Hiring a flyering team in Adelaide and Edinburgh and making costumes for them. I usually flyer for myself because I represent my brand the best but having a dedicated team working for me promoting the show in full costume will be spectacular and different.
• A proper professional hoop stack so I can dazzle people with my hula hooping skills that I didn't make myself using plumbing piping and strips of contact I cut with a guillotine I got given years ago. Successful spots can mean more people coming to your show.

Fringes are expensive. Money is the challenge. It can cost in excess of $1500 per festival just to cover the basics like registration, collateral design, promo images and all kinds of tidbits. It's exhausting and stressful. But I have some amazing people in my team who know how to make stuff happen and I know how to put on a damn good show! With the money issue out of the way, I can hit the ground running and take the worst to the people. We got this!