Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - History of Burlesque and Strip Clubs in Toronto: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1876

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

In this 1876th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Starlotte Satine and Jeremy Hopkin about the history of burlesque and strip clubs in Toronto. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Hey, hey, hey, step right up. This is it. History of Burlesk in Toronto on the Toronto Mike podcast. With me, Jeremy Hopkins, our special guest, Starlett-Satine. Did you write that down? I had to. Couldn't memorize all those facts. Oh, my God.

It's a tongue twister. Special guest alert. Special guest alert. Welcome to episode 1,876 of Toronto-Miked An award-winning podcast Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery

Order online at great lakesbeer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palmaPasta.com for more. Fusion Corps own Nick Aini's. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Mike and Nick two podcasts that you ought to listen to.

Recycle My Electronics.comitting to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, making his quarterly visit to talk about the history of burlesque and strip clubs in Toronto. He's the official Toronto historian

of Toronto-Miked. Jeremy Hopkins. Woo! I feel like that's where you pause for... And we have somebody in the room applauding you right now. Before you say a word, Jeremy, and then you're going to say lots of words, and I'm going to sit back and listen.

Please introduce for the listenership the very special guest sitting to your left right now. We're so lucky to have Starlett Satin here. She's a force of nature, as recently described at one of her shows by some of the performers there. She just made this show happen, and it's incredible. Welcome to Toronto Mike, Starlit Satine. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Well, I'm, I got to say, like I said, I said this to Jeremy.

He upped the class in this basement. Like, he wears, you see the suit he's wearing. I know. He told me that. What do you think of that outfit? I mean, Jeremy's always the best dressed in the room. But like, like, it was funny when we're walking in here, he was like, yeah, Mike was like, you have to, you have to wear the suit every time.

So now it's just a thing. But do you feel pressure, Jeremy, to wear that suit every time you visit? I do. I do. Because it just, I'll kick you out if I see you in, like, sweats or something. Because people see me on screen. They're like, oh, that's not Jeremy. And they go away.

I mean, to be honest, he came to one of my shows one time dressed in his muggle clothes and I didn't recognize him. That's a great way to say it. That's what we say all the time in the burlese world. We're like, oh, we're just in our muggle form today. At Christy Pitts, you were dressed like a normie. And I'm like, who the hell is this guy? Give me J-Ho.

I will say this to you, Starlett. I bumped into this man, this talented, wonderful man. I bumped into him in Kensington Market. at Handelbar, because you were at the Cam Gordon book launch. Yes, yes. And you were dressed like this. Yeah, yeah. I had to dress up for Cam.

Kensington Market. He's dressed up to the nines. But I got to say this, Starlett, you're dressed up too. This is my casual look. Okay. Well, I don't believe you. Starla has many looks, but you always know it's her. It's either like homeless or very vintage glamour.

There's no like in between, honestly. And I know I made a joke earlier. I have low ceilings where you're sitting right now. My hair's almost too big. Well, I say to everybody, watch your head. Check your head is proper terminology. But you have high hair. Can you describe this hair do?

I mean, it's not real. Okay, well, that's a mind blow right there. I honestly, so is there stuff in there? No, it's just, I mean, I got a lot of hair on a good day, but if I want to just do a fast look, I just toss this little topper on. So that's not real. It's all an illusion, darling. Did you think that was real?

I did, actually. I really did. Yeah. I 100% thought that hair. And it's like a ball of hair on the top of your head or something. So that's just like a piece you put on. Yeah. It's more just like because as a show girl, we spend so much time getting ready.

And it's a very efficient way because you just plop this thing on and pin it. And it doesn't take so long to like curl it and do all these things. So most showgirls you know actually are wearing fake hair, including the dancers from the Malau Rouge. All of that's like fake ponytail that they swap on and off. There's no way we could do it otherwise. Are you wearing fake hair today, Jeremy? No, I'm not. it's all my real hair still.

Okay, pulling his hair for me, please, darling. I need to know. Is that real? Definitely real. Lots of hair spray, so it doesn't feel real, but. So, Jeremy, I'll pass the mic to you. You are the official historian of the Toronto Mike podcast, and you wanted to, I almost said kick out the history. I'm not sure that I do want to kick out the history,

but I also didn't really describe everything that Starlett does. Yeah, yeah, I should. Shut up. I just wanted to talk about her hair for 20 minutes. She is a producer. She produces these stage shows. She also is an artist, a model. She's also the dancer for Mark Malibu in the Wasegas.

I see her often out there at car shows doing her thing. And when I think I'm having it bad sweating away in a suit, she's up there on stage sweating away in the summertime. On the pavement. But she's a bit of a Swiss army knife of a performer. And just has so many. That's my new tagline. So many talents under her belt.

I work for a German software company. for years. And these Germans I worked with were kind of crazy. Okay. And there was this one guy, Detliff, right? So he was the lead crazy.

And I remember one day, he was, he came to Toronto for a visit because I worked remotely from here. And we were having a walk. And he says, Michael, I guess I could do a German.

Michael, he goes, I know the Germans are crazy. He says, I think they're crazy too. He goes, and remember Michael, I'm Swiss?

Like, was a huge differentiator that he was letting me know he's also not German and he thinks the Germans are crazy because he's not German. He's Swiss. You said Swiss Army Knife and I thought I'd share my little. I just remember saying, remember Michael, I am Swiss. Thank you, Detlef. Sweet. All Detlifts are German, okay? I don't care if you were born in Switzerland. I never heard that name before. Oh, Detleff is like a big German name. Wow. I also never heard it before. It's like Helmet and Wolfgang. These are names you don't encounter. in any other culture. There's no Irishman named Helmut.

That's true. My first boyfriend actually was named that helmet. He was German. Yeah, he was German. Had to be. But he went by Manny for some reason. I don't know why. Because they called him Helmut Head.

Yeah, probably. There's probably some serious reason why that was not the thing there. All right, back to you, Jeremy. Enough of my tangents. We're here to learn about the history of burlesque and strip clubs in Toronto, and it sounds like you've delivered a grade A guest. Starlet is here to help me out with some of the more modern history and also the hands-on. So that's, yeah, we'll dive in.

And speaking of diving in, it's worth noting that Starlet has already dove into a Great Lakes beer. Which one did you crack? Well, I cracked this one, but then I was like, when you guys told me I was supposed to crack it on camera, I was like, maybe I'm going to double fist on this podcast. Well, Jeremy was supposed to advise you. We don't crack beer on this show until we're recording. I'll crack another. Well, you could drink both.

Yeah. I'm a taste tester today. Can I crack for both of us? Yeah, so what are you drinking there, Jeremy? I'm having one of the Sunnyside IPAs that we highlighted in the Sunnyside episode of Toronto. Let me hear it. On the mic. Oh, yeah, right here.

Also, on April Fool's Day. Yes. Well, it was actually Friday when I did it, but I played chalk circles April Fool, right? That video is filmed at the Sunnyside Pavilion. Yes, yes. Amazing. It's all amazing. It's a good song, too.

Two. Great song. Shout out to all the Chris Tates. All of them. Okay, so Jeremy, I'm going to play by play here quickly. We're going to dive into the history of burlesque and strip clubs in Toronto. But you're drinking the sunny side session IPA. What are you drinking, Starlet?

I've got the premium light logger here, which looks amazing. Yeah, the light logger is a popular choice. Enjoy. Slurp on the camera. Do it. Like, hmm, so tasty. So fresh. What's that called?

A-S-M-R? Yeah. Could be another career for you if you're looking to divers. satisfy. So I will send you home. Yeah, you're both choosing beers that are not particularly high in alcohol. So you will make it through this episode without slurring your speech. I want to get some historical facts right. And I just want to let Starlett know because she's now an FOTM, friend of Toronto, Mike. I want to let Starlet know that she will go home with some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. And do you enjoy Italian food? Of course. That would be a crazy

question. Has anyone ever said no to that? I'm trying to think. I don't think so. And do you want know the person. It's like asking someone, do you like music? And they're like, no, I don't like music. Yeah. Get the hell out of my basement. That's what I'd say. So Starlett, I have in my freezer upstairs a large frozen lasagna sent here by Palma Pasta. Palma Pasta makes delicious, authentic Italian food. And you're going to love that lasagna. I can't wait. I didn't even know that this was going to be a thing that I'd be bringing home any treasures at all. Jeremy did this. Poor job of preparing you for this. Didn't tell her to crack it on the mic? I like being surprised. We have some surprises. Okay. Well, well,

One last one, and then we're going to pass the mic for real. Right on. I really will shut up until I get curious and I ask questions. But Ridley Funeral Home, Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home, is it going to be here at 5 o'clock to record a fresh episode of his podcast, Life's Undertaking? But he sent over, so there's two varieties of this right now. Jeremy, I know you have a green one already.

That is a measuring tape for you, Starlet. Perfect. I can only imagine that in your world. I need these all the time. Yeah, in your world, you have things you have to measure. Even when I'm out thrifting, I've, I, I don't have one that actually rolls into itself. So this is, I love the idea.

I get to take this home with me? Yes. Oh my God. I'm so spoiled right now. She'll be buying a dress, some vintage dress she's found or something. Well, I buy a lot of dead people's clothing. So this is actually really ironic and fun to me.

You know what? There might be a partnership. Ridley Funeral Home and Starlet. Well, there you go. Buying Dead People's clothes. Starlet's a ticket. Vintage. That's another industry that Starlet started up.

A bit of a jack of all trades. Okay. So during this episode where we learned about the history of burlesque and strip clubs. We will also learn about Starlett because I also did a little homework and I learned there's more than meets the eye with Starlet Satin.

All right, so let's go, Jeremy. We love these quarterly episodes. It's always a pleasure to see you and your hat. Thank you, sir. So we'll dive right into the history of burlesque in Toronto. Burlesque, like Starlett and I were talking about earlier a little bit, has a long history far before it gets to Toronto. It starts,

and they think Greece, ancient Greece, and with satire. And people like a man named Aristophanes who worked in Sapphire. What's that man's name? Aristophanes? Oh yeah, I knew an Aristophanes. It wasn't German. He used satire, parody, wordplay in a lot of these plays that he had. And they all had sort of a risque humor to them.

So that's sort of the beginning of burlesque where you're making fun of the government. you're making fun of just situations that are happening. And it's kind of a comedy show of sorts. And eventually the word burlesque actually comes sort of loan from the French, derives from the Italian burlesco, which starts from the Italian burla, which is a joke, ridicule, or mockery. So it starts off with a lot of humor and a lot of mockery,

but then eventually burlesque changes over time and becomes what we know it today. Interesting. I think that name you said, wasn't he at one point the Italian prime minister? Berskoloni? What did you say? Aristophanes? No, no, no, you're talking about burlesco. Yeah, yeah.

All right, so fascinating. Okay, burlesque. I didn't really consider the parody aspect, the mockery, as you said. Yeah, yeah. Not the Colin mockery, but the mockery. Yeah, very much starts with sort of the working class, making fun of the upper class and also the government. and so it's a lot of like a, I guess it's like an old SCTV and S&L you're making fun of different situations.

Well, I understand Lauren Michaels started both. Yeah, yeah, he did. And he had a hand in kids in the hall too. That's for sure. It's actually really interesting too because a lot of people assume that burlesque nowadays is like the movie with Cher and Christina Gallera or it's like high glamour, like Dita Vontes is like on the forefront of like the being the queen of the Breast. burlese scene and she kind of brought it back from the underground, but there's still so much like variety in burlesque and it can be whatever you want it to be. So I think that's what makes it really special because there is still a lot of satire. There's still a lot of political form. There's still

a lot of different types of like themes that go into it. You have a lot of neo burlesque that happens, but then you can still see people touching into like the classic bump and grind glamour burles. So there's like an array of like different like pieces. to it and it's not just one little piece of the puzzle that you see on like a regular day. I agree. All right. Pick it up Jay O'Holl because not only are we getting learned the history of burlesque and strip clubs in Toronto, but it's very important to be at some point we do get the history of Sterlet.

Oh, for sure. Yeah. Whenever you want to break away and do that, you can't. No, you need the way here. You lead the way. Okay. We're getting into a little more ancient history in the 18th century. Okay.

It makes its way over here to North America through the states around Boston area and just spreads from there as transit improves and railroads are built. A circuit develops where all these theaters that are around North America are visited by burlesque companies and they'll have a traveling show going to these different places. Am I allowed to ask dumb questions along the way?

Because I think if I have dumb questions, the listeners might have similar. Okay, so my question is really, it's one you probably get a lot, But so at this time you're talking about like like where's the line in terms of modesty laws? Like I always, burlesque, as far as I can tell, burlesque doesn't have actual nudity. Yes. And in certain places on a rare occasion it did.

But here in Toronto, we'll touch on that even more about a lot of the strange laws and some of the laws that persisted. Because I have seen video and I'll see it like it'll be like a pasty with like a tassel, I want to call it. And it's like, oh, they're just covered, they're ariola. I see their areiola. We still do that today. Like there's still legality laws around like if a bar is selling alcohol and how much you can take off and every province has like a different like rules and regulations that you have to kind of follow and you know, strip club regulations are really hard to like get around these days too.

So like burlescan and stripping kind of come hand in hand. There's like an umbrella of things. So there's always going to like be that. And then there's also like the past history of how burlesque was and why that was like the like kind of the OG stripping of back in the day and that kind of thing too. But that those pasties I saw right that are covering the ariola. Like like how vital are they like if it's removed now you've crossed a line where it's no longer burlesque? It's like some kind of a. Yeah, you had like the top list that you know the dancers back in like the 60s and stuff. So like I'm sure Jeremy has probably done a little bit of research into that.

but even nowadays, like, I could get in a lot of trouble if I'm, you know, because I dance on the bar top at Painted Lady on Ozington, and we are allowed to go down to like a G string and pastees, but anywhere past that, if a bylaw officer walked in, it could be like a complete catastrophe. They could lose their, like, liquor license. Licker license, there's big fines that can be involved. I know back in, like, maybe like, I guess it would be around 10 years now,

probably, maybe even a little bit longer. Some of the girls were, I think, in Hamilton. I don't want to get the facts wrong, so I'm not going to like touch too hard. They're in the hammer. I had a couple burlesque girlfriends of mine that were out doing a show and just a crappy bylaw officer had walked in and gave them shit for it. And they actually ended up going to court and having to fight this whole like thing. So it still happens to this day where, you know, and it's rare that it does happen. Usually everything is in especially where we are here in like Toronto and stuff.

It's a little bit like not so conservative in that sense. But yeah, there is definitely points in the, in our, even where I'm at nowadays, that we still fight for like, you know, our rights to be even just like taking our clothes off in a space, even though we're not getting naked and stuff like that. Okay, interesting. I'll try to keep the tangents to a minimal. I know those are famous words. So we're still in ancient history, but we're going to get it to Toronto.

We're getting into the 20th century now. and it came over from England and started becoming very popular over here as well. Also, at the same time is this word that sort of gets batted around called vaudeville. And vaudeville is a little more of, they claim it's a cleaner version of burlesque. Burlesque is for the working man, the single guy that wants to have a good time. And vaudeville is the clean house where, you know, we don't have swearing, we don't have drinking, we don't have a lot of the things. So it's the more conservative side of it.

And so at that time, burlesque and vaudeville are kind of competing, but also a lot of the vaudeville performers who are fine and upstanding are also getting other stage names and sneaking into the vaudeville or into the burlesque houses and also performing under pseudonyms and just to get more work because they need work, they need money. Makes sense. A lot of that's happening. And a lot of eventual stars that we know today,

well, that are a little bit of older stars, got their start off in vaudeville and also in burlesque, like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, all these guys. A lot of them had burlesque or vaudeville families. Like maybe a George Burns? Is it Burns and Allen? Yes, George Burns, Milton Burrell came up here as a vaudeville. I heard he's hung like a horse.

He's hung like a horse, yeah, and he used to be at the Elgin and Winter Garden all the time. And when they restored the Elgin and Winter Garden, he actually came back and visited and made a lot of press about trying to get this place revitalized. Okay. They nicknamed him the trouser snake. Or the tripod, I don't forget. I don't know. Working blue today.

We're going to put a trigger warning. We've got some blu-lars, yeah. Okay, so it's funny how the North American Gateway seems to be Boston. Why am I not surprised? I don't know, because it's a harbor city. It's attracting a lot of things from overseas, and that's one of the first places it'll touch down. So there you go.

All right. I feel like New Orleans, too. was very much in that realm. My boyfriend actually was just on a trip in New Orleans and he was sending me all sorts of like the history of like the working girls from back in those days and stuff. They were all being like imported from like France and stuff. Well, they know how to have a good time in New Orleans.

Definitely, definitely. And that's, yeah, that's another place where yes, for sure. The French influence would make sense. That was the Louisiana purchase. Yeah, Napoleon. Definitely. One of the last vestiges of, French people where they were where they were there and then yeah 100% yeah and Acadia I'm trying

Cajun and Acadia have like the same root and that's why you have that that French colony in New Brunswick with a semi-creole I guess up there too as well yeah okay we're learning a lot today right Starlett's learning too I am actually well Jeho what I like I mean I'm supposed to step back and listen but I'm so engaged I find that I find this history fascinating we haven't even really got to Toronto yeah oh yeah it's it's just sort of touching on on how it gets here, I guess. So, let's see here. I do have a couple notes, just to keep me in track.

You didn't memorize this? Do you think I'm going to have notes at the alma combo? I think you might. And soon we will talk about the alma combo because our guest is performing at the alma combo. I do that a few times here and there. Okay, but you have an upcoming date. Yes, but it's a totally different, not vintage theme.

What is it? It's email at the Elmo, so it's all different like early Newton. It's still vintage technically, I guess, but yeah, early 2000s, like, nostalgia. You're going way back. You're going way back. We went from the 1930s, and then we jumped straight back up into the 2000s.

What date is this happening? October 2nd. Oh, October 2nd. Yeah. We are talking about doing the Odd Fellows Cabaret again, but that'll be a later date. Is that the video I watched, Jeremy? One of the videos.

Yeah, the Odd Fellows are the band behind them playing the whole time. Okay. Okay. Back to you, Mr. Duhn. Okay. No problem. So a lot of the vaudeville and burlesque,

we were talking about them competing, and they're also doing that here in Toronto. There's a few theaters like the casino theater on Queen Street. It opened up in the 1930s. It's a vaudeville theater. There was also the Broadway theater. I'm just going to name drop a few theaters. Let's remember some theaters.

Nostalgia, eh? Yeah, exactly. Do you know when these theaters disappeared? Do you have that intel? I do have that intel. It's going to come up. I've got a little chronological order. I'm eager. I'm chomping at the bit here.

Let's see. Eventually, let's see. You have the casino and also the lux. And the lux was one of the major ones where a lot of the burlesque performers were going on. Where was the Lux? It was on college very close to, you know where there's that fire hall there that has a very tall tower? West of Spadina. Yeah, well, yeah, I do bite college a lot.

So I just have to think of that town. Oh, I forget the name of the street. there. I do have it in my notes here somewhere, but originally that theater was called something else, but it's been torn down since then, but it was on college just west of Spadina and not too far. Okay. So another thing I wanted to talk about was in the, well, a lot of, we were saying before how a lot of these stars come out of vaudeville and

go into the silent, you know, the silent screen at the beginning, and then movies take over and eventually vaudeville fades because a lot of the stars that were in vaudeville that did well have now migrated into motion pictures and the ones eventually when the talkies come along who actually couldn't speak very well a lot of them got pushed by the wayside as well. It sounds like you're saying video killed the vaudeville star. Yes. It did. And then you have radio coming along and it also pushes a lot of those stars away and yeah.

And then it's just a progression of the way that these artists are working. Some can adapt, like you were saying before, George Burns and Gracie Allen, they just keep rolling with the punches. Say good night, Gracie. They go from radio to TV with no problem at all, but then, yeah, a lot of stars couldn't make the transition. But you'll see a lot of that even in some of the movies that you watch, where they talk about that. Interesting. So in Toronto here, we have Brelask in vaudeville. Vodville starting to die out.

but somehow burlesque just keeps holding on. It fades away, but it's never quite gone. And in 1941, this theater called the Strand Theater on Spadina, it's probably one of the main theaters. And it's originally a Yiddish language theater on Spadina because that whole area was a Jewish area for a number of years when it was the Garment District. So they opened this theater to entertain a lot of the Yiddish-speaking people.

Eventually, they move on, and in 1941, this becomes the Victory Burlesque Theater. And it's at Spadina and Dundas. So the mayor actually reopens the theater as the victory during that time as sort of a motivator to get people to get out and go to these venues. Who was the mayor at that time? Do you know? I think it was Conboy.

Mayor Conboy. And, yeah, it was big news in the newspapers. Okay. So a lot of the burlese performers, it's probably one of the best performers, it's probably one of the best known in Toronto. So Vodville fades away. Oh, yeah. Burlesque.

No, I'm just revisiting that point because my guttural instinct there is that, oh, working dudes like to look at ladies. There's that, yeah, there's quite a bit of that. That's not going to fade away. During the war. It will never fade away, honestly. During the war, well, the thing is, with the burlesque, it was just like Starlett was saying.

It's a mix. It's still a mix of everything. not just the ladies. There's also people doing funny things like back in the early days when you would have some performers. I don't know. Have you watched the movie, the Peter Jackson movie, the King Kong version or the version that he did?

You know what? Jack Black's in this, right? Yes. Okay. I definitely tried to watch it and I found it very long and slow and I did not complete that task. Well, if you ever see that, at the very beginning of that, there's this good rendition of Faye's character just going through burlesque and she's.

showing you what burlesque and vaudeville was like back in the day, where you'd have one character who was just, he's good at sneezing. And that was his whole stage act. He'd just come up and do this funny sneeze. Coincidentally, that's my Helma Combo performance. I'm going to sneeze for 90 minutes.

And then there'd be somebody up that would be good at acrobatics or like a dancing duo. And it was sort of an early variety show where you could see a lot of these things. And burlesks still held on to a lot of those things, depending on where you went. Or what venue you went to. But I can see guys there like,

Like, okay, this sneezing is great. Can we get to the ladies? Yes. And then that's when in Toronto during the 70s, you have a lot of strip clubs opening up where it's strictly just strip. Yeah, we're going to cut out the bullshit. And you don't have to sit through this guy sneezing

to get to the women. We're just going to give you the women. Yeah. So that's where, because vaudeville wasn't around anymore for the families, it wasn't there to support those actors. A lot of them fell by the wayside. And then, yeah, you have the competition now between strip clubs and burles.

but by the 1950s, a lot of people start to get nostalgia for that art form and that they remember from when they were kids. So you have people sort of pining away for the good old days or those days where they tried to sneak into the burlesque house back in the day. Like the Maison Dierre. When Bart, right? Yeah.

You're all trying to sneak in there. Exactly, yeah. Someone got that reference. Charlotte's like, do I know the Mazon Dereer. It's Simpsons, I assume. I like the scene where Abe walks in and then walks out when he sees his grandson. Like that scene where he just sort of revolves out. He's like, he takes off his hat, puts it on, gets out.

Makes it be lying for the door. Yep. Great episode. Here is the, I brought a few cards this time like I used to back in the day. Well, I'm going to make sure it's on camera. Yeah, okay. So now, yeah, that's beautiful. What are we looking at here, Jayho?

So I will tell the listeners, though, who are like walking their dog or biking or working out or whatever. I am recording video, Emma? Yes, I am. So you can not only can you. see this, what I now found out is a fake piece of hair on top of Starlet, which is the mind bull of the day. That hat's not fake, is it? No, it's very real. Good. Okay. But you can also see photos that Jayho is holding right now. So what are we looking at here, Jeremy? This is

the Victory burlesque on Spadina at Dundas. And it's still there today, but it's just sort of being poorly used as a commercial building. And also there's a pharmacy on the main floor. That feels very classic Toronto to me. Let me guess. It's a shopper's drug mart. No, it's a Rexall, I think. That was my second guy. Basically the same thing. So apparently the theater still exists inside this structure.

And around 2015, the person who ran this nightclub in there called the Boa nightclub, he was intending on restoring this just before the pandemic hit. And I think those plans fell through. But apparently he signed a 10-year lease back then, or 10 or 20, So apparently he's still in there. Maybe he will try to do it one day. Observation, Mr. Hopkins. So even in this photo you're holding, which is, when's that from the 50s?

This is from 1972. 72. Okay. If there's a goal that everyone remembers, it was back in all 72. But even then, there's a pharmacy on the, that's a pharmacy. What is that called? Shapiro's drugs. A lot of these theaters were built with two little shops in the front.

So sometimes you'd have a concession or a diner, something like that. or something associated with the theater. And performing, I see, is Pussy Willow. Yes. How many burlesque dancers are named Pussy Willow? I don't think I've met anybody named Pussy Willow, but I feel like there is a lot of variety of strange names you'll see in the industry. I'll bet, okay.

And for the record, your name, Starlet, is your real name. Is my real name? Because that's a mind-blow to. I don't tell anybody that. No, I'm just kidding. It's fine. I was born with a good stripper name. What can I say?

Yeah, well, you had no choice. You were named Starlet. You could either be a burlesque dancer or a stripper. Yeah. Or both. That was my life aspirations when I was nine. Okay, wait. I can't wait.

We're going to finish this because this is the history. So you have to eat your vegetables before you get to dessert. Right on, okay. So learn up, everybody. And then we'll find out more of Starlid's history. And here's a little photo from the exit at the victory burlesque where someone is talking with one of the dancers. And is he making eye contact? It looks like he.

Might be, but it's hard to tell. It's inconclusive, but we will point out for those who can't see that those, I mentioned earlier the, what are that the proper name for the tassels and the... Just nipple tassels or pasties. Okay, pasties, right. Yeah. So this woman is wearing the pasties. Yes, yes. And the tassels on the pasties.

Okay. So by law, you have to wear. This is a dumb question, too, but do they deem nudity that we can see ariola? Apparently. Like, if you cover your ariola, like the whole breast could be exposed, but if we cover that, ariola, this is not nudity. It doesn't count. And you know, it's crazy because we do have a lot of men

in burlesque. It's called boylisque, which is a thing. And we strongly encourage the men to wear pasties too in solidarity with women not being able to show their areola on. Yeah, right, because in public, in public, they got rid of the law that woman can't be topless.

Did they get rid of that? Yeah, like in the 90s. Gwen Jacobs maybe was big. There was absolutely, they decided, okay, women can be topless. And not a lot of people, not a lot of people went for it, though. You sound disappointed, Jeremy.

They just didn't want to. I'm like, really? I mean, because, you know, it's a dangerous thing out there at being a woman in the world, you know? Yeah, things can fly around and, yeah. But they have the right, they have the right, but this is, we're not talking public property here.

Here we're talking about these are private institutions, I guess. Well, there's a different bylaw. Toronto, Toronto has been very conservative for years with bylaws and blue laws. that they would call them where you really couldn't do a lot of that. But yeah, I think that did get repealed if you're talking about it. I remember this.

I think the name's Gwen Jacobs. Like I can Google it later. But I remember the case and the decision that because it wasn't, it wasn't fair. It was sexist because a man could be topless in public and a woman couldn't be. So it's just, I find this fact that if we just cover in this example of that woman at the victory, what was it called? Yeah, that was the victory, Burlesque. Yeah. Like as long as we cover the aerial.

you're not topless. Yeah. It just, it doesn't make sense to a point. They, I guess they're thinking of erogenous zones. Those are the areas where they wanted to cover up. So, you know, men couldn't go pantsless. Women couldn't go topless because that's a sexual nature,

part of the body, I guess. What I love about, like the nipple tassels are that they, they somehow took the, you know, coverage and the censorship and made it into something that was kind of fun, which goes back to like burlesque being like a satire or like a fun thing or a funny thing or like comedy because we tassels twirl all the time. And you can twirl the tassels as I saw on the video. That's what I do every weekend.

I'm a professional tassel twirler, which is a crazy job. But yeah, there's like so many different ways to tassel twirl and it can be really silly and fun. And there's like a strategy and a strategic way of spinning tassels. but it's actually really fun and it just is a way that people made that censorship into something that was like entertaining. Good point. So a lot of the reports that I did find on people being caught by bylaw as far as like the victory and a few other places, a lot of times the owners of the businesses were fired, but the strippers

themselves, a lot of times the judges just threw out the charges. And in Canada, we were fairly lenient with that sort of thing because a lot of the police men and a lot of the enforcement agents weren't, we're probably going to those shows. And really, they were like, really, oh. You were working there. That's the, uh, Mayor Quimby. You were working there.

The women back in those days made a ton of money. Like I know in like the 50s and 60s, especially a lot of those women were very high paid. And so some of that censorship there, some people will argue is that, you know, those women were getting paid so well that they didn't want them to have that independence, right? So there's some of that too. Like it turns into like, well, we can't have these women be empowered in their own financial security. Like they need to, you know, follow the masses and

stuff. So that was a lot of it too, I think. That's so sad too because after World War I and World War II, there's the return to work for a lot of the women that took over the jobs that the men did and they did it just as well or better. And it, I could see that happening just what you're saying, where they're trying to push that back down again. And let's return to how. things were before and and yeah. Well, they got rid of a league of their own after World War II. They got rid of a league of their own. Yeah.

We're only starting up another one now. A really great documentary for anybody that's listening and watching is Carol Adoda, Topless at the Condor. It's not, I don't think it's Canadian-based or maybe it is, but it bases off of Carol Dota who was one of the like first topless dancers that was like really famous. And there is a plerethora of history. and like them talking about the plastic surgery that those girls were doing back then, the clubs that they danced in, how much money they were making,

the celebrities that they were like sleeping with and like going around with and stuff like that. It's a really cool documentary and it's full of history. Yeah. Full of history. It's a really good documentary. We got to do the opening for the premiere for the movie and we actually got to go a few, myself and a few friends of mine got to perform at Silver City. in the cinema and like our and we got to actually go out tassels and everything and like it felt it felt

illegal to be taking your clothes off in a cinema like that but yeah okay another dumb question what's a fixing what exactly affixes the pasty to your breasts it is a double-sided stick tape so like a fashion tape some people use carpet tape which is really intense or you can use a spirit gum there's all sorts of different ways but i have a i have a wig tape it's a tope tape technically that i use it is like really hard to find and only one person in the city sells it. And I feel like I'm doing a drug deal every time I have to buy it. I literally have to message her and be like, I'm running low. Can you get me this?

That's funny. Yeah. It's actually, you know, you can get it from like shopper's drug mart and stuff, but that stuff doesn't work if you're like a real professional. Well, you're moving around, right? Yeah. And you're sweating too. I'm guessing you're trying to avoid malfunctions.

Yeah. Well, that does happen sometimes. Just hope that. Just hoping no nosy bylaw officers not there when it happens. It has happened. You know, like, you'll lose a tassel and you're like, oops, you can't cover up, you know? Like, uh-oh. Oh, boy.

But you learn how to work around it. You just get really crafty at coverage and being cheeky about it. I love the fact that there's one vendor for this special tape she needs. In Toronto specifically, yeah. You know what you're on the, you're on the verge of like when Elaine Benis deemed guys spongeworthy, right? She bought up all the sponges. You couldn't buy them anymore. So are you spongeworthy or not?

It's going to be like, is this tapeworthy? You got a message Tanya. She's like, I'm name dropping her, but she's one of the original, like, burlese performers who actually brought burlese back here in Toronto from the underground. She'd back in, like, the early 90s and stuff, she's like really punk rock. And shout out to Pussy Whip Wednesdays. It's one of the longest running, like, grungy, like, glitter and grime bar shows that's happened. And it's been over 11 years now that they've been doing it. But Tanya Cheeks is the one who was taught how to fire tassel.

She actually lights her boobs on fire. Tassel twirls with fire. Sounds dangerous. I got to check the fire code. Satan's Angel actually taught her how to do it. So there's actually like a rich history of burlesque here in the city. And Tanya is one of the people that was on the forefront of bringing it back from the other ground. Tanya Cheeks.

Yeah. And that's also her real name, Cheeks. Probably, yeah. Probably not. Okay. Pick it up here. Remind, reminder to you that I have a song. Oh, yeah.

Tell me when it's appropriate. I figured when we hit like 1950 something. Yeah, well, we are in the 50s now. All right, so let me do this. I didn't even finish this thought earlier with the shoutout to Ridley Funeral Home. So I just, Jeremy, you have another, you also have a measuring tape,

but it's also got a bottle opener there and it's got a flashlight. And if Starlet is looking at it with stars in her eyes, I could probably score you one as well. I think you're worthy of one. So I'm going to get you one. But that's a new one because I know you have so many.

I've been waiting to get this. I've seen Cam and Tyler had one earlier and I was just like, wow, that thing's cool. As I say this out loud, I realize Brad Jones would want Starlet. So you have to pull out this thing. You have to pull out. No, where is it? This plastic thing, you pull it out.

And that makes the flashlight work. That way the battery doesn't run down. So Jeho, that's for you. Thank you, sir. And I want to just let... What does this thing do? Well, one of them is a level. Okay. Well, there's a level. Oh, there's a tape. There's a measuring tape.

There's a flashlight, and there's a bottle opener. Everything. See, oh, she's blind. Oh, no. She's blinded herself. By the light. I can't see it. Wow. I felt like that's like a full spotlight.

You can listen to Life's Undertaking from Brad Jones, but I just wanted to tell everybody that Nick Iienes has a great podcast called Building Toronto Skyline, and we just did a live recording in front of enthusiastic Brad Bradford supporters. I was there. I felt like I was an embedded journalist. I have Ed Keenan over here at 2 p.m. today. I feel like this is relevant, like, because the official campaigning doesn't start until May 1st, but nobody has said they're running for mayor yet except Brad Bradford.

Even Olivia has not officially said she's running for mayor. I think Starlett should run for mayor of Toronto. Yeah. Have you considered it? What does it cost, Jeremy? Do you know what it costs to get on the ballot? It can't be that expensive. I don't.

I haven't looked into it yet. I'm sorry. Maybe we'll do a go fund meet, pay for you to be on the ballot, and just to get you in the debates. If I were mayor, everybody would be allowed to be naked and there'd be no censorship. Okay. That's my campaign. Well, we're already allowed to be topless. So that one month in Canada where we can be outside.

Yeah, we don't have freezing. Maybe this isn't the best strategy. That week in July. That's why I'm not there. This is why I'm not in politics. So recycle myelectronics. That's where you go if you have old electronics, old cables, old devices. You don't throw that in the garbage.

Those chemicals will end up in our landfill. And that's no good. You go to recycle my electronics. com. Put in your postal code and find out where you can drop off your cables, your electronics, your devices. And that's what you're going to do. Back to you, Jay,

I know you got more images there. You tell me, you just say, I'm ready for the jam, and then I'll play it. Okay, right on. Well, before we get to the 50s, I should mention this lady today. This is an ad from the Elgin and Winter Garden Theater back when it had a movie theater on the main floor and no, vaudeville on the upstairs. So they're showing a Mary Pickford movie through the back door here, and you can see there's also a high-class vaudeville program as well. Not burles, because it's high-class. I didn't even know that the blue collar were into the burlesque and the upper crust were into the vaudeville.

Yeah, and I think over time it kept changing. So that's what made it really hard to research because it was like, okay, is it burlesque? Is it vaudeville? Is it just performance? Is it? Because it just kept evolving and changing over the years and some would borrow from each other. And so it was very close to being like each other. But it's actually Mary Pickford's birthday today.

And a Mary Pickford is is Canadian, right? And she's Canadian. She was called America Sweetheart, very big star of the silent film era, and also a very liberated woman who goes on to found famous players

with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, and she just becomes a powerhouse in the movie world down in the States. But every once in a while, she came back to Toronto to visit her old home on University Avenue, which is right where sick kids is today. And she donated that land eventually and raised some funds.

And they have a memorial to her on that spot today because that's her childhood home was there. I just learned something new there too. Yeah, that's a big deal. Mary Pickford, I know this name. I thought I'd mention her today, and this was a nice tie into the burlesque and ball. So I see a lot of these old posters. Typically they're for concerts. This is a movie called Through the Back Door.

Yes. Sounds like it could be a porno film. No, I think about it. It does. This is from 1921. Well, that's my mild peep is a lot of these posters, you'll find them. We have a whole episode of Toronto Mike about old posters, rock and roll. What was it, vinyl?

What's it called again? The vault? The vinyl vault? What's the name of that book that Daniel Tate and Rob Bowman put out? That is the Flyer Vault. Flyer, thank you. That word flyer would not hear in my head. But they always have, this one says, entire week of May 23.

You always get the date, but you never get. get the year because they purposely don't put the year on there. I guess they don't want to have it date. I mean, but it would be so nice for historical purposes. If somewhere they said May 23, I don't know, 19. What did you say? 21. 1921, yes. A lot of times the way you can identify it, though, is by the manufacturer at the bottom. Sometimes you can catch it through that. Oh, what is this? The antique road show? It can be if you want. This marking in the corner tells me, I'm like, okay, that's why you're here, buddy. By that font, they weren't using that font until 23.

You could find that out. Okay, fascinating. So I don't know if you've seen it, but on the back of the Elgin and Winter Garden, they've recently restored a wall painting that was there from the 1930s. And if you go around the back on Victoria, I think it's Victoria Street, you can see they've restored it, and it's really cool how this thing that would normally have just faded and been lost to time, they brought it back. And they're doing some really great work there.

And it would be really cool to see your show there one day. I hope you get on that stage. I have never been in that place, but like I've seen so much. much and it's one of like the last standing like double decker theaters. Yes, it's the only Edwardian double decker theater in the world. It's a national historic site. I hope they never get rid of that. It's so beautiful in there. That must be designated a historical building. It is. And the Ontario Heritage Trust runs it. They have a few sites around and that's one of their their main sites that they keep going and probably costs a million trillion dollars to rent it out.

It probably does. I can't imagine. Well, maybe my benefactor will rent it out and I'll do a dual show. It'd be my one-man show and we'll have starlit mirror. Are you going to burp on camera? Or sneeze on camera? It's sneezing. It was sneezing. He said burp on camera. I'm getting mixed up with another performer in Toronto.

Howard Stern? He burps on camera, doesn't he? But I had a guest who did burp on the mic when they were on their Toronto mic debut. And months later, I got an email from this guest, politely asking me to remove the episode because he doesn't think it makes him look at his best, that he was in this, like,

persona. Because he was chugging beer. And I was thinking, so my thoughts were, okay, so you were sober when you recorded. You knew exactly where you were and what was happening. But also, it was like 90 minutes of unedited content. Like, I think that just shows you. Yeah, it's real. Like, that's you, bro.

I just blinded myself with a flashlight, I'm sure. That's not cute. And again, we're going to do Jayho's history. And then we're going to get Starlit's history. Right on. And I want to just ask you, Jeremy, before you continue the photos there. and ask for this song. We were originally going to do this live at the Elma Combo.

Was that ever the plan? Or just to talk? It's a busy place over there. There was a plan, but yeah, it's a very busy place. And at one point, I was trying to get in contact with the person who was trying to restore that theater that I was telling you about the victory burlesque. And I didn't get in contact with him, but that would have been really cool to film in an abandoned theater. Or even at the Winter Garden, maybe. I feel like we were trying to do all these episodes.

We did the Casilloma one, which. Yeah, the Casilloma one, I loved it that it was on site. And this year, my goal was to try to do a lot more on site with you and get out there. And I do have some plan that are going well for the end of the year. Okay, I'll keep my fingers crossed here. Because this is actually, even though we're in the second quarter, this is your first quarter appearance. It is, yes. It's early April here.

Because of my finagling and trying to arrange all these things and also trying to get into a few places like Old City Hall, which didn't really pan out in the end. Maybe you're asking permission when maybe we should just show up with the gear, plug in and just go gorillas down. That is a lot more fun. And if you got kicked out, that would be the best thing that could happen to it. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Like the Beatles on the roof, you know, when the cops tried to shut them down, that's the highlight. You know, because I have actually been kicked out of places before like that. I tried to film a music video once in the church chapel of a cemetery. And we did really well, got a whole video filmed and everything, and then eventually we got kicked out, and then I got very stern phone calls from the cemetery saying you're making a mockery of our cemetery and this and that. And I'm like, no, we weren't making fun of anybody. This is actually, it was very much the setting of this somber video.

And no, they didn't like that. So the video kind of got trashed. They need permits. Like, they want you to pay for like a permit to film and like all that stuff too. Like a lot of even, you know, in Europe it's completely different, the rules. but here it's like you have to pay like $200 to ask for permission to shoot somewhere. Oh, yeah, yeah. I had to buy a permit to do wedding photos at the distillery district.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And I've done guerrilla photos at the distillery district before and didn't pay for it. We're going to put this because I don't want to waste any more Starlist time. But I do think there's something to, hey, this place, let's make the say the distillery district, if we can find an outlet that we can plug into, if I can plug this board into the outlet, we could just bike or get there, set up, record, and then just plead ignorance when they come. I don't know, they call the cops.

We'll be like, oh, I'm sorry, we were just trying to celebrate this wonderful piece of Toronto history. I have proof of evidence here. Right now? We're sorry we're here drinking our Great Lakes beer. We thought that was legal too. Yeah, old city hall wanted to charge me $1,500. No, we're not, no.

I'm going to just say it right now. I know, I know. The spirit of this show is we're not paying a penny to record. We'll either do it because Casilloma opened their doors to us and their sweethearts. Oh, they were great. They were so nice. Oh, you know, thank you to Midtown Gord for putting in a word. Just kidding.

But, or we're just going to go guerrilla style and do it, man. And that's going to be part of the story. And if we did five minutes and then we had to shut it down, that's part of the story. It's set up like one of those pirate radio stations on your bike. Or like we can get a tandem bike or something. We can go around. Get batteries and stuff so we can do a live stream. Okay, we'll talk more offline.

Okay. Okay. Back to the wonderful photos you've collected. Okay. Right on. So through the 40s, we have the golden age of striptease here through burlesque and people reminiscing. And the reminiscing becomes even more after people come back from the war. So in the 1950s, if you could play that clip eventually, that one clip there, this is sort of people reminiscing about that time period when burlesk and...

Hey, hey, hey, step right up. This is in their childhood. Burly, Burly, girly show. Step right up, no wait with the seats. The show is just about to stop. Hurry, hurry, hurry. This recording is dedicated to the vanishing art of burlesque. This album of Burlesk nostalgia is a tribute to the branch of show business

that discovered such stars as Fanny Price. Bert Larr, Abbotton Costello, Sophie Tucker, Bill Silvers, Red Buttons, Jackie Gleason, and many others. Okay, big names. Yeah. And now, step back with us in time and relive the memories, the laughter, and the pleasures of a visit to a burlesque show. So this is kind of a recreation of what they thought it was back in the day. So. Is this recording from 1955 or is it made to?

Yeah, this is from 1955, but they're kind of reminiscing how things were around 1910, 1915. So every once in a while you hear like an old-time horn. Well, I recognize Brian McFarlane's voice, so that all makes sense. That all adds up. I really want to see the funny men in the baggy pants. Gosh, they made me laugh. Well, I guess I got to admit a little bit that those nice, pretty girls helped me to forget

some of the cares and problems I had done it. There you go. The crux of it all is that exact right there. Those pretty girls help me forget the problems of the world. A lot of these guys are coming back from World War II, shell-shocked, and to come back home to some of the nice things, including women. And having a show like this could keep their minds off of things like that. And those names that were dropped earlier.

Well, let me hear. You don't mind. I'd like to sit up front. don't hear so well. Oh, they're getting ready to start. Very good, and I like we got the pops in there from the vinyl. They all sound like Cindy Lopper. Yeah, they do.

Kind of like the Pee's Playhouse intro. Yeah, exactly. Cindy Lopper. Come in, point yourself down a chair. Very good, Jeremy Hopkins. So let's give us sort of an insight into what they were reminiscing about in the 50s and why burlesque all of a sudden makes a huge, huge comeback towards the end of the 50s and into the 1960s to the point where there's a few documentaries like there's sort of a loose documentary based on what it had become called

stripperama that came out in 1953 to the point where even in if you see here on the camera in 1954 the the CNE even has on their midway a strip arama so there's you know the kids could go and wonder what was going on in there as well. Just like their father's had. Toronto history, like photos of burlesque. It's all of the stripperama on the, on the CNEs, like, photos. And, like, there's so many pictures of the girls and all the young kids.

Like, wow. And they're all, like, looking straight up. But if we were so Puritan, this Protestant ideal, the, you know, Blue Monday laws and all, the Blue Laws or whatever, Blue Monday's a whole, that's a new order song, okay? But how does that correlate to the fact? fact that you're at the C&E, which is a very family, these kids and families there, and you can go in to see the stripperama. How can we be so cool?

I am very surprised it was allowed to. You're sure that's not AI slop? No, this is not AISLOP. This is not from the fake vintage Toronto at all. His blood is boiling. Okay. But, yeah, it didn't last very little. Is that woman wearing an Apple watch? Hold on. Let me see here. No.

Okay, very cool. May I see this one? Yeah, you can see that one. Okay. Please continue. I'll listen while I check out. This is wild that at the C&E. And here, oh yeah, there I am. I was working there.

You see? Starlet, young Mike is there. Mike actually was on the midway for a couple years in the C&E. Three years. Oh, three. Yeah. 89, 90, 91, I believe, are the three years I was there. So this show was going to last.

It was very popular, but apparently was very expensive to run. So it didn't really last that long on the C&E. We're in our lives, even to nowadays. Nothing's changed. Scandalous. Okay. This is great these photos you brought. Yeah, that photo I got from the C&E archives when I worked there. I was looking up a lot of old stuff and saw this.

And it was the 50th anniversary of this. So it was 2004 when I got the photo and was trying to find stuff from 54. So next time they tell you Toronto was a stuffy place in the 50s, just say, okay, kids were going to strip a ramma at the C&E. Well, you see, it was still very stuffy in certain areas. and it was a fight when people came back from World War II. They had a lot more easygoing thoughts about life, and they wanted to be less conservative, and they did clash a lot.

So slowly over time, laws get pulled back, including the laws to do things on Sunday in Toronto, because it wasn't until like the late 19th century that you could even ride a street car on Sunday. And then I think here I got sports. You weren't allowed to have Sunday sports until 1950. and performances on Sundays and concerts weren't allowed until 1961. So there is still a lot of pushback and eventually things get chipped away.

The conservatism falls. And you have things like the very first burlesque on Sunday, which is this lady here, Cupcake Cassidy. She was born in... Also her birth name. I'm not sure. Born in New Jersey, so maybe. And she was the first. first one to perform here at the Lux Theater on College Street on Sunday, and it was big news

because everyone was like, oh my God, we're having a burlesque performance on a Sunday. Like, that's ridiculous in Toronto. Yeah. Yeah. We used to do sinful Sundays at Cherry Colas, too. So I guess that tradition had stuck around for a long time. And, you know, we still do some, I mean, cherry colas doesn't exist anymore in Toronto, but there's still Sunday burlesque. So at least that stuck around. Oh, amazing. Yeah. So you have. a lot of things appearing in the press about the explosion, about how everything is just crazy with burlesque again in the 1960s. That byline, it reads, let me see it.

Oh, sorry. It's okay. Toronto has the monopoly on strip tease theaters. Yes. Can you elaborate? Toronto had a number of them where a lot of even older movie theaters that were smaller were converted over to burlesque theaters. And still, though, the most popular out of all of them was the, the, the,

Bralaska on university. So, yeah, it's just, it's taking over again. You're telling me you couldn't see this in Montreal, for example. I always thought that was the cooler city that would be like ahead of us. I'm sure you could, but at this little slice of time, it is the most popular. Monopoly is a big word, so okay. Very good. And the last image I have here is another group that's at the Lux Theater, just some of the

performers on the ladder. And I use this for the little promo that I did for this episode. Which was great, by the way. Thank you. You always do a good job. Thank you so much. Okay. So, okay, so maybe bring us, so how far up will this history go? Will it bring us to the 90s, for example? It can,

which maybe Starlett will be taking over a little bit in that point. Maybe we'll bring us up to, we'll pass the baton, and then you and I will chat up Starlet and find out more about her life and times what she's up to. So as we were talking about before, the 70s come along and gentlemen's clubs and strip clubs come along because there are a lot of impatient people

that didn't want to see all the other stuff and all that other cool stuff that I... Get to the fireworks, back. Yeah, get to the fireworks. And yeah, it kind of took another hit where it just kind of went into the less popular areas where I'm sure some of the people in burlesque would eventually, you know,

if they were fine with having full news, would go into strip club work and that sort of thing. May I ask Starlett, was there a moral boundary? Would a typical burlesque dancer be, I don't know, offended or somehow like feel that stripping naked is beneath them? Like what was the thought from a burlesque dancer on strippers? Well, I feel like, I mean, coming from like a modern point, I've been doing burlesque now for, I guess, 14 years is something like that I'm aging myself um but uh when I first started

doing burles there was a lot of talk on like well at least we're not real strippers which nowadays you don't say that because you know first of all burlesque is the real time stripping from back in the day right and and like I said before the umbrella of like sex work and censorship and laws and everything like it's just a different type of taking your clothes off but we still get paid to take our clothes off, but it is very different. So anytime someone's like, well, at least you're in a real stripper, I always correct people and say like, no, like, because to be honest, a lot of actual girls who work in the strip industry are burlese performers. It's their creative outlet. It's like an extra form of income. And then other girls will, you know, everybody teeters and like has like done it or

not, well, not everybody, but there's definitely like a piece of people that, you know, go in and, dabble in both of the industries and stuff. So I don't think that there's like too much. Probably I would say if you don't do, you shouldn't do burlesque if you are against strippers, you know? Like, because it's very much like tied under the same umbrella. Yeah, well, one is just your music is Motley Crew. I mean, you can hear Motley Crew and Burlesque.

I've danced a little bit of that. So it depends, you know. I just think that music we, I think of, I did pull a song. here. And it's just a little bit of like a something I pulled when I knew you were coming over here. But like, Sarah Vaughan. Whatever Lola wants. Whatever Lola wants.

Lola gets. Okay. But I don't, my brain doesn't think of burlesque and like, I don't know, pour some sugar on me by Def Leopard. Like to me, pour some sugar on me by Def Leopard is what you'll hear at a strip club. There's a mixture of different, like I said, different styles of burlesque, right? Like a lot of the times burlesque is heavily themed or it has like different types of like entertainment value in it. So it depends on like what you're going to see and what kind of show

you're going to watch. Like if you're going to classic burlesque show, yeah, you're going to get that kind of like old school style bump and grind music. But there is like so many different styles that you can watch and see. So I think that's like the misconception and a lot of people in like the modern world see it and they like I said assume it's like the Christina Aguilera share movie burlesque and like we've had even in audiences points where people will come to a burles show

thinking they're going to get like a heels cabaret dance and then we end up like taking our clothes off and everybody's like whoa you know like they're just like completely like caught off guard which is kind of fun for us. this show. But you know what? The grandmas love it. I bet. Actually, they love it more than like some of the younger crowds do. And that's the thing too. A lot of people ask me are like what like, it's mostly just guys watching your show, right? I'm like no, actually. Like it's a an array of all sorts of people from different walks of life, different like genders, different ages. Like it's, um, what, yeah, it makes it just fun because it's never boring and there's never

just like a specific style of person that's coming to watch a burles show. Okay, we're going to get, Jayhose, you're going to take us home, and then we're going to change it to all Starlet the rest of the way. Well, sadly, it's the end of the Berlask era, really, when it, in the 70s, it just peters out. I'll tell that to Starlet. Well, sort of the end of that, sorry, of that high burlesque era in the 60s, and the 70s it tapers off, and it kind of goes into hiding again, but there's still people doing it here. Can I make an assumption?

I watched a great series on HBO many years ago called The Deuce, and it's really like a glimpse at what Times Square in New York was like before the cleanup, before the character clean, all the polishing and disnification of it all. And I really like the series. But I would guess that when you start getting porno movies in theaters, that that might take a chunk out of the burlesque audience. Oh, for sure, yes. That would also definitely take that.

And some of those theaters were converted into that type of, of theater as well, porno theaters, including there was one, I forget the name of it now, but it's a long bluer west that they've re, and I think you were on a film premiere at it recently,

but it recently. The paradise? Yeah, for a long time, that was a porno house, and it... Yeah, I was just there for Nash the Slash arises again. And it was revitalized a few years ago,

and it's beautiful now. I'm there on Saturday, because I'm going to see the people who were in the Ken Finkelman, including Ken. Ken Finkelman's the newsroom. are going to do a West End Phoenix event. And I've been trying to get Ken Finkelman

on Toronto Mike for a very long time. So I'm going to like bumrush the stage, tackle them, and basically just grab them by the collar. Ruff, say, Ken, you're coming into the basement. Yeah, well, good luck, man. I hope you do. What I'm doing, I don't need luck. You can do it.

But yeah, this is pre, pre, before, this is before the era where everybody had a VC, in their house. Yes, in the 1970s. And some adaptations happen. Like, you find out there's some places that are trying to adapt to this. And along Young Street, you could actually get your shoes polished by a nude woman in the 1970s towards the end there.

And I don't know how they got around the laws, but they sort of found a loophole. Inside? Inside. There's like a row of guys with a row of naked. But were they doing the pasties, tassels? No pasties. It was very strange. So it's weird how some of these laws happened, but they found a loophole.

But eventually that was squished as well. But then you also have just... See, they're going to go with that. I mean, this whole Puritan garbage. Like consenting adults, you can't get your shoes shine by a topless woman in this city. Like, where's the freedom in that? And as the years go by, the bylaws got stricter and stricter. And now, even now, they're still...

You find with a lot of these strip houses that are closing down, they can't open up again. because when they talk about opening up again, the bylaw in the area doesn't allow clubs where you can do that within a certain yardage of housing or public areas. Or schools. It's still like that today. It's like that. That's why it's almost impossible for new strip clubs to open

because they make it so hard. So at first I thought it was because they were denying the licenses, but it's just mainly because of zoning bylaws. And it's insane. like the filmers just recently closed. I saw that the painted page was there for the end, Paige Turner. She's been a stripper at film wars since, like, for at least 20 years.

Oh my God, wow. She's like one of the OG film wars, girls. Amazing. Yeah. So they're talking about reopening somewhere in Toronto. And it's really hard to do that. They're talking about it now, like, well, where are you going to go? That's interesting.

Apparently the only place that they could really do something like that was the C&E. because it was a big open space of land, but that's getting very rare in Toronto now. Also, Ford's going to take that over. And who knows, yeah, you could see. To be discussed with Ed Keenan at 2 o'clock. You want to stick around, Starlet? It's going to get really heated in here at 2 p.m.

Yeah, his macho man impression, you got to hear it. I love it. Okay. May we dive into the life and times of Starlet? Yeah, for sure. I don't want to, like, I honestly, I want you to, to finish. I don't want you to bring any material and not deliver it.

And I found all this very interesting. The final thing I just want to say was, but then you get towards the 2000s, and then there's another strong revival of burlesque. And that's, I guess, where... That's a good segue. That's where Starlet comes in because she knows a lot more about it than I do,

but there's a few things in Toronto that are established around that time that are still going today, like the Burlesque Festival every year at the end of the year. And there's a few... There's even one Canadian burlesque lady that's still around that area that is like a veteran and like a legend now and I forget her name now but I'll remember it when it comes to you spit it is I know that um like in the early 2000s like

I was mentioning like Tanya Cheeks was one of those people um there was a burlesque troop and I think it was like 2008 that really brought back it was skin tied out of sight and that was like a troop that came back and started doing shows and that was kind of like one of the revival um like groups that kind of brought it into the forefront again. Yeah, like Dita Vanty's, after she married Marilyn Manson, she was one of the people that really brought it back. And people started, like, paying it more attention. And that kind of gave everybody an excuse to kind of be interested in it again and then

make it a little more mainstream. And then, like, movies, like the burlesque movie and stuff came back. So, you know, that modern mainstream pop culture of stuff is, like, kind of was, like, had brought it, I think, into, like, the forefront again. And now, I mean, it never really went away, right? Like, there's always going to be something of some sort happening. And drag is also, like, very tied into burlesque and stuff like that as well. So there's all sorts of, like, things like that.

But, yeah, and it's just, I think it'll be something that lasts forever as long as we try for it. A rich part of our city's history. And I'm glad we're exploring it here. Well, thank you, J-Hoh, for the idea and for the great guest. But can we go back? Do you mind Starlett, if we go back to Sudbury, Ontario? Sure. Have you ever been to Sudbury, Ontario? I lived there for like 15 years, yeah.

Okay. We're going back there because you're more than just a burlesque performer. Like I was reading about your clothing shop and maybe tell us a little bit about, I guess this is vintage, but just tell us a little bit about your life and times in Sudbury and your decision to move here to the big smoke. Right. So I'm American originally. I grew up in Nevada. Get out of my basement. That was sorry. I didn't tell me. I'm sorry.

You never told me. Listen, it was three times before it was terrible. Also, you can't? I'm basically Canadian now. You have no control over where you're born. I was 14. Like, you didn't choose to be born in America. I've been here forever.

Yes, but, you know, that's kind of like where the rich history of like where the burless thing kind of started for me because my mom was a keynote runner in the casinos of Nevada. Like I grew up in Nevada. Okay, now the name Starlet makes more sense to me. Probably, yeah. connected to Nevada. Yeah.

So that's kind of where it started. My mom was American. My stepdad's a Canadian minor. They moved me to Subri, which was amazing because where I'm from is very hick American. And there would have been no way in any lifetime if I stayed there that I would have had the opportunities in the arts industry. So moving to Subbury was amazing because I actually got to go to an arts high school

and experience a lot of like dance and visual art and thing, which was always something I was interested in. but I didn't have that, like, networking. And so then eventually I went to college and I was doing animation, and I dropped out to become a burlesque performer because Subri Burlesque existed. And Sudry Burlesk is actually one of the biggest

burlesque troops in Canada now. It's very underrated. Nobody, unless you know, you know, but otherwise it's like... Well, now everybody knows. Everybody knows. But, yeah, it's a really high-end production, and the people running it are really professional and really fun, and it's very creative.

and it's really well done in that sense. But what drew you to, and I have a sense because you've dropped some clues along the way. I've been picking up these breadcrumbs. But you're fairly young, I guess. You're kind of just out of college, it sounds like, and you're going to be, like, I get your goals to work at Nelvana. No. I mean, I was always interested in, like, burlesque and vintage and stuff.

And when I discovered it, I was like, I have to do this. And so I don't know. But you were eyeing a career in animation. Yeah. And it's funny because there was one day I was at, like, a music festival in Subbury. and there was this Romanian hot dog stand man. This is like so random. He was like, are you one of the performers?

I was like, no, no, I'm just here to watch a friend. And he was like, well, what do you do? And I was like, oh, I'm taking animation. And he's like, no, no, no, you're not meant to be a basement dweller. Those were his words. And I remember it stuck with me because I was like, I do want to be on a stage. And at the time, the timing was that Sovere Burlesque had just created its first like couple shows and they were looking and they were doing open auditions and so I ended up auditioning

and the burlesque world led me to the movie industry and I worked in the movie industry for a while doing wardrobe and that led me into vintage by chance and I was always interested in that so that's where everything kind of snowballed into where I'm at now so yeah there's some missing links there did you work on any films we've heard of I worked on letter Kenny for a long time that's huge we have a good FOTM L Grego who's got the go-to it's called the produce stand it's all about Letterkenny

yeah I've heard it yeah I've heard of it you should be a guest on it that would be amazing we should get I mean I was only a background coordinator for wardrobe you know I know all the people and I've been in like I know all the Shoresy people and all those you know that crowd too so yeah it was a really fun time in my life

and that those people are actually what a big show I'm like oh did you do anything we've heard of and she drops letter came oh I worked for from second season all the way up until about 2018 and then I moved to Toronto and well I started my business my vintage clothing store and that really took me away from any sort of movie industry work that I could have done so okay so that's amazing you opened your own this is like a brick and mortar shop right so you just and by way if you quick question we'll get back to the vintage I need to know this a vintage story and then get you to Toronto but if your name was Sarah instead of Starlett are you still

dancing with the Sudbury Burlesque? If I was Sarah? Yeah, you're Sarah. Everything's the same except your name of Sarah. I would have a stage name. I would have a different stage name. I just wonder like if how, what role your name Starlet plays as a young person, you would be, I think you might be even drawn to performance of this nature simply because of your name. Yeah, I mean, it was never really some, all I ever heard my whole life was,

all my life I heard was, oh, your parents must have been hippies, which was not the case. my name origination came from me being named after a racehorse, which is not that exciting. Better than a greyhound. Yeah, it could be that. But I guess, like, you know, I don't know. I never really tied in to really anything that I find that you notice how some people seem to, like, you know, the good example is Tom Hanks had these two kids with a woman, Colin Hanks, and what's the other Hank's name?

We got to Google this when it's going to kill me. But one, I'm going to Google this because the name is what they became, like a Colin Hanks became a Colin, and here, we're doing a quick Google search in real time. My goodness. Okay. The name I'm searching for desperately is Chet. Okay? So you got Colin Hanks, and you have Chet Hanks, and Chet became a Chet.

He's a Chet. And Colin became a Colin. But, you know, Colin didn't become a Chet, and Chet didn't become a Colin. Like, it is an interesting thought on what role your name plays in where you go in your life. Well, it's interesting for me, because. as Starlet Satin became my burlesque name. My last name is obviously not Satin, but that came from the Malau Rouge.

I was always obsessed with that. And then from that point, I decided, you know, when I was open to my business business, I was like, what could I name my store? I went through so many different names. And really what it came down to is because everybody in Sabri already had known me as Starlet Satin, and that was kind of my brand.

It was the easiest way is just, oh, I'm just going to name it Starlet Satin vintage. And that was kind of what I stuck with. Now my whole, my persona, my real name, everything has been stuck in like the Starlet's a teen realm, which is great because it's a brand, but it keeps the pressure on me to not screw up my business. You know, because then your name is tarnished. So tell us more about the business. Like you open this brick and mortar clothing shop in Sudbury, vintage, right?

Tell us a little bit about opening it because you were still in your 20s. Like you're young to be opening your own business. In the 20s when I was opening it. I competed in a basically Subbury's version of Shurbanes. Shark Tank. They had this really amazing initiative called the Win this program. You say Dragon's Den on this program. What an American. Well, Shark Tank, I don't know, Dragon's Dan. Not much of a reality TV gal, but anyways, it was basically that. So it was called Win this Space, and it was an initiative to help bring young entrepreneurs into the downtown core, because a lot of times as like an independent artist,

you can't really, you know, get into the business world because you don't have the money and the funds. And so I ended up competing in the Win this Space contest. I won. It was, was the second round, which was amazing because I actually won like $49,000 worth of startup cost for my business, which included rent and internet and accounting. Why not 50? They said we can only do 49. I know, 49. It just came down to what was in the package because there was all these different things

that was sponsored by these different businesses and everything. So I won that and I was the first person to sell vintage in the city after 10 years. So they hadn't had a single vintage store in the city. And that was partially why I wanted to do. do it because as somebody who was really interested in like vintage glamour and burlesque and things, I was always trying to find clothing and I couldn't find it unless you were going to like value village or something and that sucked because it wasn't really great. And I'd all just like very felt kismet to me because I ended up meeting people that met like introduced me to other people and

then that kind of spiraled. And I started off doing like pop up sales in my house. Like my little tiny one like bachelor apartment. I'd have like my burlesque friends come over. I met this lady from Sue St. Marie who trusted me, which is crazy, because she didn't know me from, like, anybody. She just was like, yeah, I'm just going to bring you a van of clothes, and you can just sell it from your house, and you're going to take 25% cut. And it was like, not much at the time, but I was like, yeah, sign me up. Like, I'll do anything to get my hands on vintage in the city. Right. And so we started doing pop-up sales in my house, and then those turned into me doing pop-up sales in my friend's bar, because I knew somebody that had a bar. And then those

had, like, lineups around the block. And so then we decided, okay, we're going to do fashion shows, and I'm going to start doing bigger events. And then those spiraled. And I was collaborating with Subri Burles, which was really big. And it still is big. But at the time, it was, like, really taken off. And those things had just, like, brought me into that. And so when I was ready to, like, apply for that win-the-space contest,

I had all this backing of why it would be, like, a viable option. But then when we opened the store, COVID hit. Like, I had one year of business, and I had all these, like, things happen. My landlord claimed bankruptcy. Like, all these bad things were happening. And so, like, the business itself was so. successful, but then all of these things were like everything that had nothing to do with me, had everything to do with me.

I ended up having to close the store, not because I wasn't successful, but because of all of the external factors. Well, COVID messed up a lot of great business plans. I was already like coming back and forth to Toronto a lot too. Jayh, no, look at the pain of that man's eye. I lost two jobs because of COVID. Well, there was a big, VP will tell you, we had a very interesting big deal in play at a couple of places at TMDS when COVID hit.

So I feel your pain, brother. We all do, you know? So this is devastating for a bricks and mortar vintage shop. COVID-19. It was horrible, though, for that. So what do you do? I was actually kind of, in a sense, relieved because what I wasn't expecting when I opened my business was how much I was going to be glued to it and that I couldn't

leave and I didn't have the freedom anymore to, like, explore other options. And as somebody who's like always multi-functioning in different art forms, it was really hard. I was having to like sacrifice a lot. And so like I think there was like a little low key piece of me that was actually pretty thankful because at the time I was, I was seeing somebody here in Toronto. And so I was coming back and forth a lot during the pandemic and that was getting too much. And so that's a long way. It was a long time. Yeah.

A lot of a lot of, a lot of Northland bus trips back and forth. And. You must be a hell of a guy. Well, you know. But it's fine. There's a real story. But it's no. And it's really nothing actually.

But, you know, eventually I had jumped ship and I dropped my lease and then I moved to Toronto on a whim because a friend of mine was moving. And so she was like, you have, she said you have two days to figure out if you're coming to Toronto or else I'm giving the apartment to someone else. And it was just too good of a deal to pass up. And I was like, okay, I guess I'm just going to drop my world and just move to Toronto. And I could justify it for my career because I knew that when I got here that, you know, there was going to be a point where I was, you know, there's so many more opportunities. And I kept getting asked to come to Toronto to do things, but I kept having to say no because Subru is so far. Like, it's still four hours.

It's not that bad, but I don't drive. So it was always, like, the task of, like, figuring out how it's going to get here. And actually moving to Toronto is probably, even though it was really hard because I moved literally in, like, the second wave of the pandemic, like, right in 2020 when everything was really intense. It was really hard when I first moved here. But now that everything's good, like, best decision I've ever made for my career. No regrets.

Yeah. I felt like I was, like, a big fish in a small pond in Subbury. Whereas here, I was able to grow a lot more as like a person and as an artist. And there was no way in time that I could have become a full-time burlese performer in Subbury because we only do like two big shows a year. And so those shows aren't happening constantly. So at least here in Toronto, there's like so many opportunities for me to be a full-time showgirl. I did another Google.

Okay. And I'm going to ask Jeremy Hopkins a trivia question. And we'll see how close he gets. Oh boy. In 2023, what do you think the population? of greater Sudbury was. So I guess this would be the equivalent to the GTA. The greater Sudbury area.

I don't even know the answer to that. Well, even, there's no wrong answers. We're all guessing here. But this is, I find this interesting. What do you think the population of the greater Sudbury area was? Not very good with populations, especially if it's not Toronto. Okay. Well, but, I don't know, 150,000.

See, I think that's a good guess. Is that a good guess? I wouldn't have gotten nothing. And I lived there. It's about 180. thousand. That's a good guess. It's the greater suburbary area, so there's all these like sub towns on the side, you know,

like lively and Chelmsford and that's still considered suburb. But just for some like perspective, like if the Jays play a four game series at the dome, right, you know, the more, you mean, some of them are the same people. So it's not really a fair comparison. But my point is Toronto, the GTA of Toronto, what's that? Like seven million or something like that? Like, so there's, it's a, one hundred and eighty thousand is a small fraction of the population you have here. There should be way more opportunities here.

Like it makes sense that you would come to Canada's largest city at some point. Eventually, it just, it was becoming inevitable. Even though I, at the time said I'd never live in Toronto, it just made sense that when it ended up happening, it was like, okay, it's the right decision. I follow Starlet online and she's always busy. Always busy. Doing shows, like all the time. There was a point where I was performing three to five times a week. And I've also seen the bruises, too.

Every once in a while you post your leg bruises, and it's just like, oh my God. You fall? No, we're just beating ourselves up. We're throwing ourselves around on stage, you know. It's a lot of, it's a physical demanding job, especially as a bar top dancer. Well, maybe this is a good time for you to tell us some of the things you do.

Like, like, you know, you say you're very, very busy, but just give us a sense of, like, what are some things you're up to? Well, I have a lot of, like, resident gigs. So as a full-time performer, I have where, like, I dance, for example, every Saturday on the bar top of Painted Lady. And then we have a lot of restaurant, like Roving Dinner Show gigs, like My House in the Junction. That's a bar, a twa, which is a speakeasy and King Street, like things, kind of bars like that. And those are like sometimes like weekly shows or monthly shows. And then you have, you know, corporate gigs and random things that are booking you have, you have.

for, you know, entertainment purposes. And then I also tour with a surf rock band called the Wasegas, Mark Malibu and the Wasegas. And I'll be on tour, actually, coming up on April 30th. We fly out to France and we were doing Spain and the Netherlands and the UK. That's a real tour. Yeah, it's a real tour. And it's really cool because I get to be like a 60 surf rock go-go dancer

and like do all these really cool festivals and gigs and things. Mark Malibu is like a punk vet in Toronto, right? Like he goes way back. The original surf punks. They're actually the Wasega. started in 1979 when those guys were in high school and him and Steve are actually

the original members and then they've replaced a few over the years, but they took a bit of a hiatus for a brief time and then they came back and... Well, I have in the calendar because he just wrote a new book,

I have Don Piles coming over again to promote his book and to talk about some more things. He's, you know, shadowy men on a shadowy planet, Toronto punk, surf punk band, if you will. I'll ask him about this band

and get some more info. This is cool that you get to to tour with him. In his bio, in one of the bios, Mark Malibu mentions the shadowy men. They were sort of pre, he sort of predated the shadowy men.

You should talk to Mark. He's a great. He's got so much of a class of an amazing interview. No, you had me at hello. Yeah. You would love him. He actually lives near here.

Oh, cool. Okay. He's in a Tobico. I'm going to tell Keenan we're canceling your two o'clock. Call Mark up. The Wasegas. I love it. Okay.

So you have an active, busy performing life. And then a wide variety of things. And a wide variety of things. Okay, tell us about that. That's something I said I would never do when I moved to Toronto because it's just, the city has a lot going on and I didn't want to, like, step on any toes and whatever. Slip on our toes.

We love it. But, yeah, it came down to recently when I met the Odd Fellows Orchestra. They're like this amazing, like, pre-war era cabaret noir band. I met them by chance they had reached out to me and I decided, okay, I have to do this big. And so I've always had like the production style event planning under my belt, but I wanted to do something really big because Toronto has a lot of small burlesh shows that are happening. The only big show that happens here in the city right now is the Toronto Burles Festival, which is amazing and they're doing a really great job with it.

But I wanted to bring my twist into it and bring that like old school kind of bump and grind glamour into the world of, you know, like bring people back on like a time traveling adventure, which has always been my specialty when I'm, planning events and things. So we decided to do that at the alma combo. So now that's a huge chunk of what I'm doing. I actually don't even have time to sell vintage anymore, really, because my showgirl life has taken over between touring. The Life of a Showgirl.

I think Taylor Swift sang about it. Well, that was a movie with Pamela Anderson. Yeah, which was very good. Life of a Showgirl is also Taylor Swift too. Now she has that album just came out. And she's her own type of showgirl. That was a whole political off. A lot of the burlese performers were not happy when that album came out

because they were like, she doesn't know anything about being a show. I was wondering about that, yeah. But like, honestly, I think she's personally her own type of showgirl. She's doing some of the biggest tours and, like, biggest shows. So, I don't know. She has some credentials, but she's just not, like, in that realm, you know. That's my own tangent for the moment.

What did you think of the movie with Pam Anderson? I thought it was great. Like, I felt like the story was slightly lackluster. I felt like it kind of ended on like a, like, a cliffhanger, but it just was like, I wish there was a little more. But otherwise, like, the beauty of, like, the costumes and, and, and all the, of that is really nice. There was a sadness to it.

Like there was a tinge of sadness. I think we all have a little of that in our showgirl life, you know. It's like a lot of behind the scenes. I'm always fascinated by the behind the scenes of showgirls because there's a lot that there's a lot of smoke and mirrors and things you don't see from behind the scenes. That's what we want to see. Like that's, you know, you keep saying these things you won't do and then you know this, right? It's like I'm never going to move to Toronto.

Check. I'm never going to produce. Maybe I feel like maybe that's one of my life lessons. Never say never. Never say never because it doesn't. Just do the opposite. But I think you could play a role where you peel back the curtain. I don't know if this will ruin the,

but I think we'd all love to see and know about this behind the scenes. I do a lot of Instagram lives and stuff. Okay, what's your Instagram handle? Starlet Satin, or Starlet Satin vintage, depending on which one you're trying to find. If you're wanting the vintage clothing side of it, Starlet's Teen vintage. Do I look like I want the vintage side?

Although, you want the burlest side. Just look at my star that's a teen name. Jayho wants the vintage side. Look at how that man dress is over here. He follows both accounts. You can tow that line.

I don't know if I can get away at the vintage side. But, you know, it's funny. Earlier you made the remark about, you know, you want dead people's clothes. And I can imagine the best thing for you, not that you have time for that world anymore,

but like is an really old person who saved all their clothes dies. And then the family is like, to take this. I wish, take this. I wish they were my size because it's very hard to find men's vintage clothing. It's impossible. It's because men wear their things until they're garbage.

Either they wore it out or they're buried with it. And it's kind of hard to dig up. It's crazy. I always said that I'm a temporary treasure keeper of people's things because it's a bit of an honor when someone comes to you with their loved ones items and says, hey, I don't want to just send this to Valley Village. I don't want this to just go into like a landfill or whatever. You're a good custodian.

You find a good home. I usher these things into a place where they're loved, and that's really special for the families. And actually, when I first started selling vintage, I didn't realize how much I'd be dealing with death and grief and things. I became a bit of like a therapist of some sorts in some ways because people would bring me stuff all the time to buy. And I mentally didn't prepare myself for that. And that was something that, like, as a new business owner, I had to learn how to balance burnout of because people were coming to me saying, oh, this is my mom's things. And I'd go, okay, I'm going to buy them.

And then I'd look up as I'm writing a receipt and so I'd be crying over my cash death. So I'd be like, eh, right. People are so sentimental to their thing because that's like a final goodbye to their loved one. And so to me, it's always been an absolute honor. As much as I joke about buying dead people's things, it's an honor for me to actually be able to pass those pieces along to people that will cherish them and stuff. You're showing evidence of compassion.

Yes. There's no room for that in this basement. There's actually been many times I've been at estate sales and I look through this stuff and I'm buying people's photos and I'm like it gets it affects you because you see a whole snapshot of that life. People and people. And there's a sign that nobody wants it. It makes you wish that you met them when they were alive and that you could show them that you cared about what they did. Or that their grandkid would cherish that and care about that. You know what I mean?

And you know, it's interesting because like a lot of people would be like, oh, like, well, like, I thought that my granddaughter or my grandchildren want this item and they don't, right? So, you know, you end up with like a lot of people's things. And, but, and also, like, grief and death and everything. Like, some people really get stuck in it and they end up becoming, like, I've cleared out basements that are complete hoarder basements because people just cannot bring themselves to do that kind of clean out. And so the work becomes really important.

Not only are you, like, revitalizing and not supporting, like, fast fashion and, like, the pollution of like clothing but you're also giving like a service to people in terms of like their handling of their yeah you're definitely helping the carbon footprint but you're also helping with therapy as well as being a person to help them along we're going to get starlit on Al Grego's

podcast but we're also going to get starlit on life's undertaking with Brad Jones to talk about this like I will bring it up with him at 5 o'clock you're yeah tell me all I like talking, apparently. Amazing. You're a good talker. It's about time we get a good talker.

You're a natural. But I'm going to catch up in the live stream. So you have been on live.totronomike.com for the past 90 minutes. It's been amazing. I look at the clock. Yeah, we've been chatting for a while now. Yeah, it says 1236.

So I want to say shout out to Mark Wise Blunt. Okay. Matt the Golem writes, vintage burlesque includes Rummy Bishop as host MC at Starvin-Marvin's, late 60s, early 70s. People would heckle him just to get him

to fire Zingers back at them. So shout out to Rummy Bishop. Oh, there's so many I didn't mention. Yeah, I mean, there's so many people. I'm glad that Andy is playing the role of the official fact checker of the Toronto Mike podcast here.

Are we doing a good job? No, I never do a great job. I do my best. But Andy, I said Gwen Jacobs. There's no S. It is Gwen Jacob, who, took off her shirt in we ended up getting the laws changed

where women can be topless and public in the city so I regret the air Gwen Jacob also I struggled and you know this because it was in real time I couldn't remember the name Chet I just remember that Tom Hanks had a son who was a Chet and I couldn't remember his name was actually Chet but of course we eventually got there

Canada Kev wants to know if you Starlight have ever done a gig at a fiercely independent brewery and that's a reference to great Lakes Brewery, which is the, how was your beer, by the way? Amazing. I hope we gave you time to drink it, but you are bringing some home with you. Canada Kev would love to see you do a gig at TMLX in late June.

The last Thursday of June. If I'm not on tour. You'll probably be in Europe in that world tour. But the last Thursday, you've got to check that schedule. The last Thursday of June at Great Lakes Brewery. I would love that. We would love to see you there. Canada, Kev would love to see there.

I love collaborating with beer companies and stuff. I've done that a few times, actually. So Mike invites all the listeners to come and see a live podcast. And then he also has like free food there, free beer. And sometimes entertainment, right? Well, you're the entertainment, Starlet. So that's my special. Or just come and hang.

Yeah, we'd love that. That would be amazing. Make sure you got some of that rug tape. Yeah, the carpet tape. The carpet tape is a special one. I'm going to have to provide it. Mike, not me. Another Mike says, Tobias Vaughn, Mike says that he's excited Don Pyle.

is back in the calendar. And yes, because Don Pyle is publishing a book. So we're going to, I'm going to read the book and we're going to get into it. So that is in the calendar. Can't wait to talk to Don Pyle again. I'm actually in the market for a new hair cutter, barber, because my barber moved to the Maritimes. Maybe Don Pyle should be my hairdresser.

What's the word I'm looking for, barber? Yes, barber, yes. Hairdresser sounds fancy. Don't say that to Andy, because Andy will come after you. Oh, Andy. Andy's, yeah, already in New Brunswick, I think. Okay, and Canada Kev wants to know if you're busy the night of the Elmo gig. And that is a nice opportunity for me to remind the listenership and to tell you, Starlett,

I am going to be at the Elma combo on May 21st. Wow. What are you doing? Like, you're doing at the Elmo? Great question. Somebody asked you about the other day. I struggle. Well, I am crafting a one-man show, and I will have on stage of me, Paul Schaefer.

I mean, Rob Pruse on his keyboards, and there will be some musical elements, but... But I'm going to perform. Like, I'm not going to sing, even though I've now released my first single. I heard it yesterday. You're not critically acclaimed. Yes. You got it. They're amazing.

The alma combo is amazing. Starlight. Starlet. Starlet. See how it works? Okay. Starlet room. It's my room.

No, I'm kidding. Yeah. Well, you're, of course. So if people go to Toronto Mike.com and click Elmo gig at the top, they can buy a ticket or two and check it out. That is again, May 21st at the Alma combo. Do it. The Almo's amazing. Kev recommends I hook you up

a Bradley funeral home. Great minds think alike. And fools seldom differ. That's how the rest of that goes. No one ever drops the rest of that thing. Okay. And Canada Kev hypothesizes that when I said

Gwen Jacobs, I was probably thinking of Jane Jacobs. Oh yeah, the historic walk. I don't think Jane Jacobs though ever went topless in this city. No, I don't think she did. But yeah, Gwen Jacob is the woman I was thinking of. This is the 90s, I think,

as I recall. But, okay, amazing. So mop-up time. So you're very busy, Starlet. But people should follow you on social media. Yeah. That's where you find all of the shows I have coming up or all the things that I'm up to. I'm just so happy she was able to make it to this.

We were planning this like while I was in like the trenches. You made this happen. And you even picked her up. Yes. I mean that like I should. You know, picked her up in the way that you pick her up in a car. I didn't have to take an Uber. Yeah.

No, it would be a little tricky to get out here. So I was like, well, I'm going right by there. I'll come get you. So we're going to take a photo by Toronto Tree. Okay. And I got beer for you in lasagna. And I'm going to take care of you as well, Jeremy Hopkins. Thank you, sir.

You'll be back. I didn't think I was coming home with all this great stuff. Like, seriously. I'm going to get a lot of use. J-Hou undersold this then. But that's, you know what? The lasagna is amazing too. I can't wait.

It's incredible. I like what you did there, J-Hoh, because you don't want somebody to come just for the swag, right? You want them to come for the spirit. I was here for the spirit. So you can't say, hey, come for some lasagna. And they're here for the lasagna. but I was here for the spirit of it. No, I get it.

I get it here. One last little silly question, and then if Jayho has anything to take us home. I think I pretty much drain the swamp, but there's so much more history to dive into. And, yeah, get out there, see some shows. And see Starlett shows. They're amazing.

If you get a chance. If you're looking for vintage glamour, that's like the, where we specialize in nostalgia from all different eras. Oh, and Starlet's got a big sale coming up, I saw? Oh, that's not big. It's just me trying to clear out my house. Okay, well, she's trying to clear out, so help her out.

I have too much stuff. My last question is the relationship between burlesque dancers like yourself and tattoos. Okay? So I see you have ink. And I would just imagine, like, historically... Not very much, but you have ink. But historically, I'm going to guess burlesque dancers didn't have ink. Because it was just guys in jail and Navy officers back in the day.

There was sideshow performers that kind of specialized in some of that, sometimes. So I'm sure that it kind of did exist, but it does seem to go hand in hand for some reason. And even some burlesque brings some side show in there too, like your show even. Well, yes, I did have a lot of sideshow. Pickles? Oh my God. I wasn't expecting that. There was some needle play involved and some nails and hammers. Yeah, that was very cool, though. Yeah. But yeah, I think that innately burlesque and tattoos come in because of the fact that, like, it is a bit of a rebellious career form and art form.

So I think that, you know, that kind of, it makes sense that a lot of tattooed girls or burlese performers or vice versa. A lot of burlese performers have tattoos because it's us in our nature, we are all a little rebellious, and I think tattoos are one of those things too. I also heard it's a safety thing recently.

Somebody said that... Oh, it's like harder to identify you. It's easier to identify you with tattoos, so a lot of people who want to kidnap you don't want to take you out. Yeah, so you're safer if you have tattoos. I never thought about that before. Thankfully, in the Belize world. That's a terrible thought that we need to resort to brand yourself.

Yeah, yeah. That's terrible, but interesting. Yeah, that is a thing, apparently. Any chance you'd ever return to Sedbury? Not to live there, no. But I do go back all the time. I go back to visit to do the Subway Belest shows. We do two big shows a year usually, the Halloween one, which is Monsters Ball,

we've been doing. And there's usually one in the spring or around Valentine's Day. So I usually go back for that all the time. You're a busy woman. I'm honored. You curved out some time to chat with us. I'm so thankful that I got to be here. Thank you so much.

Jeremy, thanks for making this happen. Hey, no problem. You get four episodes a year. And remember, this is the quarter one episode. So that means we're going to get together again before the next TMLX event. step up my game before then and yeah make another show. Well, keep delivering like this

and you'll end up in the FOTM Hall of Fame. Oh, I hope so. Amazing. And that brings us to the end of our 1,876th show. Go to tronelonelike.com for all your Toronto mic needs and you can buy a

gig to see me at the Alma combo on May 21st. Believe it or not, that's happening. It's only going to happen once. Much love to all who made this possible. again, that's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Nick Aienes, Recycle My Electronics.C.A.

and Ridley Funeral Home, we're recording at 5 p.m. But first, I'm going to be back in an hour and 15 minutes, so I'm going to get rid of these two. Wolf down some food. And then I'm going to record a two-hour episode with Ed King... We're going to stick around in heckle-head.

Ed Keenan's here for his quarterly. It was supposed to be last week, but he messed up. We'll talk about that. And we'll see what's going on in the world. So see you all again in 75 minutes or so. Peace and love.