When social distancing prompted the cancellation of a sold-out burlesque show at a downtown Edmonton bar on Friday, organizers kept the show going with livestreamed stripteases direct from the performers’ own living rooms.
At the troupe’s regular burlesque shows, patrons can ask the performers to do special things in return for a tip, such as sing “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” a.k.a. Marilyn Monroe, but during the livestream Friday they could also ask for a “sexy hand-sanitizer application.”
Mackinnon herself hand-sanitized on-camera up to her elbows.
“I think it allows people a moment to find some joy and laughter and community in self-isolation,” she said of the show.
The livestream wasn’t as noisy as the real deal. Patrons are usually encouraged to support the performers with hoots and whistles, but on Friday that was limited to typed “woots” and “ayoos” in the chat section.
Barnett said the hand-sanitizer tip option was the most popular tip request of the evening, and it allowed the performers, who are semi-professional and earn part of their incomes from burlesque, to recoup some of the lost revenue they would have received from the cancelled show.
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