Jonny porkpie

Sideshows by the Seashore, Coney Island

Well, I started performing in utero. I made my stage debut as a large lump in my mom's stomach, so she got the part with a broken leg and I think seven or eight months pregnant. And then my dad and stepmother are also actors. Full family of performers.

I have a friend who's very into, like, whatever the most popular thing is. He at one point in the, I guess it would have been, early 2000’s, was like, we have to go out to Coney Island. I hear there's burlesque shows. You know, when I started doing burlesque, which was about 2003, 2004, she's one of those people like, “Ooo Jo…”, Right? I first met her probably backstage. I remember when I first saw her because I was enthralled.

Jo was doing sort of raunchy glam, I think, which is probably a pretty great way to describe Jo's performances. So, you know, she just has a presence on stage that draws you…drew me, but it wasn't until many years later that we got involved. We'd been working together a long time. We were good friends, and I was helping her edit photos for the Burlesque Handbook.

I was over at her house and she said, “Well, as long as you're here, we might as well make out…” The rest, as they say, is history. So we were moving right before, and during the pandemic, we were supposed to have an interview with the co-op board and we were like, maybe we could do it virtually…

I helped out with a couple of festivals. I was one of the producers of the Burlesque Hall of Fame. It's usually called BHOF, but it's the virtual Burlesque Hall of Fame, so we called it VHOF. And then Angie Panton and Jen Gapay hired me to edit together and be the announcer for the New York Burlesque Festival. So those are the two big things.

One of the joys of the pandemic has been the same joy you feel whenever you go into a venue and see how different, how different this venue is. This is great. It's got a curtain. Curtain can open and close, right? Some venues are the size of a quarter of the front of the curtain. So the same with the pandemic.

It's been wonderful to see people adapt and be inspired by the limitations. And isn't that always the way. Right? Like, the more limitations you have, the more your brain explodes out to do creative things. So I grew up with separated parents. I learned at a very young age that missing the parent I wasn't with was a real waste of time.

And so I had this capability of when I expect something to come back at some point, not really missing it. Right? So, like, you know, I miss my mom, because she died. Right? But I don't necessarily miss performing. I want to do it again. I look forward to doing it again. But right now, we're doing something different. So I haven't felt a void.

I have felt, you know, it'd be nice to get better at the ukulele. So next time I play it like I did at Jo’s birthday, I wasn't very good. Now I'm slightly better. So my hope is that I get good enough that, for instance, I don't forget to start playing the ukulele when I get on stage with it, which has happened quite a few times.