Pinup of the Month
Coco Lamarr – Miss Burlesque Baby March 2020
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COCO LAMARR
PINUP OF THE MONTH
COCO LAMARR – MISS BURLESQUE BABY MARCH 2020
Hello, all you beautiful Burlesque Babies!
My name is Coco Lamarr and I’m a lounge singer and burlesque performer based in Southern California.
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I’ve always been an entertainer at heart, but I’ve been performing professionally for about 3 years now. I’m lucky enough to say that in that time, this adventure has taken me to all kinds of beautiful places from Orange County, north to Shenandoah Valley, and even so far as the Midwest and I’ve met some truly wonderful people along the way. One of my favorite (and most rewarding) experiences has definitely been fundraising money for Planned Parenthood at Elektra Cute Presents‘ The Pink & White Ball in Minneapolis in 2017 and 2018—the Twin Cities has an amazingly talented scene of burlesque, drag, variety and performing arts and I’m so grateful for the friends I’ve made through it.
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That being said, my love for the stage began at an early age. My mother claims I used to recite movies front to back on long car rides and always reminds me how I was obsessed with Marilyn Monroe even though I’d never seen one of her movies. As I got older, MGM Musicals were a favorite on sick days home from school with all the powdery colors and feathers and rhinestone-encrusted musical numbers. (You could say it’s the impression they left on me that led to my love of vintage glamour.) As a teen, I was very active in my high school theater, but I was almost always cast as a supporting role—when all I really wanted to be was a ‘leading lady’ like in all my favorite old films. I was also in my high school choir, but I was placed in the men’s section because I had such a deep voice that unfortunately garnered me a few bullies.
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When I graduated, I stopped singing and acting —too many bad experiences of classmates being cruel—and found myself drawn to pinup modeling and burlesque. I wanted to be a dancer like Dita Von Teese, but quickly came to the realization that choreo just wasn’t my strong suit lolol
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It was through burlesque though that I first really discovered jazz and soul music. Now, I had heard of singers like Billie Holiday and I remember Amy Winehouse being popular at the time, but in getting into the vintage lifestyle scene—that was the first time I actually really listened to the music of the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. Suddenly I was hearing voices that I’d never heard before like Bessie Smith, Nina Simone, Eartha Kitt, Etta James… No one had ever told me there were women singers like me with rich, deep, rotund voices who were not traditionally pretty-sounding, but they were heralded for it, and I remember feeling so cheated. I felt like I’d missed out on hearing and seeing women like me in music, all of whom I credit with helping me find my voice as an adult.
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I relocated to Southern California in 2017 and quickly found myself in a conundrum—with all my friends back home in Sacramento, I was feeling lonesome in my new city. I didn’t really know anyone and didn’t know where to begin to find “the scene.” I also felt this big, gaping hole in my heart, and I realized I missed performing. I missed being on a stage and entertaining and, at the suggestion of my then-boyfriend, decided to give it another try. I knew that I loved vintage fashion and glamour, that I loved the aesthetic of burlesque, but didn’t feel confident enough in my body or dance abilities. Then one night when we were FaceTiming, he said to me, “Well why don’t you sing?”
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In that moment, it seemed laughable to me—in the days of wispy pop vocalists, I thought to myself: ‘Who would pay to listen to me sing?’
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Fast forward a few years later and here I find myself blessed with residencies and recurring guest spots all over, and it’s all in thanks to the place that gave me my first break:www.25degreeshb.com Restaurant in Huntington Beach. It’s funny to think that a couple years ago, I was just a patron who sat at the bar and drank whiskey and dreamed quietly to herself. Then suddenly, I had I my own show twice a week, and things sort of just took off from there…
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Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of joining Tosca Cyr’s ‘TARANTINA‘ an all-female Quentin Tarantino tribute cabaret at Club Bahia in Echo Park which has been an exhilarating experience to say the least, especially when the man himself Quentin Tarantino came to see the show and it made quite a splash in the media the next day.
I made my first appearance in Donna Hood’s ‘The Scarlet Hour’ at Black Rabbit Rose in October 2019 and my ‘TEASE, If You Please!’ debut the following month for TEASE’s 6 Year Anniversary and it’s been an honor to be a part of such a long-standing Los Angeles staple. As of January 2020, I’ve become an official resident in ‘MUSE Burlesque’ at The Copper Door in Santa Ana, which has one of the best audiences in Orange County, hands down, and I’m proud to say that I am still with my first love, 25 Degrees, where you can catch me doing my thing every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month.
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This year, I’ve begun to work with a very talented jazz ensemble, and I’m working on incorporating more striptease into my art. I’m also thrilled to say that I’ll be headed to Livermore, California to perform at the first ever Fortune’s Follies on Saturday, March 14th AND I’ll be making my Viva Las Vegas debut at The Official Glamour Ball on Saturday, April 11th—I AM hoping to do more traveling this year, especially abroad, but all in all I’m just excited to see where else this journey takes me!
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It’s surreal to me that I’m sharing stages with people I’d only ever seen from the audience, or via social media. I never would have thought I’d be singing on historic stages like the Globe and Palace Theatres or that I’d see my name on a dressing room door next to names like ‘Miss Miranda’ and ‘Michelle L’Amour’ and ‘Jess Thunder’—and I sure as hell never imagined that I’d get to sing in front of one of my idols, Dita Von Teese! If you went back in time and told high school me, who was convinced her voice wasn’t worth hearing, I don’t think she would ever believe you, but if I could tell her one thing, it’d be this: “Don’t let other people’s opinions hold you back. Don’t be afraid to follow your dreams.”
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The only thing I regret is not doing it sooner.
Love Coco
XXX
Lounge & Burlesque Singer
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