My good friend Jade Esteban Estrada is not only the brilliant host and member of the Jigglewatts Burlesque Revue, he is also an accomplished journalist. In 2012 he interviewed the legendary superstar of Broadway and Hollywood, Rita Moreno. In honor of the inaugural Latin Burlesque Festival happening this Friday and Saturday nights (9/26/14, 9/27/14) in Dallas, Texas, it is my pleasure to share this fantastic interview with you! It's quite juicy....

REALTIME RITA

By JADE ESTEBAN ESTRADA

Photo by Mike LaMonica

October 21, 2012

Rita Moreno may still be best known for portraying “Anita” in the 1961 film adaptation ofWest Side Story, but the 80-year-old actress, singer and dancer would need a two-terabyte hard ...

With the holidays officially here, it's a good time to revamp your burlesque act with a holiday theme or even do a holiday inspired boudoir shoot. But you know as well as I do that this time of year is expensive, so you don't want to have to spend too much extra money just to get into the spirit. That's why I've come up with some ideas for you to get the most out of your current pieces as well as some small accessories you can include to change up your look.

You can always get very specific holiday inspired lingerie at Adam & Eve or your favorite adult store, but if you don't want to spend money, you can get into the spirit by pairing together some of your existing wears. Pull out a red bra or corset and pair it ...

We must have had more fun Friday night than we knew, because no one could be roused until 1:00pm on Saturday!  I popped a flower in my hair and walked with Michelle L’Amour and David around the corner to Roberto’s for lasagna and cappuccino; the breakfast of burlesque champions.  They had an awfully tempting selection of gelato too – perhaps we would come back later for that.  The front of the café was open to the sidewalk, so we sat in the delicious early afternoon breeze and watched passersby.

Later that day, some mutual friends of the festival from Las Vegas, Heather and Rolando, drove me into Old Port, the historic district of Old Montreal.  Eroded cobblestone...

I got off the plane in Montreal and breezed through customs and immigration with ease, but I was already late for the press conference that started at 5:30.  I found my fair cohort, MissCoco Lectric, at the luggage carousel and we headed to the ladies’ room for a quick change, Wonder Woman style.

With a name like Club Soda, I was imagining the venue to be a sleek, multi-level night club with neon lights and a clever 1950s twist. ...

As darling as those artist designed hotel rooms were, they did not have the Glamma Girl in mind.  The shower was smaller than a phone booth-- I think I invented a new form of yoga trying to shave my legs!  The hair dryer only provided a warm gentle breeze, but nevertheless I made it to tech rehearsal early enough to see Baltimore's Trixie Little walking through the paces of her mermaid act.  As one of the night's big headliners, she later blew the crowd away with her discovery of a mermaid's newfound legs... and other parts!

When doors to the show opened at 8:00PM, I was ready with a cocktail in hand.  The Gladstone Hotel hosted the show in ...

I was incredibly honored to be selected to perform in the 4th annual Toronto International Burlesque Festival and was so excited to make my international debut-- but the night before I was to fly to Canada, all I could think was, "I have no pastie tape!"  I tore my place apart and rang up some showgirl friends, all to no avail; and the shops were all closed.  How unprofessional!  How could I let this happen? Could I use eyelash glue instead? Oh dear-- I'd have to get past my embarrassment and rely on the kindness (hopefully) of a fellow showgirl backstage.  But I couldn't think about that now, I'd think about that tomorrow a la Scarlett O'Hara.  I had a plane to catch!

Once upon a time, I found myself on tour with the blazin' hot band, Johnny Hootrock, barrelling through the even hotter Death Valley (117 degrees during the day!) in a darling RV, with a less than darling broken air conditioner.  When we pulled up to the honky-tonk in Arizona, my cohort Coco Lectric and I had to quickly get into glamour mode and put on a top-notch show for those fine folks.  That was some challenge, let me tell you!  Just a couple of hours earlier, we'd decided bikinis were the only acceptable outfits to wear on this trip, and had taken to spraying ourselves down with water bottles to keep from spontaneously combusting! 

Now that was a rather extreme situation, but since we seem to be...