Peepshow Menagerie was created in 2008 as a collaboration between producers Chris Beyond & Scarlett Letter. They had a plan to do something different, but it really wasn't until the following year when they really started standing out with a different style of show presentation. Still, it wasn't a bad start at all, being lucky enough to feature many of the already established producers in L.A. for their first show "The Burlesque Producers", followed by one of their first genre-crossing shows "Fruits Of Our Labor" that featured Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job's DJ Douggpound.
What then followed was probably their LEAST attended show ever; "Red October!" - which featured L.A.'s many redheaded burlesque performers. It was a good show (darn it!), but the theme may have confused people (I think that if we did that show today, people would be more likely to get it, now that we have a more proven track record of doing fun and crazy mixed up shows). The lesson we learned from that, at the time, was that people like monster themes in October and frankly ANY month as our next show in November called "Not Dead Yet!" proved to our biggest audience yet at that point.
We ended the year with a satirically themed benefit show titled "Televangelesque" for an amazing arts program in the "Skid Row" section of Los Angeles called Inner-City Arts. The show was a send up of televangelism, of course, and we were very lucky to be able to raise a lot of money for the arts program thanks to the many performers who along with us donated their time and talent for a great cause and the audience that joined us for a night of silliness. We also got to feature David Liebe Hart from Tim & Eric fame (but I was already a fan of his from when he did his "Jr. Christian Science Show" program on Public Access). To see everyone holding and raising their hands in the air, swaying to his song "Salamé" was just amazing. It was a fine way to cap off our 2008 and first 5 shows.
(Click on posters to see bigger images and bonus material)
