Energetic ecdysiast

From pasties to memorized lines, burlesque
dancer and burgeoning theatre starlet Holly
Gauthier-Frankel will ham it up any way she can

GRANDSTANDER: Gauthier-Frankel

by NEIL BOYCE

It’s a cold day and I’m in a hipster café overlooking NDG park, sitting across the table from the 10th Most Desirable Woman in Montreal, according to the Mirror’s Best of Montreal poll.

Holly Gauthier-Frankel and her alter ego, the “skin-ful” Montreal burlesque icon Miss Sugarpuss—a multitalented performer and “impresario of all things musical, theatrical and artistic”—can barely contain herself as she outlines a lengthy list of projects that fill the zaftig performer’s life, including a recent foray into “serious” theatre with the role of the Moon in MainLine’s La Bella Luna. Whatever persona, be it burlesque or acting, she’s doing pretty good.

“I’m a natural-born ham,” she laughs. “All I want to do is perform. I don’t care, I’ll do anything.”

Working as a voice actor on cartoons like Monster Allergy or the nicely tasteless Tripping the Rift keeps the bills paid. But Gauthier-Frankel was raised in the business (her mom and step-dad are in Celine Dion’s band), and her career as the hardest working ecdysiast (look it up) in Montreal comes with the DNA.

Continuing as a solo performer and collaborator in Team Burlesque, Gauthier-Frankel plans to tie it all together next year into a Montreal Burlesque Festival, where the historical part of the art is emphasized as much as the bumping and grinding.

“For us to not have a vibrant burlesque culture is ironic,” says Gauthier-Frankel, noting that Montreal was the last place in Canada to establish a revival, despite being a hub of burlesque since the ’30s. “We live alongside this history, why wouldn’t we show off our city from that angle—the sexy underbelly?”

Gauthier-Frankel will also host a workshop at Studio Sweatshop next year entitled Burlesque Etiquette: or, How to Find Your Inner Burlesque Diva, then returns to Tokyo to collaborate with Cherry Typhoon (who appeared in last year’s Fringe fest) in the busy Japanese burlesque scene.

Following the success of last Grey Cup weekend’s The Secret Speakeasy Show, Gauthier-Frankel is planning another event that will mix girls with great Montreal jazz players. “My dream has always been to do classic striptease with a live band,” she says. “It makes for an amazing ‘energy orgy’ and changes the performance dynamic entirely.”

“I’ve got a big mouth and big balls,” says Gauthier-Frankel. “I walk around and say, ‘I’m a burlesque dancer, who are you? Let’s do something. Let’s Work. You love Montreal? I love Montreal. Let’s make our city as amazing as when it was called Sin City of the North.’”