YORK’S new cabaret club, The Old Paint Shop, opens its doors in the Theatre Royal Studio for the first time on Saturday when York queen of burlesque Freida Nipples presents The Exhibionists.
The internationally award-winning Freida – who keeps her real name under wraps, except on her passport – will be welcoming some of her favourite and most fabulous performance artists from across the UK and further afield, from burlesque to drag and beyond, with the guarantee of glamour, gags and giggles.
York-born performer and promoter Freida is no stranger to the Theatre Royal stage, having presented drag queens, acrobats, whip crackers, circus acts, sideshow performers and ‘stripteasers’ of many different flavours there, from comedy caricatures to sensual fan dancers.
Such is her popularity – not least at her Baps & Buns Burlesque nights at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb – that not only October 5’s 8pm launch show has sold out but so too have her The Exhibitionists: Hallowe’en Edition shows at 6pm and 9pm that close the inaugural Old Paint Shop season on October 26.
In between, the Studio space that previously housed the theatre’s workshop will present comedy, improv, jazz, folk and more in a cabaret nightclub setting with tables and chairs. Full details can be found at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
“The big question is, are you ready for it?” teases Freida ahead of The Exhibitionists’ arrival. Judging by the hattrick of sell-outs, the answer is a resounding Yes.
What first drew her to burlesque? “I’d just gone to university to study sociology and politics in Manchester,” she recalls, sitting in big Fifties spectacles and civvies at the Theatre Royal. “It was the day before my 20th birthday, when I saw a poster for a burlesque show in Oxford Road. I didn’t have any plans for my birthday and thought, ‘this sounds fun’.
“I went with friends, and it was like a huge lightning bolt to my heart. It was, ‘oh my god, these are my people’, and I just fell in love with it. I instantly knew I wanted to become a burlesque act myself.”
As chance would have it, she met her “burlesque mother” that very night, the legendary Lady Wildflower. They did not speak, beyond Lady Wildflower saying, “thank you for coming”, but “I then went to her burlesque classes. She produces lots of burlesque shows in the north, in Manchester and Yorkshire, and she’s one of the best tutors in burlesque.
“There are burlesque schools, but we don’t have many here apart from in London, but Lady Wildflower teaches lots of classes in Manchester and Leeds.”
The nascent burlesque performer needs to build their “act”. “You learn basic burlesque movement through the classes, and your act can be anything. Often people think of burlesque as having this vintage jazz club vibe, and that can be part of it, but actually there can be a lot of variety,” says Freida. “It’s all just art basically, it’s not all about taking your clothes off.
“Some will do comedy; some will do clowning, some will be political, but it’s definitely not just Jessica Rabbit. So, for example, for my show, I like to tick the classic Fifties’ box .”
Expect “a lot of bare flesh” – “we don’t like to be modest,” says Freida – but humour and stories are equally important. Lady Wildflower will be doing her majestic Moth Queen act, while Ebony Silk’s Marvel comic-themed act is described as “nerdlesque”. “She comes out as a stormtrooper and then tells a story about that character rather than doing a traditional striptease.”
What does Freida say to opponents of burlesque? “When Lady Wildflower and Heidi Bang Tidy started the Hebden Bridge Burlesque Festival ten years ago, lots of people called them ‘middle-class strippers’, but they were saying, ‘we are women doing what we want with our bodies. Who are you to say we can’t?’. I’ve been lucky not to have had too much of that going on.”
Banish preconceptions of burlesque acts playing to men in dirty raincoats. Seventy five per cent of Freida’s audiences are women: “Maybe it’s about seeing a version of themselves on stage,” she says.
“That’s part of it – body positivity. There aren’t many places you can go to see a lot of different body types. A lot of people find that very refreshing, especially when you don’t get diverse body types in the papers and magazines where there’s usually only one type. Young and slim. That’s not what you’re going to see at a burlesque show.
“Gay guys and couples are regulars too. Men on their own, with or without dirty raincoats, are a rarity. In eight years of producing shows in York, I don’t recall seeing a men’s group in the audience – but literally everyone is welcome”.
Freida is as much a promoter as a performer. “When I started in London, I struggled to find somewhere to perform so I started a night at the Old Nun’s Head, at Nunhead Green, near Peckham, putting my own money into it, as I still do,” she says.
“Even now that’s one of the biggest stresses. Ticket sales and the cost of costumes – and I have zero sewing skills! For professional cosumes, you’re looking at a minimum of £500 and it can go up to £10,000. Nice underwear, £150. Wigs, £150.”
She launched Freida Nipples Productions in York in 2017. “I did shows in The Basement at City Screen a few times a year, then some at the Impossible York bar, and I now host a regular show, Baps & Buns Burlesque, at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, as well as the Theatre Royal nights” she says.
“I sometimes do shows at the more intimate Cat In The Wall [in Stonebow] too, and this year I hosted a Valentine’s Day night at The Crescent [Freida Nipples Presents…Valentine’s Day 2024 – Burlesque, Drag & Cabaret, ‘full to the brim full with titillating talent’].
“I like to bring performers from all over the country and would love to have international acts too, like Lady Wildflower does at Hebden Bridge, such as bringing in a headliner from Australia.”
Looking forward to Saturday, Freida says: “I am so honoured to be opening The Old Paint Shop as my grandfather used to do paint work for local productions in his twilight years. He’s one of my influences, especially my love of the 1950s.”
Freida Nipples will be appearing in various guises, not least as a nun. “I was never shy, but drama was my least favourite subject at school [Queen Margaret’s in Escrick]. I found it terrifying. So Freida is me, but revved up,” she says. “I’m not terrified because I feel I’m being me, whereas if I had to play a charcater in a play, maybe I would be.
“I love fashion, I love design. ‘Reveal’ is what I do, as I’m not a dancer, I didn’t train in dance, so my costume is really integral to my act.
“I find playing to 1,000 peope easier because you just go on and do your stage show, whereas when it’s up close and personal you have to adapt and change your choreography, though it’s harder to interconnect with your audience when there are 1,000 people there.”
Freida, who uses her spare bedroom as her home studio, is putting together a new addition to her acts. “It’s a kind of rebellion by my inner angry punk girl against how much capitalism and consumerism is attacking our industry, so I’m working on making a costume out of bin bags,” she says.
“Burlesque shows are a lot more performance art than people realise. Not just cabaret, but lots of stories in the artform that people don’t expect.
“Trixie Blue [‘burlesque echantress, show host principal at House of Trixie Blue and Newcastle Burlesue Festival producer’] once said that going to a burlesque show is like going to Aldi: coming in expecting one thing but going away with so much more after shopping in the middle aisle!”
“Very much living our best child-free life” with her boyfriend, Freida’s burlesque diary for September took her to Drax Working Men’s Club for a charity night and The Macbeth bar in Hoxton, London, for Temple Of Love, “a celebration of all things goddess”.
Now comes The Exhibionists. “I was very nervous choosing a name for the shows as I don’t like giving things names. Like they want a name for the three or four shows that I’ll be doing at the Old Woollen [at Sunnybank Mills, in Farsley, Leeds] next year, after I was invited to do their drag show, Glamourpussy,” says Freida.
“It’s The Exhibitionists at the Theatre Royal because my nan’s friend Olga said the theatre was in Exhibition Square; it’s Baps & Buns at Rise because it’s a bakery. Now I just need a name for the Old Woollen shows.” [Freida had used the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin Freida Nipples Presents: A Night of Burlesque & Cabaret for her August 27 revue night there].
As for her own stage name, Freida worked under several guises at the start of her career. “Finding a name is the most difficult thing, as with a drag act, finding something that’s not already taken. At first I used a few other names, like Curvella De Ville, which is good, but there were lots of De Villes already,” she recalls.
“After I went to a burlesque workshop in Sheffield, on the train back home, we were talking about using vintage names. Like, think of your nana’s name, but ‘Janet’ wasn’t giving me glamour!”
‘Freida’, her great aunt and sister’s name, however, had possibilities. “When I realised ‘Freida’ had the potential to be wordplay on ‘free’, I knew it had to be Freida Nipples’.”
Freida Nipples presents The Exhibitionists, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, October 5, 8pm, and The Exhibitionists: Halloween Edition, October 26, 6pm and 9pm; all sold out. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
One last question
Do you ever reveal your real name, Freida?
“No, but it’s on my passport. My family and friends know…but when I’m at work…it’s Freida Nippes.”
Love this write up! And sorry I didn’t say hi at the show I very much had my performance head on and you were gone when we finished! Hope you enjoyed it! Freida