Girls On Fire

Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Time square in outer space 
I kick the move right in your face 
Satanic fantasies 
Get it, she want it 

She's on fire 
That girl's on fire 
Burn me up, burn me up 

~ Rob Zombie

Last night, Dee, BonBon and I met for our last rehearsal of their fire act, the Dark Carnival Dolls. The performance is tonight, in just a couple of hours actually, and I have surprised myself by not being in the least bit nervous. Not yet, anyway. The calm I am wallowing in now only tells me that there will be a true shit storm when it is time to go onstage. I know this because yesterday was the first time I had truly come to terms with what I had gotten myself into, assisting in a fire act. I only realized last night just how close I am going to getting to...well, the fire act.

We have rehearsed every night this week, but last night was the first time we did it with fire. BonBon went first with her flaming snakes, which actually made quite an impressive show - except the first run through, when she hadn’t shaken off enough of the excess gas and ended up throwing little fireballs everywhere. I looked up in alarm at the huge tree squatting in the middle of the yard, then turned to Dee. 

“Where’s the fire extinguisher?” I asked nervously.

“In my truck,” Dee answered mildly, still watching BonBon’s show.

When it was Dee’s turn, she ended up with too much accelerant on her torches and the flames were HUGE, coming very close to her face. Amazingly, she just kept going, swinging the fans through the dark night air as though they couldn’t possibly hurt her. And then there was me, screaming every time the fire got too close to Dee or BonBon and I thought someone was going to get burned, and completing each step of my choreography while leaning as far away as possible from each girl and her fire.

Dee and BonBon thought it was pretty funny, howling with laughter every time I screamed with fear or ran away from their flames. They were amused. I thought I might throw up. 

What have I gotten myself into? I HATE fire! It HURTS!

Too late to pull out now, though; we’re onstage in four hours. We each know our choreography pretty well, and have gone over it a number of times, though honestly I wish we had a bit more time to practice. You know, with the fire. So I can stop screaming. At least we are going on kinda late tonight, which is always helpful. People will be drunk by then, and much easier to impress. 

The theme for tonight's is the circus, and the Carnival Dolls are decking ourselves out in black and red. We are wearing corsets and tutus and stockings, and our hair and makeup are really crazy and out there. I know this, because I just stopped at Fanny’s Fabrics to get some ribbon and nobody would talk to me. Dee found our music, a creepy but brilliant band called The Circus Contraption. It’s going to be something else.

I’ll post lots of pictures tomorrow, if I live.

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee