TBT: Dita Von Teese

Throwback Thursday Bunnie welcomes the gorgeous and classy burlesque legend Dita Von Teese to the show this week. Dita talks about her journey from burlesque performer in the 1990s to her record-breaking Vegas residency show at the historic Jubilee Theatre, where she's using iconic costumes from the venue's heyday. She opens up about her childhood fascination with vintage style, the Playboy story that led to her iconic stage name, and how her approach to relationships has evolved over the years in the spotlight. Dita: Website https://dita.net/| IG https://www.instagram.com/ditavonteese/?hl=en Watch Full Episodes & More: www.dumbblondeunrated.com

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Bunnie XO?

  Hey guys, I need to ask you a question. I want to know, why in the hell are you not on Patreon? I don't think you guys even realize how much content we have on Patreon. Let me break it down for you. We have the Bunny XO Show, we have Meet the D-Fords, we have Popaganda, we have more shows that we're adding, and not to mention, we have the visuals of the podcast. Not only that, we have four tiers that caters to everybody's budget, and everybody gets the podcast. There's no more excuses. Head over to www.patreon.com/dumblonddown and sign up. Stop missing out. We have built a huge community over there, guys. I'm talking about hundreds of thousands of people over there.

• 0:41Bunnie XO?

  We even have live chats, live chats that I actually am talking in every single night. Last but not least, we give away gifts every frickin' month. I'm talking like signed stuff from Jay and I lives. You just never know what kind of surprise you're gonna get. It's like a Cracker Jack box. I love the community that we've built over there at Patreon. If you are already a Patreon member, I freaking love you, dude. Thank you so much. You guys are my babies for life, my writers. If I could, I would literally make out with each and every one of you. I love you guys so much, and that's a lot of kisses, actually. Gotta go bye. Is this thing on?

• 1:17Speaker 01

  Bonnie, who used to be a former sex worker and now hosts the podcast Dumb Blonde.

• 1:21Bunnie XO?

  Most little girls grow up wanting to be doctors and lawyers and shit, and I was like, I want to be super hot, make a lot of fucking money, and be a rock star's wife. That was my goal as a child, and here we are.

• 1:32Bunnie XO?

  What's up, you sexy motherfuckers? Welcome to another episode of Dumb Blonde. Today, we have the burlesque queen. Our burlesque mother is in the house, baby. Dita Von Teese, how are you?

• 1:45Speaker 02

  I'm good, thanks for having me.

• 1:46Bunnie XO?

  I'm so excited to have you here. Like, I, just growing up in Vegas, the whole, you know, showgirls, burlesque, all that.

• 1:55Bunnie XO?

  I've always admired you because you have always been in your own lane and

• 2:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:01Bunnie XO?

  Nobody can fuck with you, man. Like, it's crazy. You have just, you've literally made a, um, a lifetime of just iconicness.

• 2:10Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 2:10Bunnie XO?

  You're welcome. It's, it's just really good to have you here.

• 2:14Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 2:14Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, for sure. So what are you doing in Vegas?

• 2:17Speaker 02

  Well, I have a show here on the Strip. Um, very exciting. It's kind of like a, a dream manifestation. Um, I was on tour with my Glamatrix show about a year ago, like the, you know, from 2020.

• 2:33Speaker 02

  I was on tour, one of the people, they had to reschedule tours like crazy. And, um, I, you know, I'd gotten lots of offers about doing shows in Vegas, but the offers would come and it would be like, yeah, we have this lounge. And I'm like, but that's not what I do. Have you seen my show? Like, I don't, it's not, what I do is not a typical burlesque show. I play really big stages, like my last tour.

• 2:57Speaker 02

  When finally Caesars and Live Nation came out to see my show, I had sold out the Chicago Theater, which is like thirty eight hundred people. And they're like, oh, I, this is different than we thought it was. I said, yeah, I, I decided to take burlesque to another level. So, um, I finally got the offer I wanted about doing Vegas. And they came to me and said, we think we have like the perfect stage for you. It's called the Jubilee Theater. And I was like, okay, Jubilee was my favorite and the only thing I did when I'd come to Vegas.

• 3:29Bunnie XO?

  At Valley's?

• 3:30Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 3:30Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 3:31Speaker 02

  And it was my favorite show. Yeah. And it was always like Liberace Museum and Jubilee Show.

• 3:38Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 3:38Speaker 02

  So I flew out to look at the theater and it's a big, big theater, like the stage is half the size of a football field. And I kind of had a moment where I was like, oh, it's really big. I don't even know if I can like fill this stage. And so I said, hey, what happened to all the Jubilee costumes, all that Bob Mackie stuff? And they're like, oh, it's just locked up downstairs. We don't know what we're gonna do with it. And I said, I have an idea of what we're gonna do with it.

• 4:05Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 4:06Speaker 02

  And I basically said, if I can use all the costumes from Jubilee. Um, I'll do the show here. If I can't, I won't.

• 4:16Bunnie XO?

  That is amazing.

• 4:17Speaker 02

  And so we're using all of that and it is interesting because when I came in there, they had already started like destroying the sets and everything because they have to, they're huge and like every show. You know, I love reusing things and preservation. I collect vintage clothes, vintage car, vintage things from flea markets and I love that, but like, you know, every theater has to at one point, you know, get rid of stuff. So they had started chopping the staircase up and all of this and I said, stop, stop doing that. And I repurposed a lot of the sets and use them in the show now. So we're using all that beautiful Bob Mackie and all the showgirl costumes in a new way

• 4:59Speaker 02

  with just as many guys in the show as girls and obviously using like, you know, the, putting my spin on things and it's, you know, the best of all of my, my shows, all my burlesque shows brought into like a merging with the, the spirit of the showgirl.

• 5:16Bunnie XO?

  I love that. I love that. Not only are you just this beautiful glamorous woman, you are literally just a boss. Like you are a great businesswoman. You have somehow managed to keep yourself relevant for go, well, like o- over a decade now, right? Twenty years. Yeah, like twenty years now. Like it's been wild um to watch and just see it all unfold. And to be able to get a residency here in Vegas is not easy. To sell thirty eight hun- you know, even four thousand tickets just alone anywhere by yourself is not an easy feat and I don't think people realize that. So that's just a testament to the fan base that you have.

• 5:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think, I think, you know, I've, I started in the early nineties.

• 6:01Speaker 02

  I just always, like I grew up watching old movies and I loved glamour from another time and I didn't feel like I had role models of beauty growing up in the eighties that I could be like, so I looked to the past. And um, in the early nineties, I had the first ever pinup website. Um, and so I, there was a lot of things, you know, I was like kind of the modern Betty Page from like nineteen ninety-two.

• 6:25Bunnie XO?

  I was obsessed with Betty Page.

• 6:26Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah, me too. And so, yeah, I just kind of kept on my path and, you know, I've never had really any interests in anything else, except for what I do.

• 6:38Bunnie XO?

  Do you feel like you were born in the wrong, like, era?

• 6:41Speaker 02

  No, because, you know, we say vintage style, not vintage values. There's a lot of really great things about now that I think there's a lot of, you know, all you have to do is turn on a, a nineteen forties movie and you'll see all kinds of problematic things that you're like, I'm glad that's not around anymore, you know, so you, so you do have to like, I, I'm always like recommending movies that I love because people ask me and I say, but when you watch this, you just have to remember, there's gonna be some things in it that gratefully are put to bed now and don't happen anymore, but you're still gonna have to watch it or fast forward it.

• 7:16Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 7:16Speaker 02

  So, um, yeah, there's, I think it's a great time to live in now. And also I've always liked doing something that's different and being a burlesque star in the nineties and now, you know, watching it become like, some people say the golden age of burlesque was in the nineteen forties, but I would argue that it's now because we've, you know, there's, there's such a, it, it's become a place for inclusion and diversity and celebrating all types of bodies. Um, I just think it's, it's much more meaningful for people to see a burlesque show or to engage in performing a burlesque act, whether it's on stage or at home. Um, I think it's just

• 7:59Speaker 02

  like there's a different kind of importance because people forget that like the burlesque show of the thirties and forties was kind of like. Going to a a strip club, you know, it was your normal working class guys entertainment. The stars of the show were strippers. No, they were in theaters.

• 8:18Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 8:19Speaker 02

  But you know, it was like comedy with a lot of like jokes about sex and innuendo and dancing girls and even singers, but um, the stars became striptease stars. So it was, you know, but you were retired by the time you were, you know, thirty.

• 8:38Bunnie XO?

  Right, right. Does doesn't ageism plays in burlesque a lot now? Or do you feel like it's a little bit better?

• 8:46Speaker 02

  I think that it was definitely worse before and I watched it unfold in a way that um, that I feel like it's coming around. I mean, it's, you know, ageism is going to be everywhere and everything. And then there's going to be places where, you know, listen, I'm still the most known burlesque star that fills the most seats and I'm fifty one.

• 9:09Bunnie XO?

  And you're flawless.

• 9:10Speaker 02

  I I just go like, okay, I mean, I what I love is, you know, of course, someone can feel free to come take away my crown whenever they want. Keep working, keep trying. Um, but I love having a platform and a show where I can hire dancers of all ages and genders and skin colors and, you know, people, people that I think can change people's minds about what a stereotypical burlesque performer is, which I guess is I'm probably pretty stereotypical at this point, you know, because it's like,

• 9:41Bunnie XO?

  You've set the bar for sure.

• 9:42Speaker 02

  I'm just me, you know, but I can't be. Yeah, I so I I like to have a a platform where I can present a show that that makes people on accepting, more accepting of lots of different types of people and seeing um, sensuality and beauty in all forms.

• 10:01Bunnie XO?

  Absolutely.

• 10:01Speaker 02

  And all stages of life.

• 10:04Bunnie XO?

  I love that because I'm forty four. So and I'm always fighting against age ageism online, you know, people think that you have to hang it up as soon as you turn forty. And I'm like, I am just getting started, baby. And if I could look like Dita Von Teese at fifty one, I'll be even happier.

• 10:18Speaker 02

  It's also like the ultimate insult for people. It's like the last like thing they try to insult you with. So I think that's what people have to remember. Of course, there's there's ageism in the workforce, like in all, like not just entertainment, I think. But I do think people use age because it's like the final, like a great, like an insult.

• 10:40Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 10:42Bunnie XO?

  I know exactly what you mean.

• 10:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's like a easy, a cheap shot.

• 10:44Bunnie XO?

  Hmm, exactly. So let's take it back because, um, you know, I'm sure some people know your story, but I'm also sure that some people don't. And I wanna know, like, you know, your childhood, where you came from. You grew up in Michigan. And how you got into burlesque and just take me on that journey.

• 11:01Speaker 02

  Okay, oh, boy. Uh, yeah, I I was born in, it's so weird to like talk about like, oh, as well, I was born. I was born in Rochester, Michigan, but then I grew up in a town called West Branch, which I like to say it now because sometimes people go, oh, wow, I know where that is. Um, it really is a small town. Like, I recently visited it again for a documentary. Um, and I was like, wow, there really is one stoplight and like a few thousand people.

• 11:30Bunnie XO?

  That's wild.

• 11:30Speaker 02

  Really small. Uh, so I had this like picturesque childhood and my, my, um, my mother's best friend had an antique shop. Which is kind of where my love of like old things comes from and my mother loved to watch old movies. So. Um, that really had an imprint on me. Uh, I moved from, well, I should say. Because sometimes I read in the press, like, she comes from the ballet world and I'm like, girl, I took a ballet class. In a rinky dink ballet studio in a farming town in Michigan. And I cleaned toilets in exchange for for ballet classes, you know, like I remember like my parents wouldn't pay for it.

• 12:11Speaker 02

  So I remember going to the, you know, must have been like 10 years old, saying, can I clean in exchange for ballet? And they kindly let me.

• 12:19Bunnie XO?

  That's a strong work ethic even at 10 years old, though.

• 12:21Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, I've always been very like independent and I think because my parents were very young parents. They fought a lot. They were like, you know, like typical. What do you do when you're 22 years old and you already have three children? It's pretty complicated, right?

• 12:40Speaker 02

  And my dad was out of work a lot, so I always had this kind of like fear of, you know, or conscientiousness about money especially. So I was always like trying to find jobs and like.

• 12:53Bunnie XO?

  My parents fought about money all the time and that's literally driven me my entire life to never have to ever have those arguments.

• 13:00Speaker 02

  Right, yeah. Yeah, I remember like my mom being very like buying something and hiding the purchases from my dad and I was like, that's never happening to me.

• 13:08Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 13:09Speaker 02

  I'm gonna, I'm gonna earn my own money and buy whatever I want.

• 13:12Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, they gave you examples of what you don't wanna be.

• 13:14Speaker 02

  Yes, absolutely. Um, so then when I was like twelve, my parents moved us all out. I'm one of three girls. We moved out to Orange County, California, um, to a place called Irvine. Some people know that, but if people think of the OC, I know there's like some connotations, but for me, growing up in Orange County was like growing up, um, you know, in the heart of the rockabilly swing dance scene, like after, you know, in the early nineties, it was really like happening there.

• 13:46Bunnie XO?

  I went to school with a bunch of rockabillys in Vegas, so.

• 13:49Speaker 02

  It was very like happening there in the, in the early nineties. Um, so yeah, I, I, you know, grew went to high school in Orange County and, and, you know, lived there until about two thousand, but then moved to LA.

• 14:03Bunnie XO?

  When did your love for burlesque start? Because I know you said you love vintage things, but you know, how did the vintage love trans- transfer over to burlesque?

• 14:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, um, well, I worked in a lingerie store when I was in high school.

• 14:17Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, which one?

• 14:18Speaker 02

  I, it was called Lady Ruby's and it was in Irvine. It was very fancy. It was around the corner from the nail salon that my mother worked in, cause my mom was a manicurist. Um, so I loved lingerie and there was something about lingerie that was very like symbolic of womanhood and femininity and I was like it very intrigued with lingerie from a young age, like. Not like, oh, that's sexy, but like, what is this thing my mom has in her drawers? That my, you know, you have to be a certain age. What is this frilly thing? I was really like strangely fascinated when I was little. And so I, you know, I obviously couldn't wait till I was old enough to wear a bra and all that stuff.

• 15:01Speaker 02

  But I, I started working in this lingerie store first, like, you know, cleaning and like doing, putting tags on things and stuff. And then I worked as a sales girl. And that kind of like set the tone for a lot of what I did because I loved lingerie. Um, I started learning about vintage lingerie. Bullet bras, corsets, and like what, how women wore different types of lingerie over the years. And so, um, when I graduated from high school, I kind of, I went to my first rave party in nineteen ninety. And I met all these drag queens and club kids and it was like this whole other world for me.

• 15:44Bunnie XO?

  Let's rewind it back. I'm gonna stop you right there before we get into that story. Your dad did not take a liking to you liking lingerie, though. Can we talk about that? And would you like a pillow behind you or another pillow? Are you good? Are you comfortable?

• 15:56Speaker 02

  I'm okay, I think.

• 15:57Bunnie XO?

  Okay, we can put a pillow behind you too if you need to.

• 15:59Speaker 02

  I'm okay.

• 16:00Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 16:00Speaker 02

  Um, yes, okay, yeah. So I'm working, I'm, my parents are, I'm like sixteen years old. Um, my parents are getting a divorce. Uh, I'm going back and forth, like staying with my mom, then staying with my dad. And at the time I'm staying with my dad and his new, um, girlfriend, right? And I'm working my little job in the lingerie store, like just minding my own business, but washing my little things in the sink, hanging them up to dry as you should instead of putting them in the dryer. And my dad got really disturbed by that. And he kicked me out of the house. And, you know, I'm sixteen and I'm just like, first of all, I'm, I've had a job, you know?

• 16:44Speaker 02

  I have my own credit cards, I have my own car. I'm like, whatever.

• 16:48Bunnie XO?

  You've always just been so responsible.

• 16:49Speaker 02

  Really responsible, like, and just fiercely independent.

• 16:54Bunnie XO?

  Where do you think that stems from? Just growing up in a chaotic household?

• 16:58Speaker 02

  It's kind of like my, the, the feeling of never having like enough or being worried about what, what I ask my parents for.

• 17:11Speaker 02

  I don't know, but that that's what I think it probably is.

• 17:13Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 17:14Speaker 02

  Um, so yeah, my dad kicks me out the house and it was really interesting. I just revisited this a few years ago. I was, uh, I have a lingerie collection now that I've had for like fourteen years. And a few years ago, this company called Destination Maternity asked me to make uh, pretty maternity bras, like to adapt my designs. And I was like, okay, well, I don't know anything about maternity bras, but let's adapt the designs. It sounds great. And there was like such a, it was a huge like conversation around it, like some women that were like, why are you telling me to be sexy after I have a baby? And me, and I went, oh, interesting.

• 17:55Speaker 02

  So you think that lingerie is about being sexy for your man? And then there's other people that think they like it for them. They enjoy having something pretty. Like I've always had that relationship with it. And, um, and then there was like a lot of people that came to my def- defense, of course, like new mothers that were like, well, listen, you know, you wear the nursing bra and then at one point you want to wear something beautiful, like, you know, months in or whatever. So anyway, I thought about this so much, like about my dad and like his, what his thoughts about lingerie being symbolic of like sex or sluttiness, you know, like all of these things. And I thought, wow, it's so weird how like that, but but I remember going that, you know, that's his problem.

• 18:40Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 18:41Speaker 02

  And I still feel that way, like

• 18:43Bunnie XO?

  To be able to decipher that at such a young age is awesome though, too.

• 18:46Speaker 02

  It just was very like a weird thing and it, and especially because I did have this, I do have this relationship with lingerie where it's not for me about putting it on for someone. It's something that I do because I enjoy it. Yeah.

• 18:59Bunnie XO?

  It's crazy how there's such a sexual stigma to lingerie, because when you think about it, you think about like Playboy or like, you know, just nudity in general, but really

• 19:11Bunnie XO?

  It's just like if you wake up in the morning and you want to feel good and you want to be pretty and you know you have it on, nobody has to see what you have on.

• 19:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's like a, a, a secret. Or it's like you can have any personality you want under your clothes. And I love opening a drawer and having all these colors and matching my things. It's just like fun. Like, why not have a little moment of pleasure and beauty that doesn't take extra time? That's the way I think of it.

• 19:36Bunnie XO?

  And that doesn't have a sexual connotation.

• 19:38Speaker 02

  Right. Certainly, I know the power of it.

• 19:40Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 19:41Speaker 02

  As a grown woman.

• 19:44Speaker 02

  But yeah.

• 19:46Bunnie XO?

  So moving on from dad kicking you out, where does this put you? Do you move back in with mom?

• 19:52Speaker 02

  I believe I moved back in with mom.

• 19:57Speaker 02

  It's this hazy timeline because I was like, you know. Yeah, I think I moved back in with my mom and, uh, and then as soon as I was like 18, I was out of there.

• 20:08Bunnie XO?

  Tell me about Captain Creams.

• 20:11Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 20:13Speaker 02

  That you studied. So Cap, do you know anything about Captain Creams?

• 20:17Bunnie XO?

  I don't. I heard what you have said about it though, and it sounds pretty iconic.

• 20:22Speaker 02

  It was like this, it had the terrible name. That's not even the full name. The full name is Captain Creams Tussling Tootsies. By the way, that was the full name. Now, when I went to work there underage, I, with my fake ID, you know, at, I think I was.

• 20:40Bunnie XO?

  I think we all had fake IDs back then.

• 20:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, totally.

• 20:43Bunnie XO?

  They were like rampant. If you didn't have one, you weren't one of the cool kids.

• 20:46Speaker 02

  I didn't even have a fake one. I had a real one.

• 20:48Bunnie XO?

  Right, me too. Mine was like Maria and I was like 31, but I was really like 17.

• 20:53Speaker 02

  No, I, I'll tell you what, I went to the DMV with my sister's like social security card. And I got my picture on her ID, so I had a real ID.

• 21:04Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 21:04Speaker 02

  That I had more than once handed over to a police officer that was like, sorry to bother you, miss. And I was like.

• 21:11Bunnie XO?

  That's amazing.

• 21:12Speaker 02

  I was like 19, just like, oh God. Yeah, I think 18. Um, so this club was in, uh, Lake Forest, which is in Orange County, and it was legendary. Um, it was like legendary for having like all the Playboy Playmates and Penthouse Girls working there. It was really hard to get a job there. And it was kind of like a hole in the wall place, but like, when I tell you, it was really like, um, like a legendary strip club. And there was tons of like, money flowing. It was so much fun.

• 21:44Bunnie XO?

  That was kind of how Crazy Horse used to be out here. It was like a hole in the wall, but like, everybody that was iconic ever worked there.

• 21:51Speaker 02

  And this place, you, you, you were hired like as an employee. So you got a paycheck, like a minimum wage paycheck, which didn't mean much to me anyway, because I had my other job working in the lingerie store and then in a department store, working, selling cosmetics. So I had all these, I always had lots of jobs.

• 22:08Bunnie XO?

  Like to keep yourself busy.

• 22:10Speaker 02

  A lot of jobs. Um, so it was really like this great, this wonderful time, I think, in, um, strip clubs, like before, when they used to pay you to work there instead of taking your money.

• 22:23Bunnie XO?

  Instead of you having to pay a house fee.

• 22:25Speaker 02

  Yes, I lived through that shift and I was not into it. So, um, yeah, I had a lot of fun working there. And at that same time was when I started like, well, so I should rewind a little bit. So I'm working, I, I'm, I'm in this, this LA rave scene, right? And my boyfriend is one of the big raver, like rave promoters. Um, and I'm go-go dancing, of course, like, you know, so, uh, he takes me to this strip club. He takes me to Captain Creams and I'm like-

• 22:55Bunnie XO?

  It's always a man who introduces us to strip clubs.

• 22:57Speaker 02

  Yeah. And I was like, wow, these, and it was a bikini club. It was not even topless or anything. You had to wear like full underwear and you had to wear a full bra. So I was very like, these girls are wearing like more clothes than what I wear when I'm go-go dancing. So I thought I'd try working there as an experiment. And that's kind of when I started like, you know, I already dressed in vintage style. So I was like, well, I'm going to strip in vintage style. And I remember they were like, I mean, there was nobody like me there at that time.

• 23:27Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, with the black, you already had your look back then. So you're a natural blonde for everybody who wants, who's- Wondering, I did see some pictures and so you color your hair black.

• 23:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:38Bunnie XO?

  So you, when did you start doing that? When was the first time you looked in the mirror and you were like, okay, I don't want to be a blonde.

• 23:43Speaker 02

  Well, first it was red, like I had red hair.

• 23:46Bunnie XO?

  Beautiful. I mean, you're beautiful now, but red would be gorgeous.

• 23:49Speaker 02

  From blonde to red. It was like the, you know, the, the natural thing to do. And then I kept, like a lot of people that play with red hair color for the first time. You start adding more and more red and you're like, it's not red enough. It's not red enough. And then it was suddenly like burgundy. Um, and then one day I was like, you know what? I'm gonna dye it black. And I wore it like in a black, like Louise Brooks twenties hairstyle for a little while. So it kind of started there.

• 24:14Bunnie XO?

  That's awesome. How old were you?

• 24:16Speaker 02

  Um, I must have been like twenty two.

• 24:20Bunnie XO?

  Okay, gotcha. Did you ever just set out to like change your look to look like somebody? Or did you know, you just wanted to kind of like? Ha- have a signature style?

• 24:31Speaker 02

  I just always liked feeling different. Like I had like little obsessions. Like I liked, you know, there were, I'd go through different periods. Like I'd see a vintage film and I'd be like, oh, I love that hair. I'm gonna do that hair for a while. Or I'd always wore the cat eye. Because it was like a fifties thing. And there was like a famous photo um, on the cover of a, a Vogue with a cat eye. And just the red lips and nothing else. And that image like was the thing that made me do the cat eye.

• 24:59Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 25:00Speaker 02

  So I kind of mixed all these things together, like nineteen forties style hair with, you know, the fifties cat eye. So it kind of just became like a thing where it was a mixture. But I went through periods over the years where I, you know, everything was thirties. Then everything was forties. Like then it was fifties. I, I liked studying the eras and dressing exactly like those eras.

• 25:24Bunnie XO?

  Which era is your favorite?

• 25:25Speaker 02

  The forties.

• 25:26Bunnie XO?

  The forties. What is it about the forties? Just the?

• 25:29Speaker 02

  The bouffant hairdos. Yeah. The bouffant hairdos, the clothes are really chic from that time. Like, uh, It was a great time for like hats, like whimsical.

• 25:39Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 25:40Speaker 02

  Uh, hats with a sense of humor and um. Yeah, and I love the films of that era. I got a lot of inspiration. Like if you, if you look closely at my, my show, you'll see like the inspirations were from 1940s films. And I was like, what if that was like a striptease?

• 25:56Bunnie XO?

  So yeah, I love that. We'll have to go see Dio's show. Yeah, it'll be amazing. Um, so moving on, but back to crispy.

• 26:05Speaker 02

  Captain Creams.

• 26:07Bunnie XO?

  Sorry, I was gonna say crispy creams.

• 26:09Speaker 02

  To Captain Creams.

• 26:11Bunnie XO?

  Um, what was it like the first time that you danced? Were you shy? Or were you already just so in tune with your body that you were like, here I am, bitches?

• 26:19Speaker 02

  I feel like, well, again, it was just a bikini bar and you know, I was already like go-go dancing in the rave scene. So, um, I don't know. I don't remember ever having a problem. And I think also growing up like in like dancing and ballet are used to like, you know, wearing not much and being, you know, checking out your body in the mirror. So I think, um, I don't remember ever, I remember, uh, there was one day I came into the club and they're like, we're going to be a topless club now. And I remember going like, hmm. And they said, now the rule is you're either a topless girl or not topless girl. You can't negotiate for money for your top to come off.

• 27:01Speaker 02

  You, you make the decision now that you're going to be a topless girl, or you're going to be a non-topless girl. Like they gave girls that were working there a long time, the choice.

• 27:09Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 27:10Speaker 02

  And I was like, I don't care. I'm taking my top off. It's so fun to me. You know, it was like a just boobs, you know?

• 27:17Bunnie XO?

  I feel like money back then too was different. Like strip clubs were so different back then. Like when I first started dancing too. I started dancing in 2001. Um, it was like,

• 27:29Bunnie XO?

  and I don't want to say this like in a derogatory way, but it was more selective. And like, it was more taboo and like, you know, not just anybody could dance and the clubs were filled with like gorgeous women. And it was just like, I don't know. It was a different time. It wasn't like how dancing is now.

• 27:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean. Imagine what it was like in the nineties.

• 27:49Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 27:50Speaker 02

  It was amazing.

• 27:51Bunnie XO?

  Oh, I bet.

• 27:52Speaker 02

  And think too, like, also, please remember that, like, all of that, you know, the iconic, like, Sunset Boulevard, strip clubs in the eighties, flashdance.

• 28:03Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 28:03Speaker 02

  That was real.

• 28:04Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 28:05Speaker 02

  There's a great documentary, if you've never seen it, you have to watch it, it's called Stripper.

• 28:08Bunnie XO?

  Okay, I'll watch it.

• 28:09Speaker 02

  And it's about this big competition where the strippers from all over, like, Canada and the US come to Las Vegas to compete for a $25,000 prize, which, by the way, $25,000 in the eighties is a lot of money. Um, and it's a documentary and it's amazing. And you really go, oh, the Body Shop on Sunset was amazing. Like, girls that were Playboy models doing, like, backflips naked on stage, like, really, like, they put on a show.

• 28:37Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, and Seventh Veil, right? Or what was it called?

• 28:39Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, I never, I don't know as much about the history of Seventh Veil, but the Body Shop was really famous and had, like, you know, all the video vixen girls, so, um, it definitely, you know, strip clubs evolved. I just feel like it's, I didn't like when it evolved to where they were taking advantage of girls and you couldn't, like, I had health insurance in the nineties working as, in a strip club and a paycheck.

• 29:02Bunnie XO?

  They need to bring that back.

• 29:04Speaker 02

  They will never bring it back.

• 29:05Bunnie XO?

  Bring it back. We need, strippers need insurance too.

• 29:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 29:08Bunnie XO?

  I mean, that's crazy. I never knew that.

• 29:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 29:12Bunnie XO?

  That's awesome, though.

• 29:12Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:13Bunnie XO?

  What a little tidbit of history. Um, so, moving forward from dancing, when did it start turning into, like, more of, like, a burlesque show for you? Or was it always like that?

• 29:24Speaker 02

  Um, so, like, I'd say, like, around 94, I was, um, kind of, like, already known for, as being a pinup girl. Um, and I was pretty famous, like, amongst, like, the fetish crowd, like, all over the world, like, in London and Germany, and I was- I was the most famous fetish model in the world in the early nineties. So, um, and then I-

• 29:47Bunnie XO?

  Toot your own horn, baby.

• 29:48Speaker 02

  I know, it's just weird to say, cause it's like-

• 29:50Bunnie XO?

  No, but you've built that.

• 29:53Speaker 02

  And so then I posed for Playboy for this book of lingerie. They had these newsstand specials and I became a newsstand special girl. And then I got, I was the only one that looked like me in there, wearing corsets and like styling myself like a pinup girl. And so I started headlining strip clubs all over the country. So I would travel to different clubs that would pay me like to be there for the week. And be on their marquee or whatever. So it kind of started then. I think when I left the Captain Creams, which probably left there in like ninety-four. I remember kind of like dipping out and in and just like, uh, not really liking the vibe anymore. Um, and headlining strip clubs. And so I had to make more of a show. So it started really there.

• 30:36Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Where did the name Dita Von Teese come from?

• 30:39Speaker 02

  That came from Captain Creams, sitting on a bar stool one night when I got the call that I was going to be in Playboy and they said, and I was already going by Dita. Like, I don't know, I, I don't, I think I'd seen like a movie with an actress called Dita Parla, like a twenties movie. And remember I had this like twenties haircut. Um, and anyway, I knew, I got the like, that I'd been accepted to shoot for Playboy and they said, well, you needed a last name. And I was like, why? Like Madonna, Dita, Cher. Like, why do I have to have a last name? And they're like, you just do. And so I had, I remember, I always remember sitting there with my friend. Cisco on the bar.

• 31:18Bunnie XO?

  Oh, not the Cisco, the red one. I puked it up so many times.

• 31:21Speaker 02

  I think it was purple.

• 31:23Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 31:23Speaker 02

  Uh, like grape or something. Anyway, it's gross.

• 31:26Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 31:26Speaker 02

  Um, but I loved it. Or it could've been a gold slager.

• 31:29Bunnie XO?

  Could've been a gold slager.

• 31:30Speaker 02

  I can't do gold slager. Oof.

• 31:32Bunnie XO?

  So I pulled out the phone book.

• 31:35Speaker 02

  For those of you don't know, there's things called the phone book. It was really big. Anyway, and I'm sitting there drinking, go, let's, I'm gonna look up Vons. People with like a Vons in their name are very cool and people already like where I worked. Like I would pretend I didn't speak English a lot of times. Because I had this look and the corsets and the long black gloves and boots. And I just like to pretend I couldn't talk to anybody because I didn't want to talk to anyone. So I'd just be like.

• 32:02Bunnie XO?

  Dance. I just want to be beautiful.

• 32:04Speaker 02

  So, yeah, I just didn't want to do the hustle with, like, I was never good, good at like hustling people.

• 32:09Bunnie XO?

  Work smarter, not harder.

• 32:10Speaker 02

  Yeah. Uh, so I looked up Vons and I found this name Von Tries. And I was like, I'm gonna be Dita Von Tries. Sounds good. So I called up Playboy and told them what I was going to be. And they're like, yeah, fine. And then like a month later, I go to the, get the magazine. I open it up and it says, um, Dita Von Tees. And I was like, that's not it. So I called them. And like, I'm not thinking at all, like strip tees, tees, like, I'm not thinking that at all. Didn't even register in my brain that it was a good idea. I called them again and said it was wrong. And they're like, we'll correct it. And then they just never did. And I was like, whatever. It, it, to me, I was never like, it was a moment in time, you know, I'm like 20 something years old.

• 32:54Speaker 02

  I think, you know, I'm at the pinnacle of my career, by the way. You know, I think that that's it, you know, I'm on a truck stop in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin for the strip club I'm performing at. I'm in Playboy and I'm on the cover of Skin Two, you know, and Fetish Magazine. To me, that was like, that's it, you know? I'm gonna get, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be 30 in a few years and that's gonna be a wrap on my career. So I better enjoy it. But I didn't, you know, so there was no like planning a career. It was just like, that was it.

• 33:25Bunnie XO?

  I think that's how it happens too, is when you don't plan something, it just organically grows. It's almost like the universe grabs it and just rolls with it.

• 33:34Speaker 02

  Totally. I'm, don't get me started on manifesting things. And because I, I really believe that. I really think like, you know, a lot of people will ask me like, what does it take to get where you are? And I'm like, well, first of all, stop thinking of where you want to go and start enjoying where you are. Because if you can't appreciate the, the, the now and what's happening right now. Forget it. Like, and when people ask me like what my goal is right now, I'm like, I don't have a goal. I never had a goal. I just was like quietly delighted at all the little milestones and enjoying that moment and working with integrity and gratitude and like that's the key. Like,

• 34:16Speaker 02

  I don't think if you, if you're always looking for the next best thing or like the thing that's gonna make you. I don't think it works like that.

• 34:25Bunnie XO?

  That's so real. And I think a lot of people, including myself, need to hear something like that because I'm always like on to the next goal. And sometimes I forget that this is a journey, not a destination, a destination. So that was very beautifully said. I heard you say that you love Insight Timer. I'm not, I'm not sponsored by them at all, but I am a huge Insight Timer person. I love meditating. I love all that stuff. So when I heard you say that in a podcast, I was like, this is my girl.

• 34:51Speaker 02

  I know. Do you have your favorite people? Like I have my, my Insight Timer crushes, like the people whose voices I'm like.

• 34:58Bunnie XO?

  I love the women. I have, I'm still, I'm trying to get into the men, but I love the women that have accents. Like the Australian accents or like, you know, just something like fluid and just like so pretty and whimsical. You know, I love that. It just helps me to meditate. What are your favorites?

• 35:13Speaker 02

  My, my two favorites, I guess I have a few. One is this guy named David Gandelman. I totally have a crush on him. And he's like, tells stupid jokes. Do you know who I'm talking about over there? You know, I totally love him. He has a thing called the Grounded Sleep Podcast and I swear that puts me to sleep, not because he's boring, but just because it's like having my friend on there, you know? And then there's this gal named Sarah Blondin, who I can just listen to all day. Like she's kind of more of like a poetess, you know, like. Um, so I really like her. And then there's, there's a couple other people, like there's this guy with a Scottish accent that sounds like he's got this really deep, like Scottish, do you know what's that guy's name? Do you know who I'm talking about? Oh, he just really gets me.

• 35:58Speaker 02

  She said he gets me.

• 36:00Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, yeah. Like he'll be like, okay, I can't imitate, but he's like, there's nowhere else to be right now. Like that, like deep low. And I was like, yeah, there's nowhere else to be.

• 36:10Bunnie XO?

  Do their voices match their faces when you see them? Sometimes I always go and like try to look at their profile picture because I'm like their voice is like so you know you like you try to visualize what they look like. And then they don't look like the person that you would visualize, you know?

• 36:23Speaker 02

  I think they do. It's also a really funny journey when you're looking for somebody new and you put it on, you're like, okay, okay. And then you listen to it and you're like, their voice comes on at this poor sound quality and you're like, oh no.

• 36:35Bunnie XO?

  No, I do that too.

• 36:36Speaker 02

  Like it's so like.

• 36:38Bunnie XO?

  I'm pickier about looking for man like uh um meditations than I am for looking for porn.

• 36:44Speaker 02

  Like literally, like I don't even know where to look for porn. I'm just like.

• 36:48Bunnie XO?

  What kind of porn are you into?

• 36:50Speaker 02

  I mean, I don't know. I mean, I I like I like to see what's going on in the world. I like to I'm I don't I don't have anything in particular. Or anything like that. I mean, you know, I was a huge Andrew Blake fan, of course. And if you're if you're around in the nineties, like the highest glossyest porn ever made.

• 37:07Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 37:09Speaker 02

  But that's not what I really go looking for. I was just like a fan that somebody was doing this like beautiful shot on film porn.

• 37:16Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 37:16Speaker 02

  You know?

• 37:17Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, just something that's pretty, like pretty porn.

• 37:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I like to see like great feats of sexual excellence. Like, how is she doing that?

• 37:28Bunnie XO?

  Like she's an acrobat. What's really going on?

• 37:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 37:31Bunnie XO?

  Um, so let's like, can we dive into um a couple of your relationships? How did you meet Marilyn Manson?

• 37:39Speaker 02

  Uh, gosh, when I think about it, it was in two thousand. So I know like some people like they always go, you were only married for a year. And I'm like, I know, but this is a seven year long relationship. So like, and even longer if you consider the fallout of like what it's like to be married and divorced to someone and how long you're connected to them after the fact.

• 38:00Bunnie XO?

  Especially in the public eye.

• 38:02Speaker 02

  Yeah. Um, so you know, it was a very like inspiring time, like when we met, he was a very uh like different person, I think, like than what I what what he was when I left.

• 38:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was like a very interesting evolution of a person.

• 38:28Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 38:29Speaker 02

  To see.

• 38:32Speaker 02

  What can I say? Um, yeah, yeah, it was like I he went to rehab once when we were together. Uh, with the like, I want to be a better man for you. And that was just like a little bit of like cocaine and booze, right? And then he came out of rehab way worse with all these pills, like everyone was doing. Everyone in Hollywood was doing all this oxycontin and stuff like snorting it. And I was just, he came out worse. And that was kind of like the turn was like first, like three years were great. And then four years were just like, oh, God.

• 39:04Bunnie XO?

  So when you met him, was he, he wasn't sober when you met him?

• 39:08Speaker 02

  No, but definitely like, um,

• 39:11Bunnie XO?

  Was it more of like?

• 39:12Speaker 02

  Very like more reeled in. Like I remember him being like, you know,

• 39:17Speaker 02

  not, you know, like sleeping every night, you know, like sleeping every night.

• 39:22Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 39:22Speaker 02

  That's the only way to put it to like not sleeping.

• 39:25Bunnie XO?

  Right. Gotcha.

• 39:26Speaker 02

  At all.

• 39:27Bunnie XO?

  Um, you had said something about your guys' wedding day that I found interesting. He was sober on your wedding day? Or he wasn't?

• 39:34Speaker 02

  Who knows? I think so. He slept most of the wedding day. So.

• 39:38Bunnie XO?

  How did that work for you? Did that hurt your feelings that he slept most of the day? Or were you just kind of happy that he was?

• 39:44Speaker 02

  Listen, I shouldn't have been getting married. And I think I knew it, but there was so much pressure at that time. Like we'd been together for all of that time. Um, you know, Vogue was covering the wedding, like US Vogue is there with a journalist. I felt like an immense amount of pressure. Um, and I just felt like, okay, like I'm not calling this off, right? You know?

• 40:12Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. And you guys had already been through six years of.

• 40:15Speaker 02

  Long time. So it just like made sense and.

• 40:18Bunnie XO?

  To happen.

• 40:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. But it was like, yeah, it was even more pressure than ever, you know, like more being married was hard.

• 40:29Bunnie XO?

  I had read, I'm not sure if I read or I heard you say that you are kind of privy to the idea of open relationships. Can we, can you elaborate on that?

• 40:39Speaker 02

  I think like, I've never been an open relationships type person, but I also feel like there's a point, and I know some people don't like want to hear this, but I feel like when you become like an adult and enough experience with relationships, you need to kind of like grow up and think about what is a relationship about. Like it's not a fairy tale.

• 40:58Bunnie XO?

  I love, I love that you said fairy tales don't exist in this life.

• 41:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:02Bunnie XO?

  That really struck me like, because I believe the same thing and I am, I believe in freedom in a relationship of, you know, everybody has their own terms of monogamy. And I just think that sometimes monogamy can be a jail. And I just think that some people deserve freedom, not saying that go fuck everybody, but you know, open communication with your partner.

• 41:24Speaker 02

  I think it's one of the like, when I look at, um, like, I, I, I love all these like young, cool, like therapists and like people like communicating in a different way than when I was growing up, you know? And, um, I think it's interesting, people that have like open relationships or they have ways of, you know, understanding that like people are people and they make mistakes. And it's like, it's, it's more complicated than just like, oh, that person like cheated or whatever. It's like you have, if you get to the reasons like why if you didn't want it, if you

• 42:05Speaker 02

  are not trying to be in an open relationship. I, I don't know. I just think it's, people are complicated. And if you're in like a long-term relationship.

• 42:12Bunnie XO?

  And each situation is different.

• 42:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, totally. Like I, I feel like I'm, I, I, my, all of my relationships from when I was, I had like the perfect long-term boyfriend in high school, like this great romance, but like after that it got real, like every long-term boyfriend I had or every boyfriend I had cheated on me. And I was kind of like going, why don't we say what's happening, you know? What can I do? And what am I not doing? And, um,

• 42:41Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, it's just kind of like, but you know, I I don't know, I don't think like cheating is everything, but you you you're grow up thinking that you're supposed to be faithful and you fall in love and that's what like falling in love is is being faithful to each other.

• 42:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:59Bunnie XO?

  There's so much more.

• 43:00Speaker 02

  More complicated than that.

• 43:01Bunnie XO?

  It's so much more than that. Yeah, I I when I heard you say that, I was like, yes, like I I got what you're you were saying, and I just really uh wanted to talk about that with you because it not too many people, especially of your stature, really bring that to the forefront. And I talk about it all the time and people think I'm crazy. They're like, you know, the marriage is a sacred union. And you're like, yeah, it can still be sacred.

• 43:23Speaker 02

  It can be. It just seems like a lot of pressure to put on yourself, like the communication is what's most important. And a lot of people like fall in love and they never really you fall in love and you never really talk about what the rules of your relationship are. And I think even people that are non-monogamous, it talk about what the rules are. And the problem, though, is like, people like to break the rules no matter what. So like, I know people who are like the polyamorous and they're they're still like, you'll still break the rule if you if somebody says your rule is like, you're not gonna have sex with somebody else in our bed. Guess what the first thing they're gonna do is is like, it's just like people's nature to like.

• 43:58Bunnie XO?

  If you tell them not to do something, they'll do it.

• 44:00Speaker 02

  Totally. So, yeah, I don't know. I think it's just more complicated than like loyalty and faithful. There's different kinds of loyalty. I don't know. I I.

• 44:09Bunnie XO?

  We just went to the church of Dita.

• 44:12Speaker 02

  No, I'm just like rambling. I'm not a relationship expert by any means.

• 44:16Bunnie XO?

  No, but it's real.

• 44:17Speaker 02

  Many, many times and continue to fail in relationships like, you know, I um.

• 44:23Bunnie XO?

  Well, you're not failing now, though. You're aren't you in like a long term relationship?

• 44:26Speaker 02

  I am, but you know, I'm not great all the time. You know, like, I know what my downfalls are. I'm always like.

• 44:32Bunnie XO?

  We love a humble queen.

• 44:33Speaker 02

  I'm not easy. I know I'm not easy woman to be with. I know that, you know.

• 44:37Bunnie XO?

  What does it take to make Dita Von Teese happy in a relationship?

• 44:42Speaker 02

  Well, I'm a bit of a size queen.

• 44:43Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. I love that.

• 44:45Speaker 02

  Admittedly. Feel like I can say that here.

• 44:48Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, of course.

• 44:49Speaker 02

  No, I mean, joking aside, I guess I just, um, I love doing what I do. I love working. I love, you know, I always have so many projects. I think what I, I love being independent. I don't like being like, I'm somebody's woman. I keep my relationships, like now, after like experiencing that, like, you know, I'm still talking about my ex-husband that I met in two thousand. That's twenty four years ago. I'm still talking about that. So I think like after that, I was very like, I don't want to date any more famous men.

• 45:25Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 45:27Speaker 02

  Because I don't, I get very uncomfortable talking about my relationships, you know, like it's just, uh, so I don't know, I just love my work. Um, I love my animals. I love my friends. I love my like, relationships, but I just, to me, it's all like spread across the board. Like when I was younger, it was like I put so much importance on romance.

• 45:52Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 45:53Speaker 02

  And I just am like, okay.

• 45:55Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. As you get older, you're just like, no, it's like,

• 45:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:58Bunnie XO?

  I always tell my husband, I'm like, we've been together almost a decade. I'm like, if, if this does not work out, which it will, I, I could never just get into another relationship again, especially with a public person. And also just having to get to know somebody on that, those, that level again of intimacy and just being, you know, joined at the hip with somebody is just, it's a lot. It's a lot to,

• 46:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:22Bunnie XO?

  to have to try to work through again.

• 46:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:25Bunnie XO?

  Do you ever have a down day, like where you wear sweats and a T-shirt?

• 46:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I'll go to my Pilates and live in my athleisure for the day.

• 46:35Bunnie XO?

  How do we never have a picture of you in like outer, like, like activewear?

• 46:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, okay. Well, there are, there are.

• 46:42Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 46:42Speaker 02

  It'd be like, Google Images, Deidre Montes Pilates. I'm definitely coming out of Pilates Studios. But I have my little tricks I do. It's like sunglasses, red lipstick. It's not hard. It takes like a few seconds to put on red lipstick.

• 46:55Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 46:57Speaker 02

  I don't know. I just have my like codes, you know, I put on my, my, uh, what do they call Lululemon pant? I put on my, you know, and I put, I'll put a jacket over it, you know, or a fifties skirt over it. I kind of just, I don't really like, I'm pretty aware, like aware, but I liked, it's not even to do with somebody taking a picture of me or, I think, oh, I don't want to run into that person and seeing me not looking put together, but I also just feel like I like what, I, I think about confidence a lot and what are the things I can do to control my confidence levels? And one of those things is like feeling like I took a few minutes to put myself together.

• 47:37Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I love that. I used to always be dolled up. I would, you wouldn't catch me in sandals ever. I used to always have heels on. I hated being flat footed and I think when I moved to Nashville is when I finally just kind of like took it all off and was just like, I just need a break from all this and now I can't come back from it. I get dressed up for like concerts and like appearances and stuff like that, but like,

• 47:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:57Bunnie XO?

  I just, I love, there's nothing, no better feeling at night than ripping these eyelashes off and putting on sweats. So you're fifty one, your skin is flawless. What is your skincare routine?

• 48:12Speaker 02

  Sunscreen.

• 48:13Bunnie XO?

  Sunscreen.

• 48:14Speaker 02

  Just tons of sunscreen. On your back. Okay. If I wish, I know no one wants to hear this, but I'm sorry, I wish somebody would have told me when I was young, like how good it is for you to sleep on your back and I, the last like four years, I taught myself to sleep on my back and it has worked miracles. Like, if you think about it, when you look on, if you're a side sleeper, I know where my like one wrinkle came from, cause if I go like this where the pillow is like, oh, there's that line, that's where that came from, from sleeping with your face on the pillow. So I taught myself, Insight Timer helped me with that, put on that meditation, I lay there like a zombie and like,

• 48:53Speaker 02

  just like close my eyes, sleep with my palms up. So it puts my shoulders back and like, okay, everything's fine. So, yeah.

• 49:01Bunnie XO?

  How do you not move throughout the night though?

• 49:03Speaker 02

  Sometimes I do, but I catch myself.

• 49:05Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 49:06Speaker 02

  I'm a, I'm like a light sleeper. I can totally catch myself when I'm in a like, don't do that. And I've actually gotten good if I feel like I have to sleep on my side. I've gotten good at like putting the pillow kind of up here. So my face is still.

• 49:16Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 49:17Speaker 02

  Not being squished by the pillow. Like, listen, you know, it's, it's all fun and games until you're like, you start realizing the collagen's really going and you're like, oh, those marks on my face from my sunglasses, which I know are on my face now. They'll stay all day. They'll stay all day.

• 49:34Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Have you had any work done at all?

• 49:36Speaker 02

  Uh, I've only had botox. In fact, all of my botox is currently worn off. Cause I like to let it wear, wear off. Um, because the last time I got botox, they, they were like,

• 49:48Speaker 02

  what do you think? You know, cause there was like, so into somebody new and he was like, what do you think? We put some in your chin? Cause you know, your chin's wrinkling up a little bit. And my first thought was like, I gotta worry about my chin now. Um, but I let him do it. And then one day I was like sitting there and my boyfriend's like, your smile is different. I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, your smile is different. And I was like, are you serious? And I started noticing, I was like, it really is. So then I was like, I'm letting all of the botox go away before. I mean, you need to hit the reset button because I'm all for it. It's like, you know, like, but you do have to be careful with the botox.

• 50:23Bunnie XO?

  Freeze like your bottom lip?

• 50:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, kind of. And I felt like it, like, I don't know. It made my smile different.

• 50:30Bunnie XO?

  And you just felt that it was off?

• 50:32Speaker 02

  Yeah. And I was like, that's not okay.

• 50:34Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 50:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:36Bunnie XO?

  Um, do you, do you waist train still or no?

• 50:40Speaker 02

  No, I never did. The thing is I always liked the aesthetics of corsets. And I've always used them in my show, even when I was working in the strip clubs. I was the girl with the corset on and I, people used to pool their money together to see what I looked like underneath it.

• 50:55Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 50:56Speaker 02

  Which I love. It was my favorite game. I was like, no, not enough yet. I'd come back around and be like, all right. And I'd take it off because they thought it was, there was rumors. I had like a birthmark or something, or it was something I was hiding. And I'm like, no, I just love the look of it. Um, so I never like deliberately waist trained. I would say the closest I ever came to that was like, Um, the a few times when I walked for Jean Paul Gaultier uh under the the Mr. Pearl making the corsetry. Um, I remember he would write me a note and be like, on this, at this hour, you can eat a half of an apple. In this hour, you can eat the other half, like very like, he's very strict.

• 51:38Speaker 02

  And that's the only time I've ever been like, okay, I'm gonna like pay attention to what he's saying, just because we have this like runway moment. And yeah, you're like, you can't like haul off and eat a cheeseburger before you're about to like wear the ultimate corset, you know? But he's very, he's a very strict person. Jean Paul Gaultier didn't care what I ate or what I, he was, you know, but Mr. Pearl's a very like particular person, the greatest corset maker of of the world.

• 52:05Bunnie XO?

  Absolutely. When you look back on all the things that you've accomplished and that you've done in this life, what is your proudest moment?

• 52:14Speaker 02

  I think, uh,

• 52:17Speaker 02

  I'm pretty, I get excited about how big burlesque has come. Like how it's like an industry now. And like even in this town, like like burlesque is like, and and I can, and I see the things that are exactly like derived from um, like what the things that I did a long time ago. And it's kind of cool because I just think like, oh, it's so great that there's this space, which is, you know, oftentimes celebratory of bodies. And like I was saying before, it's, it is a place of like

• 52:57Speaker 02

  inclusion and diversity and beauty. And I think it's important, like, I think it's important for people to come to my show and see um, me or people of different ages and different sizes and skin colors, like being beautiful and not just like the the showgirl mystique of like you had to be five foot ten to be a showgirl and weigh like, you know, a certain amount. I I think I'm proud that this has become a thing. And it's, and I can even see even in Vegas, because it's becoming the thing. And I'm going, oh, people are now taking a look at how they're casting and that that that's meaningful.

• 53:33Bunnie XO?

  I love that. Do you feel like you don't get your flowers as much as you should? Like people give like their nod to you?

• 53:42Speaker 02

  I don't know. I mean, I kind of think about some of the people around me that um like my friend Catherine Delish, who she and I created all these things together, like our, our, you know, she did things for me in costuming that had never been done in burlesque before that is now taken for, like, the, you know, people don't even know that it it was invented by her, like the first made for her, you know, by her for me. And so I mostly mostly think of her, like, and her genius and her getting her recognition. Um, you know, I I can roll my eyes all the time at things that I'm like, oh, you know,

• 54:20Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 54:20Speaker 02

  It's like, you know, people, burlesque dancers in nineteen thirties and forties didn't wear corsets to strip out of, like, that comes from me working for a corset company.

• 54:29Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 54:30Speaker 02

  In the nineties and being like, I'm gonna wear a corset and do a striptease, like, but you're not gonna find like, a famous burlesque star from the thirties anywhere, like, doing a striptease on stage. So like, there's things like that that I'm like, oh, yeah.

• 54:42Bunnie XO?

  I did that.

• 54:43Speaker 02

  I made it like a thing, a thing that it is. Um, so, but you know, but mostly I'm just like, I'm glad I get to do this still and that, um, you know, that people wanna come see me still. Cause like if I, if burlesque weren't so popular and so big, like, I wouldn't be doing this big Vegas show.

• 55:02Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Which, how long is this Vegas show running for?

• 55:05Speaker 02

  Um, we have dates until June fifteenth.

• 55:07Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 55:07Speaker 02

  It's a big show. It's very, it's definitely the biggest project I've ever done. The bit, it's definitely the biggest burlesque show that's ever been made in the history of ever.

• 55:16Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 55:17Speaker 02

  Okay. Like, the only thing that would, I could say is bigger was like, as far as burlesque shows, oh, there wouldn't be, there wouldn't be anything. It would be like, if you said, um, Zigfield Follies was, but that would be kind of like a showgirl review. But as far as striptease and burlesque, it's it's definitely the biggest one.

• 55:34Bunnie XO?

  What can people expect when they come see your show? Like, what is your show all about? Are you allowed to talk about it?

• 55:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. Um, well, it's in the Historic Jubilee Theater, which again, we, it's this incredible room that like the Rat Pack played in. It's amazing. It's um, like a time capsule. And these incredible costumes combined with my shows, like my, all of my things, like, I don't just have my one martini glass on stage. I've got five of them, you know? We, there's things that come up out of the ceilings, out of the floor. It's extravagance. It's opulence and um, striptease and there's again, like, um, you know, just as many hot guys in the show as there are women, so. Um, it's like an hour and twenty minutes long.

• 56:17Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm.

• 56:18Speaker 02

  Uh, what else can I say about it? The costumes, yeah. The costumes, okay. So Jubilee's costumes were incredible with the costume budget in the late seventies when they made these things with Bob Mackie and Pete Menefee. The costume budget was like four million dollars.

• 56:33Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 56:33Speaker 02

  So if you think about how much that would be now, nobody would ever spend four million dollars on, that's like tw- twelve million dollars today.

• 56:40Bunnie XO?

  That's crazy.

• 56:41Speaker 02

  Can you imagine?

• 56:41Bunnie XO?

  Mm-mm.

• 56:42Speaker 02

  There's thirty-two hundred tons of feathers that were brought, brought over from Paris for this show. So it's really like, you can only see things like this in museums now. This is the very last Showgirl Review. The only other Showgirl Review in the whole world would be Moulin Rouge in Paris. But there's no other Showgirl Review in Pa- in, in Vegas. And even the shows that are kind of like Showgirl-ish, none of them is using the authentic costumes.

• 57:12Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 57:13Speaker 02

  And that's what we have in this show.

• 57:14Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 57:15Speaker 02

  And the only other place you could see these costumes is like on display at, uh, at the UNLV Museum, I believe. Um, and I would venture to say this is going to be the last time you'll see them on stage and they're really something.

• 57:28Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 57:29Speaker 02

  It's really-

• 57:30Bunnie XO?

  Have to get out to see the show.

• 57:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's, it's, it's really special. I'm very proud of this show and-

• 57:36Bunnie XO?

  How hands-on were you with the show? Like, as far as like set designing, uh, of course, the costumes and then like just even like the entire show?

• 57:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm a bit of a micromanager, um, because I've always been a-

• 57:49Bunnie XO?

  I find that hard to believe, Dana.

• 57:50Speaker 02

  Do-it-yourselfer, um. But yeah, I mean, I curated all the costumes and decided what was going to go in the show and with each dancer picked what their look was, um. We I we chose props that we refurbished for the show like you'll see some original Jubilee props that have gotten a makeover because they were going to the trash. So I saved them. Um, but yeah, I worked with the team. I worked with the great uh choreography team um and director and they basically looked at my life's work and we put it as much as we could into one show.

• 58:24Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I keep hearing you refer to a documentary. What is this about?

• 58:29Speaker 02

  We started filming a documentary in twenty nineteen. So it's like really like long game, which is great because we, you know, got like my two my big tours before the pandemic. Then we got to film the pandemic and then when things finally opened after the pandemic, which was very exciting. I was one of the first shows to like go up in big theaters. Yeah, this is very exciting. And then, you know, Vegas is the cherry on the cake. I have another show that I'm working on though in London that opens up in October as well.

• 59:03Bunnie XO?

  Amazing. So you'll finish here and then you'll go to London and do a run out there?

• 59:06Speaker 02

  I think so. I'm I'm I might I'm not sure what, you know, how I'm still like working on if I'm going to add any dates or, you know, I'm not sure yet. I'm still trying to make all those decisions, trying to figure out how I can be everywhere all at once.

• 59:21Bunnie XO?

  When do you think the documentary will drop?

• 59:24Speaker 02

  I still have more that I want to film. Uh, I didn't get to film here in Vegas yet. And um, so that's like my last hurdle. I'm in like a very like the most like oh, like the oldest hardest union room in the city. So it's really hard to like film things like that. So I'm trying to wrestle up that last money to like film it here. But we have a great director and um from New York and I'll get there. Slow and steady wins the race.

• 59:54Bunnie XO?

  I love that. And then what can we expect from you for the rest of twenty twenty four? Like, do you have other projects besides Vegas and London that you're going to be doing that we can look forward to?

• 1:00:04Speaker 02

  Well, besides um.

• 1:00:07Speaker 02

  Vegas, uh, I have my London show that I'm working on with a gal named Tosca. It's a really cool concept show for the West End in London, so I'm excited about that. Um, I have a lingerie line, I'm still working on that. Um, gosh.

• 1:00:22Bunnie XO?

  Just like.

• 1:00:23Speaker 02

  I always later go, oh yeah, you have this project. I always forget, those are like the most important things. Show business is always the top of my list. I'm, I'm, I kind of want to do my annual New Year's Eve gala that I do in Los Angeles. You know, I kind of want to do that again, cause I skipped last year, so.

• 1:00:41Bunnie XO?

  What do you do for fun besides work? Cause you sound like me, like everybody asks me all the time, they're like, what do you do for fun? And I'm like, I work, that's what I do.

• 1:00:50Speaker 02

  Um, well, I've been, you know, I go home between the shows, like, uh, like for two days and I, I cook, I hang out with my animals, I organize my stuff, I wear no makeup.

• 1:01:03Bunnie XO?

  Are you a good cook?

• 1:01:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:01:05Bunnie XO?

  Yay, what's your favorite dish tonight?

• 1:01:07Speaker 02

  Um, I make this like vegetarian pot pie everyone talks about.

• 1:01:14Bunnie XO?

  I love that, are you a vegan, vegetarian?

• 1:01:17Speaker 02

  No, I'm kind of like flexitarian. Especially being in Vegas, it's kind of hard.

• 1:01:24Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, for sure, it's definitely hard, they have such good food out here. Why have you never came to Nashville?

• 1:01:31Speaker 02

  Oh, hold on, I have to take, I have to.

• 1:01:33Bunnie XO?

  You're good.

• 1:01:34Speaker 02

  Get my throat ready for this one.

• 1:01:38Speaker 02

  So I've done several world tours and, um, several US tours and every time I, every time I plan a tour, which I'm already like plotting, planning for this conversation, I try to go to Nashville and Memphis, but actually, like just Tennessee in general, like I know I have a big fan base there.

• 1:02:02Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:03Speaker 02

  And they, I get told no because of the blue laws there, I think they're called blue laws? When there's alcohol, there's a lot of policing over women's bodies, which I understand, but like I have performed in China, okay?

• 1:02:18Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 1:02:19Speaker 02

  I've performed in places where it's like really, you know, very conservative.

• 1:02:26Speaker 02

  Um, so I, you know, I know how to like, you know, I can wear tights. I can wear like a fifties brief and you know, a full bra and not take it off. Like I've been performing at like private events for brands all over the world and like

• 1:02:40Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:41Speaker 02

  Kazakhstan. Okay. Like crazy places where it's like very conservative. So, um, anyway, get on the phone. This is not my last tour, but the even the tour before that. And we're like talking about bringing the show to Nashville. Um, and I get on the phone with like the, the only big theater that's suitable. And we get on the phone to have like this conference call about, about how we can do it. And I say, okay, just tell me what the rules are. Like, what do we have to wear? Cause there is a burlesque scene there, you know? And they said, well, okay. You know, obviously you have to cover up. You can only have like an inch of cleavage. I'm like, okay. You can't show any side boob. I was like, okay. So, got it. Got it. Okay. Um, you can't show

• 1:03:24Speaker 02

  your butt at all. And I was like, okay, can you wear like tights, like a couple pairs of tights and like a fifties, like a full brief, like a bathing suit? And they're like, no, you can't show like where your butt cheek and your thigh meets, like that line, you cannot show that ever. So they said, well, you have to wear kind of like a bike shorts to cover up that line where your, you know, butt meets your

• 1:03:52Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 1:03:53Speaker 02

  thighs, right? And I'm like, okay. And then so I'm going through all of this, taking notes. And then I say, okay, we have just as many guys in the show as girls. So what about the guys? Oh, there's no rules for them. There's nothing on the books. They, well, they can't show their penis, you know, but like everything else is okay. I was like, you mean they can even wear a G-string? They're like, yeah. This is real life.

• 1:04:16Bunnie XO?

  What?

• 1:04:17Speaker 02

  I wish I'd been recording the conversation.

• 1:04:19Bunnie XO?

  Nashville, we have to get it together because we need the queen to grace our city. This is crazy.

• 1:04:25Speaker 02

  To then my last tour is like, let's ask again. And they actually told me to stand down and don't ask again.

• 1:04:34Speaker 02

  And meanwhile, don't forget that like now, now they have their own like set of problems and they started looking to them too. But at that time, um, I had lent my martini glass to Violet Tchotchke to do like, you know, tribute to me.

• 1:04:48Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 1:04:48Speaker 02

  And like, that was okay. Cause it's like, it's not a woman's body.

• 1:04:52Bunnie XO?

  But how do they have a strip club that serves alcohol?

• 1:04:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, the rules are all about the alcohol. You can be totally naked and you can be eighteen year old and you can spread your legs wide for your audience with no alcohol. But as soon as there's alcohol, that's where everything gets.

• 1:05:09Bunnie XO?

  Don't we have strip clubs that have, oh, it's BYOB?

• 1:05:15Bunnie XO?

  What is this fucking?

• 1:05:16Speaker 02

  And then the thing is, you know, none of these big theaters that can actually house my show want to house the show because if they can't serve booze. Cause I said, well, what if we do a dry show?

• 1:05:24Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:25Speaker 02

  And they're like, they don't, won't make money. So they don't want to do it.

• 1:05:28Bunnie XO?

  That is insane to me. We have got to figure out a loophole to get you into Nashville because I feel like it would be a money maker for.

• 1:05:35Speaker 02

  I know. I really want to do it. I wanted to wear the bike shorts because I thought for my documentary, wouldn't it be great me like?

• 1:05:41Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:41Speaker 02

  Making the rhinestone bike shorts and like, I got my bike shorts on so no one gets hurt.

• 1:05:47Bunnie XO?

  That's hilarious.

• 1:05:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's just funny. But in, yeah, and, and since then, I remember at the time being really upset because I thought like, why can Drag Race work the world go to that theater and I can't? But then now they have been forbidden as well, I think since.

• 1:06:01Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Hopefully this podcast dropping will kind of bring some attention to that.

• 1:06:05Speaker 02

  So.

• 1:06:06Bunnie XO?

  Man, that's crazy.

• 1:06:08Speaker 02

  I don't think so.

• 1:06:09Bunnie XO?

  Nashville, we gotta get it together, baby.

• 1:06:11Speaker 02

  The people that are, you know, the, the fans will come. It's just, um, the rules. I mean, maybe I should just make the bike shirt shorts outfit and be like, this is what I'm prepared to wear.

• 1:06:22Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Don't give up. If they told you to stand down, keep going.

• 1:06:26Speaker 02

  The first time I said, no, I'm not wearing a rhinestone bike shorts. And then after that, I was like, oh, actually, I want to try this because it's funny.

• 1:06:34Bunnie XO?

  You know, it's like a challenge.

• 1:06:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:06:36Bunnie XO?

  You're like, challenge accepted.

• 1:06:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:06:38Bunnie XO?

  Dita, thank you so much for coming on the pod, baby. It's been such a great hour sitting here with you and.

• 1:06:44Speaker 02

  Asking me about my, what I think is a boring life. Thanks for taking an interest.

• 1:06:49Bunnie XO?

  I think your life is amazing and I think it's a great, you bring class back, you know, and it just, everything about you, the way you present yourself, you're so eloquent. And I feel like that's what the world is missing and that's what we need more of. And I'm glad that women have somebody like you that they can look up to and, you know, to be doing what you're doing at your age still is amazing. And that gives me hope and like, I don't want to quit, you know, you don't want to quit. So let's just keep being trailblazers.

• 1:07:17Speaker 02

  Have to. No, thanks for a great interview. I could, I'll say the same for you. It's great that you're, you're, I've been interviewed by a lot of journalists that don't, didn't study up or didn't ask interesting questions like you did. So.

• 1:07:30Bunnie XO?

  I appreciate you so much. Do you want to shout out where people can find you, where they can see your show, your socia?

• 1:07:36Speaker 02

  Um, my socia are the best place. It's just at Dita Von Tees, but remember the Ts is spelled T E E S E. Thank you Playboy for the, the, the misspelling, but okay. Thank you. Yeah, but I'm at, I'm at the Horseshoe, which is on the strip. It used to be Bally's and um, it's a big, beautiful theater and we have dates on and off. I have shows through the weekend, but this is probably not playing on right now. Um, yeah, the shows are kind of just like, it's a residency. So there's, we pick and choose our weeks.

• 1:08:09Bunnie XO?

  Absolutely. I can't wait. We're gonna go, we're gonna pick a date to come and see you before June, for sure. Thank you so much.

• 1:08:15Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 1:08:16Bunnie XO?

  I appreciate you and thank you guys for tuning into another episode of Dumb Blonde. I will see you guys next week. Bye.