I walked into El Rey Theatre Saturday night to find Emilie Autumn, adorned in white makeup and a large mohawk, in a wheelchair singing “Get back in line!” and “Take the pill!” to the crowd while one of her dancers was hanging on a curtain and swinging around Cirque du Soleil style. Her posse, aka The Bloody Crumpets, then restrained the artist as she tried to escape her wheelchair. Welcome to “The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls” or better yet, the “The Emilie Autumn Burlesque Vaudeville Show Gone Wrong.”

For the next song, Emilie played her violin and sang, while the group all began to chant, “Liar! Liar! Liar!” and the giddy audience sang along. Emilie played the harpsichord while The Bloody Crumpets brought out a tray full of cookies and cupcakes. The England-style tea time then went terribly wrong as they began launching the cookies out into the audience!

Then Veronica, one of Emilie’s dancers, did a solo dance number with two big feathers, and Emilie gave Veronica a lesson on kissing. Veronica then had a contest on who she would girl-kiss from the audience. Several bras were thrown onstage, and Veronica chose two lucky ladies, one of whom held up a poster that said that she wanted to lose her girl-kiss virginity to Veronica. And Veronica does indeed kiss the two ladies of “pure virginal beauty,” afterwards calling them harlots.

The show lasted two hours, and I have to say, it was quite a unique experience. I mean, how many times do you see scantily-clad girls singing, dancing, and throwing cookies at you and kissing each other? Not often! So glad that Emilie decided to come to LA and pay us nonconformists a visit. I’ll be looking forward to her next visit, and so will the rest of us harlots.

To learn more, check out Emilie Autumn’s Official Page.