If you were able to catch NYC’s legendary Dirty Martini at Toronto Burlesque Festival over the weekend, we’re very jealous! Martini spearheaded the new burlesque revolution in New York City and has been voted number one burlesque performer in the world for four consecutive years.
SDTC: Best thing about Toronto?
DM: Toronto seems to me to be the best kind of city. Nice places to live, pretty neighborhoods and loads of cultural things to do. Although, I may be biased because I have such lovely friends there from the Toronto Burlesque Festival and I love the amazing Gladstone Hotel too. In every city I perform, I look for a hotel like the Gladstone. It has that historic hotel feel but with interesting artist designed rooms that are comfortable and restful.
What aisle do you spend the most time in at the grocery store?
Cheeses. I love cheeses. I’m also a bargain shopper, so I love a good vintage cheddar on sale!
What would you do with 1 million bucks?
I would buy an apartment in Manhattan. 20 years ago, I would have bought a building and made it a theater/bar with studios so that artists could work, and I could live near all that creativity. Buildings are no longer just a million now, so with more than that, I would set up an endowment for the Burlesque Hall of Fame so we’d have a bigger budget for the upcoming home of the world’s only Burlesque Museum! Oh boy, could I spend money real good! That might be my super power!
The receipts in your wallet would indicate what?
That I’ve been kidnapped by world traveling Tchotchke enthusiasts and we live in airports.
Describe your 15-year-old self in one word:
Driven
What do you do with your free time when you’re not performing?
I’m Dirty Martini’s secretary by day and couch potato at night. Netflix and chill is my mantra when I’m not world traveling and sewing glittery things to my underwear.
What would you like to do more of?
I would love to cook more. I love cooking but my NYC kitchen isn’t great for food prep. I love it when all I have to do is lie on a beach and cook and drink wine with friends…. and sunsets.
Cred. Josh Gosfeild
What makes you cringe?
Intolerance.
What, in your opinion, is overrated?
Celebrity.
Person you’d most like to interview?
Madeline Albright for Vogue – as long as we both got a 5 page editorial shoot with the photographer of my choice!
What is the best thing you did all week?
Came home to NYC from Australia and the UK and worked out at the YMCA with my buddy, entertainer extraordinaire Mr. Murray Hill.
Describe your perfect Saturday:
Wake up when I wake up and do something outside, then a massage.
Describe the funniest thing you’ve witnessed in recent memory:
A film and wax figure display at a medical museum depicting Leeds UK’s first unsuccessful amputation. Why?! Why wouldn’t they show the world’s first successful one? I mean it wasn’t funny “ha ha” but… Or the other day I was walking down the street in Manhattan and asking my friend a question. I guess I must have been loud because the answer came from a guy working down a manhole.
What word or phrase should we all use more?
I have everything I need and I am thrilled to be alive!!
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