Dr. Lucky's Surrealist Burlesque at Coney Island USA Set for 8/8

Surrealist Burlesque returns to the Coney Island USA Sideshow by the Seashore stage with its 6th incarnation of what has been hailed by the press as "Striptease meets Socrates" (Brooklyn Paper). This years' Surrealist Burlesque presents Flaming Creatures, a tribute to Jack Smith's ground-breaking work that pioneered experimental film-making and representations of gender fluidity in the early 1960s. Considered by many to be a founding father of performance art and an innovator of underground film, Jack Smith's film was officially deemed "obscene" by a New York Criminal Court. Flaming Creatures at Coney Island USA features stars of the art world and burlesque stage who have created acts in the spirit of Smith's queer, Utopic landscape. Starring Carmelita Tropicana, Dirty Martini, Dr. Lucky, Jennifer Miller, Jason Mejias, Julie Atlas Muz, and Poison Eve. With production numbers featuring the Dali Dancers. Video installation by Joe E. Jeffreys and Ves Pitts. Living Surrealist Object Sculptures by Jenny Pierce, featuring Tiny D, Zoe Ziegfeld, Lillian Bustle, Mia Julep, and Clara Coquette. Music by Velvet Crayon and DJ MomoTaro.

Surrealist Burlesque aims to present shows that are epic, multi-disciplinary, collaborations that challenge audiences to experience entertainment with their bodies and their minds. Surrealist Burlesque shows have been featured in the New York Times, Brooklyn Paper, Time Out, Pin Curl Magazine, Animal.com, Nonsense NYC, and many others. The entire Coney Island USA complex will be popping with spectacular sightings, including a full stage show on the Sideshows by the Seashore Stage, live music in the Freak Bar, an "intimate viewing" video installation, and site-specific live art installations throughout Coney Island USA.

Curated by Dr. Lucky (www.doctorofburlesque.com)

Surrealist Burlesque Shows at Coney Island USA: Surrealist Burlesque shows have become a crowd favorite at Coney Island USA. The Dada Ball came in 2013 to celebrate the 5th year Anniversary of Surrealist Burlesque at Coney Island. With video and surrealist photo booth installations, roam-around buffoons, and hosted by world-renowned MC Armitage Shanks (Seattle), the Dada Ball invited patrons to become an integral part of the show. In 2012, Surrealist Burlesque presented Society of the Spectacular, a show inspired by Guy Debord's seminal text, Society of the Spectacle. The show featured an "intimate theatre" walk through experience in the museum, live interactive music in the Freak Bar, and a show hosted by a television which was given a wine bath in the finale, a Coney Island Sideshow tradition. As featured in The New York Times, in 2011 Surrealist Burlesque took over the Coney Island complex with "Animal Funhouse" based on George Orwell's Animal Farm. With a lush set -including a giant roast pig -and an epic cast of over 20 of New York City's most spectacular nightlife creatures and burlesque stars, Animal Funhouse presented the largest and most elaborate spectacle ever staged at Coney Island USA. In 2010, Surrealist Burlesque brought "20,000 Legs Under the Sea" to the Coney Island USA complex. Inspired by Salvador Dali's "Dream of Venus" at the New York World's Fair (1939-40), "20,000 Legs Under the Sea" invited artists from a range of disciplines to collaborate on sound sculptures, video installations, mini lectures, and live performances. Other Surrealist Burlesque shows staged at Coney Island include: "Phantasmagoria: A Land Where All The Beauties are Monsters and All the Monsters are Beauties" (2009) and a durational performance art piece entitled "Coney Island and Spectacle as Total-Body Experience - A 12-Hour Academic Spectacular in Which We Find Our Heroine Chained to a Podium for an Interminable Period, With All the Agony and Sublime Joy That This Might Entail" (2006).