|
News
&
Events
Words
Images
Links
Archival Abby
Abby's Bio
|
Molly Crabapple
Illustrator, Burlesque Diva and Suicide Girl
Molly
Crabapple is Manhattan’s Gibson Girl gone bad. She’s a talented
illustrator who has worked for Screw, Playgirl and The Wall Street
Journal, and a beautiful breast-baring performer who has appeared
onstage and online at SuicideGirls.com, Nerve.com
and The Slipper Room. I discovered her and am responsible for her first
burlesque booking at Mondo Porno; she has come a long way since! I had
so much to ask her when we finally got to talk.
ErosZine: Your online bio says you've drawn yourself into a Turkish prison. What the hell? Tell us about that!
Molly Crabapple: When I was 18, I traveled through Kurdistan (the
south-eastern portion of Turkey bordering Iraq). In this
less-than-stable region, I decided to plunk down doodling in my
sketchbook. Immediate police detention! They said they thought I was a
spy, but I think they just wanted to talk to an easy American girl.
EZ: What made you decide to start doing burlesque?
MC: The bad influence of Albert Garzon. I was working as a poster
artist for Ixion Burlesque and somehow the perfumed, be-plumed,
shimmying burlesque queens worked their magic on me. I wanted to dance
around onstage. Never mind not being able to hold a beat.
EZ: So, your debut was at my bash, Mondo Porno. How's it been going since then?
MC: For a non-dancer, pretty well. Two things I'm crazy proud of?
Dancing at the Coney Island Mermaid Ball, after Todd Robbins
raffled off prints of my artwork. And my work with Beat Circus. Anyone
who hasn't seen Beat Circus should bow down before them. Imagine the
most depraved, dirty carnie music ever to ooze out of a peep-show tent.
Okay, now mix that with improv jazz. That’s the Beat Circus. Besides
being musically brilliant they employ a motley crew of blockheads, fire
breathers, clowns and burlesque dancers to perform along with them.
Whenever I dance with the Circus, the music takes me over. They're also
writing a song for me. I can't even express the honor...
EZ: Who are your inspirations? Dance-wise and art-wise.
MC: I stole my pen and ink style from Golden Age illustrators like
Charles Dana Gibson and James Montgomery Flagg. For burlesque,
there are so many amazing dancers in New York City. I pick things up
every time I ogle them from backstage. A.V. Phibes, the former
Vulnavia, Queen of Nails, taught me how to eat fire. I'm working on a
fire act now. Let’s see if it leads to the stars or the burn ward.
EZ: Did I hear you were a Suicide Girl? Do tell!
MC: Me and every other girl with a belly ring. SG is great networking and one hell of a lesson in marketing-in-action
EZ: And what's your connection to those sexy Gotham Girls Roller Derby babes?
MC: I met a Gotham Girl at a party and checked out their site that
night. Despite being a wuss myself, shit-kicking babes hold a special
place in my heart. So I donated enough Molly Crabapple hot pants to
outfit all three leagues. My logo. Roller girl bottoms. Now that's
prime ad space!
EZ: You've illustrated for Screw and Playgirl, as well as The Wall
Street Journal. That's both high- AND low-brow. How'd you get the gigs?
MC: The SCREW gig was my first freelance job ever. Picture a little
college sophomore, jumping up and down because the art director of this
infamous porno mag asks her to do the cover. Other gigs? The hard way:
sending out postcards, hanging out at the Society of Illustrators and
waving a sign saying "Will Draw for Clothes" over my head. Well, maybe
not the last part.
EZ: You have two separate web sites, your .com and your .net. Are you a Gemini? Tell us about the separation.
MC: It's the product of my double life: respectable illustrator by day,
lascivious pinup girl by night. Well, mostly by day, because I go to
sleep by 10. I figured that art directors wouldn't be interested
in seeing me naked.
EZ: Well, you might be wrong about that! Are your illustrations an extension of your psyche?
MC: If I do them for myself, yes indeed. When away from civilization, I
like being unnecessarily mean. My pictures allow me to be as snarky and
vicious as I want without getting punched. Mix in silliness, Victorian
clothes, bizarre sex fantasies and a love of detail straight out of a
Where's Waldo book, and you've got my work.
I've got a comic book avatar: Girlthing. You can recognize her as the
tiny thing in the pink sundress causing mischief along the margins of
my work. As a fan said, girlthing is unbridled id.
EZ: Do you have any fetishes?
MC: Wifebeaters. In an ideal universe, all men would wear them. Ah,
that sweet cotton, tracing the curve of a muscled, tattooed shoulder.
Be still my aching heart.
EZ: A lot of your photos are very period. Do you have a preference for nostalgia or bygone eras?
MC: Part of the reason I have so many Victorian photos is that it’s
just how I look. I've got this big-eyed mug and this big-boobed body.
No one ever casts me as a domme. But yeah, I love 1890-1930.
One of the cool things about New York in 2005 is the freedom to co-opt
the aesthetics of other times without bothering with their hang-ups or
values. So you can have corsets, speakeasy jazz and hookahs but also
birth control and universal suffrage. Modernity's grand.
EZ: You perform burlesque solo and with Ixion. They're very period as
well. Any comments on era-specific performance? Feel free to wax poetic
here...
MC: Wax poetic? Don't encourage me! One very era-specific thing I
love about Ixion is live music. Dancing to a CD never compares to
shimmying next to a belting blues queen like Lex Grey. And all hail
revivals of old burlesque traditions: the wine bath, Dirty Martini's
fan dances, shticky carnie barkers between the acts.
EZ: Okay, are those corsets all yours? How many do you have?
MC: Five. Best one's pink latex by Vex. Got it in exchange for illustrating their T-shirts.
EZ: Sorry, but you have great boobs! Do you ever feel like, you know, I am my boobs? (I often do....)
MC: Ah, now I know why you hired me!
EZ: I see you've posed for James Graham, who is a friend of mine. What was it like working with him?
MC: We did an Alice in Wonderland shoot. I hadn't eaten the whole day,
but bought all these fancy cupcakes to use as props. James has pictures
of me devouring those suckers in black and white high contrast.
EZ: You've worked with a whole slew of photographers, many of the
"usual suspects," but also many I've never heard of. Tell us about some
of them and how you found them—or they found you.
MC: My favorite non-scene photographer is Burke Heffner. We
hooked up through a Craig'sList ad. Burke's the photographic mastermind
behind DangerDame.com. A
brutal, eight-hour shoot in packing peanuts and a crate yielded the
only pictures of a Molly realdoll. Now that's a commentary on
objectification! Burke directed Revolver, the best trailer not to have
a movie (it stars his ravishing girlfriend Veronica Varlow). If any
millionaires are reading this, please go to revolverthemovie.com and give Burke lots of money so he can make a full-length movie and I can munch popcorn and watch it.
Other killer guys who deserve shout-outs? Aaron Hawks, Aeric Meredith Goujon, Walter William Pearl.
EZ: Any interesting tidbits about your childhood? Loss of virginity? College lesbian encounters?
MC: Childhood? Gothy, sullen, with an unfortunate crush on Kurt Cobain.
My mother kept all my 7th grade poetry for the sole purpose of mocking
me later.
EZ: Any revelations, confessions or filthy gossip?
MC: Some people say I had an affair with a certain infamous New York
alt-comedienne. But, until you can prove it, my lips are sealed.
EZ: Thank you, Molly. You can view Molly’s illustrations at www.mollycrabapple.com and view a gallery of her photos at www.mollycrabapple.net.
[Written Aug. 2005]
|