Tickled Fancy Burlesque Co.

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Although performers have been building audiences in the Detroit and Chicago areas for many years, Tickled Fancy is — according to its members — the first of its type in Washtenaw County. These four young women choreograph, rehearse, and stage original comedic and sensual sketches.

TC's Speakeasy is packed to legal capacity on the cold winter night that I attend my first Tickled Fancy show. The door guy won't let me in until someone leaves. I've never seen this little joint so full. The tables are gone, replaced by rows of chairs, just like in an old-fashioned theater. The crowd is a diverse mix — a few fifty-year-old couples, lots of lesbians and local Ypsilanti artsy types, some EMU kids, and a guy I always see on the bus who's dressed tonight in an ice cream man suit.

Sporting an eye patch, a revealing black vest, and shorty shorts, performer Rosie Delight dances to a vaudeville song that refers to a "gumshoe with a patch on your eye." She snakes around the stage smoking for a bit before putting the cigarette out — in her mouth. Then she circles a hula hoop around her hips and somehow keeps it spinning around various parts of her body as she slowly, gracefully descends to the floor. Once there, she wiggles out of most her clothes, until the previous performer shoots her. When she exits the stage, a big guy walks behind her yelling "Clear the way." The aisle is jam-packed with standing audience members.