Portland Escorts: A new generation of performers brings vaudeville to life on Portland stages
by escortingportlandThis was the second annual “White Album Christmas” show put on by the Wanderlust Circus, run by Mickens and his production partner, “Nick the Creature” (real name: Nick Harbar). The pair are busy all year, with shows popping up almost faster than fans can follow. But the “White Album” event is a biggie. Mickens, wearing his “William Batty” top hat and long coat, whips up enthusiasm in a gleeful, raspy carnival barker’s tone: “Years ago, I had my heart replaced by an applause-O-meter!” he tells the packed room, who cheer their approval.
In contrast to the spectacle and flash of the Wanderlust Circus, the mood tends to be low key and playful at Miz Kitty’s Parlour in Northwest Portland. Marsicek dresses up in corset, ostrich feather boa and striped stockings to be “Miz Kitty,” who presides over a sort-of brothel, and, as her site says, transports “the 21st-century audience into the realm of the Alaskan Gold Rush.”
“I get to dress up like a prostitute from the 1880s,” says Marsicek, “and say dirty things.” Well, not so much dirty, she adds, as “sassy and saucy.”