Lady Aye goes for the throat

(Credit: Ted D'Ottavio)

Along with being very smart, nerds also can be very sexy. (For proof, check out the sexy bookworms described in the My Morning Jacket song "Librarian" and the video for Tears for Fears' "Head Over Heels.")

Anyone who needs further convincing can head to the Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park on Saturday (Jan. 10) for "Flirty, Nerdy and Dirty," an evening of "nerd burlesque" featuring performance troupe the Merkinettes.

New York City-based performer Lady Aye, noted for being the world's only female Jewish sword swallower, will preside over the proceedings as the evening's "headmistress of ceremonies."

Lady Aye, who also is co-producer of the show, recently spoke with Metromix Jersey Shore about her history in the New York burlesque scene and the art of sword swallowing.

To start off, can you tell me a bit about what first attracted you to the world of burlesque?
Actually, I had started off as a rockabilly promoter, and I really had no intention of ever becoming a performer, but I actually found promoting music was kind of a huge drag. It wasn't that much fun. There really isn't that much going on in New York that's of interest, and through that I started mixing with things, like I started having in sideshow performers and burlesque performers. They seemed like they were having a lot of fun, so I was like, "Well, I want to do that." 

I had always been interested in sideshow life since I was a little kid, and I was actually talking to a friend of mine who was doing some graphics for me for a show I was doing and I was saying, "Yeah, I'm trying to save up money. I want to take the classes at Coney Island, but they're really expensive." And she's like, "Oh, I'm a retired fire-eater, I'll teach you." So that's kind of how I got into being a sideshow performer and burlesque producer.

One of the skills that you're known for is sword swallowing. Is that a talent that some people are born with, or is it a skill that you have to develop over time like any other?
It's a little from column A and a little from column B. I always sort of describe it as like a split. There are just some people who will naturally be able to do a split; it's really easy for them. Some people can train to do it, and some people never will be able to do it, and sword swallowing is sort of the same thing. It took me four months of training every day to get it, and then there are people who will train for years and it just will never happen for them. But it's actually a skill that takes a lot of discipline because even once you get it, you have to keep doing it every day, just about, because the reflexes will come back if you don't.

Oh, OK, that makes sense. And also, how does it feel to be known as the world's only female Jewish sword swallower?
(Laughs) You know, it's fun, but honestly I believe that that's so. I've never had Guinness (World Records) check on it for me or anything. ... I mean, I think there are fewer than 15 or 20 female sword swallowers in the world, so the odds are kind of against there being another one.

But it's funny: I've had really orthodox Jews, oddly, come to my shows and just been like, "Is that true? Are you really Jewish?" and I'm like, "Yeah, I'm really Jewish." I'm not kosher, but I am a practicing Jew. You know, of course my mother is extremely proud; they're so glad they sent me to college. But, to me, it's just really funny.

Speaking of college, let's talk about the "nerdy burlesque" that is going to be at Asbury Lanes. What can folks expect at that show?
That is actually an enormously fun show to produce, to be in, and audiences have just loved it. It's funny because people have this preconceived notion; I think a lot of people's only exposure to burlesque is Dita Von Teese and -- I hate to throw them in there, but they use the word -- the Pussycat Dolls. So they think of it as this either glamorous or just very sort of basically Paris Hilton sort of thing -- like it's all just fancy underwear, and actually, New York burlesque especially, it's a performance art. It's sort of very funny and intellectual and clever, and yes there's stripping, but that's almost not the main element of it.

So, with this cast it's been just so enormously fun because they come up with these crazy things. Like, Fem Appeal is doing her Uhura number, so it's just we got a bunch of sci-fi geeks who were kind of like, "Well, how could I work my love of Lt. Uhura from ‘Star Trek' into this?" ... They play naked dodgeball because it was like being the nerdy kids in class.

I think people have this mental image of it being very glamorous backstage, and I find the performers that I've always loved or have hung around or worked shows with, they're actually very geeky. But instead of being like (renaissance faire) geeks or "Star Wars" geeks -- they're that, too, but they're burlesque geeks, and so it's sort of like, "How can I work in something about ‘Doctor Who' or how can I work in something about ‘Star Wars' or horror movies?" Whatever it is people are into, it's sort of a fun way to send that up and work that in, so it's sexy nerds, and I think everybody loves that.