Check Out Penelope Mais Oui’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Penelope Mais Oui.

Hi Penelope, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started burlesque over a decade ago in Colorado Springs CO. I was looking for a way to connect to my body and make a bold move out of the controlling evangelical church community I was in at the time. I didn’t expect what I’d find after that first performance. I grew up on stages and some of my most fond childhood memories are of watching ‘scandalous’ tv and movies with my grandmother, like Phil Donahue and Gypsy. I might have gotten my flair from her, so while burlesque was a new adventure in a lot of ways it was also a coming home. Burlesque helped me step into power I didn’t know I had, introduced me to life experiences I didn’t know I needed, and was really a catalyst for my entire family changing. It’s also enabled me to travel internationally and get really comfortable on stage, even winning a few awards to tuck deep into my bio.
I love classic burlesque and started producing shows in Colorado Springs. In 2019 I moved with my kids to Kansas to escape an abusive situation and thought at the time I’d left burlesque behind. In 2022, as the world returned to normal after this collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic, I craved a new creative outlet. I decided to produce again, and in Dec of 2022 I produced my first VAMP Kansas City show, which was a bigger success than I think anyone in the KC burlesque scene at the time expected it to be. We were in a now closed gym in the West Bottoms with really terrible sound equipment, 100 Kansas City neighbors, and all the love and hope we could fit in the room.
I knew the Kansas City burlesque scene had been looked over for too long. I wanted to help expand the community here, contribute to adding more artists and more stages. Kansas City has a rich history within burlesque. Classic burlesque and jazz were born together and a lot of that happened in theatres and bars here. My wife and I decided to keep going thinking we’d put together a few more shows. They continued to sell out. We kept going. We moved the show to the Crossroads within a few months. We’ve had periods of time producing two or three shows in a month, almost all of them sold out successes. I launched a burlesque intensive over two years ago and through it we’ve helped launch the career of over 60 new performers in Kansas City. Those performers are all over the country now, some of them are even producing shows of their own. Most recently we opened a flexible rehearsal and event space at 55th and Troost called Red Light Studio.
Burlesque quite literally changed my life and my family, breaking generational curses in ways I thought were impossible. It gave me language around queerness and identity I didn’t have before. I want that for as many people as possible. A lot of what we do at VAMP is because it feeds me personally as a creator and a performer, however the community aspect has been key in the success of VAMP. We have room for everyone, we don’t gatekeep or hold some pieces of ourselves. Burlesque is a really vulnerable and valuable experience, both on stage and for our audience members. We take that trust seriously.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
What artist can say they’ve had a smooth road? Producing burlesque in Kansas City when we started was so different. We had venues refuse to rent to us or even call us back. Some of them wanted thousands of dollars which would prevent us from being able to pay our performers. Securing a significant sponsor was a pretty difficult task, I spent months or years developing every relationship we hold. It’s a big financial gamble, and we still spend a lot of months in the red.
I talked about having trouble finding venues that wanted to host burlesque. Often people who don’t understand the art form view it with a critical eye, not understanding the way burlesque shifts the power dynamics. I chose the stage name Mais Oui which means ‘yes, you may.’ Yes, the audience may view me. They may even view me in states of undress. Only to the limit I allow. We say burlesque is an act of power because of the way performers run the entire room from that stage. Performers may spend a full 4 minute song removing just one glove, or sometimes no clothing at all. The art of tease is a thing people really have to experience from a really skilled artist to understand.
We built VAMP from really very little. We had some connections in the art and burlesque community, and some of those relationships were invaluable. Our shows at Lifted Spirits are really ‘show in a box’ meaning we bring in all the light and sound equipment. Which meant we had to LEARN light and sound. We had a lot of bumps. Our first show was amplified by two old soundbars we had literally in our basement. We had one show with absolutely no mic at all because we didn’t understand how the signal would change when an audience fills the room. Hosting a high quality show was a requirement for us, so we spent the time and resources developing those skills. We’re both full time parents, my wife is a social worker and I’m in healthcare. It was so worth it, but sometimes having such big dreams is a lot of work.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
VAMP is pretty well known for Classic and Classic style burlesque. We host campy shows, and shows that are less classic in nature, but in Kansas City we really are the classic burlesque producers. We have won the Pitch’s best burlesque troupe for two years in a row now, though we don’t have a troupe. There isn’t a category for burlesque production, even though that might be a better fit. For those who aren’t familiar, a burlesque troupe is usually a contracted group of artists who say essentially ‘we’re a team’. The shows these troupes host are often a mix of troupe members and outside casting or sometimes only troupe members, and sometimes troupe members will have a limit on what kinds of other performances they can do. VAMP isn’t interested in ever having a troupe. Everyone in our shows, even when they’re there often (shout out to our right hand clown, Trixy Treat) or have come through our intensive, have full freedom to perform at any other show or production whenever they’d like. They are independent artists and their autonomy and power is an important value to us at VAMP.
We are currently hosting a monthly live jazz classic burlesque show at the Nighthawk sponsored by Tom’s Town Distillery. This show is focused on the connection between music, prohibition, and burlesque. We read real articles from news outlets in the 20s, 30, and early 40s to open each show. It’s called intoxicant, which is a bit of a play on that power dynamic. This femme forward show might have you thinking that the audience is in charge but really- the performers are.
We’re also still in the crossroads, hosting a themed burlesque show every other First Friday at the Hayloft in Lifted Spirits. June will be AbSINthe, an all green show. This year we will host a Western themed show called Bareback and will return our masculine focused show Bo(i) Friday. These relationships with Kansas City brands is a huge part of the art we create and the way we connect to our community.
Just this month we officially opened a multi use space called Red Light Studio. The name is a nod to red light districts of the past. We’re not far from the historic Jewel Box Lounge, Cat Baleau, and the Yum Yum Club which were all on the 3200 block of Troost. This was the drag club, burlesque house, and strip club of the 50s and 60s. Hosting these queer businesses all together helped provide their patrons with safety, and from what we understand the performers and customers of these three bars all mingled together to take care of eachother. Our Red Light Studio is predominantly a dance rehearsal space, though we can also host parties and events. We have community members using it, photographers, we’re able to accommodate a lot of different purposes and we’re so happy to be connecting with our community this way.
I am most proud of the community we’ve built here. People often don’t understand it, how can we really root for everyone? Even so, we do. The burlesque community is broad and there is room here for all kinds of humans in it. We want everyone taking up their own space, creating things they love and are proud of, and flourishing in their life on stage and off. This is probably also one of the keys to our success. Another of our key values is Collaboration. In our view, collaboration makes us all brighter, it makes us all bigger, it raises the tide. A rising tide means the sea is more lively.
Building on that collaboration, I’m really proud of the art we’ve created and the artists we’ve been able to feature. We’ve brought nationally known burlesque performers from all over the country here to Kansas City, a place many of them would have never thought to visit before. We’ve helped bring that love of burlesque back to performers in the city, some of them after literally burying their burlesque shoes. Wild Columbine, Aya Fontaine, Katie G, and more. Years after leaving burlesque for different reasons- they’ve come to VAMP shows and asked to get back on stage with us. Because I’ve been there, I understand what an honor that is. I hold that trust in a really sacred way.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Probably a mixture of imagination and boldness. My dreams for VAMP are massive. They are creative and reflective and bigger than anything that we might actually be able to build. And yet, my wife and I keep finding ways to get there. With perseverance and thoughtfulness and intention, we’re getting there. And we’re not stopping. That not stopping, I think is the boldness. We’re talented, Kansas City holds incredible talent. We’re creative, you can’t throw a rock without hitting creative people in this town! At VAMP we set the intention and we do the scary things to get there. We design show concepts and put in the labor to make sure they work out. We set a goal to bring 20 traveling performers into the city in a year and we did more than that. We hear from audience members that they want to perform burlesque and we start hosting intensives, helping those interested artists become performers. Two years ago we started to recognize that one of the biggest barriers for artists wanting to improve their craft was a lack of rehearsal space, so we created a plan to open a space in 2026. Then a friend sent us a text message of an opening across the street from their small business (MOCBOD is such a resource in this community) and two weeks later we signed a lease. I wouldn’t say we’re building the plane as we fly, because again we’ve layed out some really specific goals and developed the needed skills to make this happen. But I would say we’ve taken many leaps of faith, having to trust ourselves, each other, the burlesque community, and Kansas City as a whole. It’s worked out. We believe it’s going to keep working out.

Pricing:

• The best way to get all of that info is at VAMPKC.com and redlightkc.com. Our pricing can be dynamic so the info I provide for this interview may not be correct in a few months.
• intoxicant is the Third Friday of each month at Hotel Kansas City and features 3 unique cocktails specifically crafted for our show featuring Tom’s Town liquors. VIP tickets are $55 and General Admission are $35.
• AbSINthe will be the First Friday of June in the Hayloft above Lifted Spirits Distillery. Lifted Spirits always makes a special night for our audience including drinks containing absinthe for this green themed show. VIP tickets are $40 and GA are $35.
• Our current intensive performers will have their Reveal hosted at the Black Box in July. Tickets for that aren’t yet on sale but they do sell out quickly (in about 18 hours for the last class).
• We’re hosting a variety of classes, parties, shows, and an upcoming all classic intensive. When you sign up (for free) to become an Insider on our website, you get to know about these things first. We post them on social media later. We also send our insiders coupon codes and special content. There are lots of ways to connect with us!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Vampkc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vampkansascity?igsh=Z20zeHQ5dDA0d252&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/16Ct9gFe9d/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Other: https://Redlightkc.com