SPOTLIGHTING VENUES & PERFORMERS LANA LUSH, ANDE SAILER, AND PRUDENCE DEVILLIERE PERFORM AT THE CLOCKTOWER CABARET. CREDIT: GILES CLASEN AERIALST MAURGUERITE ENDSLEY. CREDIT: GILES CLASEN CLOCKTOWER PERFORMER COCO BARDOT PERFORMS TO THE SONG “HOUND DOG.” CREDIT: GILES CLASEN Sailer often tells audiences about Marsha P. Johnson, who many credit with throwing the first brick at the Stonewall Riots. Sailer follows this up by pointing out that a pink cloth, draped on the stage, looks like a clitoris. He jokes that he could be wrong about that, given that he has never actually seen one. The audience eats it up cheering, laughing, and screaming – pulled in by a whiz-bang of bright colors, humor, and movement. Sailer is ready to find off-color humor about anything, at a moment’s notice. He is known to walk into the crowd, which is usually predominantly women, who are at the show to celebrate bachelorette parties, birthdays, anniversaries, and divorces. During one show, Sailer asked an audience member celebrating a birthday how old she was. When the person told him she was 69, Sailer’s face lit up with glee before he went on to make an adult-themed joke. He then asked the next person celebrating their birthday, who was clearly in their 20s, if they, too, were turning the magical age of 69. The Clocktower’s message isn’t only about challenging perceptions and accepting others. It is also about selfacceptance. Some of the performers have bodies Hollywood might idealize. Others have bodies that are less “Hollywood.” But at The Clocktower Cabaret, all bodies are celebrated as sexy. The message of encouragement, acceptance, and creative expression is deeply personal to Marguerite Endsley. Endsley, who performs as an aerialist at The Clocktower, swings from chains, poles, and silks hanging from the ceiling. Endsley’s background is in tap and hip-hop dance, and she worked as a professional dancer, teacher, and choreographer in Los Angeles. She happened upon pole dancing after a night out with friends at a strip club. “I remember [being at the club] thinking, ‘That’s so cool, I want to do that someday,’” Endsley said. She couldn’t get pole dancing out of her head. It wasn’t that she was drawn to stripping, but instead, Endsley was fascinated by the form and strength of the performance. Endsley talked with her boyfriend about her desire to learn to pole dance. His response was discouraging and blunt. “You’re not strong enough to do that.” BURLESQUE DANCER ANDE SAILER DESCRIBES CLOCKTOWER PERFORMANCES AS “A BUNCH OF FORMER THEATER KIDS TAKING THEIR CLOTHES OFF.” CREDIT: GILES CLASEN SELENE ARCA, CO-OWNER AND MC OF THE CLOCKTOWER CABARET. CREDIT: GILES CLASEN “I just heard that I couldn’t do it. I believed that. It stuck with me. I still think about that today,” Endsley said. The call to learn something new only grew louder for Endsley. She and her boyfriend broke up, and Endsley took up a new art form. Shortly after she moved to Denver, Endsley went with a friend to The Clocktower. Inspired by the show, Endsley wanted to bring her aerialist skills to the stage, and she began performing at The Clocktower not long after. “As I evolved here, I started seeing not only just what was on stage but who [was] backstage, that there’s a community, there’s forgiveness and acceptance,” Endsley said. “It helps me feel strong and powerful because everyone’s really supportive.” Many of the acts at The Clocktower are developed in Endsley’s backyard dance studio. She helps other performers learn to be aerialists or develop new choreography. Endsley also teaches adult dance classes at her business, Denver Dance. Endsley sees the shared purpose of the performers reciprocate with the audience. “When you’re on stage, it’s the crowd that brings something really powerful,” Endsley said. “When they’re screaming and they’re having a good time, there’s something in me that gets lit up even more.” Endsley believes that when the audience sees her swinging from chains or another artist belly dancing, or any other performance, it arouses a “you can do it attitude” in the audience. After each show, The Clocktower Cabaret performers walk off stage to talk with the audience. Most nights, someone in the crowd shares how the performances embolden them. Some go one step further and ask how they, too, can learn to do burlesque or become an aerialist. “I think [audiences] love us because we’re celebrating each other and celebrating all of our differences and the things that we have the same, which is these weird, awkward bodies that don’t need to be hidden and don’t need to be something that people feel ashamed of,” Selene Arca said. ■ Visit Clocktower’s website to learn more about the venue or its upcoming shows, https://www.clocktowercabaret.com. July 2023 DENVER VOICE 7
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