Gamecocks and Fan Dances

There's a skittering fear amongst charity campaigns and non-profits: Between the recession and post-election burn-out, will contributions and volunteers dry up?

For a while, it looked like this year's Burlesque for Peace might be a victim of that exhaustion after founder Audrey Maker found herself otherwise indisposed. Fortunately, former Gamecock Media CEO Mike Wilson and his wife Melissa high-kicked into the breach to organize the Valentine's Day pacifist tease-a-thon (raising funds this year for Peace One Day.)

The event drew its roster from the deep ranks of the Austin burlesque scene, including the scandalous Jigglewatts, Austin's own real-life comic book pin-up girl Ruby Rocket, and Best of Austin winner Cardinal Cyn, amongst a plethora of others.

So how did Wilson go from game publisher to the world of tease? "Audrey put out the word that it wasn't going to happen because life had got in the way," Wilson explained. Maker was involved with Texans for Obama, ran last October's Burlesque the Vote registration drive, and then organized the All Y'all's Inaugural Ball in January, "She had started such a wonderful tradition. I've been to all the shows and sponsored some of them, so I went no, no, no, we can't not have it just because Audrey is tired."

Wilson said it was surprisingly easy to get everyone on-board, not least because Maker was kind enough to hand over all her notes. "It's a tight-knit community," he explained. "Most of the people do it as a side-profession, but once a year at least they do it for just for fun for a good cause. People talk to people and a few phone-calls later you have 24 performers and a sold-out show." As for the audience, he said, "A lot of people here haven't seen anything like this unless they've been to one of Audrey's shows. So I think they're just, Wow, Valentine's Day doesn't have to suck.

So does the lure of lace and lingerie spell the end for Wilson's gaming days? Not so much. "I'll be back in it again, under a different name," he said, "but for now I'm putting on burlesque shows. That's how I spend the money I make in the video game business."