These are some busy times....
I've got to find some time to re-structure and organize everything I'm doing right now. My hands are full. I'm trying to do the jobs of about 5-10 people here in the boonies....these last 2 weeks, I've been working hard online promoting, advertising, networking and trying to sell Mother's new book STRIPPER: A Mother's Story. We're also starting a new podcast of Mother as THE OLD STRIPPER to try to build an audience on the podcast and audio networks online; trying to find time here and there to shoot a little footage for our upcoming feature documentary of Mother called THE OLD STRIPPER; still getting all my short films out on the festival circuit; beginning to make Filmmaker Video Blogs of me as a filmmaker out here in the boonies, and sharing them with a worldwide internet audience; and this week, working hard with Mother making her new upcoming book 100 SHORT STORIES OF AN OLD STRIPPER. This is hard...but it's personal, and I love it....
It's been a little while since I've written a blog. One thing I think I need to start writing about more is about what it's like being the son of a stripper. I try to share as much as I can about my Mother, and about my filmmaking; but don't share as much with others what it's been like being the son of a stripper all my life.
I am the son of a stripper. And I have loved it. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I owe the way I am and the life I've lived to growing up around the burlesque industry. If I hadn't grown up around nudity and pornography, I wouldn't be where I am today, I wouldn't have done all the things I've done, been all the places I've been, and seen all the things I've seen.
My best memories are those of when I was a kid, traveling with Mother on the road during her burlesque circuits in the summers of the 1970's. See, I grew up around nudity and pornography. My Mother started stripping when I was 5 years old. I went to a military school the first thru fifth grade. This was in the early 70's. Burlesque and stripping then was an art form. Not like the strip clubs today. You had burlesque theaters, where the porn films would play on the big screen. And between the films, the dancers would strip on stage. They would have 20 minute burlesque shows, like the Gypsy Rose Lee days. I remember being 6, 7 years old, backstage with the other dancers while Mother was dancing onstage. I could see her onstage from a distance backstage, while I was on the floor with the other dancers. They were always nude. We'd be on the floor playing board games, like checkers and monopoly. This is what I grew up around. Nudity and pornography was nothing.
That's how I've always felt. I think that's why I am the way I am. And why I'm the kind of filmmaker I am. I'm free, independent and open minded. I don't think much about anything. Nothing really offends me. I like to speak my mind, open people's eyes, shock them, make them talk and make them think. And as a filmmaker, I want to be a philosopher through film.
I owe the way I am to being the son of a stripper....
Jack's new Video Blog SON OF A STRIPPER - Jack the Filmmaker:
Get the book STRIPPER: A MOTHER'S STORY by Jack's Mother, Opal at:
http://thoughtsofastripper.webs.com
Hear Jack and Opal's new podcast THE OLD STRIPPER at:
