Emily Lauren
‘Not Your Typical Showgirl’

Emily Lauren is a physical theater performer currently debuting her one-woman ‘quantum cute burlesque comedy’ entitled: “Sugar Puppy and the Lovely Dumplings.” In this unique show, a buxom line-up of comic characters ranging from sensual to grotesque, spring to life in an ever-changing plethora of elaborate costumes and masks.
Emily Lauren’s performances utilize her eclectic range of training and experiences. After receiving her B.A. in Theatre, she went on to specialize her skills at the Dell’ Arte International School of Physical Theatre. It was there that she honed her love for comedy and learned how to develop complex characters. Now based in fabulous Las Vegas, she daily draws on her skills as a creative writer, improvisational comedienne, interpretive dancer and classic striptease artist. A versatile variety artist, her acts can be tailored to fit any show’s demands.
Emily Lauren is also the creator of a series of classes entitled “Burlesque and the Art of Striptease.” During these classes, she guides and instructs other women in their quest for confidence and self-expression. On a mission of love, light and humor, she travels, an ‘enlightened exhibitionist’ sharing her discoveries with as many people as possible.

For more information please feel free to contact emily@sugarpuppy.net.

Emily Lauren infuses her burlesque characters with 21st-century attitude
By ROBERT TRUSSELL - The Kansas City Star

Watch an informative video about the works of Emily Lauren (as compiled by the Kansas City Star) Not your father’s showgirl If Emily Lauren hadn’t decided to enroll at the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in Blue Lake, Calif., she might never have met the British sword swallower. And it was from the sword swallower that she heard the word — the word that turned her creative life around. Read the Entire Article >>

"All I can say is that Emily Lauren is a trip...The show is palpably sexy, even as it demands to be seen for what it is: an unforgiving commentary on our society's view of feminine sexuality...You could describe Lauren's show as avant-garde burlesque, but that doesn't quite capture what she's about. She aims to create true art. Based on her festival perfromance, she largely succeeds." Trussel, Robert. "Sugar Puppy and Mustapha's Bride at the Kansas City Fringe Festival." The Kansas City Star 4 Aug.2005. "It's as much lampoon as tease, a witty evisceration of modern sexual norms rooted in the satiric tradition of old burlesque. The jokes are nastier than the disrobing, which is to her credit-everyone knows that funny girls are the sexiest." "Best of Kansas City 2005: Best Burlesque Show: Sugar Puppy and the Lovely Dumplings" The Pitch Weekly 6-13 Oct.2005: Arts and Stage. Paw-skank redemption Alt-burlesque queen Emily Lauren gets her pants on PHOTO BY BILL HUGHES Emily Lauren in Sugar Puppy and the Lovely Dumplings at the Onyx Theatre. by DAVE SURRATT IT'S NOT A TWO-HOUR PRODUCTION, it's not anything remotely conventional for Las Vegas theater and it only stars one actor, but that's all just fine. Emily Lauren and Onyx Theatre's production of alt-burlesque dreamscape Sugar Puppy & the Lovely Dumplings is a lot of healthily confusing fun -- maybe not enough to fully redeem what's been, town-wide, a theatrically disappointing February, but enough to make staying awake through March a far more exciting prospect. This is the perfect show for Onyx, Vegas' only (and very possibly the country's only) legitimate live theater venue located inside a bondage and fetish-wear shop. Ninety-six is already a modest seating capacity, but the room always feels smaller than that, which is perfect; alt-burlesque dreamscapes don't work nearly as well in cavernous auditoriums where you're squinting at cleavage and expressions of sultry faux-outrage from a quarter mile away. Besides, there's such a dirty-urban authenticity in navigating past the Rack's merchandise en route to the stage area -- like skulking off to a cluster of peep-show booths in the bowels of some Detroit sex shop, but much cleaner and not in Detroit. So then, Sugar Puppy: Lights out. The curtain rustles. Who's there? Is that --? Yes, it's a fully clothed Lauren in plastic cocker spaniel mask, oozing doggy obsequiousness, paw-strumming a pink toy ukelele and panting as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" crackles over the P.A. Get it? No. No you don't. You can't "get" something like that, but you can let the spectacle wash over you. Thing is, that wash only happens when an actor goes all out in executing whatever ineffable ridiculousness they've been assigned. She does, and so the wash happens, at least for any attendee who'll allow it. For a clue as to how Lauren makes such a good Judy Garland-loving ukelele dog, run a background check. She's a graduate of Humboldt County, California's Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre. That's where they not only coach you rigorously in both voice and movement, but also go nuts with masks, clowniness (especially the tragic kind) and other elements of commedia dell'arte, a 16th century Italian comic style based on stock themes and characters that prefigured Vaudeville and much of what we still see in modern sitcoms. So it's not just Lauren's panties showing, but her academics, too, starting with that spaniel. From there, Sugar Puppy unfolds as a series of short meta-striptease vignettes. A coy, French coquette prances while telling the story of a man on the sidewalk and a dropped handkerchief. Then we get a quick puppet show, half superhero comic and half sales pitch, as Lauren coaxes a cautionary melodrama about premature ejaculation from two mannequin heads, stiff and absurd as the horny marionettes from Team America: World Police. Lili and Oscar go at it, a squirt gun immediately discharges over the puppet screen, spirits are crushed and out comes Lauren as Gnarla, formidable advocate of male staying power. The less said here about hideous, long-beaked Gnarla, the better -- not just because it would spoil things (which it would), but because even a written recap of the fiercely un-sexy tactics she employs in getting Oscar's mind on other things might make the reviewer vomit. Here's the thing, though: With the exception of Gnarla, every other persona Lauren cycles through in the course of Sugar Puppy (she wrote and developed everything herself) brings an honestly sensual core, no matter how silly on the surface. Some characters are more effective than others, but they all manage to remember something crucial about good burlesque theater, particularly when it's this fringy -- burlesque is sexy. No matter how vulgar, tawdry, goofy or bawdy it can get, it's still supposed to be sexy. Adorable, pixie-ish Lauren moves with such grace and infectious confidence -- whether drooling apple juice over a bucket or busting one-handed cartwheels in purple spandex -- sexiness is an inevitable byproduct. Especially, believe it or not, at the getting-dressed-again finale, where shouting "Yeah! Put it on!!" felt appropriate and wholly unironic. How does something like that happen? Good theater. Emily and Onyx, thanks for providing it. "The 28-year-old Vegas resident has a face chock-full of big features, which makes for a perfect clown. But she's also as attractive as she is vulnerable, which is an unusual combination. You want to root for her characters the way you want to root for Chaplin's Tramp." Del Valle, Anthony. "Flawed Sugar Puppy worth paying attention to." Las Vegas "Review Journal." Feb. 26, 2008. "Adorable, pixie-ish Lauren moves with such grace and infectious confidence -- whether drooling apple juice over a bucket or busting one-handed cartwheels in purple spandex -- sexiness is an inevitable byproduct. Especially, believe it or not, at the getting-dressed-again finale, where shouting "Yeah! Put it on!!" felt appropriate and wholly unironic. How does something like that happen? Good theater." Surrat, Dave. "Paw Skank Redemption." Las Vegas "City Life." Feb.28,2008.