Oregon Music News

It started as a goofy little vaudeville show at the Back Gate Stage at Artichoke Music in 2002 starring Lisa Marsicek as Miz Kitty, a naughty lady in a flamboyant costume a dance hall queen would have worn in the 1875.

After moving to Mississippi Pizza and then to Imbibe, she took the plunge and brought Miz Kitty’s Parlour to the Mission Theater. At the time it seemed risky. I am happy to report that in November there were just a few seats at the very top of the back of the balcony remaining.

In other words, pretty much sold-out.

And it’s still a goofy little vaudeville show. That’s why people like it. They also like the door prizes she gives away. They involve many trips to junk stores to find just the right items.

She’s still doing them on the third Saturday of each month, October through May.

The next one is Saturday, December 12 at 7pm at the Mission Theater, tickets $12, general admission, 21+

This one stars

MIDNIGHT SERENADERS: 1920’s & 30’s Jazz, Swing, Song & Sexy Sass!

ERIC STERN: Operatic Accordion Master!

VOICES OF OUR ELDERS: Amazing Short Stories from Portland’s Elder Community.

GREG CLARKE: Fast Pickin’ Banjo, Fiddle & Mandolin From Rose City’s Finest!

YASMIRA: Tempting, Shimmying Dance Goddess!

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A few years ago, I interviewed Lisa and Miz Kitty together, as though they were separate people. Lisa has had a long musical career including as a member of the Flat Mountain Girls. I felt like Dr. Luther, the character Lee J. Cobb played in The Three Faces of Eve.

It was for the Oregonian and I had to cut it for space. There are no such limitations here:

May I speak to Miz Kitty Please. This emergence that you had onstage….were you always trying to get out?

Miz Kitty: I was. Thank God she took the mop out of my hand and gave me a microphone.

And when you went onstage and felt all the lust from the audience, what was that like?

Miz Kitty: The first thing I felt was the cool breeze from just having those nylons on and that skimpy skirt and it felt pretty darn good.

And from that day on there seems to have been two competing people, Lisa, does Miz Kitty represent something from your past? An archetype?

Lisa: I never realized it but I just replied to an email I got from one of my mom’s friends in a Miz Kittyesqe style and she said, “Geeus Gawd! You sound just like your mother did when she was young.’ And I went, ‘Oh…..’ So I guess I’m my mother’s child. I think he sass and her personality. She likes to sit there with a glass of wine and tell everybody what she thinks.

What were you going for in the first place?

Lisa: You can’t walk down the street in Portland without seeing something fantastic and amazing, funny and musical. Somebody called me the patron saint of Portland’s weirdos, freaks and musicians. I’m happy to take that halo. There’s just so much talent around. It’s a lot of fun. People tell me, I know it doesn’t pay a lot but it’s so much fun. It gives us a new audience and people listen and they love it.

The history of vaudeville in theaters is like television is now. You have things in fifteen minute bursts, different acts all the time. You want to be thrilled by the spectacle, you want to see somebody defying death, juggling. If you see something live on TV and somebody messes up, that’ll make you tune in and talk about it around the water cooler more than a successful act will.

You never know what you’re going to see next, is it going to be a belly dancer, a juggler, is somebody going to fall down? Is it going to be an accordion, a banjo? Who knows what’s next, jazz? There’s something thrilling about that. And then there are the door prizes. People like to win valuable prizes so I provide them.

Last time I gave a way a dust mop that looked like a merkin, a horse painting framed in an actual wooden toilet seat that looked like a horse shoe, fabulous costumes….I’m helping Portland’s fashion victims one-by-one with fabulous outfits, marital-aid manuals from the fifties and sixties…all from my world travels.

Miz Kitty is taking over. More and more people on the street come up to me and say, “Hi Kitty.” She’s encroaching on my life.

Miz Kitty, when people come up to Lisa and call her Miz Kitty how do you feel about that?

Miz Kitty: It’s good. She might get a haircut and getting some better fashion sense, so as long as she keeps doing all the legwork and the booking, that’s fine with me. She does all the work, I get to sit on the stage and have a good time and introduce all the acts that’s just fine. I get to dress up, flirt with all the cute boys and girls in the audience. What else do I need to do?

I bought my outfit in New York City except for my glittery tights which I found in a hoochie store in Atlanta. That’s what I like about the South.

How would you describe that particular style?

Miz Kitty: Class. One hundred percent class. It’s the 1870s meets the 1970s roller disco. If it’s shiny, it’s for me.

But then poor Lisa never gets to have the fun!

Miz Kitty: She can live vicariously through me. At least she gets to have something now instead of staying home. It’s good for her.