Dita Von Teese Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe, and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond, coming to you from Las Vegas. I'm here to record a few podcast episodes as we are doing part two of last year's Vegas mini-series. I've been here for a few days and have had a great time. I'm staying at the beautiful Fontainebleau. I saw a Tears for Fears concert last night, explored the Arts District, and caught a burlesque review at The Venetian starring today's guest, the delightful Dita Von Teese.
Dita is known around the world as the Queen of Burlesque, but what folks might not realize is that she loves cooking, baking, and entertaining. She's also a smart entrepreneur with her own gin, Sweet Gwendoline, and a namesake lingerie line, plus tons of collabs under her belt. Actually, I should probably say under her garter belt. Dita and I talk about her show at The Venetian, Las Vegas showgirl history, her love of solo dining, her mission to modernize burlesque, and her business acumen. But we start off the conversation with a chat about her fabulous kitchen, her beloved AGA stove, her lady cave, and her pool house turned English pub. It's a fun conversation with a woman who manages to be wildly glamorous and down to earth at the same time. Stay tuned for my chat with Dita Von Teese.
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Now let's check in with today's guest. Dita Von Teese, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Dita Von Teese:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
Before we get started, I just wanted to ask, you have a beautiful home and so many friends in Los Angeles, I just wanted to see how things are?
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, yes. I'm very lucky. We had two different evacuation scares. One was the Sunset Fire was getting close to the evacuation line where I live. And then we had one... I live near Griffith Park, and so we had one that was really just... We could see it. That was pretty stressful. But they got it out quickly because it was just about... What?... two weeks ago and they were on guard.
It just feels like madness in L.A. in a lot of ways, and it's very sad and distressing and stressful.
Kerry Diamond:
I know how much you love Los Angeles...
Dita Von Teese:
I do, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
... so I just wanted to say I'm sorry for you and what all your friends...
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
... are going through.
Dita Von Teese:
It's unbelievable.
Kerry Diamond:
We're going to talk about happier things. Folks, of course, know you best as the Queen of Burlesque, but for me, you are the kitchen decor queen. I know that's not what anyone else calls you. Can you describe the overall kitchen vibe for everybody?
Dita Von Teese:
I have to say, first of all, I have an old-fashioned kitchen. I live in a 1920s house. A lot of these houses, when they come on the market, by now people have knocked out everything and made one big open area, like the dining room, the kitchen, the same. I was like, thank God they didn't do that. It was one of the selling points for me was that, yes, it had been redone, of course, but no walls had been knocked out yet, no island in the middle.
I just like that. I like keeping the dining room separate from the kitchen. I like that it's old-fashioned in that way.
Kerry Diamond:
There's a spectacular Architectural Digest video...
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
... that everyone should watch on YouTube so they can see what we're talking about. I also can't help but notice your sweater is the same color as your stove.
Dita Von Teese:
I know. Isn't that crazy? My stove is British racing green with copper accents. I'm not wearing any copper jewelry today, but that would've been a good idea.
Kerry Diamond:
Is that a favorite color?
Dita Von Teese:
I do, I love...
Kerry Diamond:
It's a unique stove color.
Dita Von Teese:
I use a lot of green and teal in all of my decor. It's of my favorite color really, is the shades of greenish blue. I have vintage cars too, and two of those cars are green. It's just the color I like. My stove is an AGA stove. I don't know if you know anything about cooking on an AGA. It's a cast iron stove that hasn't changed much in design. Mine is an electric version. They've evolved over the... I don't know how old those stoves are.
But it is also a totally different method of cooking. I believe it was Julia Child always cooked on an AGA. But it's more intuitive cooking. You don't set the temperature. You have three ovens, some of them have four or five ovens, and each of those ovens is kept at a certain temperature. You have to know, oh, that's the baking oven. Things between this and that degrees go in there and here's the roasting, and here's the slow cooking. It's a bit of a learning curve.
The whole method is that you start cooking things on the top, even if you're boiling some kind of stew, you start it on the top, but then you put it inside. All of the bottoms of each of the compartments are basically simmering hot plates, so you can boil things inside. Which makes it amazing. Things come out really, really luscious. If you make slow-cooked oatmeal or something in it, overnight, it comes out amazing. I've never tasted anything like it.
It's a really special stove. There's things I love about it. There's things I hate about it. I am a good cook and I have never burned so many things in my life as when I first got that stove.
Kerry Diamond:
Learning curve.
Dita Von Teese:
It was like guh-uh.
Kerry Diamond:
Did they have to send someone over to show you how to use it?
Dita Von Teese:
They were going to, and then I never collected on it because the pandemic happened and I just lost track of that. I actually should contact them and say I'm still up for that lesson. I love my stove. It is beautiful, but it is a little bit tricky. If you think about it, it makes sense. You have three different ovens there and you can bake something, you can cook all different things. You can't do that if you just have one.
Kerry Diamond:
No, you absolutely can't. It must be a dream for something like Thanksgiving.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, exactly, because you can have all these things going at once.
Kerry Diamond:
And you love to entertain, which we'll talk about. Okay, so that's the stove. AGA, if you're listening, Dita's ready for her lesson.
Dita Von Teese:
I'm ready.
Kerry Diamond:
Now you have to explain the faucet to me.
Dita Von Teese:
Okay.
Kerry Diamond:
I have never seen a kitchen faucet that looked like that.
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, my God. I'm trying to remember the brand. I can't even remember right now. I just knew I wanted to do copper and there was a little bit of a debate going in my household whether it should be brass or copper. And it was really just like, no, everybody does brass, let's do copper. I don't know, I guess I just...
Kerry Diamond:
It's very tall and skinny. What's going on there?
Dita Von Teese:
I don't know. It's just crazy. I wish I could remember the brand, but it is a heritage brand. I just thought it's really interesting. But it has all the same functions. The sprayer is just up high, out of your way, when you're using just the regular faucet, so you just pull down the sprayer, so it's actually really user-friendly. It's not an impractical, weird thing. It's just cool.
I was like, why wouldn't we get that? It's cool.
Kerry Diamond:
I had the great fortune to visit Alice Waters in her home. Alice is so true to everything she believes in and preaches and has no mod cons in her kitchen. Do you have a microwave?
Dita Von Teese:
No, I don't have a microwave.
Kerry Diamond:
You must have a dishwasher.
Dita Von Teese:
I do have a dishwasher, but half my China has to be hand-washed. I have all that...
Kerry Diamond:
I did see all those.
Dita Von Teese:
... Wedgewood...
Kerry Diamond:
Yep. Mm-hmm.
Dita Von Teese:
... and stuff. You know what I have, is all these glasses from the 1940s with the decals on them. If they go in the dishwasher once, it's over, it comes out a plain glass.
Kerry Diamond:
I didn't even think of that.
Dita Von Teese:
There's whole collection of times where people have put the 1940s pinup girl decal glass in there and it comes out just like a plain beer glass.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh.
Dita Von Teese:
And I'm like, thanks a lot. But they're just vintage treasures, it's fine. So, I'm always policing the dishwasher.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you at least find dishwashing meditative?
Dita Von Teese:
I do when I come home from Vegas or from traveling. Oh, I can't wait to just cook a simple, plain piece of fish and steamed broccoli and then wash the dishes afterwards.
Kerry Diamond:
We'll be right back with today's guest.
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Did I see two chandeliers in the kitchen?
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, but I don't think that's very unusual. Maybe it's unusual because I will not allow any overhead, recessed lighting in any house I live in.
Kerry Diamond:
It's a good rule to live by.
Dita Von Teese:
Absolutely not allowed. Lamps and chandeliers, sconces only. So, there's two chandeliers and there's two big sconces.
Kerry Diamond:
Any other special features. What kind of fridge do you have? Definitely not stainless steel, that much I know.
Dita Von Teese:
No. It has the wood paneling over it to matt... Where it looks like a cabinet.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, okay.
Dita Von Teese:
A cabinet, whatever you call that. Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
As you've told everybody now, you like to bake and cook.
Dita Von Teese:
I do. I especially like to bake because it's so satisfying. Everyone goes, "Ooh, ah, look what you did." I have my specialties, the things that I cook all the time that I know are a sure thing.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us a few of those.
Dita Von Teese:
Ina Garten, her saffron pot pie. It's made with saffron and Pernod, although I put absinthe in it. I make her pot pie. I make her cioppino.
Kerry Diamond:
The stew?
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. I love a fish stew. It's always impressive. Those are my two-
Kerry Diamond:
I love that you love Ina. We all love Ina.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. Always when I see her recipes I'm like, okay, I'm making that one. My thing lately has been cooking fish, because I found a company that has mercury- and microplastics-tested fish. I usually cook vegetarian at home because I'm not really fond of handling meat and I'm very sensitive to animals. I'm a flexitarian in life.
Kerry Diamond:
I live in Brooklyn. I was in one of our little grocery stores and they had tuna that was marked with low mercury and things like that. I'd never seen that in such big letters on a tuna can before.
Dita Von Teese:
This company that I've been ordering from, you get a delivery box, a subscription box. It's called Seatopia. I don't have any affiliation with them. I don't know, I just heard about it and tried it. I really like it because it's so easy to have frozen fish in your freezer. So, when I come home from Vegas or London or wherever I am, I always have something there. All I have to do is go buy some vegetables and I can make a simple meal.
Kerry Diamond:
My only thing with fish is, I don't like the smell sometimes. Really good fish doesn't usually smell.
Dita Von Teese:
Right.
Kerry Diamond:
But I love that cooking fish in paper.
Dita Von Teese:
That's what I do.
Kerry Diamond:
Papillote?
Dita Von Teese:
Uh-huh.
Kerry Diamond:
Is that how you say it?
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. That's what I do mostly.
Kerry Diamond:
I love that technique.
Dita Von Teese:
Also, that company, it's all sushi-grade too, so it's generally...
Kerry Diamond:
Nice.
Dita Von Teese:
... really good and really nice.
Kerry Diamond:
You don't even have to cook it that much.
Dita Von Teese:
No. Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
When did you start baking? As a kid?
Dita Von Teese:
God, that's a good question. Nobody's ever asked me that. I don't remember being...
Kerry Diamond:
You don't do that many baking interviews?
Dita Von Teese:
No, not really. It's usually about the show. I don't know, maybe it was in my 20s. I feel like I always found it one of the incredible tools in the art of seduction.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell me more.
Dita Von Teese:
Baking a pie and taking it over, I always loved doing that. I think people always act surprised when they go, "Oh, you can cook?" And I'm like, "Yeah, but what's the big deal? Why wouldn't I cook? It's just following directions and actually enjoying to do it."
I'm very much I follow recipes. I feel like I know people, they say they're intuitive cookers, and then they... Suddenly I am like, oh, maybe you should have followed the recipe.
Kerry Diamond:
In the next issue we have a story on a cooking school in the south of France that is an intuitive cooking school...
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, my.
Kerry Diamond:
... no recipes.
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, my God. I get it and I admire people who can do it, but I just have too much fear of doing it. I'm very...
Kerry Diamond:
We have a lot of cookbook authors in our audience and they will be so happy to hear that you love following a recipe.
Dita Von Teese:
Okay, I love it. I love it.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have a cookbook collection?
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, I do. I do. I have pretty good ones.
Kerry Diamond:
You like vintage cookbooks?
Dita Von Teese:
I have a few vintage ones, but you have to be careful of those vintage recipes, they can be pretty... One of my favorite is, I have a thing called the calendar of salads. I love to, when it's somebody's birthday, I go, "What's your birthday? Let's look up what your salad is." It's from the '40s and it's got some really...
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, I can imagine.
Dita Von Teese:
... vile things.
Kerry Diamond:
That's a really good point about vintage cookbooks. I own them more for inspiration and to just look at them and see how things have changed. Any modern folks you...
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, I definitely love... There's a few things. There's a nutritionist I follow called Kimberly Snyder, and I like her recipes for really healthy, vegan things that I can make at home. And then, do you know Debi Mazar and her husband...
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, I love Debi.
Dita Von Teese:
“Under the Tuscan Gun?” I have her cookbooks, of course, because she's a good friend of mine. So, I've made some things from her cookbooks. I have an Alain Ducasse one from... I can't make anything in that. I'm really nostalgic for the Betty Crocker, because my mom had it, my grandma had it, everyone had it, so I have mine, of course.
And I like to pull recipes out of food magazines, and I put them in my little binder, so I have a few binders full of things like that.
Kerry Diamond:
A few more things about the house. You have a secret woman cave.
Dita Von Teese:
I do.
Kerry Diamond:
Not a secret woman...
Dita Von Teese:
It's not so secret.
Kerry Diamond:
But you have a woman cave that's semi...
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, not so secret?
Dita Von Teese:
It's not so secret anymore, I've taken people on tours through it. Yeah, I called it a woman cave because I have two different huge bookshelves, so a lot of my book collection is there. I have two libraries essentially. I collect books, which is the worst when you're trying to move house or something.
Kerry Diamond:
That's a problem.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. I also collect vintage pin-up art from the 1930s, '40s and '50s. I have a lot of my most important paintings there, so often along with the magazine that the image appeared on in the '40s. That's there. I just thought it's my woman cave because it's my collections of things. I have Cyd Charisse's ballet shoes. I have a Betty Grable corset and a Natalie Wood, Gypsy Rose Lee outfit. I keep all these things. Like a man would have his Babe Ruth baseball or whatever, I have all these glamour items and cases.
I guess I figured it's a woman cave, because it's my collections, and it's dark and mysterious as well.
Kerry Diamond:
And you have a beautiful bar with all that vintage glassware.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, I love that. It has all the reverse painted glass on it and it lights up. I don't ever use it, I just had to have it. It was one of those things that I got a good job somewhere and I was like, I'm going to buy that thing I've always been lusting after.
Kerry Diamond:
And then you turned your pool house into an English pub?
Dita Von Teese:
I did.
Kerry Diamond:
Why an English pub versus, I don't know, a vintage speakeasy or something?
Dita Von Teese:
Because I live in an English Tudor, so it made sense to me. It was being used as a sauna, but it was just spiders lived in there, so I thought let's... Then we gutted it and we found it had a great roof, so we just turned it into a pub, because I thought it's next to my pool, and it's funny to have a pub.
I started collecting those little Toby Jugs because my grandparents collected them.
Kerry Diamond:
What's a Toby Jug?
Dita Von Teese:
Toby Jugs are those little face mugs, English face mugs. So, now people send them to me as gifts. Whenever I go on tour, people will bring me their... "This is my little note in it." I keep all the notes tucked in, inside the Toby Jugs. But it's like this was part of my grandmother's collection of Toby Jugs. I think somebody sent me some where they said that their family lineage, they were from...
Kerry Diamond:
The faces.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
That's so interesting.
Dita Von Teese:
It was pretty, it's nice.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, that's sweet.
Dita Von Teese:
It's just a funny, kitschy thing I just had to... A tiki bar wouldn't make sense.
Kerry Diamond:
No. No, not on-brand necessarily.
Dita Von Teese:
Mm-mm.
Kerry Diamond:
When folks walk in, what do you serve them?
Dita Von Teese:
You know what...
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have Guinness on tap? Do you...
Dita Von Teese:
I don't have that. I haven't gone that far. I do more cocktails. I always collect funny things too. I'm still looking for some crossed-sword decor. But I love all that medieval '40s and '50s. It was popular...
Kerry Diamond:
Real pub stuff.
Dita Von Teese:
... to have all this funny, reproduction, '50s-style, medieval decor. I always pick that stuff up at flea markets. I have one that's got where you keep a bottle and it's locked up. It's pretty great. I'm always looking for any kind of medieval style, barware and things, which is hard to find.
Kerry Diamond:
Watch out, because people might start to bring...
Dita Von Teese:
I know, it's going to be crazy.
Kerry Diamond:
... barware to your shows. Your temporary home right now is Las Vegas. You've been working a lot here over the past year.
Dita Von Teese:
Mm-hmm.
Kerry Diamond:
Right now you have a revue at Voltaire...
Dita Von Teese:
I do.
Kerry Diamond:
... the theater at The Venetian. It's been so much fun seeing billboards for you all around town.
Dita Von Teese:
Oh.
Kerry Diamond:
I love it. Tell us about the show and what it's all about.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. I first opened a version of the show a year and a half ago in the beautiful Jubilee Theater, which was the last great showgirl theater, which is pretty special because it was... Really, those theaters were where they spent all of the money that there was to spend in entertainment. There were things that came out of the floor and out of the ceiling, and it was really the last time that place could get used in that way, because it's a tough room. It was a tough room.
But we had to move because it was just... The room wasn't ready for a show. We had to bring in all the lighting, so the lighting rentals were a fortune every week. They needed a $4 million renovation over there.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, gosh.
Dita Von Teese:
We were all like, we need to find a new venue. I moved over to The Venetian in this beautiful, beautiful room called the Voltaire. It's a little more intimate than the other theater too, which is nice. It's very cozy and...
Kerry Diamond:
I'll be there tonight. I cannot wait.
Dita Von Teese:
I'm looking forward to seeing you there. I'm using some of the costumes from Jubilee!, which were made by Bob Mackie famously and Pete Menefee. Those costumes hadn't been touched since they closed the show in 2016 and...
Kerry Diamond:
I can't even imagine. I just have goosebumps. What was it like for you?
Dita Von Teese:
It was amazing.
Kerry Diamond:
Bob Mackie was such a legend.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. They wanted me to do a show in that theater, and I was looking at it, going, I don't know, I love this place, but... And I said, "Where's the costumes?" And they said, "We have them downstairs. They're locked up. We haven't touched them. We don't know what to do with it." So, I was-
Kerry Diamond:
So, they weren't even in climate-controlled storage?
Dita Von Teese:
No, nothing.
And when I got there, I was like, ah. There was a massive dried soap spill from a liquid soap dispenser, and it was as big as this whole room. Cockroaches stuck to it. I was very like, oh. The costumes, they were in cabinets and things for the most part, but I was like, I have an idea of what we can do with this. It's going to be amazing. That's how I managed to get those things used again.
And they used them also for the Pam Anderson, “The Last Showgirl” movie. I was doing the show at the time, and Gia Coppola came to ask me if they could hire some of my dancers and they used some of the costumes.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's talk about that for a second...
Dita Von Teese:
Mm-hmm.
Kerry Diamond:
... and then we'll go back to your show. “The Last Showgirl,” Gia Coppola directed it, starring Pam Anderson. It's gotten wonderful reviews and...
Dita Von Teese:
I actually haven't seen it yet because...
Kerry Diamond:
I haven't seen it either.
Dita Von Teese:
... there were supposed to be the big premiere at Grauman's Chinese and it got canceled because of the fires, of course.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, no. I kind of want to see it here though. I feel like Las Vegas is the perfect place to see it.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, I want to ask them for a screen... Because I'm going to want to pause it and be like, oh, there's so-and-so, there's... Because it's all of my girls in it.
Kerry Diamond:
It'll probably be emotional for you.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. I read the script before they made the movie.
Kerry Diamond:
Because it was very much inspired by Jubilee.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, it was very inspired by Jubilee!. Even when I started doing the show with the Jubilee! costumes, I came under fire from a lot of the real, purist showgirl community for putting men in feathers, for having women that were different body shapes than what showgirls were traditionally. I was like, oh. I was actually pretty surprised to have, in 2024, people, "Oh, the only people that should be wearing those costumes are six foot tall ballerinas who weigh 115 pounds." I was like, wow. I didn't expect to get that kind of criticism, to be honest.
Kerry Diamond:
Good for you.
Dita Von Teese:
And of course, I was happy to stand my ground on that. I was like, go ahead and die on that hill. Enjoy.
Kerry Diamond:
A big platform of yours has been reviving the art of burlesque and modernizing it.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, mm-hmm. Because really, people talk about burlesque, it is empowering now, but make no mistake, when you went to see a burlesque show in 1930 and 1940, when it was in its so-called golden age, it was like the equivalent of a strip club. It was a show on a legit stage, and you had great stars that came out of burlesque. It was racy and it was looked down upon by people maybe in vaudeville or people in different areas of entertainment. It was not the empowering thing for women to do. It was all beneath the male gaze. And by the time you were 28 years old, you'd better get out.
Even in Gypsy Rose Lee book, she talks about retiring yourself young. I mean, she went on to do other things, like she had a talk show and wrote books and the movie and all this kind of stuff. But really, as a woman in burlesque you didn't want to... It's much different now. It's a completely different space than it was back then. I'm very proud of the evolution of it and glad that I got to be part of it. Most of the audience for a burlesque show is going to be female and the LGBTQ community.
Kerry Diamond:
Is that what the audiences are?
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, I'd say generally.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh.
Dita Von Teese:
Usually the men that are there, the heteronormative men, are the husbands and boyfriends. And they don't really know where they're at, they're just like, okay, I'm happy to be here. I always put just as many men in a show performing striptease as women, because that's what I like. I like that it feels inclusive, tick as many boxes as we can. And I want people to leave with their minds changed about what a burlesque show is.
Kerry Diamond:
We were talking about the costume. You've got Bob Mackie pieces. You've also got haute couture. I know how much you've loved fashion. You've been amused to so many fashion designers. Tell us about the haute couture pieces.
Dita Von Teese:
I've always felt like striptease and high fashion go together. Gypsy Rose Lee famously wore a Charles James. There's always been a connection on dressing if you're undressing, because where are you going to go if you just walk out on the stage with nothing on?
All my Louis Vuittons are all custom. I'm a good friend of Louis Vuitton, so we always concoct interesting shoes and boots to go on stage. Jenny Packham, who's a famous British designer who dresses the royal family, she makes a lot of my costumes. I really enjoy working with her. And then there's other pieces that are by Michael Schmidt who makes things for Cher and for Beyonce and everybody. Anyone that needs something with a rhinestone on, they go to Michael Schmidt.
Kerry Diamond:
How far in advance do you have to plan for a show like this, not just costumes: hair, makeup, choreography, music?
Dita Von Teese:
I'm always still working on it. I'll tell you what, I was just working on other new wigs the other day. I'm always just trying to add new things into it. But I'd say when we started making this show, it was probably three months before. But it was also, I already had existing things, like existing music that I had created and existing props and existing concepts. So, it was really just organizing it all and bringing in a bigger team to put all of my life's work into one show.
And that's what's special about this show as opposed to my tours or something is, this is the only place in the world where I can bring this showgirl style to the stage and bring my life's work together into one show and have other dancers performing numbers that I do. When you see the show tonight, you'll see almost everything is something that I did in the past.
Kerry Diamond:
It's like your version of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.
Dita Von Teese:
I guess so, except for it's not four and a half hours long.
Kerry Diamond:
And you know Taylor, of course...
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
... because you were in the... I love that song.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, it was great, a great experience.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's talk Vegas. The show looks so physically demanding. Do you go out when you have downtime in Vegas?
Dita Von Teese:
No, no. All of the dancers, many of them.... Actually, we have people that are from 20 years old and up to 50s, and some of the older ones there are out on the town. But me, I'm very... I do my show, I do the little meet-and-greets, and then I'm very much wash all the stuff off and go to bed and wake up. I don't go out much.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have a strict routine that you follow?
Dita Von Teese:
I'd say, I don't know. It's not strict. It's just more of try to make sure I get as much sleep as I can.
Kerry Diamond:
Because you are like an athlete.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. I try to remind myself of that. Believe me, I go, oh, don't forget, this is your job.
Kerry Diamond:
I know you don't wear sneakers. Do you even own sneakers?
Dita Von Teese:
I do own sneakers, because I do my workouts. But I do like to wear flats during the day when I'm off.
Kerry Diamond:
Have you come here socially and just been able to run around and have fun?
Dita Von Teese:
I just had two days off. We did a Wednesday show last night, and so I decided to stay for Monday. I had Monday and Tuesday off, which I normally go home. I go back to L.A., even if it's for two or three days. I packed everything in. It was like, okay, restaurants that I wanted to go to, shows I want to see, everything I wanted to do, I packed into two days just now.
Kerry Diamond:
Any highlights?
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, I went to see Awakening, which I've been wanting to see because the technology is so crazy, and we have a few of my former dancers that are in that show. It's very psychedelic. I don't know if everyone would call it psychedelic, but I certainly was like, this is psychedelic. But it's that big show at the Wynn... Anyway, I liked it.
Kerry Diamond:
Is it dancing and magic and...
Dita Von Teese:
It's dancing and acrobats, and there are a few illusions in it that I really enjoyed. I also saw David Copperfield. That was pretty, I don't know how he does that. I've seen Wayne Newton, which I really loved. Because I love Wayne Newton as a singer, I've listened to his music all the time, and so it was really fun to go see his show. I enjoyed that very much. His voice is not the same as it was, of course, but he has this incredible way of telling his life story and showing these clips. I was completely fascinated and entertained, and I loved every second of it.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, I have to see him next time. I went and saw Tears for Fears last night.
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, fun.
Kerry Diamond:
They were so good.
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, good. Good.
Kerry Diamond:
It's such an amazing time in terms of all the talent here. You must feel like you're in incredible company.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. I love being here and I love that there's not another show like mine on the Strip. Shania Twain came to see our show recently. And The B-52's who I also love, they were playing here, and I think they're coming back soon. Some of the band members of U2 came to see the show.
I did the Sphere thing.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, I'm dying to go to the Sphere. How was it?
Dita Von Teese:
I didn't see the movie yet, but I did see U2 there, so it was great. And also, David Blaine is amazing. I saw him, I don't know, a couple months ago. He is not always here because he can only do a certain number of dates. But talk about some incredible... You can't even really call it illusions and magic, because it's not. A lot of it is totally real body training. It's very impressive.
Kerry Diamond:
You've given me a lot...
Dita Von Teese:
I loved it.
Kerry Diamond:
... to add to my list. I never have enough time when I'm here.
Dita Von Teese:
I know. I feel the same way, especially because that's like there's no afternoon shows.
Kerry Diamond:
Are you a big restaurant fan? Do you go to restaurants much?
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. I don't that much when I'm here because... I mean, I eat at The Venetian because I'm practically living there. I have my favorite places, which are great. Milos is really great. It's a great fish...
Kerry Diamond:
I love Milos, mm-hmm.
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, my God, that's my go-to.
Kerry Diamond:
How do you not get all the dips, or do you?
Dita Von Teese:
I usually don't. My thing is I love the green salad. They have a really good green salad with that amazing...
Kerry Diamond:
Dita Von Teese wants you to come to Vegas and eat green salad.
Dita Von Teese:
No, it's great though. It's got cheese in it, and then I get a nice piece of fish. And I also like Gjelina that just opened up.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, mm-hmm.
Dita Von Teese:
I'm a big fan of that.
Kerry Diamond:
I thought that was a fun thing to open up in Vegas.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. And I go to Bouchon for brunch sometimes. When I have somebody visiting, I'll go there.
Kerry Diamond:
You have a lot of options at The Venetian.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, since I'm here, it's so easy to walk around. And I do love to walk over to the Wynn as well, and I like going to Tableau for brunch.
Kerry Diamond:
Have you been to Delilah's?
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Dita Von Teese:
I was just there the other night and it's great. That's always a place to go when you're trying to...
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, Delilah's is so beautiful. And you should sneak in a visit to Casa Playa.
Dita Von Teese:
Oh.
Kerry Diamond:
They're a Mexican restaurant.
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, okay.
Kerry Diamond:
They've got a wonderful female chef, Chef Sarah, beautiful food.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, I have to check that.
Kerry Diamond:
There's a lot of girl power over at the Wynn...
Dita Von Teese:
Yes, indeed.
Kerry Diamond:
... which I'm always happy about. Do you go off the strip much? There's such an exciting off-the-strip moment now.
Dita Von Teese:
I do. I went and had an omakase that one of my friends gifted me a gift certificate and I went by myself the other night. It was one of my things I did on my night off. You have to make an appointment. I just went by myself and it was so nice.
Kerry Diamond:
A lot of women are afraid to eat by themselves.
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, no. I do it all the time. I love it. I love just being like...
Kerry Diamond:
Did you always love that?
Dita Von Teese:
I always have, for as long as I've been an adult, been like, I'm going to go take myself out to dinner right now. It's nice to be with girlfriends or whatever, but what are you waiting for? And especially if you're going somewhere that's maybe hard to get into or is more expensive than you would want to spend.
And also, what's more satisfying than getting the check and just sign it, instead of having... You know when you have a big group dinner and one person had 75 drinks and you just had water and you're like, oh, I should have had caviar. So, I love going out to dinner by myself and not having to...
Kerry Diamond:
So, just do it. Be fearless.
Dita Von Teese:
Just go, yeah. And also, you can get amazing tables at places. And I think people, they don't ever go, oh, poor you. They're like, good for you, take yourself out. Why not?
Kerry Diamond:
Good for you. Remember that, ladies. Have you been to The Writer's Block, the bookstore here in Vegas?
Dita Von Teese:
No. Oh.
Kerry Diamond:
Vegas has one of the best bookstores in the country.
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, really?
Kerry Diamond:
Yes.
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, my God.
Kerry Diamond:
I was shocked when I walked in.
Dita Von Teese:
Wow. Okay, I should go look. I don't need any more books.
Kerry Diamond:
And they would love you. Oh, my gosh.
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, my God.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, no.
Dita Von Teese:
I'm crazy with the books.
Kerry Diamond:
That's right. You mentioned your book problem. I'm sorry. We all have a book problem.
Dita Von Teese:
Have a book problem, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Anyway. Writer's Block, you will love it.
Dita Von Teese:
Okay.
Kerry Diamond:
When did you first start coming to Vegas?
Dita Von Teese:
In the '90s. I saw James Brown play here. Amazing. Sometimes I think about how Vegas was in the '90s. It was so gritty and very Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Kerry Diamond:
It's changed so much.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. The thing I miss the most in Vegas that I remember from back then are, you used to go to the casino and you'd see those ladies with the blue or green eyeshadow and the beauty mark drawn on and the red lipstick, smoking with the cigarette holder, and the red nails, and the bouffant hairdo. You don't have that anymore.
Kerry Diamond:
No.
Dita Von Teese:
Those ladies are all extinct.
Kerry Diamond:
No, you don't see that. I do appreciate though when people dress up. People must really dress up for your show.
Dita Von Teese:
They really dress up...
Kerry Diamond:
I'm guessing, yeah.
Dita Von Teese:
... for the show, generally.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. I'm a little nervous that I did not pack anything dressy enough.
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, but don't be, because it's fine, it's always fine.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm going to do my best. When did you get into burlesque?
Dita Von Teese:
In the early '90s, '91, '92. I had the idea of being a pin-up girl. I was like, oh, I should be a modern Betty Page and creating pin-up photos. And then I was like, I should dress like this when I do a show. I was working in the rave scene in 1991. I met lots of drag queens and club kids and I was a go-go dancer and I did a performance art piece. My boyfriend, he was the biggest rave promoter at that time, and he brought me to a strip club. And I was like, oh, these girls are making tons of money, more than my $75 a shift fee, more than what I make go-go dancing.
I was like, I should try this out for a while, so I started working in a strip club. And I was like, oh, I'm going to wear my vintage-style clothes, my corsets. It started there and it just snowballed into something bigger. I started performing at parties in Los Angeles and London. And I was modeling at the same time for the Playboy newsstand specials and magazines. I just kept growing and growing.
In 2002, I was performing as a guest star with The Pussycat Dolls. That was a show that they had Christina Aguilera and Christina Applegate and Charlize Theron and Gwen Stefani, all these stars as guest stars. I was doing my martini glass act and I got a lot of recognition from that. And then I was on the cover of Playboy when Playboy was still a thing where people knew who was on the cover. Celebrities and actresses were on the cover. My turning point was in 2002.
And then the fashion brand started hiring me, Louis Vuitton, Chopard, Marc Jacobs, so I had a moment there in the early 2000s.
Kerry Diamond:
And now you're the Queen of Burlesque.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. It's a funny, little, lightning-strikes thing. I wanted to be a ballet dancer, but I was just never good enough. I didn't have the right training. There wasn't a ballet school where I lived, in a small town in Michigan. So, I just did my best, but it worked out.
Kerry Diamond:
I want to talk about you as an entrepreneur because folks might not realize how entrepreneurial you are. Were you always like this? Were you the kid with the lemonade stand?
Dita Von Teese:
I did have a lemonade stand in the early '90s when I was a young, fetish model, stripper. I always had a fax machine with a fake name. I acted as my fake manager. That was...
Kerry Diamond:
That's smart.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. Nobody's going to know, and nobody knows better than I do of how much I want to make and what I need to do, what I want to do.
Kerry Diamond:
Sure. You know how many DMs and texts and emails I get from folks in our community who are like, I want an agent, I want a manager. Maybe fake it.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, just be smart. I would say, my best advice is, you just need an attorney. You need an attorney to look at your deals or to tell you when you should ask for more and the things to ask for. I don't want to speak badly of agents and managers, I've had many, many of them, but really, the attorney is where it's at.
Kerry Diamond:
I do love the idea though, in the beginning, if you're trying to establish yourself saying, oh, could you talk to my agent and then...
Dita Von Teese:
Totally.
Kerry Diamond:
... send a fake email.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, I had a fake name. I loved it.
Kerry Diamond:
That's great. But maybe don't impersonate lawyers. There might be lawsuits against that.
Dita Von Teese:
No, don't do that.
Kerry Diamond:
You have your own gin today, Sweet Gwendoline French Gin.
Dita Von Teese:
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
How did that come about?
Dita Von Teese:
I was approached by a gentleman named Larry, who had done something with helping create other...
Kerry Diamond:
He has a good track record.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, he has a great track record. He approached me with this idea and I was like, yeah, this is my world. The art of John Willie, I've always cited it as one of my biggest influences of my street style or how I like to dress as the Sweet Gwendoline John Willie drawings.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us about John Willie a little bit.
Dita Von Teese:
John Willie was an artist, 1940s and '50s, fetish art. It was all a little bit with a sense of humor as well, but really amazing work. I just loved the women that he drew. They're very powerful and lots of long, leather gloves. And he would draw these crazy leather footwear and costumes. I just fell in love with as an artist.
So, when I was approached about doing this gin based on the art, I was like, yeah, yeah, you can't do this with anybody but me.
Kerry Diamond:
It hit all your sweet spots.
Dita Von Teese:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
He is your muse for this, right?
Dita Von Teese:
John Willie? Yeah, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
What is a French gin versus a regular gin?
Dita Von Teese:
It's distilled in France. It is distilled in France. The gin was...
Kerry Diamond:
That makes sense then.
Dita Von Teese:
I'm not even a gin person, so when I was approached about this, I thought, ugh, gin, I don't know, I'm not a gin person. He's like, "Just try it." And we did a tasting to choose it. It's a little bit like choosing perfume. I just fell in love with this gin. I was like, I did not gin until I tried this. It's fig infused with a little touch of white wine infusion. It's not sweet. It's just perfumed beautifully.
I fell in love with that gin and I was like, all right, I guess I'm a gin drinker now, because this changed my mind.
Kerry Diamond:
I love a gin and tonic.
Dita Von Teese:
It's distilled in France and bottled in New Orleans. On the bottle, you'll see some of the imagery of John Willie.
Kerry Diamond:
That's fun lineage: made in France, bottled in New Orleans.
Dita Von Teese:
Exactly.
Kerry Diamond:
I heard there's some special Dita cocktails...
Dita Von Teese:
Mm-hmm, yes.
Kerry Diamond:
... with Sweet Gwendoline that we can try tonight.
Dita Von Teese:
There's a few, but the star is the Volteese, I think. It's based on a cocktail that I did when I was the brand ambassador for Cointreau. It's infused with violet and it's very beautiful, with a beautiful flower on it and everything. It's a very fancy cocktail. But we have a lot of options. I really love drinking Sweet Gwendoline just simply as a martini, but if you like a sweeter drink, the Volteese would be great.
Kerry Diamond:
You have a mixologist friend-
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, my...
Kerry Diamond:
... who's helped out with some of these, right?
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, my friend, she's one of my best friends, her name's Danielle Motor and she works for Sweet Gwendoline, and so she created these cocktails that are on the Voltaire menu. I like having my friends involved in things like this.
Kerry Diamond:
I know. You're very loyal.
Dita Von Teese:
I am, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Yes. Which is a wonderful quality. What are your plans for Sweet Gwendoline?
Dita Von Teese:
We're working on getting it into England because I'm opening a show there too, and I'm like, we have to have my drink on the menu there. It's not going to be easy to get this gin from France into England where they are the gin capital of the world, right?
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, yeah.
Dita Von Teese:
So, we're working on that.
Kerry Diamond:
When will you be in London?
Dita Von Teese:
I'm working on opening a show there called Diamonds and Dust. My friend who has been in my touring shows for a long time, her name's Tosca Rivola, during the pandemic, she created this show. She had created it before and was performing it in L.A., in a small venue there. She got a lot of traction on it. And then during the pandemic, she has a marketing degree, she wrestled up the investment for this show to open in the West End.
It's a new venue, everything. I was just there, looking at this space which is being gutted as we speak, and redesigned. It's a big job, but I'm excited about. I agreed to come in and co-direct with her. And also, I'll perform in it once a month. It's a, "Dita Von Teese presents...". It's my first foray really into stepping back a little bit and just being more of the director, but of course... It started off as me just directing it, but now here I am, "We need you to perform in it", and I was like, "You do. Okay." It's good to be wanted. It's good to be wanted, and needed.
Kerry Diamond:
It's always good to be wanted.
Dita Von Teese:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
That sounds really exciting. Any thoughts on an opening date?
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, yeah. There's a soft opening that's meant to be in June. And then the real opening would be the first week of July, I think.
Kerry Diamond:
So exciting. London's going to lose their minds.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, I think it's great.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm sure they love you.
Dita Von Teese:
It's in a great location.
Kerry Diamond:
In the West End?
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
That's thrilling. You also design your own namesake lingerie line.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Everything is so beautiful and sexy.
Dita Von Teese:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
How did that come about?
Dita Von Teese:
It's been a while now. It's 15 years of collaboration. I was approached by an Australian parent company about creating this brand. Of course, I was thrilled. It was actually, I don't know, three billionaire brothers who invested in this brand. It was very exciting. We did fashion shows and everything. It was always size inclusive and meant to be beautiful lingerie to wear under your clothes all the time. We did all these things.
And then one day, they folded the company. The women, my CEO and the people that I was directly working with, we basically saved the brand ourselves quickly. We're like, "Wait, wait, but the brand is doing really well." And it was. It was in Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom and big retailers all across Australia. We basically picked it back up. It was no small feat to do that, because it's actually quite difficult when you have all this floor space in big department stores and suddenly you don't have anything to send them. But we redid everything, restructured everything. And it's been back and it's been very strong.
And actually, interestingly, at the same time with all of these big retailers not having space there anymore, the pandemic happened, and suddenly all of the mom-and-pop lingerie stores we're killing it. They buy more product from me than any department stores anymore. It's amazing. And I'm very happy about that. There's more of warmth in it. People do unboxings, people try it on now. Suddenly you have people at home that are like, I'm not going to be afraid to take a picture of myself wearing my lingerie. Everything shifted.
Kerry Diamond:
I actually always wanted to do a post on Instagram, thanking those women who are willing to do the bra try-on, because the rest of us benefit so much, and they sometimes take a little grief in the comments.
Dita Von Teese:
Right, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
And I'm like, thank God for all of you.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. It's just been a phenomenon and I just think it's changed the way lingerie is sold and people feel. And, of course...
Kerry Diamond:
Because it's so personal.
Dita Von Teese:
Mm-hmm.
Kerry Diamond:
And you get to see, oh, her body looks a little bit like mine, maybe this would fit me.
Dita Von Teese:
Mm-hmm.
Kerry Diamond:
But anyway, if you want something a little sexy in your life, you should go visit... What's the...Is it Dita Von Teese? Is that the URL?
Dita Von Teese:
It's Dita Von Teese Lingerie, yeah. A lot of things are on my Instagram. It's just @ditavonteese. It's spelled with two E's, in case anyone doesn't know. I have my own website and everything, and it's just... I love lingerie. It's really what sparked everything in my career, like posing for pinups. I was always trying to create places where I wear my lingerie: pin-up photos, the stage. I think lingerie is very symbolic of womanhood and femininity for me, and that's one of the things I loved about it.
I grew up always wondering, what the hell is my mom wearing underneath her clothes, and looking in the lingerie drawer, what is this? I used to steal her bras. I actually have one still, a Frederick's of Hollywood open bra. Mom, I stole this from you when I was little.
Kerry Diamond:
Does she know this?
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah, I showed it to her.
Kerry Diamond:
It's so funny that you say that, because you really have, in such a magical way, created this whole world. What is it about you that enabled you to do this?
Dita Von Teese:
I think when I look back on my thought process, I never had a goal or I didn't have anyone in front of me to try to say, I'm going to be like her. Unless it was like, I'm going to be the modern Gypsy Rose Lee, or I'm going to be the modern Betty Page. There was nobody alive really, that I was like, I'm going to be like her. I think I just did what I did because it was fun, and then the rewards came. I never was like, I'm going to be famous for this, or I'm going to have a show in Vegas. I've never written down a goal. I've never been like that. I always just stay grateful for what I'm doing and work with integrity.
If you enjoy what you're doing, the payoff is already there anyway. If you have success and you have accolades, if people say it's great, or if you make money doing it, that's the extra bonus. I don't know, I guess maybe it's just I think I'm pretty lucky, but I also just feel like... When I did have a little bit of recognition in the world and other people said, "You should go be an actress now.", or, "Can you sing?", and I was like, "No.", I did all of this to be the greatest burlesque star since Gypsy Rose Lee. I didn't do all of this, it wasn't a stepping stone. This is what I really love.
All of my projects, they're all connected to this one thing, which is being a burlesque star, changing people's minds about striptease, redoing something that was done in the past but in a new way. My books, my lingerie, everything is, I think, connected to that.
Kerry Diamond:
That's a beautiful reminder that you don't have to move onto other things.
Dita Von Teese:
No, it doesn't...
Kerry Diamond:
If there's something that you love so much, to be able to stay in there and just practice it deeply.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. And certainly, my entire adult life since I was 25, people have been scaring me about age or, "What are you going to do? You can't be a stripper when you're 50." And I'm like, "Oh." I didn't expect to be doing this. And if you would've told my 25-year-old self or my 35- or 45-year-old self, I would never have believed that I could be leading a Vegas show.
In fact, I've said before to my bosses, I've been like, "Do you guys see a world where maybe this show could live on where I don't have to be in it, I could just be directing it?" And they're like, "No." I'm like, "Well..." Again, it goes back to it's good to be wanted. It'd be terrible if they were talking about me like they need to get me out of there and put somebody younger in, like "The Substance." You know what I mean?
Kerry Diamond:
Right. I'm too afraid to-
Dita Von Teese:
It's a special feeling to be like, oh, you're...
Kerry Diamond:
I'm too afraid to watch "The Substance." Have you watched it?
Dita Von Teese:
I was too. I watched it, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, should I watch it?
Dita Von Teese:
I think you should. You have to look at all of the gore and that part of it as... They needed that to prove the point of how hardcore it is.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Dita Von Teese:
At first, I don't like gory movies, but I felt like there was a reason behind that. I stopped it halfway while I was watching, I was like, this has got to be a French director.
Kerry Diamond:
Was it?
Dita Von Teese:
Because I'm good friends with Gaspar Noé, who did Irréversible and all these outrageously... I stopped it and I was like, yep, French director. And I think they know each other. It's such a...
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, that's funny.
Dita Von Teese:
And then I met the director...
Kerry Diamond:
I'm the same.
Dita Von Teese:
... during the Golden Globes. It's pretty hardcore. You...
Kerry Diamond:
I can't watch gory, but I'll...
Dita Von Teese:
I know. I can't either.
Kerry Diamond:
I'll do it.
Dita Von Teese:
But you do, and you...
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, I feel like it's an important message.
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
I know I need to watch it.
Dita Von Teese:
And it expresses the intensity of the feelings, I think.
Kerry Diamond:
Are you good at trusting your gut?
Dita Von Teese:
No, I'm super indecisive. I'm always afraid of second-guessing or going, "I don't know if I made the right decision.". I'm not good at trusting my gut.
Kerry Diamond:
How do you make decisions then?
Dita Von Teese:
Pros-and-cons lists. I totally like a...
Kerry Diamond:
Do you really-
Dita Von Teese:
I will pull out a piece of paper and make that pro-and-con list. Yeah. Or sometimes I just go, "Fuck it, what's the worst that can happen? Let's just do it." I don't know.
Kerry Diamond:
I was going to ask you for some advice, but I don't think it gets better than that, right?
Dita Von Teese:
Yeah. I just...
Kerry Diamond:
What's the worst that can happen?
Dita Von Teese:
What's the worst that can happen? Or what is it? Mae West? Oh, "I always try the thing that I haven't tried before." Or whatever, the Mae West quote, what would Mae West do?
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, last question. If you had to plan a fun night on the town in Las Vegas, where would you go? And if you could bring anyone, living or not, along with you, who would you bring?
Dita Von Teese:
Okay, so are we saying that the time doesn't matter, we're time traveling?
Kerry Diamond:
You can pick. You can time travel.
Dita Von Teese:
For sure I would've loved to just visit all of the old showgirl revues in the '50s, '60s, even the '70s. That's what I would want to do. And there's a show here that I would've loved to have seen, called Les Poupées de Paris. It was a marionette show. It was Sid and Marty Krofft, and it was amazing. There was a Mae West puppet and all these dancing girl puppets. I would kill to see that show.
Kerry Diamond:
Is there footage of it?
Dita Von Teese:
There's a little bit of footage and photos, I think. You can see pictures of Mae West with her puppet or Liberace with his puppet. A sexy marionette show? That sounds amazing. I love things that make me cry with laughter. They're so kitschy.
To me, it seems so novel now, especially when all this technology is everywhere and people are achieving the greatest stunt work they can do. It just becomes like you see it so much that it doesn't... I actually refuse to have any aerial stuff in my show. Because that's where you go to that show, to see that. This is where you come to see glamour, feathers and rhinestones and personality and sensuality. For me, I had to take a stand in this era where everything is so high-tech and...
Kerry Diamond:
All AI, mm-hmm.
Dita Von Teese:
I like the lo-fi. Super amused.
Kerry Diamond:
I love that, and I think a lot of us love that about you. Dita, this has been so much fun. You are the Bombe, 100%.
Dita Von Teese:
Oh, thank you. Thank you. I'm looking forward to seeing you tonight, seeing what you think of the show.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Don't forget, we'll be in Vegas on March 7th and 8th for a special series of events. Snag your ticket or weekend pass at cherrybombe.com, and maybe you can even check out Dita's show while you're in town. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Thank you to Sticky Paws Studio in Las Vegas and Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Our producers are Catherine Baker and Jenna Sadhu, and our editorial coordinator is Sophie Kies. Thanks for listening, everybody. You are the Bombe.