Welcome to Tea & Glitter!

Ep. 1

Date: June 28, 2023

Hi babes! Welcome to Tea & Glitter.

I'm Evelina, better known as Ivy of the Lesvixens. I'm a lesbian burlesque performer and I have spent my entire career learning how to own my body, my identity, my sensuality, my sexuality, and my life, and to empower others to do the same. On this podcast, I will be spilling the tea and giving you all that gay girl glitter on how to live a more peaceful,

productive, and pretty life. So I'm so happy you're here. Grab yourself a tea and let's get into it.

For this first episode, I wanted to share a little bit about who I am, what it is that I do, why I'm here, and what this podcast will be about. Most of you know me as Ivy Lesvixens, and I'm basically a professional gay. I run the largest, longest -running all -queer burlesque troupe in the United States of America, if not the world, and I'm the director and producer of 16 smoking hot and hella talented all -gay burlesque babes. They're all diverse, beautiful, and amazing performers, and it's an honor to be their leader.

We've performed at prides across the country and at major events like Girls in Wonderland, and then we also have 15 to 20 monthly events every single month, including Girl the Party, which is our weekly residency in Orlando, and that is the largest, longest -running queer women's weekly event in the country. That's right, the Vixens have a lot of accolades, and it is a shit ton of work.

Being the producer means that I wear every single hat. The feathered hats, the sparkly hats, the business hats, every single hat. I do all the social media, all the marketing, I do all the booking, all the scheduling, I work with all of the venues, I do all the liaisoning with the venues and the people who run things, I host and every show, and then I bust my ass pretty much 24 -7 to get us onto more stages. So I'm a business bitch, if you will. I perform all the time, I'm on the road like four or five nights a week, but then I'm also constantly working for my troupe, and we've won awards.

We've been Orlando's number one burlesque troupe four times, hopefully we'll win the fifth time. We were in Forbes magazine, we've been in a bunch of different magazines,

and yeah, we're just pretty much your favorite gay girl burlesque troupe. My friend calls us Taste the Rainbow because there's something for everyone, like the Skittles of the burlesque world. We're very diverse, and that's very important to me, diverse in representation. Imagine 16 gay women at your house right now, sounds amazing, doesn't it? It also sounds like the worst.

It's like dating women, it's the best and the worst. There's so much lesbian drama, there's

so many heartaches, so much mental health issues, so many women losing their shit, there's infighting, there's outfighting, there's lots and lots of drama. So I have to manage that. These girls have big asses and big personalities, and it's part of the bane of the producer life that you have to deal with all of that. It's also super fun, to be honest.

The Glitter Grind is no joke. There's a lot of work to running what I do as successfully as I do for as long as I have, and I'm going to share some of those insights with you guys here and share kind of the life of a showgirl, especially a gay showgirl, because that's different. And the Glitter Grind is real. It's a labor of love. I wouldn't want it any other way, because when I first came out, there was such little representation for queer women, and still to this day, there's still barely any representation for queer women, other than like stereotypes. And in the gay bars, especially, there was nothing for queer women, specifically.

We love our drag queens. I was raised by a wild pack of drag queens, and I will always support drag in all its forms. But there was nothing that was specific for women and for queer women, and so I created it. I started the Les Vixens, and it's been a freaking wild ride, let me tell you, and I will tell you on this podcast.

But there's just something so important about having queer performers for queer people, because we know what it's like to come out, to lose family and friends, to struggle with our identities. And when we're performing, and you see us, we also see you, and we understand you, and we love you. And that's one of the reasons that I work so hard, is because I think that representation needs to exist. And why not also create kind of a fantasy, where you actually might have a chance with these girls on stage.

They're not just straight girls, gay for pay. It's actually queer women, gay women, bisexual, lesbians, queer. We are all the colors of the rainbow. You actually have a chance to date us, and some of you have dated us, and it's dramatic and good times, and then I have to deal with it. That's right. If you've dated a vixen, I know everything about you and everything about your life. But when I started the Les Vixens, I had no idea how much my voice on social media was going to resonate. The more I shared my journey, my vulnerability, my life, and not just my performances and sexy photo shoots, the more messages I was getting from people who told me that they realized that they were gay, that they realized they were bi, that they realized they were trans, that they came out to their families because of me and the vixens, that they got out of toxic relationships, that they come to my social media for an escape to have some motivation to feel loved and accepted and seen. And that blew my mind, and it still does to this day because I get messages like that every single day.

And that's one of the reasons why I do what I do, and that's also one of the reasons I'm starting this podcast because I want people to feel loved and accepted and less alone. My social media has been doing that for years. The vixens have been doing that for years, but I want to go deeper. I want this podcast to feel like a place you can come to feel accepted, seen, understood, loved, to learn a little bit, to go deeper, to talk about the real things.

I feel like within the queer community, there's so little for queer women, including podcasts. And all the lesbian and queer podcasts I have found are so heavily pop culture or comedy based. And I want to go deeper. I'm sick of just talking comedy. I want to talk about real shit. And I can only do so much in an Instagram caption. So I'm back on YouTube. This podcast will also be on YouTube. Hi, friends who can see me on YouTube. And then it'll be audio. So when you're taking your walks, your mental health walks, and your hot girl walks, you can listen to me talk to you about gay things.

I listen to a lot of podcasts, and there's just something so different about listening to a sapphic woman talk, right? Because there are a lot of podcasts that have kind of a general thing that I enjoy, the idea of motivation, inspiration. But heterosexual culture is so different from what I experience. I have 99 problems, but boys aren't one. And a lot of times these podcasts lose me, right? Because they're talking, and I'm like, oh, this is interesting. But then, God, they just start talking about straight things. And I just can't relate. I just can't do it. And it's a struggle for me to continue listening because I'm like, we're different. We are so different. And I don't often realize how different straight culture is until I'm in it. Sometimes I'll perform or I'll go go dance or something at a straight club. And I'm shocked. I have culture shock. It's so different. So that's one of the reasons I'm here with this podcast, because I think there needs to be more representation.

I think there needs to be more queer voices, especially voices for queer women. I've already been doing that for years with my burlesque troupe, with my own performances, and with my social media. So I'm really excited to be here. And now let me tell you a little bit about me. You know what I do professionally as a professional gay. I'm on the road four to five nights a week shaking ass and tail feathers across this great US of A, US of gay, excuse me, gay bars across the US of gay. That's where you can find me.

But I'm going to be oversharing and getting very vulnerable on this podcast. And I'll probably cry pretty regularly. So like buckle up for that. But here's kind of a primer. Like if you were to look at my dating profile, this is kind of the things that I would want you to know right out the gate.

First and foremost, it would not be a queer podcast without talking about astrology. My big three, I'm a Virgo sun, Taurus moon, and Scorpio rising. And if you know anything about astrology at all, I feel like you're nodding your head saying, yep, that sounds about right. That checks out.

I am allergic, allergic, allergic to cats and dogs. I love them both equally. I'm allergic to both equally. I'm also allergic to feathers, which as a burlesque performer is a pain in the ass. But maybe one day I'll be sponsored by Zyrtec or Claritin. How cool would that be? Put that on the universe, everybody, that one day I get sponsored by an allergy company. Anyway, I do love cats and dogs. I have two cats, Fenton and Banksy. And if you watch on the YouTube videos of this podcast, you'll probably get to meet them because they are a needy. And I love that. It's my favorite way for a cat to be. So they will be popping in and out. I'm sure fucking up my equipment, knocking over my mic, et cetera. Cats, man. I also feel like if you understand cats, you understand women, but that might be a whole podcast episode we can talk about at some point.

I have about 100 houseplants. God dang it. I'm really kind of a walking gay stereotype. I'm going to drink some tea. I drink a venti iced, unsweet, no water, green tea, still shaken from Starbucks every single day. And by one, I mean I drink at least three. And I've been tipped in Starbucks gift cards, which is one of the coolest ways to be tipped.

Back in the day, I used to talk about unicorns, which I'm still a big fan of unicorns. But people used to bring me a lot of unicorn stuff, which is really cool. But like as an adult, it starts to look really, really weird at your house when you have like just a shit ton of like unicorn stuffed animals and unicorn figurines and unicorn stuff. And then you're going to Goodwill, like regularly dropping off a bunch of unicorn stuff. It starts to look kind of weird. So I'm pretty glad that people have started to just bring Starbucks gift cards because that's a little less weird for me at my house. It's pretty great, actually, because it's my like number one vice, Starbucks green tea, which isn't actually a vice.

Women are my vice. Women, women, women. They are enough struggle for me. But on that note, I'm also sober. I've been sober every single day of my entire life. I don't actually have like an issue with drugs or alcohol. There's nothing like in my family, no weird, like religious anything, no major addiction issues. I just never wanted to. And so I never did. It's kind of interesting working in nightclubs where drugs and alcohol are literally everywhere constantly at all times. And everyone you know does all of them. But I don't. So every time you see me, I am stone cold sober. Occasionally people will think that I'm high because I have allergies. But yeah, if you ever see me looking like I just cried, I didn't guys. I just have allergies and I'm not high. I don't do drugs. Don't do anything. I just drink green tea and date women. And that is enough.

Speaking of struggles and dating women, I do go to therapy. I go to therapy regularly. I've been going for a very long time. We're going to talk lots and lots of things about therapy on this channel. You'll get some secondhand therapeutic advice from my therapist through me to you. I'm going to share all of that.

Another thing about me is that I lift heavy in the gym. I'm a femme as fuck, but I also want to be strong as fuck so I can give good hugs, carry all my groceries at once, have a fat ass and smash the patriarchy. Saturday nights are probably my favorite night of the week because I'll be at girl party, doing push -ups on your girlfriend with your consent. Consent is everything. Taking dollar bills out of girls' mouths. And yeah, some of you just went, ew. But come see. Come see. It's not ew. It's kind of hot. And my immune system is quite strong thanks to girl party every Saturday night.

And you'll learn more about me as we go along because as I said, I do plan on oversharing, on being really vulnerable, about sharing lots of things about my personal experiences dating women, being a lesbian show girl, having a troupe of 16 queer women and all the drama and all the wonderful things that happen within that. And also just a note, while I'll be talking about a lot of LGBTQ things, a lot of gay things on this podcast, because that's who I am.

I'm out and proud. I'm gay as fuck. I want you to know that if you are not gay, if you're not queer, if you don't identify as such, you're still very, very welcome here. I feel like a lot of my insights and a lot of the things I'll be talking about do transcend over the rainbow lines. And I know for me, like a lot of straight podcasts just don't hit the mark. But I think you might want to try giving this one a listen. This is a podcast where I want you to feel safe and loved and seen, even if you're not queer, but especially if you are, because like I said, there's so little representation and I want to be that here. I want to be a safe space for you. I want you to come here and feel loved and feel seen because that's what I do as a performer and a person.

And now on a podcast. One of the reasons I wanted to start this is because as I've said, I want to go deeper. I want to go deeper than comedy podcasts. I want to go deeper than pop culture podcasts. I want to go deeper with you and I want you to go deeper with me. And I mean that, well, in whatever way you want to take it. So roll with that, mind in the gutter, do whatever you want with that.

So when you are listening to this, there will actually be two other podcast episodes already uploaded to wherever you're listening. So Apple, Spotify, YouTube, whatever, I will already have two episodes up. So you'll have a total of three. You can binge listen if you want, which would be really nice of you. Thank you so much.

And my next episode is going to be my coming out story. So I'll tell you guys all the good, the bad, the ugly of that. I love being gay. It's like the best thing ever. And then my third episode is going to be my professional gay advice on coming out, how to do it, different tips and tricks, uh, different things that I wish I had known that my performers wish they had known that people in my life who came out, I wish they knew. So it's going to be a really, really good episode. This has been a dream of mine. I'm so happy to finally be starting this podcast. Thank you guys so much for being here, for listening, for watching because I don't have sponsors yet. Maybe one day, hopefully soon.

This is my shameless plug to follow me, follow me on Instagram, on TikTok. Everything will be listed. I think below in the show notes, question mark, I'm still figuring this stuff out, but everything will be listed. So follow me, review this podcast. Unless you're going to leave a bad review, then don't, then just scooped. See you later. Please leave lovely reviews if you feel so inclined. Um, I, I think that really helps podcasts get recommended, et cetera, and give this a thumbs up.

If you're watching on YouTube, leave a comment. I'm really excited to connect with you guys. Oh, also you can follow Les Vixens Burlask on Instagram. So you can see where all of our shows are also lesvixens .com. And also there will be a teaandglitter .com. So you can go read the transcripts of this. There'll be blog posts, lots of exciting things. Teen glitter will be everywhere. YouTube podcast and a blog.

I love you guys so much. And I'm going to go gay panic over the fact that we're finally doing this. I don't know how I'm going to sign these out, but this is the ramble at the end. Have a beautiful day. Be good to yourselves. Be good to each other.