All Over Albany

Scooter Pie at Midnight's rock n' roll burlesque

Clad in fishnets, wigs and pasties, Scooter Pie is bringing her own brand of rock n' roll burlesque to Albany -- and audiences seem to be digging it.

When Scooter, aka Kiley Oram, first started doing burlesque in New York City, she was pretty naive. At her first show at the Boudoir Bar in Carroll Gardens, the other performers were surprised that she hadn't known to bring pasties. The Schenectady native and Notre-Dame/Bishop Gibbons alumna says it hadn't occurred to her that she'd have to take her bra off!

She learned fast.

After her initial shyness, Scooter said she was hooked on burlesque. For her, a major part of the appeal is the audience. She loves seeing what types of people different shows attract, and she especially loves the variety of reactions.

Scooter was working at Babeland, then known as Toys in Babeland, a popular adult toy shop in NYC, when a co-worker -- now known as Dottie Luxe, suggested they start up a burlesque troupe. The pair founded Red Hots Burlesque. She also helped found the troupe's School of Shimmy series of burlesque classes. (Full disclosure: I once took a School of Shimmy workshop with a different incarnation of the Red Hots.)

When she moved back home to the Capital Region in 2008, Kiley was eager to keep doing the kind of burlesque shows she'd been working on in the Big Apple. She started performing with Jim Romano and the Bing Bamboo Room Burlesque show. Eventually she moved back to Brooklyn, but continued to do occasional upstate performances with the "original Albanian burlesque group."

That helped her land her own monthly gig at Valentine's, Scooter Pie At Midnight, better known as S.P.A.M. Every third Saturday of the month, the spunky blond hosts a show that's a little sexy, a little silly and a whole lotta fun.

"The talent is really growing in this area and it's great to nourish it," she says.
She thinks of S.P.A.M as sort of a counterbalance to Bing Bamboo Room. While BBR tends to be more a classic variety show, her Valentine's gigs are a little, well, more rock. The shows are on the short side, typically featuring about 5 acts, and they're all female. It also veers on the more raunchy side, which Scooter says sort of fits in with the dive bar/rock club aesthetic of Valentines. It allows she and other performers, like Maxine de la Obscene to "really bring the rock." Music selections run the gamut from heavy metal to glam rock to punk and everything in between.

Of course, any good burlesquer needs a good name. Scooter pies are kind of like moon pies, and Kiley recalls once seeing the package in a grocery store and thinking the name would make a great moniker for a stripper or an exotic dancer. So when it came time to pick a burlyq name, well, it seemed like the obvious choice. And thus, Scooter Pie, burlesque performer extraordinaire was born. "I hope I don't get sued over the name," she jokes.

Scooter/Kiley has left the Red Hots, but her burlesque career is as strong as ever. In addition to her Albany gigs, she's recently joined up with NYC's Sugar Shack Burlesque . She's also hoping to start teaching burlesque workshops in the area along with Bing Bamboo Room co-star Marie Ramone. Until then, you can catch her late night act at Valentines on the
third Saturday of every month. Here's a sample of what you'll see -- but heads-up, you may not want to check it out at work.

Earlier on AOA: Burlesque is back