Glory Pearl is performing a Fringe show called The Naked Stand-Up. It's a Ronseal-style title, in that she really will be totally naked in the performances.
Glory explains where the idea for the 'revealing' show came from: "I have spent over six years working on the alternative cabaret and burlesque scene. So often, after performing one of my burlesque routines (where I usually end the act in some state of undress), women would come up to me and tell me how brave they thought I was. I wanted to write a show that asked 'what's so brave about being naked, and why are so many of us ashamed of our bodies?'
"I figured that if I was going to stand on stage and say that I thought that there was nothing wrong with being naked, really I should put my money where my mouth was. So I decided I would perform the whole show in the nude."
This will be the second year of The Naked Stand Up. Since debuting the show at the Edinburgh Fringe 2014, Glory has taken her one woman comedy show to venues and festivals across the UK, including the Brighton Fringe and Guildford Fringe. She also performed a sold out run at London's Mimetic Festival and, earlier this year, was nominated for a London Cabaret Award.
She has also performed to over 500 people at The British Naturism Annual General Meeting... a performance that was, naturally, to an entirely naked audience.
Glory Pearl lives in Tonbridge, Kent. She's an ex-school teacher, advertising executive, and a trained pole dance and trapeze artist. She began performing burlesque in 2008 but, following serious injury in 2011, had to "re-evaluate her relationship with her body". She says she became increasingly frustrated by contemporary discourse on beauty, body image, and our relationship with our physical selves.
Pearl describes herself as a feminist, something she believes is "entirely compatible with taking your clothes off for a living."
Talking about performing naked at last year's Fringe, Glory says: "The response from both critics and audiences was overwhelmingly positive, with the heart-warming show being described as 'feel-good comedy at its best' by Broadway Baby."
This year's Naked Stand Up show features new material. Glory explains: "I've been working with comedy guru Logan Murray to develop the show. The novelty of my nakedness wears off in the first fifteen minutes so I've been working really hard to make sure that the show does what it says on the tin. I'm naked. And I'm a stand-up. I want people to leave the theatre having enjoyed a really good laugh"
When asked if she gets nervous about being naked in front of hundreds of strangers, she replies with a wry smile: "Not really. I'm aware that being naked in a room full of strangers is some people's worst nightmare, but once you've handled a room of unruly kids or a boozy audience in a late night cabaret venue, telling a few jokes with your muff out is a walk in the park."
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