Combine a love of afternoon tea and burlesque and what do you get? Time for Tease of course. Zoe Fletcher tells marmaLADYa.com how her events company got started

So where did it all begin?
Time for Tease is an idea that I’ve had knocking about in my head for about two years now. I’ve always loved afternoon tea. I love the ritual of it. You get a lovely cake stand with gorgeous cakes. It’s a lavish, luxurious affordable thing you can do with your mum and your mates. I got into burlesque about a year ago. I’ve always loved the glamour associated with the burlesque movement and the 1950s cocktail culture. I wanted to marry the two things. The original idea was to have a Dorchester style tearoom in Brighton. But the costs were going to be astronomical. So I decided to start with an events company, with a view to launching a venue somewhere. And all this while working full-time at the BBC, on the BBC6 music website! But I wanted to follow a dream. So I took a deep breath and went for it.

How did the first Time for Tease (which took place at Volupté last June) go?
Oh my God! That event was sold out from the word ‘Go’! It sold out and then about the same amount of people turned up on the day. Bearing in mind that Volupté. can seat about 65 people, another 55 turned up on top of that and we had to turn them away. It was a hot summer last year and we’d thought no one’s going to want to sit around in a basement and drink tea. I designed and put out the flyers. And I made the frocks for the waitresses – bearing in mind that I hadn’t sat in front of a sewing machine since Home Economics classes! I booked the acts, I did everything! It was a lot of hard work, but I don’t regret it for a second.

What happens at a Time for Tease events?
We have three acts. Because I didn’t want the event to be a big show, rather than have a compére, we have placards with the acts’ names written on them. The waitresses parade the placards around like Bettie Page used to do, and then place the placard on an easel. We also have what we call Gateaux Vivants, which are based on the original Tableaux Vivants (French for ‘living picture’), which you used to have when nudes on stage weren’t allowed to move. But ours are based around cake, and are called Gateaux Vivants! They appear for a few minutes in the afternoon and stand and pose. Compared to other burlesque events, when the crowd is really rowdy, our crowd is really respectful! They always fall completely silent. I think it’s because it’s in the afternoon and they haven’t had anything to drink yet! It’s a different atmosphere from Bethnal Green’s Working Men’s Social Club.

Tell us about the tea and cakes!
I’ve done a lot of research in my time! We do a traditional tea. To begin with you’re poured a glass of champagne, whilst you sit and choose what kind of tea you’d like and what cakes. And then you have tea sandwiches brought to your table and you can have as many of them as you like. We do a selection of sandwiches for vegetarians and meat-eaters, which is something I haven’t come across before. And then we do the best scones in London! It’s a fantastic recipe we use. We do different flavours – cinnamon and nutmeg, rum and raisin. They’re warm and come with clotted cream and jam. And then we have a patisserie selection as well – brownies, raspberry tarts, custardy and frilly things! It’s a lot of fun.

How did you get into burlesque performance?
I’ve always enjoyed watching it. I then did a course with the London Academy of Burlesque. I learnt how to bump and grind! You learn all the moves, how to use props, the traditions of burlesque. You learn how to put an act together, what music to use and how to tell a story. The best acts are ones that have a story, not the ones which are just frilly and pretty. And you learn the art of teasing people. It’s about being really pretty and sexy, teasing and taking your time. It’s not about getting your kit off in 20 seconds. It’s about drawing attention to whatever it is that you’re doing, like taking off your glove.

Was burlesque good for your confidence?
It was brilliant for my confidence. It’s a great opportunity to put on a persona and dress up. Everyone on my course felt that it was confidence boosting. After that, some of the other girls and I formed a troupe and decided to perform on stage. Last year we were nominated for an erotic award. We’ve performed in Amsterdam and all over the place! Apart from anything it’s a really good support group of good girlfriends. It’s hard to make good girlfriends in London. We always have a lot of fun.

What do you love about the burlesque tradition?
For me it’s the glamour of dressing up and being all girly and sparkly. And it’s a non-threatening form of expressing yourself. It’s for girls and boys, and people of all ages. The last event I did in Brighton was attended by pensioners! You strip to big frilly knickers and pasties, which are the sparkly things you put in your nipples. Burlesque is about being big, flamboyant, funny and being larger than life. British burlesque has a real element of humour. The Americans are more straightforward and don’t tend to have a story. Whereas we incorporate a story. For example, in one of our acts we’re all air hostesses and we all take our seats, then one of us will point out the exits and so on. We give the audience something to hang onto.

What’s the best way to get into burlesque?
Go and see some shows and familiarise yourself with what burlesque involves. And then I would recommend Jo King, who was a burlesque performer back in the day. She runs the London Academy of Burlesque and she does private tuition. And she runs courses at Danceworks. She’s a brilliant teacher.

Where can we come and see Time for Tease?
Time for Tease runs twice a month, the first and third Saturday of each month at Volupté. And we’re running a new event called Shall I Be Mother? in Brighton at the Sussex Arts Club. That’s going to be on April 1. We are also going into private and corporate events. We’ve just got our first booking for a 30th birthday party and for a hen party. For the 30th we’re doing a themed show around hats and for the hen party we’re organising a burlesque lesson and cream tea.

For more info on booking private or corporate events contact Zoe on 07971130611 or email info@timefortease.co.uk or visit www.timefortease.co.uk.