From the Eva Brontosaurus Facebook page
“It’s like if Weird Al was a trio. And really, really dirty.”
Chris Griffin, who performs under the alter ego of Lucrezia Blozia, gets at the core of his musical comedy/performance art trio Eva Brontosaurus. The group has been performing on and off since the early 2000s, and is making their return to the stage Friday night at the Bier Baron as part of Gutbuster/Nutbuster, The Round World’s showcase of song, sideshow, and circus.
Though the self proclaimed potty mouth parodists have roots in burlesque, Griffin [no relation to the author—ed.] explains, “It’s more of a variety act.”
With such clever, tongue-in-cheek song interpretations as “Baby Got Sack” and “Hymens Are Forever,” Eva Brontosaurus has as much in common with Weird Al Yankovic as they do with the recent XXX porn parody trend, taking recognizable pieces of mainstream pop culture and mining them for knowing humor leveraged against everyone’s inner horny teenager.
Though the line-up has changed from its inception in New York to their time in Los Angeles (where they opened for Margaret Cho’s burlesque show The Sensuous Woman), the current iteration is something of a supergroup conflating the two most enduring configurations. Alongside Blozia is Honi Harlow, a founding New York member whose recent move back to the District jump started this return campaign, as well as local burlesque legend Short Staxx.
Eva Brontosaurus strikes the balance between traditional burlesque and something more squarely in the live comedy space. That’s to be expected given the project’s inspirations from Griffin’s days in NYC. He particularly recalls being inspired by The Glamazons,” who describe themselves as “a girl group whose mission is to show the world that talent comes in all sizes.”
“It was super creative, super fun, and super sexy,” remembers Griffin. “I thought the energy was great. It was dirty but it was like wink wink dirty.”
Griffin wanted to be part of this world, but didn’t want to do straight burlesque. Inspired by dragsters like Lady Bunny and Sherry Vine who were experimenting with song parody, Eva Brontosaurus was born.
The group comes with a fictional backstory: Eva Brontosaurus was an ’80s band that was trapped in a meat locker and lost two decades frozen in time, only to be thawed out in a new world—today. It’s a humorous context for the group’s inability to recall its fans’ favorite tunes without the playful injection of filth.
Like a true, if risque, variety show, Gutbuster/Nutbuster will also feature performances from former Ringling clown Jim Dandy and burlesque queen Delilah Dentata, as well as the macabre cabaret of Dr. Dour & Peach.
While the bread and butter of Eva Brontosaurus is still horned up renditions of famous tracks, expect a topical bent to their humor.
“We’ll be taking potshots at everything that’s going on,” Griffin joked, emphasizing the full breadth of the news cycle’s unceasing absurdity. “I fully expect to wake up that morning to whatever the shit show has and work that in.”
Gutbuster/Nustbuster is Friday, June 23 at 9 p.m. sharp at The Bier Baron, 1523 22nd Street NW. $12 online, $15 at door. Buy tickets here.
