DJ YOLK

My First Egg Drop

Did not know I’d ever be holding down bootylicious beats and DJing on Hollywood Boulevard when I moved to Los Angeles 6 years ago! But this past weekend? That is exactly what I found myself getting up to.

Acting is what first took me to Los Angeles. The pursuit of my dreams, as it were. The first advice I got rolling in was to get headshots, sign up for actorsaccess.com, and take classes at UCB. The Upright Citizens Brigade. A comedy hub in Hollywood that smelled like clean carpets and nervous sweat. Apparently it would teach you the ins and outs of improv, and commercials wanted to see it on your resumé.

My friend Steve suggested it. Steve was a working actor and a sweetheart and I trusted his advice. Steve had already been in LA for some time. He was about 15 years my senior and 5 times my size. I met Steve several years ago whilst modeling at a photography workshop in the basement of the Salt Lake City Library. He was also there to model. It was draped– which means clothed in fine art lingo. There was one other model, and the three of us enacted a provided scenario for the photographers to shoot while they rotated different lighting scenarios. I played a jealous wife in a boxy winter coat with a pixie hair cut. All five foot and furious, clutching my giant Steve while icing out the shoulder-baring red head who surely was having an affair with him.

… Ha!

Alls to say– we went way back! I was grateful for the friendly if not insistent pointer from a colleague and took heed. It really was the advice every fresh face in LA was getting at the time. First stop: UCB.

It was through UCB I found Musical Improv. Man, Musical Improv is a BLAST! Most of my classes at UCB were pretty blah, and I didn’t meet many folks whose humor I was obsessed with. Musical Improv, however! Somehow magnetizes all the funnest weirdos! The ones really there to kick it and be bold and have fun and maybe really eat shit in the process.

Enter: Babsy. Babsy is this bad ass babe who had this total shaggy 70s rock vibe. I met her on stage at Musical Improv Bootcamp. In this small little improv theater we called “The Clubhouse,” which masqueraded as a run down Orthodontist office at a strip mall in Los Feliz. Babsy was in her 40s and very eager to play. She had this whole sexy cougar ball of talent who is decidedly unhinged thing to her. I felt included whenever we connected. She was great. Weird but still got in with the improv normies. Even made it on a house team that year. I heard she was kicked out, though. No one wanted to play with her.

I bet she kept making the scenes really energetic and horny.

That’s my Babsy girl :) She’s a proper freak.

Babsy and I have since both gone down unique artistic paths, and it’s been nice to see hers twist and turn near enough to mine to have front row view as it hurtles forth. With both of us under the influence of clowning, our own personal sorts of weird just keeps exploding in our own unique ways. Clowning really supports growth like that. Heals you uniquely, supports you uniquely. The benefits of this work only really come when you lean into your unique. As you find your clown, you really learn to sit in all your you-ness. Quite a risk, it can be. And golly, what fun. Through idiot work and clowning what was once Babs’ fear of not being seen as sexual was shone a light on, and played with, and monstered a beautiful arc of obscene performances.

For example, the other day she plopped over in the middle of a dance circle and pried her butt apart, aggressively exposing all of her in-betweens as best she could through her 80s gym short shorts. This went on for some time. Like a deranged child who just found their parts and wants to play tug of war with them.

Babsy is living her truth.

She is a brilliant musician. Typically wailing on a guitar while pulling stunts like that. She’s paving new ground in absurdist musical performance, and even produced a show for performance artists like us to stake their claim in the DJ world. She even found a venue that wasn’t carding for vaccine passports (before the mandates lifted) so that I could be a part of it. And thus!

DJ YOLK was born.

There were a ton of TVs at this venue. Covering the walls inside, outside, behind the dj booth, you name it. TV city. So, I created a video art installation to accompany our show of scandalous bafooonery. It was wicked to see my visuals blast up a Hollywood hot spot while captaining a dance floor of gyrating, clowny hunnies to this sweet sweet sound experience.

AND THAT MY FRIENDS is what I am so excited to be sharing with you today!!! Baby’s first visual album! Here she is, fresh off the griddle. An assortment, an array, a gift to you of a few visual tracks for your viewing pleasure and pain. Made possible by the support of open minded freaks like Babsy Singer.

Please throw it on while chilling, stretching, smoking, editing, e-mailing, listening to some tunes, dancing it out, or whatever baby get you your yummy visual intake however you see fit!

brought to you by: DJ YOLK