Keep It On! Alan Dumas Rocky Mountain News February 13, 1999 Once there was a librarian who secretly longed to be a burlesque dancer. Although that sounds like the plot of a bad musical comedy, it happens to be the true story of Michelle Baldwin, a Denver Public Schools employee and the driving force behind tonight's show 'Valentine's Burlesk,' at the Bluebird Theater. "I was in New York this time last year and there was a crackdown on strip clubs, so burlesque was being revived as an art form," Baldwin says. "I thought it would be fun and campy, but it wasn't that at all. It was more strip than tease. I wanted to see an old-time performance with all the big costumes, and knew that no one else would put it on, so I'd have to do it myself." That led to last summer's 'Burlesque.. As It Was' at the Bluebird, the home of many real burlesque shows earlier this century. It was a successful event, but not what Baldwin wanted. Tonight's show has it all, she says: comics, magicians, ventriloquists and vaudeville as well as a lot of lovely ladies. "Last time I used a lot of strippers and that was a bad idea," Baldwin says. "They don't have the right kind of bodies to look like those old-time girls. In the old days the women had the Midwestern farm-fed look, curves and not angels. That was the ideal then. So this time I've pulled more dancers and musicians as talent, and it's working really well." There's no serious stripping in the show, but only those 21 and older will be admitted, because alcohol is being served. The burlesque acts include a fire dancer and the dance of the seven veils. Baldwin plans to do the song 'Gotta Have A Gimmick,' from 'Gypsy,' and her sister Andrea will do a fan dance and a sharpshooting act. "It's all in good fun," says Andrea, who spends her days as a waitress at Pete's Kitchen on Eas Colfax Avenue. "I use a cap gun in the sharpshooting act, where I start out in chaps and end up in shorts. For the fan dance I wear a body stocking. It's very classy. There used to be so much burlesque in Denver, and now it's something new again." Male entertainers include a ventriloquist's dummy named the Great Spaghetti-O, who is sawed in half by his two lovely assistants. His voice is provided by his "manager," Andrew Nivick. "His mouth and hands move automatically, so I don't have to touch him. I stay behind the scenes," Nivick says. "We've got a book coming out soon called 'The Great Spaghetti-O's Big Book of Lame Magic Tricks.' We show you how to do them, but most of the tricks are so lame you can figure them out for yourself." Baldwin says various comics will deliver classic burlesque and vaudeville shtick, and two bands will play jazz and ragtime. "We want to continue doing two of these shows a year," she says. "It's something different, and people seem to like it a lot."