Are you Slippery Kitten material? (Actually, "material" may not be the right word, because being a Slippery Kitten involves removing material.)

The Salt Lake City burlesque troupe, which made a splash this summer with a Top 40 placing on NBC's "America's Got Talent," is holding open auditions Saturday at noon at Bar Deluxe, 666 S. State St., Salt Lake City.

Here are the requirements for the audition: You must be 21 or older (bring ID), have a two- to three-minute costumed routine ready to the music of your choice (music must be on CD), and have your hair and make-up ready. Also, bring comfortable clothes and shoes to dance in, as you will be taught a short dance routine that you will have to perform.

If you make the cut, you'll have to get a professional dancer's license - and you'll have to be available for rehearsals (Sundays, noon to 5 p.m., and Thursday nights, 8 to 10 p.m.).

And if you thought you could drop by and ogle the auditioners, forget it - the try-outs are closed to everyone but those auditioning.

Labels: Slippery Kittens

So, let me get this straight - the ZOOperstars, a bunch of oddballs in inflatable animal costumes, got more votes from the viewing public than a burlesque troupe in all-American red white and blue?

Sure enough, that's the way the cookie crumbled for Salt Lake City's Slippery Kittens Burlesque, who were eliminated last week from competition on NBC's "America's Got Talent."

The troupe will be back at their home base, Bar Deluxe at 666 S. State St., on Sept. 20. Welcome them home, Salt Lakers!

Labels: Reality show, Slippery Kittens

Salt Lake City designer Keith Bryce got the "auf Wiedersehen" on last night's episode of Bravo's "Project Runway" - and if you watched the episode, you could see the car crash coming.

The challenge was to make an outfit out of recycled parts from a Saturn Vue Hybrid (cha-ching - product placement!). Bryce turned leather car seats into a mini-skirt. The skirt came apart at the seams when his model sat down, and the cargo netting that held the top together was - to paraphrase Christian, last season's catchphrase-spouting winner - a hot transmission mess.

As he was making the dress (pictured at right), Bryce complained that it wasn't the style he liked - and that he made a tailored dress only to please the judges, who had ridiculed his fringe-dripping designs in previous episodes. (He had been in the Bottom 3 twice, though he won the "Lipstick Jungle" challenge two weeks ago.)

It didn't help that Bryce, in front of the judges, dissed his model for sitting down and complained that judge Michael Kors' criticisms were insulting. (There's more complaining, and some introspection, on Bryce's exit interview, here - which begins with "I feel like I'm leaving too soon.")

Also Wednesday, Salt Lake City's own Slippery Kittens Burlesque had their turn in the semi-final round of NBC's "America's Got Talent" - and their patriotic striptease, going from military-khaki dresses to star-spangled bras and panties (to the tune of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"), didn't exactly win over the judges.

Judge Piers Morgan was the toughest, hitting the "X" buzzer (this show's version of "The Gong Show's" gong) and declaring that, "when you started taking the clothes off, I wanted you to put them back on." Ouch!

But the judges are not the decision-makers here - the viewing public is. Watch for yourself.

Labels: Keith Bryce, Reality show, Slippery Kittens

Warm up your TV for Tuesday and Wednesday night, when Salt Lake City's very own Slippery Kittens Burlesque takes to the nation's airwaves as a semi-finalist on NBC's "America's Got Talent."

In a clear violation of the "local media blackout" that exists solely in the conspiratorial mind of the City Weekly's Bill Frost, I profiled the Kittens in Sunday's The Mix section - along with onstage and backstage photos of these lovely ladies of burlesque by the Tribune's James Urquhart.

"From now on, it's up to America to love us and vote for us, and take us all the way," said the Kittens' founder, Lorrie Ann Dohoney - a k a Miss Lorrie Ann.

Good luck, ladies - you're carrying the hopes of all of Utah with you.

(Photo: NBC)

Labels: Reality show, Slippery Kittens

Now Marcus has something else in common with David Archuleta besides being from Utah: He, too, knows the sting when the host calls the other person's name.

Marcus - the guy with one name but many tattoos - took the silver on Thursday's finale NBC's "Last Comic Standing," losing the viewers' vote to the show's first female winner, Iliza Shlesinger.

But Marcus didn't leave without first getting a comment from Triumph the Insult Comic Dog: "I predict Marcus will sell many more CDs than Dane Cook - because he will end up with a job at Virgin Records."

Also on Thursday, the Salt Lake burlesque troupe Slippery Kittens moved into the semi-final round on NBC's "America's Got Talent." If you left the room at the wrong moment, though, you would have missed it - the Kittens got exactly 12 seconds of screen time to show off their prison-themed striptease routine.

And Salt Lake designer Keith Bryce (pictured with his model, Alyssa) was in the middle of the pack on this week's "Project Runway." The task was to design a stylish opening-ceremonies uniform for the U.S. Olympic team. Oddly enough, the show's producers never interviewed Keith about what it was like living in the city that held the last Olympics in North America.

Labels: Keith Bryce, Marcus, Reality show, Slippery Kittens