FOUR STARS

STRIPPER MESMERIZES

Very little separates actors and strippers, aside from layers of clothing. Both appear on stage and use language (body or verbal) to convey feelings and ideas. But strippers get paid better ... usually.

Miss April Day's School for Burgeoning Young Strippers is taught by June Morrow, a very talented and beautiful woman with seven years of experience at various "gentlemen's clubs" around Ontario, and is now retired and "teaching" the art of stripping.

Don't worry, folks, this is a one-woman show about Morrow's life of gyrating for money, not an actual education session. (Feel free to keep your "sexy" underwear at home, but you may be inspired to run home and put a pair on after Morrow's mesmerizing performance.)

Morrow, who "put the tip into stripper" back in her performing days, regales the audience with her original inspiration to become a stripper: at age 11, she saw a soap opera actress play one on TV. It wasn't until later, through the blur of a drunken dare, that she took the stage at an amateur night and discovered her talent for sexual dancing and the money that came with it. Hoping to work just long enough to save up tuition to attend Soap Opera College, Morrow was hired at a strip club and learned the ropes.

Using equal parts of burlesque and monologue, Morrow is an immensely talented woman who can belt out songs about fake and baking, and the next moment show how to give a lap dance.

The confidence she gained as a stripper carries over to her acting as she struts the stage with a sexy swagger while talking to the audience. She's quick with jokes and still warm and friendly. Her script is as polished as a stripper's pole after wet T-shirt night and you don't have to be a pervert to find her stories about the "blue collar" ballet both comical and moving.

Her dancing and flirtatious manner is far more satisfying than anything you'll find in a typical strip club. Spending your Fringe dollars on Miss April's School for Burgeoning Young Strippers will leave you smiling without feeling guilty the next day.

-- Chad Huculak, the Edmonton SUN
August 22, 2007

Edmonton's SEE magazine

""A one-woman production that reveals every stripper's secrets, not to mention the ccomplicated lifestyle associated with the sexy career, Miss April Day's School connects with the audience on all levels with humour, song, and of course a bit of one-on-one interaction... As scandelous as it sounds the production is really about making us more comfortable with our sexuality while maintaining a degree of dignity.... one minute you'll be shifting in your seat uncomfortably, the next you'll be laughing so hard your panties might pop off."

FOUR STARS out of FIVE

- Amanda Ash
reviewed at the Edmonton Fringe 2007

FOUR STARS - THE CBC

"Part stand up comedy, part cabaret, and part storytelling, Miss April Day's… hits the mark in making learning fun. This is June Morrow's semi-autobiographical tale of being seduced into the not-so-glamorous world of exotic dancing (via the unlikely catalyst of an episode of The Young and the Restless).

The show is built on the premise that we're a class and June (under her stage name April Day) will teach us to become sexy dance machines (and yes, there is some audience participation). But it's mostly an excuse for April to tell us her story - which is fine, because it's an entertaining one, spiced with some very funny musical numbers that lead us through the ins and outs of stripping (a tune explaining how to choose your stripper name, set to the tune of "My Favourite Things," is a standout).

While sex comedies at the Fringe are often awkward (or worse, boring), this one succeeds thanks to Morrow's goofy likeability, snappy delivery, and charming vulnerability. The show won't have you spinning around the stripper pole by its end, but it'll probably be the most fun you've had in school in a while. "

- Joff Schmidt, CBC radio
reviewed at the Toronto Fringe 2007

GOOD TIMES, FOUR STARS EASILY

I loved this show. It displays the best writing I have seen so far this year. June Morrow's performance is strong but it is the strong script that won me over. She manages to switch the comedy up with somber tones, leaving the audience wondering how she managed to take us in this direction...I laughed like a hyena at the charming, yet politically incorrect material. Even the program is funny. Good times. 4 stars, easily.

- Gonzalo Riedel, Winnipeg