Veronique Chevalier (born Berenice Chloe Sztuczka) is a France-born American
mistress of ceremonies, singer-songwriter, music producer, comedian and
parodist popular in the
steampunk community. She produces live cabaret in Southern California and is an
emcee of steampunk events nationwide.
Life and career
Chevalier attended
Oregon State University
Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering c ...
in Corvallis, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Studies, and is a trained classical ballet dancer.
Since 2005, Chevalier has been producing and hosting "Veronique's Red Velvet Variety Show", a live
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
and
cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...
production featuring local as well as "big name" musical performers, unusual acts, magic, burlesque and comedy.
Former performers in Chevalier's shows include
Unextraordinary Gentlemen and Unwoman. Recent shows have also been cosponsored by Gilded Age Records and SepiaChord.com.
Chevalier has a credited cameo role in the 2005 short film mocumentary, ''Camp Burlesque'', and also appears in the companion book ''Postcards from Camp Burlesque''.
Chevalier is also a singer and songwriter. In 2005 she produced an "info-tainment" benefit project—a theatrical show and recording—called Cabaret4Choice. The recording garnered Chevalier the Unanimous Choice Award for Best Independent Cabaret Artist at the 14th Annual Los Angeles Music Awards.
In 2008 she produced the album, "Polka Haunt Us", featuring guest artists including
Lili Haydn,
Kerry Christensen,
Marion Ramsey
Marion Ramsey (May 10, 1947 – January 7, 2021) was an American actress and singer. She was a regular on the series ''Cos'' but is best known for her role as the soft-spoken Officer Laverne Hooks in the '' Police Academy'' films. Later she app ...
, and
Vinny Golia
Vinny Golia (born March 1, 1946) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in woodwind instruments. He performs in the genres of contemporary music, jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation.
Career
As a composer, Golia fuse ...
. The album was a critical success,
[Reviews of ''Polka Haunt Us'':
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
] and was an official entry on the 51st Annual
Grammy ballot in the Polka category (the final year prior to a decision by The
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy Aw ...
to discontinue the category). Her song, "Beer Hall in Hell" has been played on the
Dr. Demento
Barret Eugene Hansen (born April 2, 1941), known professionally as Dr. Demento, is an American radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograp ...
radio show, and her song, "Vampire Surprise" won The Mad Music Archive's 2007 "Best New Halloween Song". Chevalier is also one of twenty artists featured on "A Sepiachord Passport", a compilation recording released by Projekt Records. Her track, a tango entitled, "The Dance Master", has received favorable reviews.
In May 2010, Chevalier performed at The
Steampunk World's Fair in
Piscataway, New Jersey. In July 2010 she was emcee of the Saturday steampunk "after-party" at
San Diego Comic-Con International
San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is c ...
, where the headliners included The Slow Poisoner,
Unextraordinary Gentlemen and
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...
.
In March 2011, Chevalier was the MC and opened for
Unextraordinary Gentlemen and
Abney Park
Abney Park is in Stoke Newington, London, England. It is a park dating from just before 1700, named after Lady Abney, the wife of Sir Thomas Abney, Lord Mayor of London in 1700 and one of the first directors of the Bank of England and associat ...
at Wild Wild West Con, a steampunk convention and festival held at
Old Tucson Studios
Old Tucson (formerly Old Tucson Studios) is an American movie studio and theme park just west of Tucson, Arizona, adjacent to the Tucson Mountains and close to the western portion of Saguaro National Park. Built in 1939 for the movie ''Arizona'' ...
in Tucson, Arizona. In October 2011, she was asked to MC
Amanda Palmer's solo show (kicking off a West Coast tour) in San Diego, CA, and in November, she performed the Welcome Song at the opening ceremonies at the steampunk convention
TeslaCon in Madison, WI.
In September 2012 Veronique was a Featured Guest at
Stan Lee's
Comikaze Expo and hosted a panel entitled, "Steampunk
'Super'-Culture: Symbiosis Between Various Sub-Cultures & Fandoms". Panelists included steampunk master magician
Pop Haydn,
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
artist
Brian Kesinger
Brian Kesinger (born June 20, 1975 in Los Angeles, California) is an American illustrator, author and animator who has worked at Walt Disney Studios for 20+ years. His works are steeped in Victorian steampunk art.
Born into a family of musicians ...
, and members of The
League of STEAM. She has since repeated the panel at other conventions, including Comic-Con and TeslaCon.
In December 2012, TeslaCon named its music performance hall the "Chevalier Music Hall" in her honor. Veronique is also a featured portrait in Brian Kesinger's steampunk fantasy series, "Tea Girls."
Stage persona
Like many in the steampunk community, Chevalier has assumed a "stage persona" and created a backstory for it:
Discography
; Albums:
* Cabaret4Choice (2005) (Executive Producer)
* Polka Haunt Us (2008)
; Singles:
* Vampire Surprise (2007)
* Beer Hall in Hell (2009)
* Escargots (parody of
La Vie en rose) (2009)
* Internet Date (2010)
See also
*
List of steampunk works: Steampunk musicians
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chevalier, Veronique
Living people
Musicians with fictional stage personas
Parody musicians
American comedy musicians
American parodists
American women singer-songwriters
American novelty song performers
Polka musicians
Dark cabaret musicians
Steampunk
Steampunk music
Oregon State University alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
Cultural depictions of Maurice Chevalier
Women in punk