Trailer for The Cruel Tale of the Medicine Man, starring James Habacker and Jillian McManemin.
This dark, storybook fairy tale is a genre-defying mixture of comedy, horror, sex, fantasy, freak show, dream and cartoon. On top of that, it’s loaded with underground (and some mainstream) marquee names: Mat Fraser (from American Horror Story: Freak Show), his wife, the burlesque performer and choreographer Julie Atlas Muz, Slipper Room founder and Artistic Director James Habacker (who wrote and directed), Mistress of the New York School of Burlesque, Jo Weldon, and an impressive list of downtown New York performers, musicians, and artists such as Stormy Leather, Joe Coleman, and Bunny Love. The film is an ensemble piece that showcases much of the talent that lives and works within the orbit of The Slipper Room, the New York City Variety theatre that is the birthplace of neo-burlesque. The Cruel Tale of the Medicine Man has the delirious and free attitude that has been the linchpin in New York underground film since the sixties - sophisticated, daring, dirty, heroic, playful, defying category and the expectations of the “market,” essentially giving the finger to anyone who thinks it’s “weird,” even as it entertains the hell out of those willing to go along for the ride.