'Since the store specialized in balloons it was a natural progression to go with the balloon idea. Kind of like the old time vaudeville strippers.'
When Tom first connected the balloons with old time vaudeville strippers, I wasn't exactly sure what he meant. Although I knew a bit about vaudeville, I hadn't heard anything about the balloon strip. A Google dive however, had me down a rabbit hole of videos of various balloon strippers. All of the Burlesque balloon striptease performers I found were female, and it's great to add a hot hunk to the mix!
Because vaudeville performers traveled so much, uninflated balloons made easy props to transfer from town to town. Instead of removing feather or pieces of clothing, skin was revealed slowly with the strippers slowly popping one balloon at a time. For this particular balloon strip however, popping those damned balloons proved more difficult than expected.
'We started to burst the balloons with a pair of scissors but they were too dull and bounced off the balloons. There is always something that happens in a shoot that you just don't plan for. Finally, I found a thumbtack and that did the trick. As you can see from the photos Michael got into the session and made it a lot of fun.'
When Tom first told me about a 'balloon strip' I wasn't sure what to expect. This set however, turned out to be one of my favorite of Tom's holiday shoots. It helps of course that model
Michael Moody is also an actor and really got into the theme.
I love the 'reveal' element to the series. When I first wen through the set, in addition to Michael's beautiful body, I equally loved the reveal of his various facial expressions. Michael's smile and enthusiasm is contagious and by the time I got to the end of the images that Tom sent on, I think I was smiling as much as he was.