American Pickers: Danielle
Colby-Cushman - aka: Danniel Diesel
Colby had owned and
participated in a female roller derby team, the Big Mouth Mickies, for three
years, until injuries forced her to give up the sport. She decided she
wanted to do burlesque when, while living in Chicago with her family, she
attended a burlesque performance starring comedienne Margaret Cho and legendary
dancer Satan's Angel. Colby-Cushman characterized the event as
"amazing", saying in part, "Growing up in a strict household, I
think I went into that evening thinking that burlesque was taboo and wrong and
bad. But what I realized after I left that event was how absolutely liberating
it was, to be in a room with women on stage who were ranging from a size zero
to a size of, easily, 28 - all different types of women, with all different
strengths."
When she moved back
with her family to Iowa, settling in the Quad Cities area, she became
determined to make her desire a reality. She created her own professional
burlesque troupe, Burlesque Le'Moustache. The troupe features nine performers,
including Colby-Cushman herself, who dances under the stage name of Dannie
Diesel. It tours nightclubs and other various venues in eastern Iowa and
western Illinois.
Unknown to some of
the show's fans, Colby-Cushman had been a close friend of Mike Wolfe for ten
years before the concept of the show had even been developed.Once the show was
sold to the History Channel, Wolfe asked Colby-Cushman to work at the office of
the antique shop, called Antique Archaeology, because he "wanted someone
that did not look like they would work in any antique shop because I wanted our
show to be looked at in a different way. I wanted people to look at antiques
like they're fun, they're rad, they're killer, they're awesome. I wanted people
to know that they didn't have to have a blue blazer and ten cats to be an
antique dealer."
American Pickers
premiered on the History Channel on January 18, 2010. As of September 8, 2010,
it was the #1 new non-fiction series of 2010 among total viewers and adults
25-54. -Wikipedia
