PRESS!
As well as her own show Sweet Kellianne has made special appearances with Playboy Radio's Nightcalls, Mode Merr and the Pontani Sisters present Burlesque-A-Pades In Loveland, The Bonnie Delight Burlesque Revue, Coolgrrls.com, Turkey Gobble Thanksgiving Benefit (official ring girl), Vector Vixen Pin-Up Finalist, The Save The Raymond Theater Benefit, Bratstore.com and the Nitespa FunRaiser benefit for the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program with the ladies of Forty Deuce. She has also been seen in LA Weekly, Los Angeles Citybeat, Philadelphia Inquirer, Metro, Philadelphia Weekly, Los Angeles Citypaper, South Philly Review, Passional and Venice magazines.
Whip It! was one of LA Weekly's recommended theater events
L.A. Weekly Review by Steven Leigh Morris
In her one-woman cooking show, Sweet Kellianne looks a bit like a Barbie doll dressed in fishnets and panties, stiletto heels, an apron and not much else. She describes herself as a “girlie girl,” talks through a Joisy dialect in a squeaky little voice, and she takes petite steps (because of those stiletto spikes) as though she’s powered by two double-A batteries. She also gesticulates in much the same mechanical way. Puttering on her own set (which includes furniture upholstered in pink fur), Kellianne is a cross between girlie girls Shirley Temple and Angelyne (with a little Bettie Page thrown in for spice). She opens her show by performing a striptease. Stripping is a fetish she’s had since childhood — the broadcast of an old family movie proves this point. (She says she tried to entertain her disinterested brother with her act.) This segues to her first recipe, a drink called “Striptease.” There are four recipes in all. Kellianne proves there’s nothing dumb about this dumb blonde. Using not-so-subtle linkages between food and sex, Whip It! is a randy parade, and parody, of infantilism and fetishism. Kellianne and Majick’s recipe for charm uses suggestiveness to keep sleaziness out of the sex. The result is a show that’s equally wry, wholesome and naughty, with those ingredients stirred into a disarming froth.
Citypaper chooses Whip It! as Arts Pick as well as PW
February 2- 8, 2006
artpicks
Whipped Dream
Alex Orgera Theater
Whip It! is not your grandmother's cooking show that is, unless your grandmother cooks in her underwear and concocts dishes with names like "Striptease," "Stud Muffins" and "Let's Play Doctor Cake." No, Whip It!, a live cooking act, is the brainchild of Sweet Kellianne, the daughter of two American Bandstand dancers, a Philly native who's decided to take her show home.
Sweet Kellianne has spent the past three years in her adopted home of Los Angeles, where she developed, performed and perfected this "One Woman Cookin' Show." Dressed like a '50s pin-up, Sweet Kellianne whips up six naughty desserts in her kitschy kitchen, while sharing humorous anecdotes from her past that celebrate her sexuality and womanhood. "I've found that things that happen in our lives, even if they're just small little moments, really reflect who we are as adults and as women," she says.
And just who is this woman? One who's strong and independent, and not afraid to bare it all in only an apron and heels when cooking for her fella. She's totally devoted to her family, and even though she was once embarrassed when her mother showed up to her band concert in long blond extensions and a fur coat covered in fox heads, she will always appreciate her parents' quirks for making her who she is. "They taught me to say please and thank you and the important things of life, but they weren't so worried about when I was running around the house in my underwear singing 'Like a Virgin.'"
It takes that kind of woman to pull off Whip It! with class, carefully balancing her spicy bedroom tales with the sweet memories of a South Jersey childhood. "I'm not giving away any Judy Blume moments that are kind of uncomfortable in that sense, and at the same time I'm not having very many Sex and the City moments either," Sweet Kellianne says of her show. "It's a comfortable place. It's fun, it's silly and there's a little bit for everybody."
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2006-02-02/artpicks2.shtml
Sweet Kellianne's Whip It! is Philadelphia Weekly's Editor's Theater Pick of the Week
Whip It! A One Woman Cookin' Show
Theatergoers in Philadelphia turned Jilline Ringle's solo show Mondo Mangia, in which Ringle cooked an authentic Italian dinner while singing old standards and telling tales of cooking with her grandmother, into a sold-out hit. Sadly the talented Ringle passed away last year, but transplanted Philadelphian Sweet Kellianne carries on the tradition of entertaining audiences with culinary delights in her solo show Whip It! A One Woman Cookin' Show. A smash hit in Los Angeles where it played to packed houses for three years, Whip It! has Kellianne baking up such provocatively named desserts as "The Strip Tease," "Spank the Monkey Bread" and "Let's Play Doctor Cake," all while she entertains theatergoers with tales of her childhood in Philadelphia. Kellianne, the offspring of a pair of American Bandstand dancers (the performance includes old 8 mm footage of Kellianne's mom and dad twisting on the legendary show), gives a performance akin to a striptease. Dressed in a variety of titillating outfits, the sprightly performer manages to be enticing though never vulgar or pornographic. Full of heavy desserts and light banter, Whip It! is a sweetly sexy concoction that would seem perfect for a Valentine's Day theater outing. (J. Cooper Robb)
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=11481
South Philly Review Interviews Sweet Kellianne
Whipping up laughs
Kellianne Murphy is cooking with her one-woman show, which mixes food and humor.
By Fred Durso Jr.
February 2, 2006
Kellianne Murphy - known as Sweet Kellianne by some - has an instinctive nature to entertain coupled with an intent to make you smile.
One Christmas, she wanted to clear the air after a heated argument between her brother and father.
"I decided I would be Santa, but didn't have the outfit," the former resident of the 2400 block of Orkney Street said.
Instead, Murphy wrapped her legs in red wrapping paper, put on her Philadelphia Phillies jacket and wore T-shirts around her ears to mimic a beard. Her pillowcase became Santa's toy bag.
Belting out a few "ho-ho-hos," Murphy had her family in stitches.
The performer admits to providing some sunshine during rough patches in her family's life: her grandfather died two months before she was born and her grandmother lost both legs to diabetes thereafter.
"As soon as I could walk and talk ... I basically felt that I was there to entertain everyone and laugh because things were kind of glum."
Today, with the same creativity and bubbly persona, her mindset is not much different.
Murphy has combined two of her passions - food and hilarity - into "Sweet Kellianne's Whip It! A One Woman Cookin' Show." The performance makes its Philadelphia debut this month at the Society Hill Playhouse's Red Room Cabaret, 507 S. Eighth St.
She admits her early-childhood performances prepped her for the show, which had a run in Los Angeles. Inside a neighbor's house, she would create sets, decide the music, choreograph the numbers and create advertisements for renditions of Shirley Temple movies and "Grease."
The best part? Her friend's mother would treat the talented lassies to dessert.
"It's actually a little weird that nothing has changed," Murphy, who resides in Los Angeles, said. "I'm still putting my sets together. I'm still putting up my flyers."
"Whip It!" incorporates Murphy's autobiographical stories that segue into the creation of recipes she promises will tantalize the audience. Some of her stories relate to the food she is cooking, while others do not. Murphy said the show has sexy overtones without being overtly sexual. (But, she said, leave the kiddies at home.) One of her on-stage dishes, for example, is Let's Play Doctor Cake.
"I'm not presenting myself as a centerfold or sex kitten," she said. "I'm more like this Philly girl next door who isn't afraid to be daring."
Her life's journey has brought Murphy to unique places and in the company of extraordinary people. With this new venture, things have fallen into place, the 32-year-old said.
"Everything happens for a reason and, [through the show], I found some way to tie everything together," she said. "It is an amazing feeling."
WHAT BETTER ROLE model to have as a teen during the '80s than the Mother of Reinvention - Madonna? That was Murphy's mentality and she got the chance to witness the star in action.
After moving with her family to Los Angeles in 1989, Murphy's father opened a dance studio. The Material Girl rented space inside the facility to rehearse for an upcoming tour.
Murphy tried her best to be a "wallflower" in Madonna's presence, but had difficulty.
"I just have to act like I don't care even though I'm 14 years old and my idol is standing next to me," Murphy told herself at the time.
She watched in awe as Madonna monitored her dancers - and all aspects of the rehearsal - with attentive eyes.
"She worked really, really hard," Murphy said. "It was much more than being a performer. It was being a businesswoman. That really had an effect on me."
Though having a passion for dance, Murphy enrolled in acting classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory at 15, lying about her age to get in the door.
At 18, she took the words of her acting coach to heart: "Never pick a profession that you don't feel that you would die if you didn't get to do it."
Noting "there were so many things in life I want to do," Murphy left the classes and embarked on a 10-year journey of self-discovery. She traveled through Europe and resided in Boston, London and New Orleans.
"At 26, I decided I needed to have something to fall back on," said Murphy, who decided photography was the next step.
Moving back to Los Angeles, she scored a job with a photographer, but learned "how little photography there is involved with photography and how much business is involved in photography."
She soon decided to create a cookbook - titled "Whip It!" - for her friends and family. The book included desserts with goofy titles, but Murphy began writing short stories to accompany those titles. She photographed the food while using her own recipes and others that she had acquired throughout her life.
"I give everything cheeky names because, growing up, when my mother would try to get us to eat something, she would give it funny names," she said.
Murphy was lured back to the spotlight when a "friend of a friend" asked if she ever considered turning the cookbook into a show.
First dismissing the idea, Murphy created one act two days later. She later secured a spot at the Stella Adler Theater to showcase the finished product.
A nervous wreck before the debut performance, thoughts such as "How did I get here?" and "What if they don't like it?" raced through her mind.
But, as soon as the audience roared during her second line, Murphy was at ease.
"As soon as that laughter hits, I was relaxed," she said. "I'm still the same way. As soon as that wall of laughter hits me, I'm so at ease. I can go in different directions. I can improvise."
She performed "Whip It!" for two years in Los Angeles. Bringing the show to Philadelphia, Murphy hopes to lure audiences with a blend of autobiographical stories and some in-the-kitchen fun.
One of her anecdotes includes memories of shopping on Ninth Street.
Going to buy clothes on Ninth Street "was like my mother saying to me 'we're going to Neiman-Marcus to buy a new outfit,'" she said.
Murphy is working on a follow-up to her show, as well as well as a book of short stories. She is happy to be back in her hometown and the "precious little moments" that made her the person she is today.
"I wouldn't want to be from any place else," she said.
http://southphillyreview.com/view_article.php?id=4149
