What is this thing called Burlesque?

My name is Midnight Joy, and I will be one of your many hosts in this wonderful world of vaudeville, burlesque, and anything pertaining to entertainment in general. I hope to educate both performers and the audience on not just upcoming shows but history, costumes, places of interest, and anything else of curiosity. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the blog.

The Dem Damn Dames have been a performance group for about 10 months now. We have had two performances, and while starting out as a variety hour, our girls are embracing the burlesque side more and more. The lure of sexuality can be powerful. So, on more than one occasion the question has come up

What exactly is burlesque?

So I go to my good ole dictionary and came up with: “Mockery by ludicrous imitation: the mocking of a serious matter or style by imitating it in an incongruous way.”

Ok, not what I expected, but you have to think back to a life without TV, phones, or internet. People got their information by word of mouth, letters, etc. Shows would travel from town to town, and carry their ideals within the entertainment.

In A History of The Musical Burlesque by John Kenrick (Copyright 1996-2003) I feel they captured the modern notion of burlesque…“Most people think that 'burlesque' means female strippers walking a runway to a bump and grind beat. But that only fits the form in its declining years. At its best, burlesque was a rich source of music and comedy that kept American audiences laughing from 1840 through the 1960s."

I liked how the Black Orchid Burlesque defined burlesque: “Directly translated, Burlesque means 'in an upside down style.' Burlesque does just that, it turns societies' opinions on their heads.”

So with these definitions of burlesque in hand here are some modern examples of burlesque:

• Anyone who tells a joke with a double-meaning
• Saturday Night Live poking fun at politicians and movie stars
• Movies such as Young Frankenstein, Space balls, and the Austin Powers (they make fun of well-known entertainers, social mores, etc.)

According to A History of The Musical Burlesque "Shriek 2 (2004) is a superb example of the kind of comedy original burlesque performers like Lydia Thompson and her British Blondes offered in the 1860s, getting in good natured jabs at a wide variety of comic targets while challenging audiences to look beyond appearances—finding true beauty and bravery in unlikely characters.”

They go on to point out that The Jerry Springer Show is a tawdry version of the yester-year of burlesque.

There is so much information out there, I could literally write a novel on the subject. So, I encourage everyone to look up the many tantalizing articles written about the history of Burlesque. I can only give you an amushe bouche. (small one- or two-bite portion to tickle the tastebuds.)

For next week, one idea about burlesque that a modern performer cannot escape and comes up over and over is the difference between a burlesque dancer and a stripper.

Laura Herbert, the executive director of the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, is quoted saying: "There's a joke that's more truthful than I'd like it to be," she said. "What is the difference between a burlesque performer and a stripper? Strippers make money. Still, I believe that if your outfit can fit in your closed fist, you're probably not a burlesque performer." From Michelle Baldwin’s Burlesque and the New Bump-n-Grind



So next week’s blog is entitled: Top Ten Ways to Tell if I am a Stripper or a Burlesque Dancer

Ciao—Midnight Joy xoxo