Humour in burlesque

Satire and humour has been integrated in burlesque since its rise to popularity in the 1800’s. The word burlesque originates from the Italian word burlesco, which originally comes from the word, burla, a theatrical term that refers to ridicule and mockery to describe the actions of an animated character.

Some view burlesque as just a strip tease, forgetting that what makes burlesque so special is the satire that the performers convey to the audience. Satire in burlesque today is inspired by controversial situations, politics, pop culture and sexual innuendo. Performers take an idea from real life and formulate it in to a parody on stage.

Nerd Girl Burlesque is an all-girl burlesque troupe featuring Loretta Jean, Delicia Pastiche and Helen of Tronna. They are a group inspired by pop culture and have had themed performances based on video games, science fiction, comic books, literature and film. One of their most popular shows is the monthly, Tassels and Tabletop.

“It’s part burlesque show, part board game night. We generally do a short show usually about an hour and then afterwards all the performers stick around and mingle with the crowd and we play board games. It’s like a really fun, social and nerdy night,” Jean said.

It’s important to make the character believable so the act doesn’t become stale.

“I think we’re also expressing very hyperbolic exaggerated version of ourselves, of the characters we play, and also we’re playing with gender and I find it doing a very sexy on purpose type of thing and that’s a big part of burlesque for me,” Jean said.

Some outrageous acts has involved edible items such as fruit. Trixie Little, crowned Miss Exotic World, reigning Queen of Burlesque 2015, adds an immense amount of humour with her banana peel performance. In that performance, she walks on to the stage, dressed in a banana costume, and slowly peels the layers off to the delight of audience members around the world.

“Bananas have always been in my repertoire but then I guess it was about five years ago, I was in Nashville, I saw an old chikita banana poster with a naked girl coming out of the banana and thought, ‘Why haven’t I ever made a dress that peals like a banana?’ It seemed so obvious to me at the time, because of a monkey and everything,” Little said.

Humour is an integral part of the storytelling in a burlesque performance. It keeps the audience involved an engaged through the duration of the act.

“To me humour is very important, especially if you’re trying to say something a little bit disturbing or dark or political or anything like that,” Little said. “Like something I find true about human nature I think it’s somehow easier for the audience to be open to it. It comes with comedy where they’re laughing.”

Toronto burlesque performer, Miss Mitzy Cream, who has been involved in burlesque for more than a decade, parodies film with her act “Gone with the Clothes.” Halfway through her act, she has a 30 second intermission, similar to the 1939 film, Gone with the Wind.

Humour and satire in burlesque allows for more creativity and storytelling in performances. With that, more themes can be added. This makes it easier for audiences to engage with performers because they can relate to the characters being portrayed.

“For me definitely, humour is a great piece to add in a burlesque act because you want to have different genres, you want to have different levels to your act and adding humour can definitely throw people off,” Cream said. “If people are expecting to come see something sexy, laughter, nothing’s sexier than laughter. So I feel that injecting humour in your act is great. You can make anything humorous; you can take anything and make it funny. I mean, the way that you can take off your glove can be funny.”