Jo Weldon's New York School of Burlesque

Showgirls, Showboys, and Vegas-style Burlesque With Grant Philipo Saturday, June 1, 2015 3:30pm - 4:30pm $5 at the door, advance tickets here Drawing from his extensive experience as a producer, writer, choreographer and designer in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Grant Philipo shares historical and anecdotal information about the trajectory of showgirls, showboys, and burlesque dancers in the Vegas area. To attend this presentation, visit: http://bhofweekend.com/schedule-of-events/bhof-finishing-school/ Born and raised in Iowa, Grant Philipo is the youngest person to ever produce a full-scale, 35 plus cast member, multi-million dollar spectacular for a major Las Vegas Strip property.  His "90 Degrees & Rising" premiered at the Dunes Hotel & Casino to rave reviews.  Most impressive is the fact that "90 Degrees & Rising" was produced for a fraction of the amount spent on similar Strip extravaganzas.  www.RisingIncSpectaculars.com Grant...

Andrew Davis teaches at Otis College of Art and Design and is one of the few people for whom the label “straight man” is a job description. He is the taller, more sophisticated half of the comedy team of Doc and Stumpy, and has performed classic burlesque comedy in Los Angeles and at burlesque and vaudeville festivals around the U.S. He holds a M.A. in Folklore from UCLA and a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from NYU. He is the author of America’s Longest Run: A History of the Walnut Street Theatre (Penn State Press) and he operates the website BaggyPantsComedy.com. I interviewed Doc about his spectacularly detailed, informative, and entertaining book,  Baggy Pants Comedy Burlesque and the Oral Tradition. When did you publish this book? How long did it take? The book was published in 2011.  It was actually my doctoral dissertation, which I completed in 2000.  I’d gotten another book contract in the meantime, so I delayed a few years in revising the dissert...

Miss Nude Universe 1975, Tiffany Carter began her burlesque career at the infamous Pink Pussycat in Hollywood, California. An active, in-demand entertainer with Sparky Blaine’s American Showgirl agency, Tiffany toured the U.S., Canada, and Japan from the late 1960s through the 1980s. Tiffany has came out of burlesque retirement and become one of the most beloved and booked burlesque Legends within the international neo-burlesque community! Are you performing at BHOF this year? Yes, I am performing on Friday night! I am doing a great old classic song to begin with and I am just saying how much I love everyone! What are some of your favorite things about the BHOF Weekender? I love getting to meet all the new people in this show biz group!   Have you taught a class before? I taught a class 2 years ago "Panels and Negligee’s and it was my favorite thing that year. I want to give back to all the new people coming into this business. One of the best things about teaching is to b...

Ms Toni Elling got her name from Duke Ellington, a close friend, when she began performing in the 1960s. She became known for her originality and her skillful strut. She worked throughout the US Northeast and in Japan. She created a huge stir with the way she walked across the stage upon her return at BHoF in 2006, and has brought her signature style to stages from Detroit to New York. Today she is known for teaching the Three P’s: Parade, Pose, and Peel. Are you performing at BHOF this year? I will not be performing at BHOF this year; however, I will do the Walk Of Fame What are some of your favorite things about the BHOF Weekender? I love being able to see old friends and making new ones!  Have you taught a class before? Yes, I have done classes before. It makes me happy to share my knowledge.   What do you hope students will get out of your class?   I hope to show students how panels can be used in an act! See Toni perform! http://youtu.be/vX8h...

Delilah Jones was born in Berlin, Germany at the stroke of midnight on a full moon in 1941. She began performing in 1959 and worked with Lili St Cyr at the El Rancho in L.A, Sally Rand in 1965 in Hollywood, Tura Satana, and many other luminaries. She toured North America for two dazzling decades and retired from burlesque in 1980. Her knowledge of the different eras is extensive and her perspective is wry and insightful, with a clear understanding of context, time, and place. She is part of a lovely crew of Las Vegas local legends who make sure to spend time together in the spirit of striptease sisterhood. She will be taking the stage at the Burlesque Hall of Fame for the first time this year. Are you performing at BHOF this year? I’ll be performing on Friday! What are some of your favorite things about the BHOF Weekender? I love being with friends, all long time legends, under one roof. Have you taught a class before? If so, what do you like about te...

Camille 2000 was the first burlesque queen to introduce Aggressive Art to burlesque with her tribute to Marquis De Sade. With the tagline “The Girl for Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow,” she’s a performer no one can forget. She posed for elite photographers, travelled with trunks of costumes and props, and once had a Japanese television crew follow her, reality TV-style, long before that genre ever became popular. Her 20-year career includes acting roles in movies and television shows — alongside Burt Reynolds in B.L. Stryker, 13 episodes of Miami Vice, appeared in Porky’s II and Alan Carr’s remake of Where the Boys Are. Her emotionally powerful fan dance marked her return to the stage in 2011, and her S&M themed act with Tigger! made the audience roar at the BHoF Weekender in 2012.   Are you performing at BHOF this year? Which night? Do you want to give us a hint about what you'll be doing? I am performing on Sunday night and will be doing a number with...

Before there was The Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekender in Las Vegas, there was Exotic World on a goat farm in the desert in Helendale, California. There, performers such as Dirty Martini, Julie Atlas Muz, Tigger, Miss Indigo Blue, and Kitten Deville, who at that time had been doing burlesque professionally for just a few short years, performed alongside Living Legends of burlesque whose careers spanned the 1940s-1970s. The living legends inspired new performers with their fierceness, their skills, and their story-telling. The performers who learned from them show a special fire and a rare sense of accessible humor mixed with high expectations of entertainment ability that created the new era of burlesque, in which these performers travel the world headlining festivals, media gatherings, and art events. Whether you are new to burlesque or an instructor, the Burlesque Hall of Fame Finishing School offers you the opportunity to add ...

The Burlesque Hall of Fame staffers and friends have always worked hard to find women who performed burlesque in the 1940s-1960s and 70s and bring them back together. Some of the most moving things I've ever experienced have been seeing legends find their tribe again for the first time in decades. The following story bears witness to the incredible experience these women often have, and gives you an idea of what it's like to hear their stories an get to know them, and to see them perform with all the knowing charm they had half a century ago. "LAS VEGAS (KSNV & MyNews3) -- She crushed the color barrier, crashed the party and did it all dancing. Now at the age of 82, Jean Idelle is burning up the stage for the first time in decades. News 3's Reed Cowan has more on the life of Jean Idelle who went from obscurity to headlining in Las Vegas." Burlesque dancer, 82, takes the stage one more time

Tempest performing in 2004 on the stage by the pool at Exotic World, in Helendale, CA. Photo by me. "Calling someone a legend before they celebrate their 21st birthday might sound hyperbolic. But, in the case of burlesque dancer Tempest Storm, it just might apply -- with a notable caveat. "Storm, a fiery redhead known during the 1950s and '60s as "the Tempest in a D-cup," was born on Feb. 29, 1928, a leap year. Photo by Brian Smith. "That means even though the calendar says she is turning 84, she is only celebrating her 21st birthday...." Read more about Tempest Storm's life and her current career.

Last winter I spent some time going through paper archives in the Burlesque Hall of Fame collection in Las Vegas, with the help of Laura Herbert and Brian Newman . I was particularly interested in the sheet music and the notations on it. I intend to share more about the sheet music project later, but I got to see something so unexpected and charming and lovely that I want to share it with you. It's a collection of scrapbooks from an early 20th-century burlesque and cabaret performer who went by various names, among them Dorothy Dorne. I spent hours going through them, taken to another world, amused and enchanted by the way her scrapbooks brought her to life, and took a few snaps. At the time I was too busy dealing with the publication of my book and lost track of all the work I had in mind for those archives, but I did take some pictures of this gorgeous find and want to give you a glimpse. Be sure to click on them to view them larger and read some of the texts. This is ...

Brian Smith is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning photographer whose photographs of celebtrities and personalities have graced the pages of uncountable newspapers and magazines, including his picture of Pope John Paul II on the cover of Newsweek. So it should come as no surprise that for years he has been traveling to a goat farm in Helendale and later to hotel showrooms in Las Vegas to photographs burlesque queens of the 1950s for the annual Striptease Reunion of the Burlesque Hall of Fame. What? It's true. We at the Burlesque Hall of Fame have been honored by many of the people who have taken an interest in the organization, its personalities, and its events. But it's fair to say that Brian, with his talent, his reputation, his kindness, and his appreciation, ranks uber high in those honors! I met Brian on a photo shoot for which I'd been hired to bring burlesque models for a promotional project for photographic equipment. I was so charmed, really touched, by his enthusiasm and ...

There's a fantastic article in Paraphilia Magazine Issue 3, pages 43-65. You can open and read the issue at the site.

I am fortunate that I get to teach and constantly see people get excited about music, moves, and routines by which some experienced performers get bored. I also get to spend time with burlesque legends and have my respect for and joy in them constantly renewed. Burlesque just doesn't get old for me! I was moved by the comments many of my students and other first-timers made to me at the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekender earlier this month, and I collected a few of them. This is part one--there is much more to come! Note, none of the photos in this article are by me; all are courtesy of the subjects. "My experience to landing in Vegas for the first time, partaking in the Pinup Safari and working with various and amazing photographers, seeing my idols on stage, meeting the legends and making friends that will last a lifetime is only a snippet of the amazing experience that I am still processing. This is a weekend that I will continue to make a tradition for years to come!...

Above: Kalani Kokonuts with Pearle Noir at the BHOF pageant this past Saturday. In honor of Kalani's winning weekend, I'm reposting my interview with her from last year. Kalani Takes the Stage at MEW 2006. Photo by Jo Weldon. How did you get interested in burlesque? I was stripping underage in a topless biker bar in Alaska, when I first saw a ''feature entertainer.'' Features are week long acts that are booked to perform about 3-4 shows a night. They usually have centerfold credits or they can be porn actresses. Week after week the club would book different acts. Some were good, some were not so good. It seemed very glamorous to me. So I watched the features every night and learned. When I turned 21 I decided that if I wanted to perform and improve I would have to move where I thought the best performers were. I packed all my costumes into the back of my truck, I had six trunks and that was all that would fit. So I left everything else. Then I drove ...

Reigning Queen of Burlesque: Kalani Kokonuts First Runner Up: Roxi Delite Second Runner Up: Pearle Noir Best Troupe: Nanda Best Debut: Melody Mangler Best Variety: Gigi and Pop Best Boylesque: Hot Toddy Most Comical: Little Brooklyn Most Dazzling: Kalani Kokonuts Most Innovative: Arabella Trapeze Most Classic: Amazing Knicker Kittens http://www.burlesquehall.com

Above: One of my twitpics of the Gotham Glitter Balls Bowling Team from last night's Bare Cats Burlesque Bowling Tournament. The gang is twittering like crazy here in Vegas. The twitter tag to search is #BHOF. My Twitter: http://twitter.com/joweldon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRPZCp8Xkno http://www.burlesquehall.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epakR6ZGykE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27tV8X8B5kk http://burlesquedaily.blogspot.com/2009/05/burlesque-hall-of-fame-pageant-2009.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKDc75i_1Y8 http://burlesquedaily.blogspot.com/2009/05/burlesque-hall-of-fame-pageant-2009.html