Alternative Nightlife

Burlesque and taboo. Two words you don’t often see in the same sentence. Burlesque and freakshow, sure. Burlesque and, well, bonkers? Absolutely. After all, this is the vaudeville artform that includes routines by lovely ladies who use balloons to protect their modesty, only to pop them with a feather poked through holes in their tongues. Or it might involve a blindfolded escape act from tightly bound tape using only double-jointed manoeuvres to undress. If it’s ironic, humorous or cheeky, and involves in some (often small) way the removal of garments, then you’re likely to see it on a London stage. The only constant is that it’s always ‘lovely ladies’. Now men doing burlesque? That’s just weird. Feature continues

But that’s exactly what Whoopee will be doing this week. Their Tournament of Tease competitions are a great way for aspiring burlesque peeps to get a nipple tassel in the door. For four months, however, the Male Tournament of Tease will be offering blokes a chance to shine.

‘I went to a lot of strip tease pubs,’ says organiser and photographer, Julie Cook, ‘and I was amazed at people who could take take their clothes off in public spaces. There’s a liberation attached – not only those who actually took their clothes off, but those who watched. I was impressed by the way that men were so passive and controlled and took it so seriously. When I’ve seen the situation reversed, the women scream and make so much noise, the audience really gets worked up into a frenzy. I didn’t feel comfortable with it. So I imagined a situation where women would be cool about it and enjoy the performance, and it not be some sort of hysterical thing. And I thought that there must be other women around who want that.’

But what will the guys actually do on stage? A Chippendales-styled strip is just a strip; it’s not burlesque unless there’s a humorous element.
‘One of the best male burlesque performances I’ve seen was in Las Vegas at the Miss Exotic World conference. There was a male section called Boylesque. Roky Roulette came on came on dressed as a cowboy and rode on to the stage on a child’s horse. He hopped up and down all over the stage and, at the same time, stripped. On one hand, it was funny, but on the other it’s something that’s very hard to do physically, to be able to pogo up and down yet strip in a really sexy way. His performance ended with a big shower of glitter, and that twist at the end was magical.’

Whoopee are providing choreographers for any would-be male burlesque performers, and the Male Tournament of Tease grand final will be in July. Julie Cook will be photographing the tournaments and exhibiting the photographs in November.

So will London’s burlesque scene be ready to give up its last taboo? And will burlesque fans be as cool and collected watching the boys as they are watching the girls? Cook says: ‘Men are much more nervous than women are of performing. They’re afraid of female audiences being over the top. So there’s absolutely no hen weekends allowed in and definitely no screaming!’

The Whoopee Club presents The Male Tournament of Tease this Wednesday at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club.