CARNAL NATION

Newspaper articles reporting on burlesque shows and the burlesque revival frequently pose the question, "Why do you think burlesque is so popular now?" As the producer of San Francisco's Hubba Hubba Revue, I've been asked this by media folk a few times. I've also read numerous articles in which the same question has been asked of other performers and producers, and I've seen it used in documentaries and TV news spots featuring burlesque. Clearly it's a question that's bedeviling those on the outside looking in, so perhaps I should go ahead and take a whack at it.

Why is burlesque so popular now? Leaving aside the fact that the current "now" for the burlesque scene probably spans two two-term presidencies, the Rise and Fall of both Pokemon and Beavis and Butthead, the advent of teeny-tiny cell phones, and The Patriot Act, there are undoubtedly a hundred "right" answers to that question. In fact, a hundred performers and producers in the community have probably answered this thing a hundred different ways in the last fifteen years. My answer won't be more valid than any of theirs, but everyone's got an opinion, right? Here's mine.

Let me start by saying that I think burlesque is popular now because, since its inception, it's always been popular—it's just morphed itself here and there to stay in the game. Burlesque didn't die when its first incarnations withered away. Without question, the early TV shows featuring former burlesque players and vaudevillians were a continuation of the form. Later on, certainly England's Benny Hill Show was burlesque in theme. You could even argue that American TV variety shows of the 70's, like Sonny & Cher and The Carol Burnett Show, had their burlesque elements, carried over from their predecessors. I'd even make the case that The Muppet Show is essentially burlesque in style and structure. These are just a few examples, but the point is that even after strip clubs and the porn industry drove the old, original burlesque houses out of business in the 1960's and 70's, burlesque as a form of entertainment was still with us.

And there's another point to be made here: burlesque isn't just girls taking their clothes off, even if our puritanical society always focuses on that first. There are comedic, theatrical, and structural elements that get completely left out when people new to the idea of burlesque attempt to describe it (To wit: "Hey! I went to a show last night, and it was a bunch of girls taking their clothes off!!"). The comedy and those theatrical and structural elements date back to the origins of the business, and they're so ingrained in our cultural unconsciousness that we tend no longer to see them in detail. They're there though. The performance style and uniqueness of burlesque as a form of entertainment have been programmed into us from the first time we saw Bugs Bunny dress up as a sexy lady-bunny and bump and grind in front of Yosemite Sam.

Burlesque has always been a crowd pleaser, but it's not high art. That's an important point: just because it's not high art, doesn't mean it has less value. There is value in populist fare. To forget that is to deny where burlesque came from, and thereby ignore why it has endured.