First Annual New Orleans Burlesque Festival 2009 Catherine D'lish (First runner up) , Perle Noir (Queen of Burlesque), Rick Delaup, and Lola Van Ella (Second runner up)

Q and A: RICK DELAUP
Five Questions with New Orleans Burlesque Fest Founder, Rick Delaup

How did the New Orleans Burlesque Festival come about?

I participated in Tease-O-Rama back in 2001. It was held in New Orleans, and it was the first national burlesque festival/convention. Alison Fensterstock, who now writes for Gambit, was one of the organizers. She wanted to keep it in New Orleans, but her other partners wanted it to travel to other cities. And it never came back here. Over the years, people kept telling me New Orleans would be the best city to have a burlesque festival, and I agreed. I’ve been to Tease-O-Rama, Exotic World, and the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend in Vegas a few times, and decided that 2009 would be the year I would start the New Orleans Burlesque Festival. Burlesque festivals are popping up all over the world now. There are about two-dozen world-wide.

What makes the New Orleans Burlesque Festival different from the other burlesque festivals?

The New Orleans Burlesque Festival focuses on classic burlesque. Today, there are all different kinds of burlesque. There’s traditional striptease, like what was performed in the 1950s by dancers like Blaze Starr, Lili St. Cyr, and Tempest Storm, and there’s what is called “neo-burlesque” which can be anything really. It’s performance art, with some degree of striptease involved. Other burlesque festivals include anything that falls under the large umbrella of burlesque. So I thought I’d stick with classic burlesque, which I consider a real art form - and it’s a great interest of mine. This festival honors all the great legends of New Orleans Burlesque, such as Kitty West, Lilly Christine, Rita Alexander, Wild Cherry, Tee Tee Red, and so on…
But probably the main difference is we feature at least two showcases that are accompanied entirely by a live jazz band. Traditional burlesque, at its best featured dancers performing to live jazz. That is something I want to see come back in a big way. So we are definitely putting the spotlight on live jazz and burlesque-style striptease.

How does a performer get to perform in the festival?

There’s an application process, and we’d love to have more local performers apply. We received over 100 applications last year, and expecting double this year. We’ve received quite a few applications already, and so far, the talent looks even better. This confirms that the burlesque scene is growing and improving.

What are you looking for in the applications?

True talent, colorful personality, great costumes, to name a few. Also, glamour, humor, and grace. I encourage everyone to look at our YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/burlesquefest) to see some of the performances in last year’s fest. Classic burlesque does not just mean “fan dance” or a long gown and a boa. Last year, we had a female astronaut climbing down a spaceship, a campy Native American princess chasing and skinning a giant bunny, a girl coming out of a giant jellyfish and doing a striptease while hula-hooping, and, of course, there’s the Evil Hate Monkey! All of the acts should be something that you could have seen on a burlesque stage a few decades ago, or acts that would have appealed to those audiences. Some of the acts I just mentioned became favorites among some of the burlesque legends who attended the shows! Gimmicks are good. What we are not looking for is anything that is offensive, vulgar, or ugly. Music choices should be instrumental, preferably something retro-sounding. But we have featured dancers who perform to tracks with vocals, like a dancer who performed to Riot in Cell Block #9 by Wanda Jackson. It’s a fun song from 1960. And there was another dancer who performed to Elisa by Serge Gainsbourg. It’s a French song from 1969. And of course, all of our burlesque performers peel down to their pasties, unless you’re doing boylesque.

How can people get involved?

We could use more volunteers! We need people to escort some of the burlesque legends throughout the weekend. We need drivers to help transport our burlesque stars, we need “stage kittens”, stage managers, people to help organize and run the daytime activities. We need help in gathering items for the performer goodie bags, people to distribute promo cards, and probably do a number of other tasks. Anyone interested can email me at neworleansburlesque@yahoo.com.

Click to find out more about Bustout Burlesque and New Orleans Burlesque Festival.