We know (we have the analytics) that quite a few TAD readers are not averse to a bit of arty burlesque – our candid interview with striptease artist Ursula Martinez was read by many thousands. The latest contenders in the burgeoning titillation-as-art scene are Cabaret New Burlesque who finished a three night run last night at the Charing Cross Theatre in London (it will be back, they promise).
They are a bunch of Americans of impressively varied sizes and shapes who made it in Paris, home of the art of the stripper. Their struggle to succeed was documented in Mathieu Amalric’s film Tournée, which picked up an award at Cannes. The show, it says here, is “celebrating the female body through American iconography from decades gone by”. Clementine Bunel, who brought the show to London says, "In Paris, the burlesque shows tend to be very classy and expensive like the Moulin Rouge - so this is new and rather strange for Parisians."
Among the artistes are Mimi Le Maux, winner of Miss Exotic World (2004), with the voluble Kitten on the Keys as MC who has an atrocious line in puns. The token male is called Roky Roulette, who strips his cowboy gear while bouncing around the stage on a pogo stick. One artiste blows up a balloon and gets inside it – others wear Civil War-era Southern Belle gear or get groped by a severed hand. It’s surreal, arty, raunchy and recommended.