The art of male burlesque
Why is the art of removing cool home-made outfits to retro music so rarely performed by men? Burlesque writer Claire Doble investigates the emerging male burlesque scene, and examines the issues it faces.
After a brief spell on stage removing my own clothes, I decided I was better off behind a notepad and launched myself into the voluptuous world of burlesque writing. In my travels I have inevitably pitched up upon the shores of male burlesque – the art form that many regard as a bizarre concept, if not a complete anomaly.
To find out more about why men performing burlesque is so rare, I attended the 2009 final of the Male Tournament of Tease in London and spoke to some of the men who do it and the women who love it.
Boys on stage
It’s a common misconception that male heterosexuality and sensuality do not lie comfortably in the same bed, according to Chris Davey (pictured left), aka British Heart Boylesque, who performs boylesque and is writing his PhD on the topic.
‘It’s still hard for people – men and women – to see a guy on stage being deliberately sensual, without assuming he is gay.’
‘I’m revealing a historiography of men who have stripped from the Victorian era to the present and highlight how and why I, and other boylesquers, have reinvented these histories. I’m demonstrating alternative models for male striptease, offering diverse ‘sexual males’ and positioning myself in a political location from which I experience what is at stake in these extreme performances as a male.’
He says that the most common assumption is that he must be gay. The happily married man is neither bothered nor particularly surprised by the assumption, but he is intrigued. ‘It’s still hard for people – men and women – to see a guy on stage being deliberately sensual, without assuming he is gay. We have unwritten rules of sexual presentation which hark back to the 19th century that still condition our social norms,’ says Davey.
It turns out many of the Male Tournament of Teasers are straight, but they’re not going to be mistaken for Chippendales any time soon either. Should this matter?
Burlesque, at its best, is cheeky, entertaining and in an increasingly airbrushed world, real. The wobbling thigh, the dodgy tattoo, the home-made costume – something we can each identify with as human beings. Nude human bodies are both beautiful and fascinating, and it seems about time that both women and men are becoming increasingly bored with the cliché that the male form is silly-looking and awkward compared with the female form.
‘Both women and men are becoming increasingly bored with the cliché that the male form is silly-looking and awkward compared with the female form.’
As Davey explains, the portrayal of male sensuality on stage is fraught with issues, but despite, or perhaps because of this, it is becoming increasing popular. Cabaret performer and veteran burlesque host Dusty Limits agrees, ‘A lot of women get a kick out of seeing men making fun of masculinity, which is normally such a difficult area. I also think they enjoy seeing a man putting his body on display, which in our culture is normally thought of as feminine. It’s a role reversal, and that’s refreshing. Plus it’s always nice to get to perve on hot blokes.’
The male tournament of tease
The third annual Male tournament of tease was held in London at the Bethnal Green working men’s club, with its glorious heart-shaped stage motif, in front of which Tom Jones was famously photographed. The winners of several previous heats battled it out for top spot, representing la-crème-de-la-crème of UK boylesque talent. The crowd was a mix of laid-back and dressed-up men and women, gay, straight and in between. Host Fred Bear directed proceedings dressed like a traditional circus ringmaster.
The acts were a deliciously mixed bag. Traditional types included an ‘English gentlemen’-styled duo with bowler hats and umbrellas,
who got down to their glittery codpieces then shared a titillating snog, and the tailed and top-hatted ballet-trained Lord Ritz (pictured right and above), who began his performance with tea and cakes and ended it in a corset and fishnet stockings. One performer used the simple but clever idea of going through an airport security gate to get his kit off. Feline-styled Berry Lee Lewis also raided the prop cupboard, playing with his great ball… of yarn. A lithe, tattooed man stripped down to his nipple tassles while riding a unicycle.
The winner, Dr Brown, performed a surreal, spoken-word take on ‘a day at the beach’, including the brilliantly homoerotic retrieving of a male audience member and having him help apply sunscreen.
The full monty
Some male burlesque artists strip off completely, others don’t. The audience clearly held mixed opinions on the fully monty – every time the host or judges mentioned it, much of the audience cheered, but dissent could also be heard.
Dusty Limits (pictured left) says one of the most enjoyable things about male burlesque is that it makes sexuality fun as opposed to seedy. ‘This is much more the case with boylesque than with a straight strip club I once had the misfortune of attending, but the dynamics involved there are obviously very different.’
‘The male approach to burlesque differs from the ladies. It has the same scope of inventiveness and personality, but definitely with a heavier lean toward comedy.’
London’s Whoopee agency runs both the male and female tournaments of tease. Whoopee’s Jayne Hardy, who features some of the finest specimens at her regular night Dame Jayne’s den of men, says that with burlesque’s predominantly female audiences, ‘it’s about time we got some further titillation in the form of man flesh!’ Hardy continues, ‘It’s interesting how the male approach to burlesque differs from the ladies. It has the same scope of inventiveness and personality, but definitely with a heavier lean toward comedy.’
Sexy versus funny
‘A lot of people find someone who makes them laugh more attractive. The key is to strike a balance. If you clown around too much, the sexuality of the act is derailed. On the other hand, there’s nothing less erotic than a man who takes himself totally seriously,’ says Dusty Limits.
Talking to Chris Davey about what makes acts sexy, and indeed, what is sexy, I felt myself blush. Here I was, a seasoned burlesque journalist, going rosy talking about what turns me on. As difficult as it is for the blokes to place their act at the right place on the funny/sexy continuum, perhaps it’s equally tough for women to express what we really like. There’s the laddish ‘phwoar’ that many women are more than comfortable expressing, especially if they’ve knocked back a few vinos. But with this, we stray into male strip revue territory. For many of us this type of stripping, like its female equivalent, represents a tawdry, mainstream sexiness that is largely without nuance and creativity. Women screeching and grabbing for buff blokes at a strip night is a mob mentality, and while there’s safety in that stereotype and many of us have seen it being acted out with our own eyes, genuine female desire is still elusive and rarely expressed with the candor it warrants.
‘Male burlesque celebrates the unique appeal of every performer, rather than demanding one tedious, standardised image of masculinity.’
Male burlesque is largely an art form created with a female audience in mind, and one that celebrates the unique appeal of every performer, rather than demanding one tedious, standardised image of masculinity. Both these qualities seem like incredibly positive innovations that it must be hoped will be further embraced by women as audiences and men as performers. Dusty says of his boylesque shows, ‘The women in the audience seem to take delight in the beautiful male bodies on display. They are certainly vociferous. I think it’s refreshing for women to get to admire beautiful men without feeling that in doing so they are somehow demeaning them.’
The boylesque hall of fame
Cherry Loco (Scotland)
Cherry Loco is almost certainly one of the world’s most proficient male fan dancers. Described by The Skinny as ‘a wonder to behold. Taking the props of a bygone era, he invests them with a new and playful resonance.’
David O’Mer (Germany)
Famous for his work with modern circus La Soiree, is described by Morphosis as leaving ‘audiences damp and breathless in admiration – the combination of wet jeans and awe-inspiring aerial ballet is once-seen, never-forgotten. David is the Adonis in denim.’
The English Gents (Australia)
Also of La Soiree fame, this acrobalance pair begin as stuffy, bowler hat-wearing Times-readers and end in Union Jack boxers, doing one-handed handstands on each other’s heads along the way. The shorter one, Hamish McCann, also does a spot of unbelievably sexy pole dancing.
Hot Toddy (US)
Of Chicago, Hot Toddy, winner of Mr Exotic World, describes himself as ‘the love child of Lili St Cyr and Liberace’. Time Out Chicago says he ‘serves up naughty doses of flesh with an oomph.’
This article appeared in Filament magazine Issue 3 – December 2009. Photo credits: Chris Davey by Rebecca Herbert, Lord Ritz by Ara Maye McBay, Dusty Limits by Tas Kyprianou, Cherry Loco by Andrea Heins.
Filed Under: Articles
Tags: articles, boylesque, men, photography
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Comments (17)
Call me old fashioned but I don’t see why male burlesque has to mimic female burlesque, down to the corset & fishnets. Perhaps it’s that which make people think it *is* a ‘gay’ thing? Don’t men have their own unique brand of sexiness and sensuality? And their own form of sexy underwear & clothing? I don’t see any problem with humour & sensuality. Not camp but a self-awareness & an enjoyment of performing must make it just as enjoyable & fun for the audience, yes? The David O’Mer picture certainly has me intrigued… athletic AND wet! Gosh!
Too much humour and it’s just not sexy any more.
I’ve known a couple of boylesque performers, and it’s such a pleasure to see how they work, because it often is such a peculiar balance of sexy and funny.
I even once took a burlesque class that was otherwise populated by ladies, which was quite an experience. Hats off to the fellows who can pull this off (no pun intended)!
The Hall of Fame is wholly incomplete without mentioning Tigger! Just sayin’.
I agree with Sandrine Lopez. Male burlesque can be lots of fun and a good show, but erotic or sexy… not for me. A man acting feminine and dressing up just doesn’t do the trick. I much rather watch some half naked men working on a construction site.
I agree about the stockings and fishnets – men definitely have their own kind of sexiness, they don`t need to copy women. Of course, stockings and fishnets on men CAN be sexy (and they usually are) but strong association of male burlesque with them is, to me, a wrong way. On the other hand, I strongly disagree about “construction site workers” as a dependable source of male sexiness. Thats so stereotypical! I am glad that some man deny stereotypes and develop their own type of sexuality. And I like that male burlesque has more humorous approach. I think thats what most of erotic performances, books and movies lack: freedom, irony, lightheartedness with a bit of shallowness. Note that, Filament authors!
We don`t need erotica to be serious, straight-forward and humourless business.
Filament is written by its readers, so anyone like mosquito who has something that involves ‘freedom, irony, lightheartedness with a bit of shallowness’ to submit, is invited to do so. In fact, our guidelines particularly invite this kind of thing, but it’s rarely something that we receive.
On the other hand, perhaps you are looking for a publication that is more about presenting the male body as a source of humour. Candy Rain magazine do that really well.
Being really into male erotica, I would be happy to contribute. If you are interested in drawn erotica with surreal twist, I think I could be what you are looking for. Talking about “Candy rain”… I dont think i like their approach. I think they are rather ‘funny-trashlike’ than ‘lighthearted’. I mean, i like strange erotica, but “Candy rain” doesnt strike me as a ‘strange’ type of mag, rather another one ‘porn is fuuuun and we are druuuunk’ type of mag. Like a collection of private photos of celebrities mixed with pop-postmodernist collages and ‘shocking’ pictures. Maybe ‘Candy rain’ not exactly like that, but it seems to be in that family. Which is not that bad, just not my thing. When I say “funny, strange and lighthearted” i think i mean that photoshoots are based on personality of a model. For me, the perfect situation is when the model acts a little like an actor… Makes expressions that refer to his personality, not the abstract “sexiness” and this personality is a personality of unprejudiced, funny, brave, intelligent man. He can be a little cynical or shallow – in his own way, not because it is ‘needed’. A little self-irony is precious. I hate blank ‘pinup’ faces, photos that accentuate muscles rather than whole body. Actually, almost every man can be sexy, not just muscular type.
But what I am looking for most in the erotica is a story! And i dont mean plot… Rather visual context, easily recognizable, natural, something that really matches the model. Like an empty room for a photoshoot with a model who plays the man who suffers from insomnia, cafe for the waiter and the like…But with athmosphere, faded natural light.
—–
Sorry for that long comment!
I am just explaining my views.
Sorry for possible mistakes – english is not my native language.
It sounds very much like the type of thing that many of our readers are looking for, again, at the risk of stating the obvious, we cannot publish what people haven’t created and submitted.
You can find guidelines on how to contribute here.
What I mean to say is before we started Filament, we sought a lot of women’s opinions on what they wanted to see. We were soon to find that this was of limited use because we do not receive enough submissions to make a choice say, for the type of material you’re talking about and against any other type of material. So nowadays we’re more of a mindset of encouraging people who write in and say ‘I want to see x’ to produce that. Because we know what they want to see: we’ve heard it all before. But we can’t publish that unless people are producing it.
As I said before, I would be happy if my stuff was published in your wonderful magazine.
I think that most creative girls, photographers and writers (there are many!) would be happy. The only question, to me, is how ready you would be to publish what your contributors offer? Talking about the picture and seeing it are different things. In other words, how much diversity can you tolerate? Does public opinion change the style of your content?
What a strange comment! As mentioned previously, the ONLY thing we publish is what our contributors offer – how else would we publish anything at all? It has to be contributed. Obviously we have an editorial vision so we don’t publish EVERYTHING submitted, but read the guidance and communicate with the editor about what you’re planning, listen to her guidance and you have as good a chance as anyone else of having something published.
How much diversity can we tolerate? Potentially endless diversity, but it has to be good quality work. For example, would we love to receive more work involving black guys and older guys? Yes, of course! However, would we publish a badly photographed set of an older black guy just to tick boxes? No, we wouldn’t.
Reading the magazine and the contributors guidelines should give you the main thrust of what we’re looking for.
Of course our readers’ opinions have some influence on what we publish, but as explained already, how much influence this can have is very limited by the range of work to choose from. So it doesn’t matter how loud our readers scream ‘more redheads’, we cannot publish photography of redheads if we do not receive any.
I think you got me wrong. I meant this, asking about how often you reject projects people offer to you.
For the future: I don`t like to be judged. What i asked is completely normal and relates to the subject. I can`t see why my comment is judged ‘strange’. Even if it WAS strange, i guess, you shouldn`t make such accusations in a face of person you arent familiar with enough. It is as if i asked some doctor on a health forum and he (or she) said ‘What a strange comment!’. Internet often can be a difficult place to communicate properly, there are misunderstandings due to its nature, local context, etc. If i don`t understand something, i always think this is because of some differencies we have and this is nothing wrong with it. But I DID understood you properly and then, I suppose, it is you who got me wrong. I wasnt clear enough? Probably. My apologies.
Oh, you can see some minor mistakes in the text above. I speak 4 languages, pity me!
Okay, I quit trolling.
I just wanted to say that if we want to fight something like misogyny we should unite people with different views on erotica for women. Probably, you should publish a widest possible range of projects just to show how different subject can be. Most people arent familiar with the subject enough, so being eclectic is rather a plus here: you never know what kind of auditory will buy your magazine. There are not many magazines left in this field, so you can be quite universal…Quite like ‘The world of male erotica”…Something people begin with when they are interested in it.
But you are probably ‘already doing it’ so I don`t think i am very original here…
Good luck!
I’m wondering why I and my troupe, More or Lesque!, didn’t make the male burlesque hall of fame – especially since Chris Davey has worked with me! We don’t mimic female burlesque at all – we may parody it, but never mimic!
I would disagree that “Male burlesque is largely an art form created with a female audience in mind,” – my acts are created from the viewpoint that I do things I’d like to watch and quite frankly I’m not gearing it towards men/women but rather whatever I think is going to work for an audience. Though by and large my acts challenge limiting notions about gender and sexuality, e.g. why women can wear men’s clothing in the street but men who do the same are considered deviant/odd.
I’m a huge fan of male burlesque, like San Francisco’s SF Boylesque. For me, it’s like going to a drag show. But instead of boys donning dresses and wigs and telling a story through performance, the stories are told through cute guys taking off their clothes.
As for the full monty … I think my favorite show would be one where some performers teased, keeping their private covered (even just by a prop) while others did the full monty. The uncertainty of not knowing how far some performers would go would enhance the anticipation.
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