Las Vegas Weekly

Burlesque Beauty. Tattooed Cutie.

This tassel twirler and balloon popper is a key player in the local burlesque scene. She produces a monthly burlesque show in the Boom Boom Room at Boomers Bar, where she also teaches the art of the tease to burlesque newbies.

The throwback art form folds nicely into her retro lifestyle—Cha Cha lives in a 1960s Paradise Palms home, complete with tiki bar and velvet paintings, and cherishes instrumental ’60s music. Her routines are the perfect blend of kitsch and sexy. When not covered in glitter-filled balloons that she pops to reveal her corseted frame, she performs with a full-sized tiger puppet or pops out of a giant birthday cake.

She shimmies all over the country, recently winning best solo at the 2011 Texas Burlesque Festival, and hosts Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School sessions at Dino’s.

“I can’t imagine life without it,” Cha Cha says. “Burlesque is in every aspect of my life. It’s a sickness I don’t want to be cured of.”

On Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend:

“It’s my favorite holiday. It’s better than Christmas. I really feel fortunate that it happens here in Las Vegas.”

The Joy of Your Life

Karla Joy folds it all into her striptease—comedy, props, a little horror and a lot of sexiness. With no experience in burlesque, she entered and won the 2008 All Tease No Sleaze pageant and joined local troupe Babes In Sin. Now the manager at Bettie Page Clothing teaches burlesque with Cha Cha Velour and performs at least once a month. Her acts include a take on Lucille Ball’s Vitameatavegamin scene in I Love Lucy, a lost love routine involving a coffin and a James Bond-esque number that has her shaking a martini between her breasts.

Karla Joy loves suspense and anticipation emanating from the crowd, as well as the chance to share comedy. “There’s nothing sexier than comedy, than a good laugh.”

Burlesque has even changed her opinion of herself.

“I hated my body. I was uncomfortable in my own skin,” Karla Joy says. “I’m not perfect, but I embrace my flaws. That’s why I love burlesque. You learn to work with your flaws. You don’t have to be skinny. You don’t have to have a rack. If you have a gimpy leg, you use that gimpy leg. If you had a fake leg, you could come out with it and that can be the article you remove.” Karla Joy competes Friday at the Dixie Evans Burlesque Show.

Who rocks her? “I love that Tempest Storm can still own the stage. I love that Dirty Martini has hips and can use them. I look up to anyone who does burlesque well, who comes up with an idea, makes a costume, practices and gets out there."

The Polynesian Princess

Take one look at Kalani Kokonuts and it’s clear: She’s all glamour. Her productions are as elaborate as the expensive costumes she designs, and her approach to burlesque can be epic—a geisha performance with taiko drummers, Chinese fans and snow, fire when the venue permits. But she’s also a self-described hippie snowboarder known for performance art as much as burlesque.

The former centerfold model, who grew up in Hawaii and later Alaska, went on the road as a feature entertainer in gentlemen’s clubs, then moved to Las Vegas where she danced nude at the Palomino Club. Kalani turned to burlesque for something that would be creative but not “extremely risqué.”

She tours Europe, where she says burlesque is “massively huge,” and recently returned from a monthlong stint in Australia.

The Miss Exotic World-winner 2009 will perform Sunday at BHOF Weekend.

On performing burlesque: “Creatively, I’m not stifled whatsoever. I can do anything and everything. You get to visit the past. For a few minutes, the audience and I can get away just for a while.”

Vegas’ Voluptuous Vixen

Vi Vacious was doing striptease in New England gentlemen’s clubs when her husband showed her old burlesque videos of Tempest Storm and Candy Barr and she started incorporating costumes into her acts. She shed the stripping career when she moved to Las Vegas but took an interest in burlesque, earning runner-up in the All Tease No Sleaze contest.

A fan of ’60s sex kittens with big hair and shapely bodies, Vi Vacious opts for the straight-up sexy striptease, performing to more contemporary music like Depeche Mode, rather than the Ann-Margret tunes she started stripping to. “You have to dance to what you love. On Halloween, I danced to Marilyn Manson and it worked.”

Working striptease in Boston was no different than what the legends were doing back in the day, she says, but now the vet tech performs as a hobby: “I have to make time for it. It’s a full-time job in itself. I won’t always be performing, but it will always be a part of my life some way. I love the costuming, glamming up and being with the girls. They’re sort of family now.” Vi Vacious will have face time with the legends this weekend, escorting Kitten Natividad at BHOF and sharing the stage with Tempest Storm and Dixie Evans at the Dixie Evans Burlesque Show.

Her inspirations: “Kalani Kokonuts. I’ve always liked her stage presence. When you watch her it’s like you’re the only person in the room. Also, the legends have always been what it’s all about for me. I love to hear their stories.”

The fiery legend

After leaving Georgia for the glamour of Hollywood, Tempest Storm was waiting tables when a customer told her the Follies Theatre was hiring new girls for striptease. After seeing Lili St. Cyr perform she was sold. “I thought, if I could do what she did and be classy, I’d do it.”

And she did. Striving to be a “class act and a star,” Tempest launched her career at the El Rey Theatre, toured clubs throughout the U.S., starred in the Minsky show at the Dunes in the late 1950s and acted in a handful of movies, including Russ Meyer flicks.

Now in her 80s, she hasn’t left the stage, though a broken hip suffered during a fall at last year’s BHOF Weekend has kept her from dancing.

While she fully intends to perform again, during her recovery she’s been presenting Tempest Storm’s Las Vegas Burlesque Review—starring Angie Pontani, Kitten de Ville and others—where she conducts a burlesque Q&A with audiences.

And retirement? “That word is not in my vocabulary. Burlesque has been my whole life. I don’t know anything else. I had to break my hip to stop me for a while. When I walk onto that stage I feel like a little girl all dressed up. You get to be glamorous. You get to be a prima donna, and I just love entertaining people. I get unconditional love from my audience.”

Difference between performing burlesque in her youth and in her 80s? “Nothing. Years ago I said, I’m going to quit this business when I’m 35. I’m a little late. This is too good to quit.”

The Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque

Evans has come a long way from working as a page who opened and closed curtains at shows in the 1940s, followed by a stint as a chorus girl, before switching to burlesque, where the real money was.

With a negligee and pillow she created an act set to “Mr. Sandman” and was on her way, touring extensively then settling into a more than 10-year stint at Miami Beach’s Place Pigalle. Dubbed “The Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque” by producer Harold Minsky, she performed the actress’ sexy songs and film scenes until Monroe died in 1962.

Eventually, Evans returned to California, where she and her old burlesque friends would meet once a year for reunions at San Pedro’s Sassy Lassy nightclub.

Soon, Evans was on her way to Helendale to help run the Miss Exotic World Museum, started by the late dancer Jennie Lee. Evans took over and helped transform Miss Exotic World into what the Burlesque Hall of Fame is today. She hasn’t performed since a 2002 gig at San Francisco’s Bimbo’s 365 Club, but will take the stage Saturday night at the Plaza, performing a comedic striptease.

On moving Miss Exotic World to Las Vegas: