Nerdlesque: Burlesque Built on Geek Culture

Nerdlesque is a branch of neo-burlesque in which tease, comedy and costume are built around fandom: comic books, video games, science fiction, fantasy novels and similar interests. The result joins the glamour of vintage burlesque with references that fans spot instantly.

Ottawa has produced a lively example in a nerdlesque troupe that an older feature described as a large company of around fourteen performers presenting shows that stitched together very different acts.

What the style looks like

Classic burlesque flourished in the early twentieth century and relied on wit, slow reveal and elaborate costume. Neo-burlesque revived the tradition in the final decades of that century and opened it to performers of every body type, gender and background. Nerdlesque is one outgrowth. A performer might peel away a superhero outfit or play a space-opera heroine while the crowd laughs as loudly as it cheers. Boylesque, the male-identified counterpart, belongs to the same family.

A member of that troupe described the style as the meeting of two formerly fringe cultures. In that telling, it lets fans of games or comics be confident and sexy without giving up what they enjoy.

Fan culture and the company

Fan terms such as Browncoat, used by devoted followers of the television series Firefly, whose heroes sided with a defeated rebel faction, show how fandom vocabulary can be borrowed for stage names and themes. Even when a group aims at a traditional number, the same member said, a shared sense of humour and storytelling leaves a recognizable stamp.

The performers had started out as solo artists before coming together around a comic, narrative approach. Their evenings placed classic burlesque beside vaudeville, comedy, belly dance, Bollywood dance, hula and fetish performance, so a night worked more like a variety bill than a single genre.

Views on sexuality and audiences

Troupe members presented burlesque as open to any gender or ethnic identity, with no fixed rules about what an act has to be. They set it against the constant availability of pornography, describing a stage tradition in which a bare shoulder can win as warm a reaction as anything explicit. Treating sexuality as playful and worth celebrating, not as something to hide, is a common theme among contemporary burlesque performers in Canada and elsewhere.

Growing a local scene

When the feature appeared, the troupe had recently finished its first full-length show of its own, a milestone for a group that had mostly shared bills with others. Its status today is not known. At the time, members hoped to build an Ottawa following and eventually travel to festivals across North America. Burlesque festivals, including several held in Canadian cities, offer troupes a stage before new audiences and a chance to watch other acts.