The world’s longest running amateur burlesque competition and showcase!
NATIONWIDE FESTIVAL
Applications Open April 20th!
2026 Nationwide Festival
November 20-21
CHICAGO, IL
Applications Close May 31st!
(visit frequently asked questions)
WINDY CITY QUARTERLY
Registration to perform for our Windy City Quarterly Showcases are closed for the 2026 SPRING & SUMMER SEASON. We will revisit opening signups for Volunteer Opportunities in July for Fall Programs.
MAY 09 SESSION III SHOWCASE
For our May 09 Showcase, we welcome Jenn Freeman, who also navigates this world as Po’Chop. Their work weaves dance, storytelling, drag, and striptease into performance worlds that illuminate and interrogate Black queer life through humor, ritual, and embodied inquiry, creating on the homelands of the Council of the Three Fires, including the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi Nations, as well as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Sauk and Meskwaki, Kiikaapoi, Peoria, and Očeti Šakówiŋ Nations.
Visit their work & keep an eye out for upcoming performances!
NOVEMBER 21-22 NATIONWIDE FESTIVAL
For our 2026 Nationwide Festival, we welcome Portia Favro! An internationally recognized choreographer and performer, Portia’s work has earned her top accolades, including “Best Large Group” at the prestigious Burlesque Hall of Fame (2023). As the headmistress of the Pin-Up Posse, she has cultivated a reputation as a dynamic leader, fostering a vibrant community of performers!
WINDY CITY PRODUCTION TEAM
Honey Bee Rose
Muffy St. Clair
Honey Bee Rose
Honey Bee Rose is a key player in burlesque equity, diversity and entertainment here in Chicago, helping build relationships amongst volunteers, performer opportunity & production strategy.
Lilly Rascal
Muffy St. Clair
Honey Bee Rose
With over two decades of experience in the arts, Lilly Rascal as an educator, passes knowledge, history & discipline of burlesque keeping our artform alive & thriving while celebrating burlesque for all bodies, growth & innovation.
Muffy St. Clair
Muffy St. Clair
Muffy St. Clair
With her generosity of spirit, quick wit & compassion, Muffy St. Clair brightens any room tenfold. Coordinating merchandising & classes, she is a key player in ensuring performer and audience hospitality.
MEET OUR FLAGSHIP PRODUCERS
Foxy Tann
Kitson Sass
Kitson Sass
Founder & Nationwide Festival Producer, one of burlesque's hardest working emcees and veteran of the BHOF stage with over 25 years of industy experience, Foxy Tann (The Boss of Burlesque) has been hailed as one of The Top 10 Burlesque Performers To Watch by The Huffington Post, and dubbed a pioneer of the neo-burlesque movement by The Min
Founder & Nationwide Festival Producer, one of burlesque's hardest working emcees and veteran of the BHOF stage with over 25 years of industy experience, Foxy Tann (The Boss of Burlesque) has been hailed as one of The Top 10 Burlesque Performers To Watch by The Huffington Post, and dubbed a pioneer of the neo-burlesque movement by The Minneapolis Star Tribune. And in trying to put her money where her mouth is, with the underpaid and indispensable talents of RedBone, launched The Nudie Nubie Show - An Amateur Reveal in Minneapolis in 2013 as a showcase for new burlesque performers to grow and shine and opened a franchise in San Francisco in early 2017 and now Chicago!
Kitson Sass
Kitson Sass
Kitson Sass
Producers of Nudie Nubie St. Paul/Minneapolis, The “Darling Dynamo of Burlesque”, Kitson Sass is trained in dance, the aerial arts and life who really just wants to do a little dance, make a little love and get down tonight. She’s a producer of the Nudie Nubie show Twin Titties and co-producer of The Birthday Show, where we party like
Producers of Nudie Nubie St. Paul/Minneapolis, The “Darling Dynamo of Burlesque”, Kitson Sass is trained in dance, the aerial arts and life who really just wants to do a little dance, make a little love and get down tonight. She’s a producer of the Nudie Nubie show Twin Titties and co-producer of The Birthday Show, where we party like it's your birthday everyday! She’s performed on stages across the country, including The Burlesque Hall of Fame stage in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022. When she’s not melting hearts on stage, Kitson enjoys boxed wine, fried SPAM and long walks on the beach with her cats. And we here at NNChi have had such a delight working with Kitson launching our Opening Night of Chicago NN!
RedBone
Kitson Sass
RedBone
'Internationally known, Minnesota grown' RedBone is one of the biggest names in burlesque! She began traveling the world as one of the Wham Bam Thank You Ma’ams, backing up the infamous Foxy Tann in her quest for world domination in 2005. RedBone has featured at Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend, is the 2019 reigning 'Princess of Burlesqu
'Internationally known, Minnesota grown' RedBone is one of the biggest names in burlesque! She began traveling the world as one of the Wham Bam Thank You Ma’ams, backing up the infamous Foxy Tann in her quest for world domination in 2005. RedBone has featured at Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend, is the 2019 reigning 'Princess of Burlesque' and 2016-2023 21st Century Burlesque Magazine Top 50 Most Influential Industry Figures! Owner of Cyclone Enterprises, a production company focused on Black, Brown & Queer Fringe Arts Entertainment, producing Moist - An All Black Erotic Cabaret quarterly at Oasis SF.
MEET OUR SPONSORS & COLLABORATORS
LILLY RASCAL
HONEY HIVE PRODUCTIONS
HONEY HIVE PRODUCTIONS
LILLY RASCAL, producer of Way Out Wednesday with over two decades of stage experience, sponsors prize packages of 1:1 sessions in professional development.
HONEY HIVE PRODUCTIONS
HONEY HIVE PRODUCTIONS
HONEY HIVE PRODUCTIONS
HONEY BEE ROSE, Reigning Queen of Burlesque with over a decade of experience, sponsors prize packages of 1:1 sessions in professional development.
CHRIS NIGHTENGALE PHOTOGRAPHY
CHRIS NIGHTENGALE PHOTOGRAPHY
CHRIS NIGHTENGALE PHOTOGRAPHY
Chicago Resident Photographer Chris Nightengale, with over a decade of photographing the art of burlesque, sponsors photo shoots of our Spring & Summer Winners.
JESSE GINTO PHOTOGRAPHY
CHRIS NIGHTENGALE PHOTOGRAPHY
CHRIS NIGHTENGALE PHOTOGRAPHY
Newport Theater Resident Photographer Jesse Ginto, specializes in creative portraits for artists & performers in the queer community, sponsors our Fall Winner.
Tassels Off!
JULY 23 - JULY 26, a fabulous weekend of Burly Glamping!
Tassels Off! Burlesque Summer Camp is a two night weekender of awesome sauce. Camp, cook out, low key competitions, yard games and nightly barnburner showcases at an idyllic cute a** farm just off the Mississippi River south of the Twin Cities Metro in Wisconsin. This is a private event where burlesquers can enjoy each other with their friends, partners and a tasty s'more while watching burlesquers perform in a barn!