Review: Tournament of Tease (Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend 2026)
Who walked away with Burlesque's biggest title?
And just like that, another Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekender is behind us. My trusty photographer Sam and I decided to save our sweat after back-breaking live coverage of last year’s events - but fear not disappointed DMers - here is just the first of a series of features showcasing the hard work and artistry on show this year.
As usual there were some notable trends throughout the festivities: fans for days, detachable cups, rope ponies, pastel palettes, horticultural hijinks, shred skirts, sapphic hookups, hair flinging, tongue action, an overabundance of fringe, and a group rate on body cages apparently, to name a few.
SHOW NOTES: Reviewed via livestream with highlights selected before awards were announced. Photos of all competitors can be found in the extended version of this feature on 21st Century Burlesque.
Opening Number: Tournament of Tease 2026
The operatic opener felt worthy of an Olympic ceremony - apt then for the burlesque equivalent (nod to choreographer Chelsea Hart who remounted this from a La Maison Lust production). Queen Jessabelle in her Petit Trianon, fanned by intimate attendants Tito Bonito, Coco Lamarr and Blanche Debris (who would later become our hosts), and attended to by six coquettish courtiers in white ruffles and lace: Ginger Valentine, Egypt Blaque Knyle, Portia Favro and her students Holly Graphic, Telle Rose and Kate Tease. Towering herald Maria TopCatt glides through the audience syncing perfectly to Diva Dance, bejewelled, feathered, cinched and draped in panniers, ruff, and a sloped tiara like a gem-encrusted wave. All the while Jessabelle looks on, coolly observing the unfolding debauchery. Really created a sense of occasion and anticipation for the marathon ahead of us.
Hot Blonde Slvt (*Winner: Most Comedic. Debut)
On marches deranged trumpeter Hot Blonde Slvt, fresh off a victory at the inaugural Melbourne Festival of Tease, to a marching band take on Sweet Dreams. Got up gorgeously in a pastel majorette costume with so many lovely touches (see upcoming costume highlights feature), I could only imagine Matt Finish’s ecstasy when she removed her shako to reveal another tiny hat beneath - which, ingeniously, converts into a dangling drum merkin, complete with detachable drumstick tassels for a percussive finale. I could watch this candyfloss clown all day; you really don’t know what’s coming next and that’s a real feat nowadays.
Charlie Quinn Starling (*Winner: Best Debut and Most Innovative)
Charlie Quinn Starling takes the well-worn Antoinette outing and produces something strikingly modern and on-brand bizarre. I can picture the doomed French queen looking down and clutching her pearls, wishing she’d thought of this clitoric pompadour. What may initially seem improvised and frivolous is so finely tuned and mapped, with so many moving parts precisely timed and set up for maximum satisfaction, in more ways than one! The coordination, spatial awareness and agility, with unfaltering charisma and characterisation is to be expected from a pro used to pulling off the same thing night after night in Absinthe to the same exacting standard. This title winning tease takes a career like hers to cultivate. (Disclosure: coaching)
Mocha Mocha 2.0 (*Runner Up: Best Debut)
Mocha strides onstage in red leather, sparkling grommets and a neckerchief that suggests cowboy without falling into cliché. She prowls rather than performs, stood proud then on the floor in a blink like a whirling Whewdini. She ably demonstrates, with a knowing nod and smile, the power of stillness and slow, deliberate tease coupled with frenetic precision, reminding us how powerful and skilful restraint can be.
Vita De Vour (Debut)
Vita is an angel-faced ray of light, arriving to I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair in a barely-there powder blue robe with a plush, punchy pink sash and matching shower cap. Feeling less than fresh, Vita discards said robe and out comes a giant pink loofah on a rope, Christina Aguelira’s Dirty upping the ante. One yank and ta-da! - it’s a frickin’ boa with arm loops for maximum flipping, shoulder feeding and floor humping. Water droplet fringing on the gauntlets and cage is a storylover and stage manager’s dream, no H₂O required. A masterclass in suspense, silliness and sexiness. It feels criminal this didn’t take something home - perhaps an honorary Most Latherous?
Le Dame Derrière and Chelsea Hart (Small Group)
La Dame Derriere and Chelsea Hart (who both put in some overtime this weekend) delivered one of the evening’s most affecting performances. Set to the story of Jasmin Savoy’s Orange Wine, the act captures the ache of post-date longing with remarkable tenderness and an almost wholesome sensuality - enacting what could have happened if the goodnight kiss went further… or did it? With lyrical choreo that manages to be conversational rather than pretentious, removals show slick teamwork and a tender, celebratory chemistry between them. On the eve of Pride Month it has an added poignancy.
TUSH! Burlesque (Large Group)
Like La Maison Lust’s winning turn last year, I get such a thrill and rib-shaking laugh from really silly, smutty acts that completely commit to the bit (no pseudo-equine pun intended here). A troupe of inflated rainbow unicorns prance in tandem to Girls Just Want To Have Fun, a whimsical sugardream from the recesses of childhood. Until it becomes apparent they’re more interested in each other’s recesses, that is. Cue whipsmart uni wrangler Ruby Mimosa, who lassoes the troupe into a biddable chorus line of harnessed pony girls. Saddlebags of finessed fun.
Chola Magnolia (*First Runner Up: Miss Exotic World)
Chola brings the house to its feet with a flamboyant, roof-raising Baile Folklórico burlesque routine that just radiates joy. Emerging in a poured, oil-black cape and mermaid sheath with traditional red trim, topped with the most exquisite sombrero I’ve ever seen, she turns up the heat with every rosy reveal underneath. I know Chola has analysed and agonised over previous BHoF outings, even her very accomplished entry last year, but she just seems to be having such a fabulous time here, really flying free and letting her years of experience and finely honed technical expertease run on autopilot. That smile could heal a thousand hurts. Thrilled for her.
La Dame Derrière (Exotic World)
La Dame returns to the stage in the Miss Exotic World category with a conversely moody, deliciously percussive classic turn. Her opening silhouette is picked out under the lights - a gauzy, leathery fishtail encased in an almost taenidial surround, like a diaphanous My Fair Ladybug. And then it all comes undone - like her clothes are on fire and the rent is due at midnight. With her collective offerings this weekender, I’m now officially intrigued.
Qween Quan (Exotic World)
Enter the mind of Qween Quan, where cow, pheasant and rancher converge. A burlesque turducken, if you will - bejewelled, resplendent and mischievous, with all their usual scale, skill and dynamism. Once the horns have been removed, reattached and fondled, out come a pair of impudent little hand fans, coyly employed. But Quan never leaves us hanging; it’s a cheeky decoy before the money shot monsters come out, and no one wields them - or assimilates them, quite like Quan.
Valerie Veils (*Winner: Most Dazzling. Exotic World)
If Venus packed up her suitcase to tour the solar system in human form, she’d look like Valerie Veils touching down to Cosmic Love - a celestial spacemaiden complete with bubble helmet and flared hips glowing like rocket engines (we get into the whole ensemble in the upcoming costume highlights feature). As poised and balletic as a temple dancer, Valerie’s dreamy spacewalk climaxes in a supernova waterfall as her eponymous veil pools on the floor behind her and her light-up pasties peek at us through the smoke and shadows. Captivating stuff.
Peekaboo Pointe (*2nd Runner Up: Miss Exotic World and Winner: Most Classic)
Oh Peeks, how to put this into words once I stop sobbing into my keyboard… The moment she steps out of her sheer golden robe and takes up those waterfall fans, criteria gets suspended for a few minutes. Performed to The Swan, Peekaboo reveals herself in her full glory early, as if all is already said and seen - her heart open to us. The fanwork is a seamless, emotive extension of herself, rising and rippling like the passage of time. It stops being a competition and becomes a transcendent love letter from someone who has attended this event for twenty years and - like me and others of our Neo Burlesque generation - come of age over decades in this artform, learning and growing and finding reasons to stay in love with it all year on year. Many of us have moments when we feel like we might be ageing out of the world we helped to build and preserve, and when a rapid scroll of archival footage from life and stage flashes behind her on screen and Peekaboo bows to a younger version of herself - as if in farewell, I know I’m not the only one who feels my chest squeeze.
Gin Minsky (*Winner: Miss Exotic World, Reigning Queen of Burlesque 2026)
Sometimes, in a competitive lineup of diverse and able offerings, someone has to step out and cut through - quite literally in this case. Gin Minsky of Brooklyn, New York, a seasoned veteran of 18 years in a signature 1920s style, resplendent blue cutout gown offset by plush white fans, is a consummate sleight-of-hand striptease magician. Hitting every pounding beat, clash and blare of New Orleans Bump with surgical precision and crisp lines - my god, those lines - her shredded skirt flares out around her as she kicks and plunges, fans quivering as the tension mounts. And then, in an inspired conclusion which I feel sure will be a canonical image in the burlesque history books, she reveals her ultimate trick: reaching for the stave of her fan, she draws out a shining blade, presents it centre stage, draws it upwards - and swallows it. With her hands outstretched and the fan in a triumphant arch over her face, she flings away the cups to reveal her pasties and strikes a final, iconic pose. What a pro. Take all the notes.
Kitson Sass (Exotic World)
Bringing inspired levity to a typically pressure-straight category, Kitson emerges as a line-kicking, hat-tipping can of Spam to One from A Chorus Line - naturally, and it’s certainly a one-of-a-kind experience to watch her peel away the packaging and release the sweaty loaf beneath, which she draws up to her head and turns around to reveal a gelatinous, moustachioed face. That she manages to strip, dance and air-guitar while effectively wearing an oversized meaty balaclava is truly impressive. I can sense the relief when she finally takes it off and mounts it like a greasy pillow.
Raven Rose (Exotic World)
Raven returns to the BHoF stage as a High Class Woman in a red and gold one-shoulder with dynamic shredded skirt. And if you were in any doubt, she’s taking names. The musicality, basking stillness and defiant, drilling gaze are all present and correct. You feel like a mewling antelope trussed up as a snack for a stalking leopard, and you can’t think of a better way to go.
She’s earned a more than honorable mention as it is, purely for having the sand to come back after last year’s contest, where she was heckled by a deplorable individual in the audience and then briefly announced onstage as the winner of Most Classic, only to have it reassigned shortly after. Evidently BHoF decided to expunge the bad juju by quitting the Orleans showroom altogether and moving back to the trusty Plaza at the opposite end of the Strip. It seems to have done the trick.
Stepdown: Jessabelle Thunder, Miss Exotic World, Reigning Queen of Burlesque 2025
And then, at last, comes Jessabelle Thunder’s step-down. An unabashed tribute to Los Angeles and her beloved local burlesque scene, we open on smoggy traffic gridlock on the 405. How will these poor folks pass the time, muses a radio anchor overhead. Three carloads of commuters have some ideas.
One trio in streetwear - namely Egypt Blaque Knyle, Ruby Champagne and Nikita Bitch Project - dances it out to Kendrick Lamar. In the middle motor, beach queens Ginger Valentine, Moxie Gold and Xochii De La Noche are firmly in the mood to party. The third trio - Kami Oh, Booger Boobs and Miss Marquez, climb out of their car for selfies, snapping away to Doja Cat. Finally, Jessabelle herself appears, lubricating the highways in radiant gold fringe, crown atop a glorious mane of voluminous hair. In a symbolic gesture she hands the crown to Tito Bonito on a velvet cushion before the entire cast converges for a finale perspiring with pride and exultation. It is quintessentially Jessabelle: ambitious but accessible, glamorous but self-aware, irreverent yet deeply considered. She was doing the work on the ground long before the crown was placed on her head, and I know she’s nowhere near done as she crowns her successor.
For many more incredible photos from SH Photografia (some I can’t run here!) please check out the full feature with extended gallery.