Lemme ask you an etiquette question: I’m totally in favor of tipping in sex work and similar, but like, with drag queens or pole dancers, tipping feels like something that’s been worked into the fabric of the art form, but it always feels harder with women doing burlesque. Is that just me? It’s kinda fucked up. Like, how does it happen? How do you get tips?
One of the most frustrating things as a burlesque performer is doing a variety show with a mix of drag queens and burlesque. The drag queens do their thing and people run up and hand them tips, and then the burlesque performer comes out and everybody stays sitting in their seats, wallets closed. We’re doing the same amount of work, getting the same base pay (which is usually not a lot), but drag culture encourages tipping while burlesque culture does not.
I think part of this is because the burlesque revival culture spent a lot of time saying “We’re not strippers! This is theatre!” People tip strippers but they don’t tip actors. Nobody is sitting at Hamilton thinking “it would be appropriate for me to run to the stage and give these guys money right now.” And that’s okay, because Hamilton is making a lot of money. I’ve done burlesque shows in the past where I walk away with only a Hamilton, by which I mean, $10. Total. For the night. Which doesn’t even cover the bus fare to get there and the drink I bought because I’m depressed that a producer could do me like that.
Burlesque culture is changing. There are now burlesque performers who have been doing this for over a decade. They’ve put in a lot of work and it’s no longer a fun hobby to do on the weekends. They’ve taken their costumes from “whatever was in my drawer plus $3 of plastic rhinestones glued on” to elaborate custom made items that cost hundreds of dollars, and they want to see a return on that investment. They’re turning down steady day jobs so they can have the free time to travel four days a week to out of town gigs and they still need to pay rent. They’re doing actual sex work on the side and learning how to hustle, and a lot of the “not a stripper” snobbery is getting drowned out by the many many performers who are both strippers and burlesque performers, and who expect tips for both.
A lot of the change relies on producers and hosts. A producer telling a host “hey, we have a tip system, this is what it is, tell the audience, tell them a lot, tell them again” works wonders. Because you’re not the only one who feels awkward tipping burlesque performers. But one of the best shows I’ve ever done, both fun-wise and profit-wise, was run by this badass here:
Luna Legare. See that giant tip jar? There were Hamiltons in there. There were twenties in there. Between my base pay, all those tips, and the table she provided me so I could sell merch, I made around $400 that night. That’s extremely rare in burlesque. But Luna made that happen.
To conclude, burlesque performers are never gonna be mad if you walk up and put money on the stage, which is the default if there’s no other stated tipping system. The people who should feel awkward are the ones who think the $5-$10 entry fee to get in erases their obligation to tip. It’s still cheaper than a movie and you get to see live action tits. Pay for ‘em.
queerlybeloveds 