Apply to the 14th Annual
Show-Me Burlesque & Vaudeville Festival!

The festival is on May 15-17, 2025. Applications close January 1, 2025 at 11:59pm (CT). The fee is $15 to submit up to two acts.

Show-Me is waiving the application fee for BIPOC performers until December 9. E-mail showmeburlesque@gmail.com for the application.

Photos by David McWhirter, Sequin Spotlight Imagery, Studio 47 Photography, One Eyed Wolf Photography, John D Williams

St. Louis has a rich and diverse burlesque and vaudeville history from the brilliant talent of Josephine Baker, to the heyday of Gaslight Square, where The Smothers Brothers, Phyllis Diller and Barbra Streisand got their start, and to Evelyn West and the infamous Stardust and Grand Burlesque theaters where she and many other famous burlesque dancers performed. Show-Me Burlesque is thrilled to bring St. Louis burlesque to its former grandeur with a sexy new makeover.

Lola van Ella, St. Louis’ own award winning burlesque grand dame and passionate producer, along with an amazing creative and technical team, is proud to bring all of her favorite elements of theater, spectacle, glamour, and vaudeville, to showcase the best talent in the world in what is Missouri’s first ever burlesque festival and now, the largest of its kind in the Midwest. In addition to four different shows, there will also be classes taught by world class burlesque educators at Van Ella Studios, St. Louis’ first and only boutique burlesque and variety school. Show-Me Burlesque promises to bring a thrilling weekend of fabulous and exciting entertainment and education to a wide and diverse audience. Don’t miss your chance to be a part of history!

  • "Saucy, naughty, sultry acts from Nashville to New Zealand, this Festival has something for everyone. Vaudeville never knew variety until the performers from Show-Me Burlesque took the stage."

    — Explore St. Louis

  • “Show-Me is an experience that evolves every year to encompass a plethora of debaucherous shenanigans while simultaneously reaching new levels of spectacle and integrity that push our beloved art forms of burlesque and vaudeville variety to new heights.”

    — Siobhan Atomica in 21st Century Burlesque

  • “The three-night Show-Me Burlesque Festival is a tribute to a St. Louis tradition.”

    — Calvin Wilson in St. Louis Post-Dispatch

  • “The show was not only creatively put together by a passionate group of artists; the acts in the show were, simply put, OFF THE F***ING HOOK!…Thanks Show Me Burlesque Festival! I’ll be back for sure!”

    — Peekaboo Pointe for 21st Century Burlesque