This page is dedicated to my dissertation project at The Graduate Center, CUNY, which is still in its infancy. I am using this part of the website to figure out what it is that I am looking for. Through the blog posts below, you can follow my process and feel free to contribute ideas if you feel like it.

Article Findings in ProQuest’s Newspaper Databases (“boylesque”/”boylesk”)

These are the (semi-)interesting findings I have done so far in ProQuest’s Newspaper databases with the keyword “boylesque” and “boylesk.”

Author Publication Note
(Advertisement) New York Times, November 4, 1974 An advertisement for boylesque (spelled boylesk) shows at Eros 1, 732 8th Avenue, featuring Mr. Johnnie Ramero, Mr. Rocco, Mr. Billy-John, Mr. Hercules.
(Advertisement) New York Times, December 16, 1974 Primarily advertisements for porn cinemas, describing “Chuck Roy’s ‘boylesk'” as “the Minskys of male burlesk.”
Amy Jones Asheville Citizen Times, June 12 , 2009 Described boylesque as one of the latest additions to the new burlesque, and mentions a performer performs in the role of a monkey: “He is never a person onstage, and his physique morphing into his act is just incredible.” (quote from Lauren “Onca” O’Leary, interviewed in the article)
Martha Irvine The News Journal, August 27, 2009 Only mentions boylesque in passing.
Mike Albo New York Times, October 15, 2009 Only mentions boylesque in passing, albeit in what seems a perhaps pejorative way: he warns for using yoga pants that “gape or ride up when you are inverted,” because it might make you look like a boylesque performer..
Emily O’Neill The Journal News, December 15, 2012 Describes boylesque as “the male version of female burlesque,” and that it (really, burlesque) “features a lot of storytelling.” The article also has a short interview with Chris Harder (Go Go Harder) who says: “I’m just a North Dakota corn-fed boy . . . I moved to New York City with dreams of being an actor, got burned out on the scene, met a lot of boring theater people that weren’t exploring performance, and then just kind of fell into nightlife.” (A shortened version of the same article was also published in both The Journal News and The Poughkeepsie Journal on December 20).
Dissertation Findings in ProQuest

These are the (semi-)interesting findings I have done so far in ProQuest’s dissertation database with the keyword “boylesque” and “boylesk.”

Author Publication Note
Aaron Lee Bachhofer II Dissertation Dissertation on development of gay male subculture in Oklahoma City, mentioning in passing a later career as starting boylesque revues, for Tony Sinclair (née Morrison), a former member of a touring drag troupe in the U.S., later a fixture at Jewell Box Theater in Kansas City.
Rachel E. Mansfield M.A. Thesis Thesis on neo-burlesque, arguing that “[m]en in neo-burlesque perform primarily as masters of ceremony, though there are some ‘boylesque’ dancers.” Mansfield names a few: Scotty the Blue Bunny, Tigger, Branden Vandermuffin and the Dazzle Dancers, all “drag ‘boylesque’ performers in New York and Seattle.”
Portia Jane King M.A. Thesis Thesis on feminist perspectives on new burlesque, interestingly defining boylesque as “a form of burlesque that is either performed by male performers or female performers who identify masculinely on the stage.” King goes on to analyzing a routine in one of the shows in the dissertation, where two bio-women are performing “normal male behavior,” and thus, she argues “is asking the audience to contest common understandings of gender and sexuality.”
Maura Ryan Dissertation Dissertation on femme politics in relation to burlesque, referring to one informant as “a male ‘boylesque’ dancer who performs with femme burlesquers in Atlanta,” who started his career as a drag king, a scene which he refutes because of its representations of heterosexist masculinity. However, his role as an informant doesn’t seem to have affected her overall argument that much.
Sean Fredric Edgecomb Dissertation Dissertation on the theatre of the ridiculous, which features a quote by Tigger Ferguson, boylesque performer and Mr. Exotic World 2006, in a reference to Taylor Mac’s drag.
Julie N. Vogt Dissertation Dissertation on the burlesque performer Ann Corio and the “rehabilitation of American burlesque,” which, in a discussion of new burlesque mentions that “men are an increasingly vital part of the community,” and that now “‘boylesque’ is an integral part of the neo-burlesque movement.”
Todd J. Rosendahl Dissertation Dissertation on the intersection of music and queer culture and how, through musicality, marginality can be negotiated, which, unfortunately only mentions boylesque in passing.
Sydney Fonteyn Lewis Dissertation Dissertation on the agency of black women in “‘neo’ cultural productions,” which in a footnote mentions that there is “a burgeoning field of boylesque or male burlesque.”
Article Findings in ProQuest’s Newspaper Databases (“male stripshow”/”male striptease”/”male stripper”)

These are the (semi-)interesting findings I have done so far in ProQuest’s Newspaper databases with the keyword “boylesque” and “boylesk.”

Author Publication Note
Clive Barnes NYT, February 5, 1970 Review of La Mama’s “Gloria” which allegedly contained “a vicious male striptease [by Reigh Hagen] as St. Teresa.”
Linda Charlton New York Times, March 14, 1972 Mentions the news published women’s magazine New Woman, which in its first issue featured a “multipage, full-color male striptease,” causing what Charlton refers to as a succès de scandale for the magazine.
? Oakland Post, May 22, 1977 A “featurette” about Barry Ashton’s “Vive, Paris, Vive,” a 1977 spoof on French revues, featuring, among other (neoburlesque?) acts, Patrick (Bagwell), best described according to the unnamed journalist as “straight from the pages of ‘Playgirl’ magazine,” with “a fantastic reception” among female audiences, who praise him for bringing something to them “in the type of shows which usually caters mostly to men.”
Gene Robertson Sun Reporter, June 2, 1977 A review of the Ashton’s “Vive, Paris, Vive,” describing the act performed by Patrick (Bagwell)—”an extremely personable young man”—as a “strip number with a tongue-in-cheek approach.”
Gene Robertson Sun Reporter, June 16, 1977 What seems to be a correction to the earlier review, Gene Robertson describes, once again, Patrick’s act, but also writes that she forgot to mention the male performers Friends, “a trio of fine dancers who were previously seen . . . as a supporting act for Petula Clark.” Fine dancers might be referring to some kind of striptease act? She ends by referring to Patrick’s act as the one winning “unanimous praise from all other reviewers.”
Clive Barnes New York Time, July 6, 1977 A review of the Spoleto Festival mentions Mr. Waiker’s performance of a dance solo piece called “Lazarus,” which created rebirth as “a kind of male striptease,” which despite excellence in performance was only “choreographic mediocrity,” according to Barnes.
Caryl Rivers New York Times, March 19, 1978 Rivers argues that a new trend exists in the movies, where male actors under 60 years old are required to take off their shirts and show their chests, something she writes, began with “The Days of Our Lives,” where “there would be a bedroom scene in which the husband [Ryan MacDonald] . . . would emote wearing only pajama bottoms and three pounds of chest hair.” Ultimately, she suggests that even weather presenters should take of their shirts on TV as it would make the talk “about isobars and air masses . . . more interesting if he were unbuttoning his shirt at the same time.”
Gene Robertson Sun Reporter, April 6, 1978 In another review of yet another revue, “Wow 78” featuring aforementioned Patrick, whom Robertson seems to adore, who, she writes, “works the audience in a manner he was unable to do at Bimbo’s [where Vive, Paris, Vive was performed] and is thus more effective and remains as charming and personable offstage as on, proving that success hasn’t gone to this handsome chap’s head.”
x New York Times, August 16, 1979 This TV ad announces that Tomorrow Show features “Dana Montana, proprietor of a male striptease club, and Larry Slade, one of the strippers.”
? New York Times, August 20, 1979 The Monday Morning show (this is a TV ad) features an interview with a male striptease performer.
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Next Magazine Findings

Author Publication Note
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Other Interesting Leads

  • Merry Mac Club lawsuit, where Monroe Inker, a famous divorce lawyer argues that women, just as men, should enjoy the “right” to sit in a bar and watch members of the opposite sex take their clothes off. Client: Italian Stallion (Vincent L. Dirienzo), Cherry Kid (Philip A. Lariviere) and three club owners. Dancing wearing G-strings in a club with ads announcing “women only,” and alleged refusal to let men into the nightclub. Lawrence, Mass. District Court. AP press release writes that “During the last year, bars across the state [Massachusetts] have begun hiring men.” Hearing May 2, 1980.