Born in Suwon, South Korea and raised in Chicago, Joona Bae is currently based in NYC. A proud alumni of Chicago’s Camp Cabaret program, Joona has made 36 burlesque festival appearances since their solo debut in 2023, including Vancouver International, Stockholm, Strasbourg, and Hollywood Burlesque Festival. Winner of the ‘Coolest New Kid’ Silver Tusk Award 2025, Joona is a self-described ‘masculine provocateur and a feminine seductress all in one’.
Here’s their 21.
1. How would you define yourself in three words?
Korean, passionate, flawed.
2. Who would play you in a movie about your life?
I would love Doona Bae (Sense8, Cloud Atlas) to portray me in a movie. She is my namesake after all, and she clearly has the acting range to pull off two genders!
3. What is your biggest strength?
The uniqueness of my artistry. I know who I am and there isn’t anyone active in the scene like me. So I can focus on channeling that confidence into pushing the boundary instead of worrying about whose toes I might step on. And that is a privilege not many can share.
4. What is your biggest weakness?
My depression and social anxiety. I need intentional time to recuperate even after a single night out. And the inconvenient truth is that the burlesque world favors the sociable, extroverted individuals who can keep going after a gig.
5. When are you most happy and inspired?
I feel the most happy when I can connect with that one audience member! That cutie in the front row I would love to seduce with a rose. That Korean adoptee who didn’t expect to hear the song of our people at a burlesque show. That enby who saw a part of themselves reflected in my art. I do it for them, and seeing them see me inspires me.
6. What is your favourite on-screen burlesque moment from film or TV?
The music video for Abracadabra by Brown Eyed Girls was my sexual awakening as a teenager. So I’ll say that one!
7. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
‘Be so good that they can’t ignore you, and be so kind that they don’t want to.’ This was from the 21 Questions with Pearls Daily and I think about this advice, well… daily!
8. If you could switch lives with one person for a day, who would it be?
I would love to switch places with my ex-wife so that I can spend an extra day with my daughter back in Chicago. We have an excellent coparenting relationship and I get to see her once every other month. But I miss my daughter every day and our day-to-day routines.
9. What’s the biggest myth or misconception about burlesque?
That burlesque outfits have to be expensive. The best burlesque performance I have ever seen was done by a newbie classmate who performed with a flowy skirt, a bra, and a pair of heels she had thrifted. It was intimate. It was mesmerizing. And it was real.
10. If you could only perform to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Tank by the Seatbelts. It is my favorite song in the opening of my favorite anime, Cowboy Bebop. Personal fandom aside, Tank is also such a bop!
11. What surprisingly useful things do you have in your show case?
I like to keep Salon Pas (IcyHot patches for Asians), extra wig caps and pastie tapes, and some emergency nutty snacks with me wherever I go. Comes in handy in a pinch!
12. Do you have a backstage ritual?
I sit down criss cross applesauce right off stage and meditate. I thank my Korean ancestors for looking over us, for guiding us and taking care of us. Then I say my mantra – ‘fuck ‘em in the heart’ – right before I step onto the stage.
13. What advice would you give to new performers starting out today?
Festivals are a huge privilege. ‘No thank you’ is a perfectly valid response to an invitation that you cannot afford.
14. What is your proudest achievement?
Receiving my second standing ovation at the Show Me Burlesque & Vaudeville Festival with my ‘Not Your Fucking Goddess’ act. Show Me was one of the first festivals I ever attended, and it showed me how big the world of burlesque really is. It was such an honor to be invited to share my art in a space that taught me so much about burlesque, and it felt extra special to share this act in front of the very mentor – Lilly Rascal – who helped me develop that act from day one. I wanted to make her proud. Seeing my peers, friends, and mentors on their feet at the end of my performance felt overwhelming. I just felt so proud that I got to share my sad little number on that big stage and leave my mark on the people I care about.
15. What is your biggest regret?
I wish I knew how to establish a firm boundary between my sparkle and non-sparkle life earlier on in my career. I’ve met many incredible artists who didn’t turn out to be great friends. These days, the wall between Joona and Jun is necessarily dense with only a few performers I can truly call a friend.
16. What is the biggest challenge facing today’s burlesque scene?
Economic recession and the general lack of funding for the arts. We are presently in the process of bleeding out, losing shows and venues left and right. History tells us that art will find ways to survive underground, and the audiences will flock towards more affordable entertainment. We need industry leaders to see the writing on the wall and adapt with us.
17. If you could go back and tell yourself one thing when you started out in burlesque, what would it be?
‘Hey. This burlesque thing is gonna push you to your extremes and allow you to explore the world. It’s going to be all-consuming, exhilarating and suffocating at times. Please enjoy the ride, especially when the wheels come flying off in 2025.’
18. What is a cause or issue that’s very important to you?
Race is not just a black and white issue. There are many brown, Asian, Latinx, mixed, Aboriginal, and Indigenous folks who sit in that complex, expansive gray area. And when some Black and White folks approach race only as a zero-sum two-party struggle, it unfortunately leaves out what makes us whole.
19. What are you currently reading, watching, and listening to?
In my non-sparkle time, I am obsessed with trashy reality dating shows. I just finished Love is Blind Ohio, am in the middle of The Boyfriend S1, and will be watching Singles Inferno S2. I am looking forward to The Ultimatum S4 to return. I love love, and seeing folks try to find love fills me with hope.
20. If you could share a dressing room with one performer for the rest of your career, who would it be?
Oh, this one is easy. Lilly EnVogue. She is one of my best friends in and out of burlesque. An up-and-coming burlesque superstar who appeared at her first festival in 2024 and is now traveling all over the continent with her art in 2026. I am so, so proud to call her a friend.
21. What would you like your life and career to look like in 10 years time?
In ten years, my retirement would be far in the rearview mirror. I wish that the legacy of Joona Bae’s short and sweet career is that she was a good person who cared deeply about her friends, that he paved the way for everyone paving the way, and that they are missed.
Follow Joona Bae on Instagram.