One thing’s for sure about Melburnian burlesque maven Bettie Bombshell: she doesn’t hang around.
“There’s a hilarious photo of me – I think I’m about one year old – in the most hideous leotard, wearing a nappy. And I’m standing up nice and straight and tall, like little kids do when they’re dancing. It was printed out at the photo shop. Hideous but adorable!”
Career path decided, Bettie’s upbringing with a sports coach dad and dancer mum – both with a string of businesses to their names – was a model of enterprise. Her sister, one of three siblings significantly older than Bettie, became a dancer, too, and she and Bettie’s mother supported her training. Bettie dove into calisthenics – a unique Australian art-sport combining gymnastics, ballet, singing, and routines with rods (think batons) and clubs.
“A lot of that training has directly informed my work in burlesque, cabaret and sideshow – especially the clubs. As soon as I picked up fire torches, I was like, ‘Oh – I know how to do this. This is great!’ Not the fire part, but the twirling, juzhy bit.”
Calisthenics took Bettie on tour around Australia, “winning and not winning” lots of competitions.
“I eventually auditioned for the Victorian College of the Arts, but I got turned down because my body was too wide and not the ideal shape. I’ve spent most of my dance career fighting against that very thing. I still do to this day in burlesque.”
I think some people will be surprised – and enlightened – to hear that a ‘midsize’ burlesque performer comes up against this much opposition, I pose. Particularly this self-assured, multi-disciplined, effusive doll-faced darling of the scene whose favourite adjective is undoubtedly ‘beautiful’ – generously applied to people and situations in every conversation we’ve had.
“It’s a really funny thing,” Bettie muses. “We like to say burlesque can be anything you want and all that kind of jazz. But I still come up against it in commercial contracts, certain countries and pockets of the industry. I don’t do any corporate work, partly because I have tattoos but mainly because they want a very certain ‘look’. And that’s just not what I am, but I’m so fine with that; I’ve come to terms with it.”
“Sometimes I’m celebrated, sometimes I’m excluded – or tokenised,” she expands. “I might be the quote-unquote ‘big performer’ on the lineup – but if I’m gonna be the representation, let me represent! I can handle it, but I know some people can’t, so I want to make sure that I’m clearing the path a little bit for them and sticking up for myself. I’m one of those Capricorns, you know? ‘Oh, you tell me I’m not allowed to do something? That’s so cute…’”
“It really does fire me up to make change, to keep pushing, to be louder, better at business, better at performing, better at communicating. Be so fucking good that they have no other choice. You know what I mean? Just keep driving, keep going.”
We muse on the passage of time in burlesque and the key shifts we’ve observed, particularly in Bettie’s native Australia.
“When I started out in burlesque everything was new, vibrant and intense, and I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Now I know a lot, and I’m in a different phase of my life and career, but what’s most obvious is… the loss. I don’t mean the loss of incredible art, but the loss of places to showcase it, a lack of dedicated venues and spaces. When I first started in 2013 there were so many venues, people running from gig to gig, here and there. Even a little further on in my career there were two permanent Spiegeltents in Melbourne.”
“Obviously COVID had a very big part to play in all of this. Melbourne took such a hit that I personally don’t think it’s recovered yet. Sydney seems to have bounced back a bit better, but Melbourne’s arts and culture and opportunities – even restaurants – don’t seem to have the lights they did.”
“However, I’m really enjoying the pivot to more floor and dinner shows,” she brightens. “Utilising the spaces that do exist and just making it work, which burlesque is famous for doing – taking a thing and making it not just work, but absolutely slap, making it kill.”
“Australia has some of the most banging burlesque I’ve ever seen; it’s just a beautiful thing to behold, the phenomenal talent that pours out of this country. And that’s exactly why I’ve created the The Melbourne Festival of Tease. I wanted to create something for our legacy, a space where we could celebrate our artistry and each other, with our audience.”
The physical space and choice of venues is something Bettie has put deliberate thought into for the festival’s inaugural edition in May.
“The aim is to strip it back to what burlesque is good at,” she explains. “Not trying to pack heaps of people in a 600 seater room – it feels a bit disconnected and far away for me, personally. I’m not saying it’s wrong. I just see us trying to do this big business stuff and I don’t think that’s where we’re at currently with the economy and consumer behaviour. So I purposely chose a venue that’s incredibly intimate. It’s at your table, on the stage, every corner you look at something is happening.”
“Our roots are phenomenal; they did it right. Burlesque was up close and personal, a little bit clandestine, creating connection. This festival is going to help people fall in love with the art form for the first time again, or if you’re already in love with it, even more so.”
Like most burlesque festivals, Bettie’s will have a competition, with a mix of emerging and seasoned entrants.
“I grew up competing, literally from age two. I think that they’re a phenomenal tool to push you, scare you, and inspire you to really figure out what’s important and what you’re capable of.”
“That said, I don’t fully understand burlesque competitions,” she confesses. “Or at least, I don’t fully understand burlesque competitions that get people to come and compete, give some prizes out, and then the winners are just kind of left to figure it out for themselves with no follow up, guidance or instruction. I’ve done a lot of competitions and you can get this real glitter crash thinking, oh, what now?”
“So our winners get professional one-on-ones with other industry professionals, performance opportunities, tutorials, studio rehearsal time, and so on. It’s a prize pack to help take what you’ve got – which is phenomenal, obviously, because you’ve won an award – and actually go somewhere with it. And even if you don’t win an award, we have prizes for you.”
Bettie takes me through the accolades on offer: ‘Top Teaser’ awards for first, second, and third place, a ‘Good Egg’ Miss Congeniality style award award donated by juror Chastity Belt, a ‘Bare It All Award’ sponsored by Bare Boas, Best Reveal, and a special award from Bettie herself – ‘Bettie’s Bombshell’.
“It’s for a performer that I see on the night and think, ‘Fuck, that’s something.’ Maybe they don’t win a title, but something I see in them makes me want to mentor them. I had so many people help me in my career and it’s a beautiful, older sibling kind of energy.”
As for competing herself, Bettie pivoted away from it some time ago.
“The last time I did was BHoF 2023. We called it Burlesque Hall of Friends because it was such a lovely experience. We were group chatting, making plans, having shots backstage together, being supportive and encouraging. I think being at the tippy top of the competition spectrum in burlesque, we all saw it as an opportunity to showcase rather than compete.”
Bettie sighs at the memory of what feels like an increasingly distant philosophy.
“This industry is so cutthroat and there is a lot of competition offstage, too. As I say, supply and demand – this is what happens. But, dolls – you’re in competition with yourself. That’s it, you know? Always striving to be the better version of yourself – every performance, every moment, every little something. Not with each other. That’s boring; it’s not high school. More often than not you’ve just created a competition in your head with someone who doesn’t even know you’re in a contest.”
As a proverbial ‘middle child’ in the Neo Burlesque dynasty, I’m interested in Bettie’s take on generational divides and harmonies.
“When I came into burlesque, it really was the It Girl, you know; it was flourishing everywhere. But now the supply and demand is unbalanced and things are more intense. Art forms naturally progress, develop and change, but the big shifts can be a little scary for folks who have been here a long time.”
“I really love it when the earlier generation takes care of the up and comers, though. It’s our collective responsibility to leave the industry better than we found it, you know? I love seeing the support, mentorship, the lessons – tricks of the trade and industry secrets the newer gens may miss out on completely and never fully get because of the way the industry has changed.”
We discuss how the newer generations have adapted to the contraction, for better or worse.
“Because of social media platforms and the Drag Race model, a lot of people are trying to make it on TikTok and Instagram now,” Bettie observes. “It’s changed the trajectory of everything.”
“Maybe it’s my old school mindset, but we have people thinking an Instagram following is your career and not knowing their history,” she continues. “Not everyone has to be a historian, but at least understand and research the pioneering, important things that have been done. The other day I asked a class, ‘Have you guys heard of Perle Noire?’ And they were like, no. I said, ‘Guys, come on. Are you joking?’ They knew who Dita was, sure, but they didn’t know who Perle Noire was? Go a little deeper, dolls!”
Despite a regretful withdrawal from the Miss Exotic World category last year amid legitimate concerns about travel to the United States, the Burlesque TOP 50 global No. 2 has had no shortage of international invitations before and since.
“I just did a tour to Canada. I fucking loved it,” Bettie enthuses. “The crowds were incredible; I was on tour for a month and got like seven standing ovations. They have really beautiful business practices – how they look after you, how they treat you, what’s expected of you. It was such a phenomenal experience.”
“When you go to Europe – okay, perhaps the pay isn’t as high, but what Europeans – particularly the Italians and the French – love to give is hospitality. There is never a minute in the day where you’re not being fed, shown around, picked up, and loved in a beautiful European way. I just did a tour through New Zealand, too. They took such incredible care of me.”
Does she have any cause for concern among the more positive experiences?
“People performing for 50 bucks – that’s a cause for concern. I’m not saying everyone deserves to be a headliner and get paid $1000 a fucking act, but performers are taken for a ride. I really am trying to better the industry by demanding and expecting certain things – saying, ‘No, this is what I’m gonna get.’ No, I’m not gonna share a bed or a room with somebody. I’m not gonna cover this. I’m not gonna do that. And that hopefully helps inform everyone else, performers and producers.”
Throughout our chat, Bettie returns again and again to the same fervent themes – unity, bravery, and visibility.
“Support local,” she urges. “Back the people in your city making stuff happen – show up for them. The world is a troubling place at the moment and our access to entertainment and opportunities is getting whittled away. So support, post, reshare, tell everyone about your local stuff. We have to spread the good word and keep it alive, because the only way through this time is to stick together.”
The Melbourne Festival of Tease runs 1-3 May 2026. Visit thebettiebombshell.com.au and follow Bettie Bombshell on Instagram.