The Icons and All-Stars showcase at The Burlesque Hall of Fame weekender featured a number of stars bound for the Hall of Fame. Dirty Martini, LouLou D’vil, Michelle L’amour, Miss Indigo Blue, Ray Gunn, Roxi D’Lite, Stephanie Blake, and Tigger! all performed.

I had never seen Roxi D’Lite’s infamous “Madame X” act. Turns out that it was gorgeous and exciting — just like I expected it to be. Ray Gunn, who premeried an act later that night — was her guest on the X during the performance. Tigger!’s act was really interesting. There was no music, just applause. It sounded like a crowd just going wild for him. Then a whole bunch of audience members stood up and walked towards the stage, applauding the whole time. They surrounded him like a swarm of insects and he crawled out and collapsed. Rather than a traditional strip tease, this was performance art.

A lot of pastie-popping happened at the show. Despite the wardrobe malfunctions the performers were unflappable and professional and I hardly noticed any issues. Every single one of them has won the top honors at BHOF (Queen or King). Stephanie Blake, one of the victims of a popped pastie, actually won the Miss Exotic World title twice — once in 1997, and then the following year in 1998. She was cool, calm, flexible, and collected through the entire act.

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Heather Schofner is the features editor of VerbicideMagazine.com and the owner of Olympia, Washington-based Heather Schofner Photography.