About

 
Internationally-renowned artstar (and reigning Cheese Queen of Coney Island) Nasty Canasta is frequently hailed as a genius of the neo-burlesque scene. A "burlesque queen" (The NY Times), 2nd Runner Up at the 2010 Miss Exotic World Pageant, and "Brooklyn's greatest burlesque star" (The Brooklyn Paper), Nasty is host and producer of Naked Girls Reading NYC - "New York's Best Story Hour," (The Village Voice) - was the impresario behind Sweet & Nasty Burlesque, and was an original co-creator of Pinchbottom Burlesque ("Best Burlesque in NYC" - NY Magazine, "Most Innovative" - Burlesque Hall of Fame).

Nasty began her performance career as a stage actor, studying theatre and costume design at Brown University. In 2005 - after too many years of horribly embarrassing (though, fortunately, horribly-attended) off-off-off-Broadway shows - she discovered her true calling on the burlesque stage.

Now a full-time burlesque performer, producer and costumer (her company, Blue Streak Fancywear, creates custom designs for many of New York City's burlesque and variety performers), Nasty draws on her years of experience in the theatre to create acts and shows that combine tease and titillation, humor, spectacle and theatricality.  She is a regular performer with Wasabassco Burlesque, teaches private and group burlesque classes, and in December 2010 wrote and produced The Case of The Falling Starlet, a burlesque radio murder mystery play for the stage. In addition to her burlesque performances, she spent the summer of 2010 as a snake charmer and contortionist with the world-famous Coney Island Circus Sideshow in Brooklyn, NY.

Nasty is best known for her 'burlesques on burlesque:' subtle and surprising twists on classic striptease such as her car-alarm fan dance, her "Unknown Stripper" act, and her award-winning ecdysiastical tribute to Dorian Gray, "The Portrait." Equally at home with classic tease and contemporary pop culture, her numbers range from the sublime to the silly, and have been a favorite with audiences around the world.
•••••
FOR BOOKINGS, CLASS INFORMATION & PRESS INQUIRIES, CONTACT NASTY AT:
NASTYCANASTANYC[at]GMAIL.COM



Known Associates:

Nasty has appeared with Epic Win Burlesque, Yellow Fever Burlesque, Starshine, Gotham Burlesque, The Rhinestone Follies, The Skulduggery and Skin Show, Sugar Shack, Badass, Mr. Choade's Upstairs/Downstairs, Le Scandal, Fisherman's Burlesque, The Whoopee Club (London), Tease-O-Rama, The New York Burlesque Festival, The Brooklyn Burlesque Blitz, The Burlesque Hall of Fame Exotic World Pageant, The Toronto Burlesque Festival, The London Burlesque Festival, Toil & Trouble Productions, The Purrrlesque Follies, and more.

She has performed at these fantastic venues:
NYC: City Winery, Union Hall, Affaire, The Slipper Room, Joe's Pub, Performance Space 122, Under St. Marks, Mo Pitkin's, Don Hill's, HERE, Lucky Cheng's, Thompkins Square Park, The Flea, The Zipper Factory, Bowery Poetry Club, The Cutting Room, The Women's Project, CBGBs, The Edison Hotel, The Kraine Theater, The Woolworth Building, Arlene's Grocery, The Cock, Skate Key Roller Rink, Galapagos, The Museum of Sex, Anthology Film Archives, The Players Club, Le Poisson Rouge, Dixon Place, and many more.
• Key West, FL: The Bourbon St. Pub, Kelly's, The Tennessee Williams Theater
• Philadelphia, PA: The Trocadero, Recess
• Seattle, WA: The Pink Door, ReBar, West Hall 
• Denver, CO: Lannie's Clocktower Cabaret, 3 Kings Tavern, Voodoo Lounge
• Massachusetts: The Beehive Boston, The Hancock Center (Boston), Club Helsinki (Berkshires)
• Las Vegas NV: The Palms Casino, The Orleans Casino, Krave, The Celebrity Theater, The Plaza Casino
• San Francisco: Bimbo's
• St. Paul, MN: The Historic Mounds Theater 
• Greensboro, NC: The Triad Theater
• Washington DC: The Warehouse Theater, Chief Ike's, The Palace of Wonders/Red Palace
• Ohio: Gilly's (Dayton), Circus (Columbus), Oberlin College (Oberlin), Sachsenheim Hall (Cleveland)
• London, England: Last Days of Decadence, Bethnal Green Workingman's Club, Bush Hall
• Toronto, Ontario: The Virgin Mod Club, Cadillac Lounge

Additionally, she has lectured at Seattle BurlyCon, The Boston Burlesque Expo and The Purrrlesque Follies, has taught in NYC, Washington DC and Colorado Springs, and was a guest professor with Sugar Shack South (Richmond, VA).

As a producer, she has produced shows in Manhattan at Under St. Marks, The Red Room, Collective:Unconscious, The Flea, Performance Space 122, The Slipper Room, RiFiFi, Siberia, Corio, Madame X, Fontanas, Spiegelworld, and Off-Broadway at The Zipper Factory and The Bleecker Street Theater; in Brooklyn at Coney Island's Burlesque at the Beach, The Bell House, Southpaw, North Six, Galapagos, and Public Assembly; in Asbury Park, NJ at Asbury Lanes; and in Boston, MA at The Beehive.



Press Clippings:

Girlesque '13: The Main Event - by Photolena - March 2013
burlesquebeat.com

"You know you’re going to get something unique when Nasty Canasta takes the stage, and she really blew it out of the crazy water this time around. With R Kelly’s “Pregnant” playing softly in the background, she came out in a slinky outfit with a baby strapped to her chest. Girl you make me wanna get you pregnant… and she slipped out of her dress… put them pills on chill and give me a baby… then pulled off her glove using her gorgeous behind (I know you’re trying to picture that right now)… oh girl I’m gonna take care of you… filled her baby’s bottle with champagne for feeding time…lay your body down and get you pregnant… and somehow managed to slink out of the rest of her outfit without disturbing her baby. Now that’s talent." 
•••••
Burlesque 2011 Year-End Church Bulletin - by J.D. Oxblood - November 2012 burlesquebeat.com

"... Nasty Canasta has a firmly-established reputation as an innovative, adventure-seeking artist, unafraid to fail.  She is always working, always pushing the envelope, always working on the next trick or the next twisted conceit.  As a result, she’s less known by a short list of signature acts than she is by the phrase, “What’s she gonna do THIS time?” "
••••• 
broadwayworld.com
 
"... The star of May’s show for me was most definitely Miss Nasty Canasta.  (I’m assuming that she’s a Miss, because I didn’t see a wedding ring and I could see everything.)  This throw back to Sally Rand did a fan dance to the tune of every New Yorker’s favorite thing – the incessant car alarm.  Her timing and surprise ending easily made her the funniest moment of the evening.  I sincerely hope that Beeber has her in future line-ups."
•••••
21stcenturyburlesque.com

# 22. Nasty Canasta
"It is widely agreed that Nasty is one of the most innovative and frankly ingenious neo-burlesque performers of today. Thanks to her 'Unknown Stripper' routine, we can safely say we will never think of Groucho Marx in the same way ever again. Ever. She is bold, she is unique, and thoroughly deserves her place in the Top 50 again this year."
•••••
The New York Times - by Neil Genzlinger, December 2009

"Even Mr. Durang doesn't dismember Dickens as much as the clothing-optional folks do in 'Filthy Lucre: A Burlesque Christmas Carol' at Walkerspace in TriBeCa. The burlesque queen Nasty Canasta ... makes perhaps the loveliest and certainly the nudest Scrooge in history as, aided by the ghosts of burlesque past, present and future, she considers whether she has a higher calling than running a mere strip club."
•••••
Grotesque Burlesque:The Geeky One - by Denise Stanborough, August 2008
Bizarre Magazine (UK)

To describe yourself as a "schizophrenic performer" means you must have something pretty special in your bag of tricks - and Nasty Canasta certainly has. "I do a classic ostrich feather fan dance to a loop of car alarms, a tiki idol dance where I wear a gigantic mask and a grass skirt and an act to the scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey where Dave is destroying HAL the computer," she says.

Inspired by pop culture and film, Nasty takes well-known characters and brings them to life. "I do numbers as Doctor Who and Flash Gordon," she says. "I'm a tremendous geek, so I make a lot of references to science fiction." She also plays with the traditional format by dancing with a large electric fan instead of the pretty handheld one. "I'm simply drawn to humour and the stranger side of things. Any art form has to change to grow."
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)