Dita Von Teese on Becoming a Burlesque Star

Lee. (whispers) Yeah?

(bassy jazz music)

I consider my greatest achievement to be

having a hand in the burlesque revival.

[Krista] Thank you so much for coming in.

[Dita] Thank you for having me.

And I got to see the show the other night,

which you are now touring,

called Strip Strip Hooray!

What number show is this that you've done?

Oh of this tour,

it's hard to say.

I mean I've been doing my show since 1991,

so (laughs) I'm like,

I've done a lot of shows.

But this tour,

I guess we've been doing on and off in small increments

for about two years now.

Yeah well you're very successful,

(women laugh) I would say.

And the extravagance,

that's a great word for it.

Because everything from your costumes

to the set-- It's a little bit

of Liberace theory.

I've been a fan of Liberace forever.

I've had people ask me if the costumes

are actually electrified,

if they're plugged in

onstage-- Right.

I'm like no that's just,

that's what half a million Swarovski crystals

under the right lighting

looks like. Yeah.

So I'm kind of just into creating something

that doesn't exist in real life.

And where did you come up with Dita Von Teese?

I was working in a strip club in Orange County.

And I just had this idea of going in to there

to see what it would be like looking differently,

and not exactly fitting in.

And I became really fascinated with this place,

and with bringing back the idea of classic striptease.

And it was another opportunity for me

to play an elaborate game of dress-up.

And I came up with the name there,

I was just sort of...

I'd just seen this silent film with an actress

named Dita Parlo. Mm-hmm.

And I kinda got hooked on that name.

And that's where it started.

And then a few years after that,

I posed for Playboy Magazine.

They told me I had to have a last name,

which of course I fought.

I was like no,

Madonna, Cher, Dita.

I wanna have one name.

And they're like no,

you can't.

So I just opened the phone book under the Vons,

'cause I was like,

it's cool when you have a Von in your name. (laughs)

(Krista laughs) It was so haphazard.

And I found the name Von Treese.

And I called Playboy and I'm like,

I'm gonna be Dita Von Treese.

And they're like okay fine.

So I remember going to the newsstand,

and opening it up and being excited.

And there it was, Dita Von Teese.

And I was like,

that's not what I said.

That's incredible.

How has that trajectory been?

Like you said,

you just had no idea that you would've been doing that.

And you know the stripping is obviously the pole.

Yeah. And kind of the strip clubs.

And you really have created...

It's not even in the same neighborhood,

what you do. Well for me, it is,

you know, because I don't...

If people wanna say that it's different,

it's fine.

But they're all really relative,

you know.

Really that pole dancing is just the evolution

of what burlesque started as.

It's like a place for men to safely objectify women.

And it's like that's what the burlesque houses were about.

And that's what the strip clubs generally are about.

I just don't like to separate myself from that,

because if it weren't for my experience as a stripper,

working in a club with a brass pole and doing lap dances,

I wouldn't be where I am now.

And I really strongly believe that all of that,

all those years of doing that,

and being intrigued by the way

that people react to different kinds of beauty.

And understanding really what it is about someone

that makes them truly sexy,

I really got a great grasp on that

by working in strip clubs.

I like that your trajectory embraces it all.

'Cause what I saw was very theatrical.

And you were stripping but you were almost not even naked,

it was like a whole character

coming out. Yeah,

when people ask me about the nudity thing I'm like,

I don't feel naked up there.

There's so much illusion between painting with light,

and all the makeup,

the body makeup,

there's very little that resembles

who I really am as a sexual person.

(laughs) It's very non-sexual to me.

[Krista] But it is

wildly entertaining. Thank you.

And what about your relationship with all the designers?

Obviously Christian Louboutin,

who makes the shoes. Mm-hmm.

Those beautiful shoes that you wear.

I have never had a stylist.

I've always done everything myself.

The reason I started wearing vintage was because

I didn't have money to spend on designer clothes.

And the designers that I have these kind of friendships with

that give me the red carpet treatment with their houses,

they appreciate that I don't send in someone

to come choose my clothes for me,

you know, that I'm real about it.

And that they recognize that I have

a very distinctive sense of personal style

that doesn't waver with whatever the trends are.

And I think that most,

not most of them but many of the great ones get that,

and they appreciate that.

Let's see,

the talent I would most like to have

is to magically be able to dance like Cyd Charisse.

My greatest extravagance is in creating my stage shows.

(bassy jazz music)