Behind Burlesque with Isabella Bliss

Send us Fan Mail Burlesque looks effortless when it’s done well, but the real story is what happens before the spotlight hits. I’m Isabella Bliss, and I’m joined by the brilliant Lindsay McGlone, a producer, performer, and stage manager with over a decade in the burlesque and cabaret industry. From her very first show as a stage kitten to building rooms where marginalised voices are centred, Linds...

Send us Fan Mail It starts with a back injury and a collapse in confidence, then turns into a life built around stagecraft, community, and service. We sit down with Rose Thorne, UK cabaret producer, performer, and founder of Cabaret vs Cancer, to talk about what burlesque looks like when you stop treating it like a costume and start treating it like a practice. We go back to the East London roots...

Send us Fan Mail What if fear was a pool you could swim in? We sit down with The Madame—Brighton’s glitter-dipped force of nature—to trace a life built from courage, community, and craft. From a conservative childhood in Zimbabwe to earning icon status on the south coast, she unpacks how drag and burlesque became both art and antidote: a way to rewrite internal scripts, set hard boundaries, and ch...

Send us Fan Mail Glitter can be armour, but it can also be a welcome sign. We sit down with award-winning vintage cabaret performer, producer and self-expression coach Dawn Gracie to explore how a life of sequins, show tunes and quick wit became a force for community, inclusion and joyful ageing. Her route was anything but linear: a childhood spent glued to classic musicals, a karaoke machine that...

Send us Fan Mail The room decides where the act goes—that’s the electric promise of cabaret. We sit down with performer, writer and director Alexander Lutley to map a journey from actor training and Madrid mime school to global stages, unpacking how a silent clown named Pi and a silver-tongued host named Mercury grew from the same creative core: authentic play with the audience. We dig into what b...

Send us Fan Mail What if a single dare changed your life? British burlesque legend Goodtime Mama Jojo takes us from a pewter-tankard tip jar to standing ovations, showing how a spontaneous first strip became five decades of stagecraft, sensuality, and radical self-belief. We dig into the real mechanics of tease—how stillness, breath, and timing electrify a room—and why burlesque and striptease bel...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 1: Jessabelle Thunder – Beyond the Glitter, Into the Truth of Burlesque Glitter doesn’t tell the whole story. In this very first episode of Behind Burlesque with Isabella Bliss , I sit down with Jessabelle Thunder — Miss Exotic World, Reigning Queen of Burlesque — to trace a path from a hesitant first class to global stages. Together we uncover the craft, courage, and comm...