Cho was so inspired by what she saw — and eager to spread her own wings as a performer — she created her own brand of burlesque that marries standup comedy with vaudeville with the ancient art of stripping. The Sensuous Woman, which will kick off a four-week engagement, Sept. 26 at Zipper Factory in Manhattan (336 W. 37th St.) is a production extravaganza, awash bright lights and brash costumes. Among the performers: a transgender (female to male) comic Ian Harvie, small person stripper Selene Luna, and the amply endowed Dirty Martini.

Cho, who will serve as the host, as well as perform, says, "This show is absolutely political in its presentation of a new kind of beauty. We are challenging notions of what's beautiful and sexy. When people say Brittany Spears is fat, that's a terrible message. The standards and ideals are alarming. We represent an alternative. We heal those views."

New Challenges

The Sensuous Woman is only the latest example of neo-burlesque. In New York alone there are a host of venues identified with the art form — from the Slipper Room to Mo Pitkin's, to the Collective Unconscious to The Box. Nowhere is the trend more pronounced perhaps than at Spiegelworld, a traveling circus-cum-cabaret that began in Europe in the early 20th century, and is now (in its latest incarnation) at the South Street Seaport through Sept. 30. In a tent of billowing velvet, stained glass wind, teak, and mirrors, an eclectic array of international artists merge feats of athleticism with comedy, music, and burlesque. Other cities are also enjoying a burlesque revival, including San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles, whose hot spots include The Bordello, The King King, and The El Cid.

There are regional differences, concurs the Seattle-based Miss Indigo Blue. "In Los Angeles, burlesque is characterized by beautiful, over-the-top costumes and sets," she says. "In Seattle, the acts are generally goofy, silly, and humor-oriented. Chicago burlesque is dance-oriented. And the New York burlesque scene tends to be conceptual and experimental."

Case in point: New York burlesque star Julie Atlas Muz, whose roots are in experimental theatre and dance, was invited to participate in the Whitney Biennial. In addition to being entertaining, her ambition is to "shock, awe, and make a positive statement about sexuality," she says. "Being a naked lady is a political statement."

Though New Yorker Dirty Martini does not think of herself as especially political, she acknowledges, "There is a subtext in what I do. I take my clothes off, I do athletic dance moves, and I'm a size 16. It's important for women to see a woman of my size owning my sexuality. You don't have to look like Kate Moss to be a thing of beauty."

But in the end its personal sensibilities that define the acts — from the campy Pontani Sisters to the inimitable Ursula Martinez, whose calling card number combines a hilarious strip tease with sleight of hand: a red scarf magically disappearing into and then emerging from bodily orifices. And let's not overlook "painter" Amber Ray stripped down to a pair of nipple tassels swirled into cans of paint and then sprinkled, smeared, and shimmied across a canvas; or the St. Louis duo, Gravity Plays Favorites, two scantily clad acrobats, known for their athletic twists and turns and unearthly contortions on spinning poles. The Chicago-based Michelle L'amour performs a helium balloon number, during which pieces of her wardrobe, attached to balloons, float off her body and cling to the ceiling.

L'amour, who won Miss Exotic World 2005, an award presented by the Burlesque Hall of Fame, has a dance background. Others come to burlesque from performance art or comedy. Some previously worked as pole or lap dancers, moving into burlesque because they thought it would be more fun, creative, and fulfilling. Still, there are special challenges in doing burlesque.

Jo "Boobs" Weldon, who has worked as a headline stripper, makes the point that even if her burlesque act is identical to her strip tease (performed in triple X-rated venues), it subtly changes by virtue of the setting. "When you are in a strip joint, you are playing to individuals for tips," she says. "When you're doing burlesque, you are a performer playing to an entire house."

Cho says, "Burlesque is similar to standup comedy in that we're using a kind of abbreviated language to create a situation and make people laugh or enlighten them. But the big difference is that a standup comic uses words. In burlesque you're communicating with your body. I'm finding that very challenging."

New Audiences

Audiences for burlesque represent a cross section. "My audience is very gay," says Cho, who previously performed Sensuous Woman in Chicago. "But then my show has a queer element. I come to it with that view. The show also attracts a lot of young people and straight women."

Adds Jen Gapay, who produces the annual New York Burlesque Festival: "Women can admire the sexiness of another woman without worrying about being gay. Also, many women are intrigued by burlesque."

Dick Zigun, who founded the Coney Island Circus Side Show in 1985 with burlesque as an integral part, says, "Our audiences are 85 percent trendsetters and 15 percent tourists. The performers are no longer playing to the American male fantasy." No one is suggesting that the dirty old man has disappeared, but he no longer characterizes the bulk of the audience.

What's striking is the growing presence of burlesque schools and classes that teach the art of bumps, grinds, fan dancing, and tassel work, among other arcane skills. Jo Boobs heads the New York School of Burlesque, while Seattle's Miss Indigo Blue runs the Burlesque Academy. L'amour in Chicago teaches privately. All comment on the potpourri of students who "can be anything from the stereotypical librarian to the curious housewife to the politician's assistant," says L'amour. "Some of these women are so delighted with their experiences in class they're eager to perform professionally, and some do."

Still, making a living at it is not easy and won't be until burlesque becomes completely mainstream, "with a reality TV show, American and European burlesque touring circuits, and agencies and managers who handle only burlesque performers," says Miss Indigo.

At the moment, however, "strippers make a lot more money than burlesque performers," adds Jo Boobs. "And that's because burlesque is viewed as theatre and art. And when do artists make money? "

Whether or not large sums of money are in their future, many burlesque performers have their sights set on bringing burlesque to legitimate theatres as the main event. It's the natural next step, they say.

"We're a dance act that is highly choreographed and costumed," says Angie Pontani of the Pontani Sisters. "There is some 1960s go-go in it, and 1950s strip tease, and even some 1940s. But we're contemporary with our modern musical selections. And we wear tattoos. We would love to be polished enough to perform our show in a Broadway theatre."

Cho has no doubt that what she's doing is theatre; not least her finale, a sly and parodying fan dance. But it's more than theatre, she contends, "Neo burlesque represents a movement to embrace an old art form, but with a feminist fury." For Cho, as an Asian woman, it has yet another emancipating layer. "The wildness in it is so contrary to the way Asian women are raised and socialized and perceived. For me burlesque is a statement of liberation."