Jonny Porkpie

The Mayor of Burlesque

Jonny Porkpie—burlesque performer, emcee, writer, and producer—is both the the self-appointed "Burlesque Mayor of New York City" and a occasional candidate for "actual" mayor of NYC. He recently retired from a decade-long stint as a producer and emcee at The Burlesque Hall of Fame to focus on his first love: scripted theatrical burlesque shows. These shows—which include Off-Broadway productions of “PRETENÇIÓN: un cirque de burlesque, un burlesque de cirque”, “The Pinch Brothers in The Bawdy House” (Catch the sequel in Marxfest 2024), and "Dead Sexy"—have been lauded as the “Best Burlesque” in NYC by New York Magazine and the Village Voice. His burlesque game show "The Naked Truth" toured to over 30 cities in 5 countries on 3 continents. He has, ludicrously, an MFA in Creative Writing for Children.

Events

  • Fri 8 DEC

    Filthy Lucre: A Burlesque Christmas Carol

    Welcome to The Filthy Lucre, where the cover charge is exorbitant, the drinks are watered down, and management steals the performers' tips. What sort of money-grubbing miser would would run a "Gentleman's Club" like this? Who else but Scrooge? And so she does, in FILTHY LUCRE: A Burlesque Christmas Carol, a stripteasing twist on Dickens' classic holiday tale. When the scantily-clad spirit of her former business partner returns from the grave, the "nudest Scrooge in history" (NY Times) goes on a tassel-twirling journey with the Ghosts of Burlesque Past, Present, and Future. Will this haunting bump-and-grind-through-time help bitter Ebeneza see the error of her exploitative ways? Of course it will. You know the story, but you've never seen it quite like this. Charles Dickens immortal classic drops its knickers and gets down to business in FILTHY LUCRE: A Burlesque Christmas Carol, presented by Porkpie Productions in association with Spin Cycle. Adapted, written and directed by Jonny Porkpie, this unique blend of theater and burlesque returns for the first time since its sold-out debut in 2009. Performances run December 8, 15, 22 & 23 at 7pm at the Laurie BeechmanTheater.

    7:00 PM EST, Friday, December 8, 2023 The Laurie Beechman Theater, 407 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036

Press Clippings

  • New York's "Best Naked Impresario"

    New York Press

  • "Porkpie owns the evening with the unfaltering wit of his rapid-fire banter."

    Erotic Review

  • "Impresario, fiction writer, comedian, bottom-pincher and good-natured bon vivant."

    Time Out New York

  • On "The Corpse Wore Pasties": "Much of the fun lies in Porkpie's witty and telling observations of life in the raunchy burlesque world, and the tone is more playful than pornographic despite plentiful references to sexual activity. Readers will enjoy the twists and action and hope for future Porkpie investigations."

    Publishers Weekly

  • "Most Innovative" 2006 (co-winner)

    The Burlesque Hall of Fame

  • "Full of double entendres, rattling them off as smoothly as an adept playa runs game."

    The Huffington Post

Press: The Burlesque Hall of Fame

  • "...there was one other BIG WIN of the night: the adaptation of the classic Abbott and Costello routine, “Who’s on First,” re-written by Jonny Porkpie and performed—to perfection—by Porkpie and Blanche Debris, was knock-down drag-out brilliant. This throwback act, done without nostalgia, with Blanche as the hysterical moron and Jonny as the cool-as-cucumber-vodka straight man, was sheer comic genius. I love these two hosting together; they keep getting better every year, this year adding the gag of hosting on roller skates. But “Who’s On First?”—my only criticism is the audience: I felt half the folks weren’t getting it. How can such a low-brow act become suddenly high-brow? Wait 80 years, apparently. (The act was a hit for Abbott and Costello as early as 1937.)

    The well-known baseball routine was revamped to refer to the show order of a burlesque—Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know—”Third act!”—the confusion increasingly frustrating Debris. Porkpie’s redux followed the structure of the classic act impeccably, and continued the burlesque into the other players, with Why as the sound man, Because on pickup, Tomorrow as the producer, and the Headliner—and ultimate punch line—I Don’t Give a Damn, which is practically a Turducken of a joke about burlesque. I’d like to see this again and I hope someone at some festival somewhere (I’m looking at you Jen Gapay) has the sense to book it—it’s the best comedic retro-vaudeville act we’ve seen in forevs."

    JD Oxblood, Burlesque Beat

Jonny Porkpie in Competitive Burlesque

Teaser for The Pinch Brothers in The Bawdy House

News

  • Bibliodiscoteque names "Corpse" one of Hard Case's Top Ten Essential Reads

    January 22, 2013

    "Hilarious... more than just lite-comic intermission its a skillful detective tale wrapped around a love for showmanship and theatre."
    full article