If you've ever seen Immodesty Blaize perform, you don't have to ask what burlesque is; she's it. With a larger-than-life stage presence and a smoldering charm offstage, Immodesty leaves a warm, curvy, sensual impression wherever she goes, and leaves every person she encounters with a happy yearning. Without further ado, I present the neo-legend that is the UK's gift to modern burlesque, Miss Immodesty Blaize.

When did you first see burlesque?
I blame my mother. We watched Gypsy [Lee Rose] together when I was very young, 5 or 6, I think. Obviously, Natalie Wood was beautiful, but I thought Mazeppah was the coolest lady I had ever seen. I liked her humor and even then I knew she was HOT.

Were you a performer before you began doing burlesque?

I never went to stage school; however, I used to travel the country as a little girl doing national dance competitions with modern, disco, and rock 'n' roll styles. It was all very "solid gold," but I loved the sequins, spandex, and the smell of hairspray!

I racked up an impressive shelf of trophies, but it was tough doing the elimination rounds. Once you had experienced being knocked out of the competition and having to leave the dance floor with your tail between your legs, you quickly found more inventive ways of really sparkling for the judges and letting your personality shine — along with ratting a bigger bouffant.

During my late teens, I took up both Latin and Arabic dance. I often find even now that I incorporate some of my Arabic shimmies, or a salsa step into my acts.

When I first performed burlesque circa ’98, there was no great awareness of the genre in London, or any kind of performance community yet. I had to literally bang down doors for stage space, and explain every five minutes what burlesque was and what my act was.

There wasn’t that much footage of the legendary performers readily available at that time either, just books mostly. I used to be inspired as much by Hollywood movies and actresses, Busby Berkeley musicals, and kitsch icons like Liberace, Divine, Grace Jones, Betty Page, and Dalida.

I also remember studying the "great effect" scene in The Graduate for hours, hoping I’d somehow master the dynamics of twirling a tassel by osmosis.

I don’t like to look at other performers’ acts for ideas unless I am consciously creating a tribute like my reverse striptease bath-time tribute to Lili St Cyr. Even then, I’ll add my own interpretation and choreography. Instead, I find ideas on my travels — maybe a new piece of music, or a piece of amazing fabric for a costume, or a scene in a book — anything, really.

My act with the six-foot vintage telephone came from listening to Blondie’s "Hangin’ on the Telephone" in my dressing room. I had a brainwave, then dismissed it as ridiculous.

After my show, I realized I had been sitting, staring at my autographed picture of Betty Page talking on a small black telephone and decided that it was a sign. I scribbled some drawings on the back of a napkin and sent it straight to my propmaker to see if my idea was possible.

Then came the fun part of watching every film noir movie I owned to distill the ultimate femme fatale. It took about a year to complete the act through concept, research, design, construction, and choreography before it was ready to unveil.

Where did you learn classic moves?

I owe that to my mentor, Basil –- a true show boy with a pedigree par excellence. He’s the real deal. He was on the road from the age of 14, performing with all the European burlesque greats from the '50s onward, in notorious theatres such as The Windmill, the Leeds City ("Titty") Varieties, the Talk of The Town, the Friedrichstadtpalast, etc.

He even performed with Liberace for three months when he came to UK to do The Palladium.

Basil tracked me down at one of my shows. His stories were amazing and we just clicked right away. He cracks the whip over me if he sees me holding my hands in the wrong way.

He even gave me special tips that he learned from Marlene Dietrich. He can parade as well as any model on the catwalk and fan dance as well as Faith Bacon, but with ten times more camp. He’s a gem.

I also really pay attention to the movement styles of legends like Lili and Blaze. They all had such different, diverse, and unique ways of moving. And whilst it’s good to learn tricks of the trade from them, I also think it’s absolutely essential to develop your own unique body language, style, and "isms" -– little moves special to you. That’s what makes you individual and is part of your unique persona.

Dita proves that for a burlesque performer, it's what's underneath that counts — like $5 million worth of diamonds. And best of all, she didn't have to pay for them. However, as she said in the first part of this interview, she had her days of schlep while building her business.

Has your website been a relevant part of developing your career? Was it originally a lot of work and expense to create the site?

I started the site in the very early '90s. My boyfriend was really into this new thing called the "World Wide Web," and he had this idea that we would make a page and it would have pictures on it, and if someone sent us a check for like $10 or something, we would send them back a package of 3×5 prints of me in lingerie.

Gradually, as the Web evolved, so did this little site. At the time, there were no fetish or pinup websites; in fact, there were about 20 of us nude glamour models with little websites.

I regret that I didn't do like Danni Ash and make a big, giant, thousands-of-girls website. She became a multi-millionaire by studying how to build a site on her own. She paid girls to appear, and she pulled in about $5 million a year in profit. Amazing. And she was basically a stripper that bought a book and studied it and was brave enough to go for it!

My website now is more of a labour of love for me, and a source of income for those that work on it. The profit that I make from it is significant Web-wise, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to my other jobs.

I keep it going because it's important to me to have this connection to my fans. I don't have time to shoot special things for it like I used to, but I take scrapbook pictures from my travels, I write in a journal, I e-mail with members, I am always available on the message board to answer questions, and I'm around now and then for chats. I put all the video and pictures of my shows and photoshoots up there.

You are always so kind and generous with the members on your website — you seem very loyal to them. Would you like to comment on what it's like to have such lovely and devoted fans?

Well, I never thought that I would have so many female fans! I saw this big swing around, and suddenly I realized one day how many women were getting into the spirit of pinup and burlesque, and that there was some kind of comaraderie amongst us girls that couldn't or didn't want to fit into that typical supermodel, beach bade, natural kind of sexy.

It really hit me once when I was doing a book signing at Harrod's a few years ago, and I stepped out to see thousands of people and an army of glamour girls with their red lips on!

And I was fighting back the tears…seeing that I had those kinds of fans, and that they felt sexy and glamorous and were finding the same kind of empowerment I did when I made myself up.

It's amazing to me. It gave me a whole new outlook on what I do, and made me feel like I could do more to get across a good message about individuality. When I started working with The MAC Aids Fund and then Amfar, it really made me feel like I could turn this silly hobby into something that could make a little difference.

I made $150,000 for Amfar's HIV research by doing a couple striptease lessons, and that felt terrific to be able to do something. Okay, so maybe I am not a genius and I can't get in there and cure HIV, but at least I can help in my own way, even if it's in a ridiculous way.

What did you think of feature dancing? Did it help you learn to develop numbers? I remember that you were listed on Continental's website as a "novelty act" — do you think that's a signifier as to how different your style was from that of most features on the circuit at that time?

I think that it's not for everyone. It's a hard life, and it's not glamorous. But yes, it did help me develop a grander show, and I did have fun seeing the country, and I am glad that I did it.

But there were some really tough moments, and it was sort of depressing, especially if you think that all the clubs are big, beautiful places and that there are limousines and fancy stages. There certainly were some, but just when I would start enjoying and settling into these upscale clubs, there I would be, in the next city, in some hell-hole of a club, in the tiniest dressing room ever, in a gross motel.

I would trek out to the department store and buy my own sheets, towels, and bathmats to make a path to walk on the dirty stained carpets. But I had this "that's showbiz!" attitude that kept me going, and I knew that this was somehow going to be "character building!"

And I do have to say, sometimes I miss hitting that strip-club stage where there isn't a journalist, a camera crew, paparazzi, or even a camera phone in sight! It's so freeing to let loose and do a good show without worrying about all that other stuff. I just love being on stages now where there are no cameras.

The Crazy Horse Paris is great. It's a real theatre, and no one would dare pull out a camera phone. They have someone at every single show watching the audience. I hate that people can't just sit and enjoy the show anymore; everyone has to document everything they see.

When I see a show, I want to drink in every second of it and remember it as it really was. Cameras can't capture that feeling you get when you see a great show. [I understand that! Sometimes I feel a little off when I'm performing and I can't see the audience for the cameras. But I'm super grateful for pictures of shows that I wouldn't get to see at all otherwise. And, of course, I love to take pictures. - Jo]

What makes up the largest part of your workday?

I don't really have a typical workday. It all depends on what I have going on at the time. Sometimes I get to work on shows, like making new ones, or rehearsing, and sometimes I am in full-press mode, doing days and days in a row of interviews. They work you like a machine.

I did a few 17-hour-long days recently for all the press for Wonderbra, and there comes a point where no amount of flowers, champagne, free shoes and clothes, and fabulousness that comes your way can help! Sleep is all you want!

I know it seems impossible, but believe me, it's like my eyeballs are going to fall out and I can't even talk  or answer one more question about how I got my start or what burlesque actually is. But one good night of sleep and I am ready to go, go, go again! It's not a complaint; it's just that you can't imagine how crazy it can get, and I can see why some celebrities snap.

I haven't snapped yet, thank goodness. I would say that when I'm not performing or doing appearances and press for my projects, I'm at home, answering e-mails, talking with my manager about what's going on, taking meetings for possible projects, and doing pilates and taking ballet classes, reading books, or watching films that inspire me, and just doing the day-to-day stuff.

I love just being home, wearing no makeup, washing the dishes, doing the laundry and hanging out with my animals. They never ask me what burlesque is and how I define it!

At Tease-O-Rama 2002, I had a front row seat for Dita Von Teese's performance with her giant moon prop, and you may well resent me for that.

It was a gorgeous performance, with Dita obviously having a good time, and at the end of the number, a cannon shot a shower of silver mylar stars over us, hundreds of which I carried in my camera bag for at least a year after the show.

In her book Burlesque and the Art of the Teese, Dita describes Liberace as the ultimate showman, whose art "is creating spectacle and inspiring dreams." She surely succeeded in her goal that night, and I'm sure on hundreds of others. Fifty years from now, people will still be talking about the stupefying glamour of Dita Von Teese.

Whenever someone tells me they're a Dita fan, or they're fascinated by burlesque costumes, but they've never joined Dita's website for even a month, I am completely baffled. I doubt that they are truly fans.

Even if they join for only a month, they'll get to see amazing video, spectacular photos, read her archive of journal entries, and can ask Dita herself for tips on how she does what she does.

One of the things I find most fascinating about her is her entrepreneurialism and her ability to make perfect decisions. In many interviews, she talks about how carefully she selects her jobs, her costumes, even her lighting (she has even begun bringing her own lighting gels with her).

And she has run the business of being Dita in a way that makes me think of the career of Gypsy Rose Lee, while her style onstage refers perhaps more directly to Lili St. Cyr.

But really, knowing there's an interview with Dita coming up, do you want to hear any more from me? No? Smart cookie! Let's get to it.

When you began modeling and performing, there was little if any burlesque community and not much notice of burlesque in the media. Did you ever expect your career to take off like this? Was there ever a point at which you thought your career might be based in anything else?

I never, ever expected any of this to happen. And it was a very slow climb, a snowball effect of sorts. I feel like one thing led to another since I was in high school.

Well, maybe even before, if you get into my childhood and being a middle child that went unnoticed, blah, blah blah…but that's one I should tell while lying on a sofa in therapy maybe!

Anyway, let's not go back that far for now! My first job was as a lingerie salesgirl at age 15 at a chic little boutique in Orange County, California. I had been obsessed with lingerie my whole life.

To me, it was this secret among women, like the most feminine thing that existed, a rite of passage. I was always sneaking into my mother's lingerie drawer and secretly wearing her bras from a young age.

And so when I was about 15, I was desperate to work in this little pink and black shop that was near the beauty salon where my mother worked, so I just kept on going in there and offering to do any kind of work they had for me in that little shop.

When they finally gave in and let me work there as stockgirl, I immersed myself in the job, and I got really into learning about lingerie, and even the history of it, and that was one thing that sparked my interest in vintage style lingerie.

Of course, I became a sales girl, eventually a buyer, and a few years later, I managed the lingerie department of a big department store.