Nasty Canasta

Internationally-renowned artstar (and reigning Cheese Queen of Coney Island) Nasty Canasta is frequently hailed as a genius of the neo-burlesque scene. A "burlesque queen" (The NY Times) and "Brooklyn's greatest burlesque star" (The Brooklyn Paper), Nasty was host and producer of Naked Girls Reading NYC - "New York's Best Story Hour," (The Village Voice), Sweet & Nasty Burlesque, Pinchbottom Burlesque ("Best Burlesque in NYC" - NY Magazine, "Most Innovative" - Burlesque Hall of Fame) and the 2020 Quarantine Burlesque Festival. She is the winner of 9 Golden Pastie Awards from the New York Burlesque Festival, and in 2015 was honored as a "Legend of Nerdlesque" by the New York Nerdlesque Festival.

She wrote and produced The Case of The Falling Starlet and The Speakeasy Stiff (burlesque radio murder mystery plays for the stage), has written and directed KONG, Stripper Macbeth, The Thing With 10,000 Pasties, A 70's Christmas Carol, and co-stars in Chris Harder's Nasty Drew And That Harder Boy mysteries. She toured eastern Canada with the Towers of Tease in the summer of 2016, and hosted the 2017 and 2018 Nerdlesque Festival in New York City, the 2017 Vancouver International Burlesque Festival, and the 2018 Show-Me Burlesque Festival in St Louis, MO.

"The Girl with the 44DD Brain," Nasty is best known for her 'burlesques on burlesque:' subtle and surprising twists on classic striptease such as her car-alarm fan dance, her "Unknown Stripper" act, and her award-winning ecdysiastical tribute to Dorian Gray, "The Portrait." Equally at home with classic tease and contemporary pop culture, her numbers range from the sublime to the silly, and have been a favorite with audiences around the world.