Sailor St. Claire is a curvaceous redhead with learned mind and an A+ anatomy. With her scintillating wit and copious charms, Sailor channels academic excellence into burlesque bravura as a performer and emcee. Since 2009, The Showgirl Scholar has been putting her knowledge of the literary canon to more-than-scholarly uses, crafting elegant and erudite stripteases that offer audiences an education in the humanitease.
This bookish beauty has performed on stages across the country and internationally. Over her fifteen year career in burlesque, she has performed at the Ohio Burlesque Festival, the Minneapolis Burlesque Festival, and the Oregon Burlesque Festival, among others. Known for her sultry slow burns and commanding stage presence, her intellectual approach to classic burlesque has won her multiple awards, including a special “Legend’s Choice” award from April March, the First Lady of Burlesque.
As an emcee, she prides herself on blending elegant erudition with utter nonsense, often in the same sentence. She strives to craft introductions that connect individual stories to larger themes, inspiring audiences to laugh and learn along the way. She was the regular host of the Emerald City Burlesque Revue, Tuesday Tease, and a featured emcee at Seattle’s historic late-night cabaret, Burlesque and Cabaret Behind the Pink Door. With poise, elegance, and Hepburn-esque wit, The Showgirl Scholar has kept audiences entertained and informed throughout Seattle, as well as on the grand stages of the Vogue Theatre at the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival and the Orleans Casino Showroom at the Burlesque Hall of Fame’s Movers, Shakers, & Innovators Showcase.
Sailor’s educational acumen has also served her well as a producer. She is proud to have been a part of the production team for Sinner Saint Burlesque from 2013-2018, co-adapting and co-directing the troupe’s much lauded burlesque of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as producing and directing The Tennessee Tease, an original burlesque play based on the life and works of Tennessee Williams, with writer-choreographer Fosse Jack. She produced and hosted the long-running live band burlesque show, Tuesday Tease, from 2012-2018, and proudly collaborated with nerdlesque superproducers Jo Jo Stiletto, Sophie Maltease, Scarlett O’Hairdye, and Sin de la Rosa on the acclaimed Bechdel Test Burlesque, which was invited to be performed at the University of Oregon by the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program in 2016. Sailor is currently the co-Artistic Director of Noveltease Theatre, a literary burlesque company she co-founded with Fosse Jack.
Her work with Noveltease has been featured in The Seattle Times, King 5 Evening, and UW’s Perspectives alumni journal. In 2023, she was named one of American Theatre Magazine's "People to Watch."
This bookish beauty has performed on stages across the country and internationally. Over her fifteen year career in burlesque, she has performed at the Ohio Burlesque Festival, the Minneapolis Burlesque Festival, and the Oregon Burlesque Festival, among others. Known for her sultry slow burns and commanding stage presence, her intellectual approach to classic burlesque has won her multiple awards, including a special “Legend’s Choice” award from April March, the First Lady of Burlesque.
As an emcee, she prides herself on blending elegant erudition with utter nonsense, often in the same sentence. She strives to craft introductions that connect individual stories to larger themes, inspiring audiences to laugh and learn along the way. She was the regular host of the Emerald City Burlesque Revue, Tuesday Tease, and a featured emcee at Seattle’s historic late-night cabaret, Burlesque and Cabaret Behind the Pink Door. With poise, elegance, and Hepburn-esque wit, The Showgirl Scholar has kept audiences entertained and informed throughout Seattle, as well as on the grand stages of the Vogue Theatre at the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival and the Orleans Casino Showroom at the Burlesque Hall of Fame’s Movers, Shakers, & Innovators Showcase.
Sailor’s educational acumen has also served her well as a producer. She is proud to have been a part of the production team for Sinner Saint Burlesque from 2013-2018, co-adapting and co-directing the troupe’s much lauded burlesque of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as producing and directing The Tennessee Tease, an original burlesque play based on the life and works of Tennessee Williams, with writer-choreographer Fosse Jack. She produced and hosted the long-running live band burlesque show, Tuesday Tease, from 2012-2018, and proudly collaborated with nerdlesque superproducers Jo Jo Stiletto, Sophie Maltease, Scarlett O’Hairdye, and Sin de la Rosa on the acclaimed Bechdel Test Burlesque, which was invited to be performed at the University of Oregon by the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program in 2016. Sailor is currently the co-Artistic Director of Noveltease Theatre, a literary burlesque company she co-founded with Fosse Jack.
Her work with Noveltease has been featured in The Seattle Times, King 5 Evening, and UW’s Perspectives alumni journal. In 2023, she was named one of American Theatre Magazine's "People to Watch."
Header image by Meneldor Photography.