Today we’d like to introduce you to Joona Bae
Hi Joona, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My life trajectory altered when I attended Newport Peek Easy show at Chicago’s Newport Theater in December 2021. Up until that point, I thought that burlesque was only for pretty, feminine folks doing pretty, feminine things on a stage. But in December 2021, I got to watch a boylesque performer – Willy LaQueue – tear it up on a stage in a way that I could not previously comprehend. So when the same Newport Theater started offering beginner burlesque classes just few weeks later, I immediately leapt at the opportunity. I took beginner burlesque classes for about a year with Bazuka Joe’s Camp Cabaret program before launching into my solo performance journey in February 2023.
Since my debut last year, I have performed in eight different burlesque festivals in over a dozen different US states. It has been wildly validating to have so many stages that welcome & celebrate my queer, Korean art.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My burlesque journey has been mixed with a lot of success and challenges. As I look back on the past two-ish years of performing solo, the Minneapolis Burlesque Festival experience comes to mind as the biggest challenge.
It was my first burlesque festival gig. I got in with an act that features a traditional Korean formalware called hanbok. It is a happy, joyful act that really celebrates my Korean heritage. This was an act I developed with the help of Lady Ginger and her Act Development class at the Chicago School of Burlesque.
Up until that festival, I always had a partner or a close friend in the audience in support at every show. But in Minneapolis, I felt so alone. Right before I went on to perform in front of 100+ people, I repeated my mantra – “Fuck ‘Em in the Heart” – and reminded myself that I have to be my own biggest supporter here.
I went on to have a great festival debut performance that marked a true peak in a year otherwise filled with great highlights. But it was ROUGH getting to the point where I felt comfortable really taking up stage space in an unfamiliar world. It was a really big stage, and I found a home in my own art.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My most proud accomplishment has to be my debut performance of Circumcision.
I signed up for Act Development with the Creative Director of the Newport Theater Eva La Feva in late 2022. It is essentially an eight-week crash course that covers all the essential tools of developing your own act while also providing structure for actually creating a new act that can be showcased at the end of eight weeks with other new soloists.
At the time, I was in talk therapy to process my personal experience with circumcision and how incredibly traumatic it was to be cut at eleven. With the help of four other classmates and Eva, I worked really hard on developing a performance that told a compelling story about my own personal experience with circumcision that wasn’t just a glorification of my trauma. The performance lasted 3 minutes and 51 seconds. But it was really hundreds of hours of work, spread out over several months. I got off the stage, and hugged each of my classmates on my way to the green room. I held it together. I did it.
When my former partner hugged me post-performance in the green room, the weight of my performance truly hit me.
I experienced a true catharsis at that moment, in the embrace of someone I loved with my whole heart, in a safe space that celebrated something different, in the theater that inspired me to pursue burlesque, with classmates who all brought their own unique art. It shook me to my core. She and I both wept. It was cathartic.
I was just so proud to share something that I worked really hard on. I was lucky to be surrounded by peers who was just as proud of me as I was of them. I was loved.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I’ll speak on behalf of Chicago instead, my hometown.
Chicago is a BIG city with a robust entertainment industry. As such, it has many long-running shows in many historic establishments that draw in amazing talents all throughout the US. It’s a running joke within my performer cohort that there aren’t enough days (or money) to attend all the shows that we want to attend. Having that type of foundations within the entertainment industry helps with security.
On the flipside of that type of strong foundation, the fringe community within Chicago is very tightly knit. While the spaces I’ve visited tend to be very open-armed and accepting, not everyone is kind or understanding. Navigating different power structures, established connections, and the reality of modern capitalistic hellscape make for a very treacherous experience for even the most experienced performers. I would like to see the Chicago scene be more inclusive and hire folks outside of the immediate, unofficial burlesque “troupes”. Diversity is important!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joonabae/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoonaBaelesque/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVNCdJTvkIJtvt-_zBUTdQg
- Other: https://linktr.ee/joonabae
