ABSTRACT
Named one of 2016’s “Most Fascinating People” ( LA Weekly 2016) and 2017’s “Most Comedic Performer” (Burlesque Hall of Fame 2017), Tito Bonito is a 5’10, light-skinned, dark haired Cuban from Miami. He is reminiscent of Desi Arnaz, a likeness that Tito plays up when hosting burlesque shows, often in tuxedos and hats like those Arnaz himself used to wear. Tito’s charm and old-fashioned aesthetic make him a perfect choice to gently initiate a crowd of burlesque virgins into the art form on the Monday I see him perform in the Bootleg Bombshells show at a downtown L.A. sports bar. Tito welcomes the crowd—which is largely queer, of color, and/or female—while making clear the erotic and political potential that burlesque has always encapsulated. 1 Although he identifies personally as gay, and makes no secret of it on stage, he tells me after that show that audiences always wonder about his true sexuality. He finds this funny, particularly since throughout the course of this particular night he will give a man a lap dance and spank another, and given that it is not unusual for him to deep throat a microphone between acts. Something about his presentation of self makes his sexuality unintelligible to people, however, likely because his gender presentation is so fluid. On this evening he will start in a suit, but by the end of this night we will see him in a thong, nipple tassles, and—the signature of his act—“assles,” tassles glued to the butt cheeks. Tito’s intersectional identity as a queer Latino is represented in his costuming by the “assles.” Because of their prominent placement on his queer Cuban butt, the “assles” gesture toward the gender performativity and xenophobia that structure the history of burlesque into which Tito inserts himself.
