Deus Ex’s Eliza Cassan became my burlesque muse

polygon.com:

Like the name implies, nerdlesque — a portmanteau of “nerd” and “burlesque” — combines fandom with the art of striptease. I compare it to fanfiction because we are doing more than stripping out of a cosplay. A nerdlesque act tells a story, which could be, as in some fanfics, simply a character getting ready for sexy times. I enjoy reframing the main narrative or casting a character in a different light, like giving Naked Snake the same sexed-up treatment that many female characters in the Metal Gear Solid games received.

With burlesque being a predominantly female industry, many of us nerdlesquers have experienced being questioned on our fandom devotion and knowledge. Therefore, we tend to shy away from using an unfamiliar character’s costume as inspiration. No one likes being accused of being a “fake fan.” Nevertheless, I decided to take that gamble in creating my Eliza Cassan act.

I had already executed a fashion-first approach to nerdlesque with my solo debut. I used the trope of taking the glasses off to make over the geeky girl as a starting point and created an homage to comic book fangirls. This time, I would be portraying a character rather than a fantasy version of me, but if I could build a whole burlesque routine from the act of removing my glasses (and then revealing that I could not see), then I could definitely learn enough about a character to portray her accurately without having to play the video game.

Another hesitation came with creating an act to suit a very specific theme. So much time and money gets put into an act that reusability is important. Most people avoid obscure characters for this reason, in addition to the fact that producers of non-nerdlesque shows mostly book nerdy acts with a wide