Wilfredo is a disheveled, grotesque master of ceremonies. When the lights dim and the show begins, he is the first thing audiences encounter. Crude and unruly, his job is to slowly win the audience over, welcoming them into a world of haughty debauchery, raucous entertainment, and burlesque from a cast of colorful characters — all united by a common theme: the steady, inevitable removal of clothing.
This Saturday, the RoundTop Burlesque Revue returns to Stissing Center with a lineup of aerial acrobatics, sword swallowing, sideshow acts, comedy, and classic burlesque. The performance is adults only.
The tone of the show is cheeky, irreverent, and unabashedly lascivious. After all, “burlesque is the art of taking one’s clothes off,” said producer Adam Krandle, better known by his stage persona, Evil Hate Monkey.
The revue is structured less like a traditional play than a string of theatrical sketches. “They’re all vignettes,” Krandle said. “Each one is its own little play.”
The lineup includes Kyla Ernst-Alper, who will take to the recently renovated rigging above the Stissing Center stage in an aerial act incorporating silks and lyra, or circus hoop. Also performing is Gigi Bonbon, a dancer and comedian whose act earned her the title of Miss Coney Island in 2018, an annual competition of performance, personality, and pizzazz, and one of the most prestigious awards in the neo-burlesque scene.
Then there is Gin Minsky, whose act draws on the tradition of sideshow — the off-kilter attractions that once accompanied traveling circuses and showcased, as Krandle described them, “feats of strength and absurdity.” Think the bed of nails, the ladder of swords, or “someone pulling a tractor with their mouth attached to a rope,” Krandle said. Minsky, recently crowned the 2026 Queen of Burlesque by the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, will also perform. She will swallow swords.
Then there is Mr. Gorgeous, crowned King of Boylesque in 2014, whose stand-up comedy act unfolds in a fantastical costume that makes him 7 feet tall in heels. Krandle will also appear as Evil Hate Monkey, performing his signature act in “Bananas in the Night,” a parody of Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night.”
Krandle is known as “Monkey” both onstage and off. His act embraces back hair, baboonery, and body positivity. “I’m hairy and I like to climb things,” he said. “We do somewhat live and breathe these personas.”
Despite the varied talents on display, the performers share a common aim: to surprise, delight, and end up in varying states of undress. “Each of these performers are international professionals who’ve been doing this for many, many years,” Krandle said.
Anchoring it all is Wilfredo, a cigarette-smoking, cocktail-sipping emcee, who provides interstitial audience haranguing and banter. Wilfredo is the creation of British comedian Matt Roper and has gained an international following. A vulgar character reminiscent of commedia dell’arte and the theater of the grotesque, Wilfredo is a washed-up cabaret singer with high-hoisted pants, a low-buttoned shirt, and greasy black hair.
“You’re not sure at first because he seems a little disheveled, but he grows on you,” Krandle said. “He’s this person that you want to go up to at the end and get a big hug from.”
The RoundTop Burlesque Revue came to Stissing Center in 2025, but its origins are far more DIY. In 2020, Krandle moved from New York City to Germantown and, while brainstorming ways to combat lockdown isolation, resolved to bring people together for an open barn burlesque performance at Gatherwild Ranch.
“I painted lines on the ground for parking spots,” Krandle recalled. “We set up a bar in a makeshift camper van.”
Gatherwild Ranch is on RoundTop Road, and there the name of the show was born. Since then, the RoundTop Burlesque Revue has had a revolving cast of colorful characters, keeping the show constantly evolving, with larger venues like Stissing Center allowing for more high-flying acts.
Krandle still lives in Germantown and has found receptive audiences in his efforts to bring burlesque to the calendars of Hudson Valley venues.
“I feel like the Hudson Valley has a very community based feeling about it,” Krandle said.
Krandle always knew he wanted to perform. He went to a performing arts high school in Florida before studying musical theater in college in Philadelphia. Not quite finding his people in musical theater, he stumbled into burlesque almost by accident. When asked to do a burlesque show in California in the early 2000s, his response was: “Great — what’s burlesque?”
Since then, Krandle has cut his teeth as a burlesque performer in New York City at clubs like The Slipper Room, where the tight-knit neo-burlesque scene could try out new acts and personas on each other.
“I’ve come around to knowing that that’s my purpose,” Krandle said. “Being on stage and making people laugh.”
Burlesque has a long, global history. The word stems from the Italian burla, meaning to joke or prank. At its core, burlesque is a form of variety entertainment, featuring singing, dancing, acrobatics, and tongue-in-cheek commentary on politics and social trends. It skewers sexual norms with gender-swapped characters and an overall seductive tone. It’s similar to cabaret, but with less clothing.
Burlesque’s unruly spirit also made it a frequent target of censorship. In the 1930s, Nazi authorities cracked down on Berlin’s cabaret and burlesque theaters, while in New York, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s administration targeted burlesque houses and, in 1937, effectively banned burlesque from the city’s stages.
As an art form that champions bold self-expression, the Stissing Center show is aptly programmed on the same day as Stanford Pride, a community celebration at Bangallworks.
“It’s no accident that the RoundTop Burlesque Revue follows Stanford Pride,” Stissing Center Executive Director Patrick Trettenero said. “Both are celebrations of creativity, individuality, and joy. We believe the arts should bring people together, spark curiosity, and create space for everyone to feel welcome.”
RoundTop Burlesque Revue comes to Stissing Center at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 6. Tickets are available online and start at $30.