Silver Tusk Burlesque Awards: 9th Grade Edition 2025
AWARD SHOW WAS BROADCAST ON JANUARY 15, 2025.
What's this all about, then?
Silver Tusk Awards est. 2017
In 2016, Viktor Devonne (that's the guy on the right) and Holly Ween were returning home from a visit to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they had just appeared together at the Alterna-Tease Festival. They marveled at the superlatives and titles that festivals frequently gave out, and acknowledged, there was no precise award show for burlesque outside of the parameters of festivals. Those most recognized of course include the Golden Pasties for NYC, and the regional categories that give us the Miss and Misters across the country and globe... The Burlesque Top 50 certainly raised the profile of several entertainers, but that was a ranking system. Where was dumbass high school yearbook superlatives we all deserved? Who was, after all, most likely to succeed... at falling off the stage?
Months went by, and the 2017 Silver Tusk Awards were born. Held at the residency for White Elephant Burlesque, Rockbar NYC, it was a celebration of tomfoolery and excessive glamour. The category names were whittled down, the performers notified for the voting, and the initial pool of potentials were born out of those who had performed with WEBurlesque the past 2 years, as this event would coincide with the third anniversary of the show at Rockbar. It was a ridiculous hit that would be matched again in 2018, 2019, and an assumed final time in 2020 when White Elephant Burlesque exited Rockbar due to Viktor moving across the country to Southern California.
And then the world shut down. To raise spirits, Viktor recreated the Silver Tusk Awards for an online presentation, this time offering a chance to anyone who had performed at White Elephant Burlesque ever, but had yet to win. An additional set of categories honored those who had adapted to the online version of burlesque. It seemed like the perfect rip-off of those reality shows were favorites who had just missed crowns or accolades, so it was dubbed All-Stars?!
Well, that was a hit, too. And since WEBurlesque resumed shows, digitally, for the year, the Tusks returned to their roots for the entertainers who had appeared on both the virtual WEBurlesque stage and the WEBurlesque Podcast. And a choice had to be made.
In 2023, the Silver Tusk Burlesque Awards went global. Write-in ballots will be made available for ANYONE to be nominated for such illustrious categories as Shiningest Star, The (Up in) Smoke Show, Ass Almighty, and Hilarious Hussy. You know, the serious stuff. Who will join the ranks of those previously honored? Let's find out together.
Love you. And remember; don't be a dick. This is meant to be fun.
xx Viktor Devonne
Items of Note
Entertainers of the Year
Entertainers of the Year
Entertainers of the Year
2025. Queerly Femmetastic
2024. Tito Bonito
2023. Lou Lou la Duchesse de Riere
2022. Samson Night & P. NoNoire
2021. Foxy Belle Afriq
2020. Jack Barrow
2019. Holly Ween
2018. Lee VaLone
2017. Broody Valentino
Presentation History
Entertainers of the Year
Entertainers of the Year
The Silver Tusk Awards presented four live in-person editions at Rockbar NYC, the home bar of White Elephant Burlesque--which featured burlesque, drag, performance artists, and nightlife entertainers from all over the world and the surround borroughs.
In 2021, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, an "Allstars" version went digital.
In 2022
The Silver Tusk Awards presented four live in-person editions at Rockbar NYC, the home bar of White Elephant Burlesque--which featured burlesque, drag, performance artists, and nightlife entertainers from all over the world and the surround borroughs.
In 2021, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, an "Allstars" version went digital.
In 2022, a second edition was made featuring digital presentations, before the announcement that the Silver Tusks was going global, with the 2023 edition open to all active burlesque performers. 2024 would continue that decision, thereafer.
Viktor Devonne
Entertainers of the Year
Viktor Devonne
The Whitefaced Tornado, as dubbed by Tigger!, Viktor is celebrating 15 years as director of White Elephant Burlesque. Now a Southern California transplant, he is the reigning Mr Hollywood Burlesque.
For 5 years, he and White Elephant Burlesque held residence at Rockbar NYC, followed by the WEBurlesque Home Theatre Edition and the Silver T
The Whitefaced Tornado, as dubbed by Tigger!, Viktor is celebrating 15 years as director of White Elephant Burlesque. Now a Southern California transplant, he is the reigning Mr Hollywood Burlesque.
For 5 years, he and White Elephant Burlesque held residence at Rockbar NYC, followed by the WEBurlesque Home Theatre Edition and the Silver Tusk Awards.
He also hosts the WEBurlesque podcast, now available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.