Jo Weldon

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Jo Weldon (born 1962) is a New York City burlesque performer, author, photographer, and educator. She is also known as Jo Boobs Weldon. She runs the New York School of Burlesque and wrote The Burlesque Handbook. She works as an activist for sex workers’ rights and freedom of sexual expression.

Weldon moved to New York in 1997 and started performing in venues like The Blue Angel and at Coney Island. Her work blends classic burlesque with avant-garde performance. Her signature Godzilla act features a monster costume she sheds to a mashup of Blue Öyster Cult’s Godzilla and film clips. She describes herself as an absurdist, a surrealist, and a lover of glamour. She has performed internationally, including a Gypsy Rose Lee tribute at the New York Public Library.

She is the co-executive director of education at the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas and helps run its Miss Exotic World Pageant. In 2012 she received the Sassy Lassy Award for contributions to the art of burlesque. Weldon also started Pink Light Burlesque to offer free burlesque classes for breast cancer patients and survivors; the first show was in 2011 and was featured in TIME.

Her books include The Burlesque Handbook (2010) and Fierce: The History of Leopard Print (2018). She writes widely about burlesque, sex work, and performance, and has spoken at academic conferences to support sex worker rights.