Stage entertainment composed of slapstick sketches, bawdy humour, chorus numbers, and solo dances.
Introduced in the U.S. in 1868 by a company of English chorus girls, it developed as a version of the minstrel show , divided into three parts: (1) a series of coarse humorous songs, slapstick sketches, and comic monologues; (2) the olio, or mixture of variety acts (e.g., acrobats, magicians, singers); and (3) chorus numbers and occasionally a takeoff, or burlesque, on politics or a current play. The show ended with an exotic dancer or a boxing match. In the early 20th century, many performers, including Fanny Brice , Al Jolson , and W.C. Fields , began their careers in burlesque. The addition of the striptease in the 1920s made a star of Gypsy Rose Lee , but censorship and competition from motion pictures soon led to burlesque's decline.