1 hour, 4 minutes (Released: February 26, 2018 / Recorded: February 3, 2018)
In this episode of WEBurlesque The Podcast, Viktor Devonne interviews Attica Wilde, a New Jersey based producer and burlesque performer. Attica Wilde passed away in March 2026 in a senseless act of violence. We re-upload this episode in her memory, reminding us to remember her energy, style, and hope for the future.
Attica starts off by talking about her own humble beginnings as a performer and how she can't get rid of the video evidence entirely no matter how much she tries: "I wasn't even supposed to perform; I was supposed to be a stage kitten. And the week before, [the producer] was like 'Hey, so I have an opening, come up with two acts.' And I already kind of had one with a giant coffin because I never do anything small, so I said ok and I did them and they still exist on the internet."
Along with being a producer and performer, Attica is also a burlesque teacher. She goes on to talk about some of the tips she gives her students and how she is tired of everyone doing acts to the same old burlesque classics: "Don't always pick the obvious choice. I tell that to my students a lot… If it's an obvious choice that you've already seen someone else do… It's really hard… as a newbie to be like let me reimagine this completely."
From there, Attica recounts her time as the producer of the classical review Smoke and Mirrors and why she decided to go in that direction when it was created and what led her to eventually realizing she wanted to get out: "At the time, it felt to me there was a gap to what we offered here in Jersey in terms of styles of burlesque…there wasn't really any classical here… I thought that was the easiest way to make my mark…One of the many reasons [my show] Smoke and Mirrors isn't around anymore is that I found it very confining…and I didn't have room or space to be more creative or to cast the more creative or weird out there things."
Attica is recovering from back surgery and is slowing getting back into performing after having to recover. She recounts why she had to get the back surgery in the first place and why it was so hard to receive the care she needed:
