I think it’s the costumes. Elaborate froths of tulle over satin and lace underwear; feather fans that pop off a frame skirt repurposed to hide a woman’s nakedness; black latex wrapped around hips, nipples covered with black electrical tape.

Cinema nearly obliterated traditional burlesque. The “girly� part of the show became peep shows and strip clubs. Comedians and variety performers found new venues. But burlesque never really died. The history of burlesque’s comeback is a complicated mix of art, culture and politics that there is not room for here, but in New York, where neo-burlesque dates from the 1990s, it’s become a business.

The seventh Burlesque Festival at B.B. King’s 42nd Street Bar and Grill, and international event, and Wasabassco Burlesque Revue’s fifth anniversary at Bell House — a Gowanus Brooklyn warehouse turned bar and performance space — were both in the last two weeks. Each drew a huge crowd.

The host is key. Brooklynite Murray Hill, a debonair “transgendered artist,� comedian, and circuit regular, hosted the festival. Describing him self as “a throwback to the rat-pack,� Hill’s roly-poly, genial uncle-act displays just the right mix of warmth, leering lewdness, a willingness to look foolish, and skill with hecklers. (One of the marks of the successful burlesque host is the quick, vulgar comeback.) The three Wasabassco acts were hosted with varying skill and charm by the female members of the Wasabassco Family, and by Doc Wasabassco himself, tall, handsome in a T.V. western sort-of-way, with an easy casual manner. Good at fielding hecklers, Wasabassco’s a true MC.

Neo-burlesque, to its detriment, focuses on women lacking the plate spinners, chanteuses, and comedians, the mixed entertainment that marked traditional burlesque. The skimpily clad Glamazons, finalists on “America’s Got Talent,� performed at the festival; however, Wasabassco had over-the-top crooner, Bastard Keith. But it is clearly the women that audiences want to see.

Men performed in both shows. The festival’s three men performed true strip numbers; Japan’s Sexy DiVinci was a wonder in purple spandex break-aways. Wasabassco’s men provided humor — longhaired Jonny Porkpie emerged from a trench coat; Jimmy Kimmel writer, Seth Herzog, stripped to a Wonder Woman leotard.

With rare exceptions the choreographic language of the strip performance is created from a small repertoire of steps and movements — cross-step walks, kicks, hip circles, and shimmies; straight-legged bends from the waist; arms extend, showing off breasts and helping balance five-inch heels. In Neo-burlesque, trained dancers sometimes employ leaps and pirouettes.

I find myself quickly bored with the sameness of many performers’ rhythmic timing, choreographic patterns and steps, their rapid change from dress to undress. At Wasabassco, and this was one of the better quick strips, Legs Malone, a beautiful, tall woman enters in a wonderfully crafted big hat, red lamé dress with separate butterfly sleeves, its back gathered just at the top of the buttocks. A few standard repertory movements, a few moments to play with a tasseled zipper and slip out of a halter — boom — dress open. Hide behind sleeves, open sleeves — purple pasties top and bottom. Where is the interest, the tease? At the festival, Angie Pontani — Miss Cyclone 2008 and one of the original NYC Neo-burlesque performers — in a beautiful blue gown that disassembles in many parts, Amber Rae in purple Mae West regalia, and Georgia’s Renee La Rue, a costume designer, all performed classic burlesque strips slowly removing item-after-item while strutting the stage. GiGi La Femme, Wasabassco’s headliner and reigning Miss Coney Island, entered in a cloud of tulle and a dress-military jacket. Cross-stepping the stage, bending, shimmying, she removes pantaloons and corsets slowly revealing her nakedness.

When I first researched the strip performance, back in the old Show World, I was struck by how some dancers simply spread their legs, while others turned their three-to-five minutes on stage into tiny stories told through costume, choice of music, and gesture. At Wasabassco Nasty Canasta enters in a dressing gown and sleep mask. Stripping, she climbs into an oversized Greek-paper cup and sponge bathes. Ms. Tickle, who wore the feather hoopskirt in the festival, came as a giant cake for Wasabassco. Popping out, the top was a hat, the center a skirt.

The most unusual were Boston’s Vikki Likkerish at Wasabassco and St. Louis’ Gravity Plays Favorites at the festival. Gravity is a duet pole act, a cross between strip and Cirque du Soleil. Beginning in Dresden china-like costumes, the two flip and balance on the pole. Stripping each other, they continue in a fluid series of acrobatic stunts astonishing in strength and elegance, sensual and suggestive. Likkerish, in a simple, cerulean cocktail dress, sits on a chair, spreads her legs and pulls out a bucket of water. As she languidly begins to bathe her legs, black drips appear, her big-Xed fishnet stockings are, in fact, painted. Simple in construction, the slow drips as she continues to bathe her blue tattoos are evocative beyond the number’s content.

New York is filled with places to see all levels of burlesque. In Brooklyn, DUMBO’s Galapagos Art Space and Public Assembly in Williamsburg are two reliable spots. Smaller shows are found in bars all along Fifth Avenue and scattered through Williamsburg. Dates and places are readily available on the web.

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