It varies greatly, depending on the performer and group, and that's as someone who's helped out with a geek-themed burlesque troupe.

A lot of the girls phone it in more because they know all they have to do is end with less clothes than they started with and the (often guy-dominant) audience will be happy. The guys generally know they need to entertain more. This one seems fairly rough - I've seen shows with fire-spinning, aerial silk, whips and ridiculously good physiques, so it runs the range from people doing the white people dance while tearing off clothing to legit performers.

But yeah, the bar can be pretty low for these shows, and that's coming as a person who works them.

I'm sure some of it is just that the people who got filmed tended to be the best performers, but it seems like the bar was higher during the 50s burlesque revival than during the current one. My armchair speculation is that because there were far more serious social consequences for a woman who did something like this two generations ago if you were doing it, whether out of necessity or whatever, you were pretty committed by default. There are definitely some really impressive performers today but it seems like there are a lot of people in it now who are in it because it's a low risk way to get a lot of attention in an uncritical envronment.

Plus where the fuck are the vaudeville dwarves? Where is the Little Jack Little of the 21st century?

They are no "Rita Repusla" that's for sure. Fucking hell!!