Cora Vette’s leg up on local burlesque

Cora Vette can work a stage. One minute she’s regaling the crowd with naughty jokes (“What do a walrus and Tupperware have in common? They’re always looking for a tight seal.”). The next, she’s using coy innuendo — while wrapped in a tastefully tawdry ensemble that, with its careful attention to lifting the lady’s “ladies,” is virtually 3D, (nudge, nudge). Gracefully, tactfully, the modern-day madame shows no fear when it comes to freeing the sexy beast within.

“Cora Vette is the insane incarnation of myself,” she said after wrapping up an admittedly-conservative performance for a White Christmas ball she hosted. “Myself” refers to Reyna Von Vett, a former Vegas entertainer who’s sped up the pulse of crowds from Texas to Tokyo.

On this blustery evening’s performance she kept it clean (she adds, “for the most part”), fitting the more mature, jazz-centric crowd. “Right now, though, I’m on my way to a gay bar and I can tell you: conservative ain’t happening.”

Cue wolf whistling, which, for once, is welcome.

“After living in Vegas for six or seven years, my idea of risqué is heightened,” she said. And it’s apparent in the ease by which she ad libs marvelously between sets and lets some opulently off-color anecdotes set the “we’re all adults here” tone.

This is a woman who takes very specific measurements of the guys in her male dancing troupe, “The Hot Rods,” to make their G-strings. “I call them ‘penis pockets’ and sometimes they take a loooooong time to make,” she said smiling, leaving open what she’s hinting at. Classic Cora.

Von Vett also manages a troupe of seven burlesque entertainers known as the VaVaVettes. Helming the mic as host and hypewoman, she’s also the group’s costume designer, charged with constructing elaborate pieces that will end up looking nice on the floor, too — since that’s where they’re going.

Musically, she likes to marry old-school Liza Minnelli/Bette Midler stuff to new-school Gaga/Rihanna material. “Everyone should able to throw down at my shows,” she said. She likens some of her numbers to “Gypsy Rose meets Britney,” likes “taking something vintage and making it fresh,” but still resonating with the original.

When asked the difference in being hit on in a gay bar opposed to a more conservative venue, she confides, “It’s not different at all! But I think I scare people more than anything, so I don’t really get the ‘Hey-baby-what’s-your-sign?’ stuff.”

“Would it bother you if people hit on you more often?” I ask.

“No! That’s my goal for 2014. All sexy, all the time.”

She’s currently working on a coquettish concerta of sorts that takes doublespeak to mischievous new highs. “I feel like there’s so much overt sexuality nowadays and people are getting used to it,” she said, sighing. “I want to focus on music with innuendo, music that’s obviously filthy if you let your mind go there.” That shouldn’t be too hard. In the meantime, catch her show “Martinis and Misbehaving” every Sunday night at the Black Crown Lounge or visit CoraVette.com to learn more about the sassy lassy with the mouth of a sailor and voice of an angel.