Indiefest is back for 2026, and a team of burlesque beauties will 'Bare to be Stupid’ with Indiefest's West Coast premiere of the ‘Weird Al’-themed burlesque documentary Tight & Nerdy Saturday night.  

San Francisco Indiefest 2026 kicked off Thursday night, with a screening of that documentary on the SF origins of SantaCon. If you missed it, it’s available as video on demand on the Indiefest website. Same goes for tonight’s screening of Bring the Ruckus: The Residents and Wu-Tang Clan playing at The Roxie (6:15), so you’ve got no excuse for missing any of what will surely be a kick-ass 2026 Indiefest (February 5-12).

But there’s a Saturday night screening that really slapped our polka face. You may recall back in early 2023 when an SF-based burlesque group was running a Kickstarter to make a documentary about their ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic-themed burlesque troupe. Welp, they actually raised their $115,000 and made the damned thing, and now the documentary Tight & Nerdy will have its West Coast premiere Saturday night at The Roxie at 8:30 pm.

“Our biggest hurdle was music licensing,” producer Jeff Nucera (producer of MTV’s The Osbournes and Showtime’s Gigolos) tells SFist. “Weird Al and his team were extremely supportive, but Al doesn’t fully control his parodies. So we had to reach out to the original writers of those songs to get permission to use them.”  

“But now, we are thrilled beyond belief to be able to hold our West Coast Premiere in San Francisco at the 28th San Francisco Independent Film Festival,” he adds. “Not only did the Tight & Nerdy troupe start many years ago in the SF Bay area at the Hubba Hubba Revue, but our very first shoot for the documentary took place in San Francisco in 2016. Bringing this film back to where it all started is a dream come true.”  

There will be some extra live-action treats for the audience Saturday night too. Tight & Nerdy members Mistress Marla Spanx and Pearl E. Gates will be performing some onstage numbers that do not appear in the film, in a set emceed by troupe members Odessa Lil and Pickles Kintaro. Plus there will be a Q&A with the troupe and the filmmakers after the show.

And yes, of course they have met ‘Weird Al’ and he has seen them perform.

“The ‘core four’ members of the troupe all met Weird Al at different points throughout the years since we formed,” troupe member Odessa Lil tells us. “I snuck in undercover as a 501st [Jedi] member to one of his shows 11 years ago. I got to ‘guard’ him during the signing since I was dressed in a friend's Imperial Guard uniform, and eventually I got to talk to him. I said, ‘I'm in your burlesque troupe!’ and he looked confused for a second, then remembered that he knew about us already.”

“Meeting Weird Al was beyond anything I ever could have imagined, and meeting him with my troupe mates made it all the more meaningful,” she adds. “ He's exactly the kind and attentive guy he seems like he would be. He's a vegan, you know.”

“Al is always so gracious and so wonderful,” says troupe member Pickles Kintaro. “He is just the kindest whenever I see him. He looks at me. He knows he recognizes me. And then I go, ‘Pickles,’ and then he goes, ‘Oh my God, Pickles. How are you?’ and I get a great big Weird Al hug. It's the sweetest thing ever.”

Saturday’s screening is sure to be packed with Hawaiian shirts and maybe even an accordion or two on the premises, and marks the culmination of years of efforts.

“I hope this documentary speaks to folks of all ages and genders,” Odessa Lil adds. “The greatest thing about modern burlesque is its inclusivity and opportunity for creative empowerment. We're weird — and we're middle-aged women who take their clothes off to Weird Al's music. But what we're saying is, you will find your people like we have.”

Tight & Nerdy will play Saturday night, February 7 at 8:30 pm at the Roxie Theater (3117 16th Street) Tickets here

Related: SF-Based 'Weird Al' Yankovic-Themed Burlesque Group Is Making a Documentary, Will ‘Bare To Be Stupid’ [SFist]

Images courtesy ‘Tight & Nerdy’

SFist provided you with a rundown of the plethora of St. Patrick’s Day festivities, which started over the weekend and will continue through Monday.

Here are a few more things happening this week, March 17-23.

Free Tulips at Union Square

• Spring is almost here, and so are the free tulips at Union Square. The square will be decked out with 80,000 tulips grown from Dutch bulbs in celebration of American Tulip Day. Head on over on Saturday afternoon and grab a small bouquet of stems to take home. Last year there were six free tulips provided per person, but it’s unclear how many will be available this year. Expect long lines.

Screaming Queens Documentary

• The Tenderloin Museum and Frameline Film Festival are hosting a rare screening of the documentary, Screaming Queens, at the Roxie on Wednesday. The documentary chronicles the historic 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria riot, a pivotal moment in trans history that predates Stonewall. (The site of Compton’s at Turk and Taylor in the Tenderloin recently received two historic designations.)
  
  After the film, there will be a Q&A with the filmmakers, Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman. Advance tickets are sold out, but there might be tickets available at the door if you get there early.

Books and Bikes on Clement Street

• The SF Bike Coalition and Spokes + Folks are hosting a bike-centric event in front of Green Apple Books during the quarterly Clement Street Art Walk on Thursday. Beloved mobile library, Biblioteca Bicicleta, will be on location, and there will be giveaways and other activities.

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Bay Area Living Legends Burlesque Weekend

• The Bay Area burlesque community comes together for the annual Bay Area Legends Challenge, a weekend-long fundraiser for sending retired performers to Las Vegas’s big Burlesque Hall of Fame event in June. This weekend’s events include a variety of showcases, as well as a brunch and a workshop series.

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Free Bayview Game Fest

• Local gaming enthusiasts are invited to the first annual Bayview Game Fest on Saturday, which is free and open to all skill levels. Participants can compete for prizes by demonstrating their skills at NBA 2K25 and Mario Kart and learn about the world of gaming, including careers and content creation and streaming.

Image: Larry Zhou/Ghetty Images

“The world's first and only all Weird Al themed burlesque troupe” Tight & Nerdy was founded here in San Francisco, and after a slew of sold-out shows, they’re crowdfunding a full-length feature documentary about their troupe called Showgals.

The legend of accordion-slinging parody pop-star “Weird Al” Yankovic has aroused more curiosity in the wake of November’s wildly inaccurate Daniel Radcliffe biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. But here in the Bay Area, the film that may prove more arousing is the possibly upcoming documentary Showgals, which follows the polka-faced antics of the San Francisco-based burlesque troupe Tight and Nerdy. That film is wrapping up its crowdfunding campaign, which ends Friday night.

This “Weird Al”-themed burlesque troupe dates back to 2012. “I had pitched the show to a few local producers and no one was interested,” the group’s founder Pickles Kintaro tells SFist. “Jim [Sweeney of Hubba Hubba Revue] saw the opportunity and gave us a chance to takeover a Monday night at the Uptown in Oakland.”

That show was originally called “Al-stravaganza.” Troupe member Odessa Lil tells us “It was one of those moments when you know that something is either going to be a raging success or a complete and utter flop. No middle ground.”

It would in fact be a raging success, in no small part because “Weird Al” himself retweeted an announcement about the show.The tweet still exists online (but the TwitPic plug-in no longer works or displays.)

And “Weird Al” himself is interviewed in the documentary. “We've all been lucky enough to meet Al,” according to Kintaro. “Mistress Marla Spanx was with me the first time I got to meet Al at the Marin County Fair and it was a most magical evening. Every time I have met him since, I remind him I am the ‘Weird Al’ stripper and the reactions are always hilarious. I've had everything from recognition, confusion, and concern.”

It helps that they’ve brought in directors Jonathan Runae (co-producer on the feature documentary, Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry) and Jeff Nucera (producer of MTV’s The Osbournes and Showtime’s Gigolos, who adds, "I’m perhaps best known for sorting Weird Al’s fan mail since 2001.")

“After working for decades in television production, there are very few things that rattle me,” Nucera says. “But sitting down to interview Weird Al was definitely one of the most intense days of my career."

“It is more than just a story of Weird Al-themed Burlesque — it is also a story of people who had to learn how to love their inner weirdness, and the role Weird Al played in their self-acceptance,” he adds. “By proudly calling himself Weird,' Al became a beacon for all of us who ever struggled to fit in.”

The crowdfunding campaign is making  big ask of $115,000, though in the final stretch, they’re already close to $100,000. Why so much money? “Al doesn't own the rights to a lot of his early parodies so it really complicates the matter,” Kintaro explains.

“The story can't be told without the music of ‘Weird Al’ and music rights are expensive. He doesn't own the rights to his early songs,” according to Odessa Lil. “The Kickstarter is to help fund that process and finish off the movie so it can be considered for distribution or streaming."

“Without Al's music, this documentary would be a terribly confusing silent film that no one wants,” Runae says. “Once we finish the documentary, we plan to submit it to film festivals, and from there, we hope to partner with a distributor so that every ‘Weird Al’ fan on Earth can see the finished film.  The fans that contribute to our Kickstarter at a certain level will be sent a digital copy of the film. And if you are into that sort of thing, even a Showgals Blu-ray.”

The SHOWGALS: The Movie (A Documentary) kickstarter campaign runs through Friday, March 10 and 10 p.m. PT.

Related: One-Night Virtual Sketchfest Draws ‘Mr. Show’ Reunion, Peaches Christ, Weird Al [SFist]

Image: Illume Allure Imagery

You’ll laugh it up, fuzzball, at The Empire Strips Back, a Star Wars burlesque parody stage show that uses the force of elaborate costumes, props, and puppets that are out of this world.  

If you’ve ever done any social media clicking on Star Wars-franchise or burlesque performance content, you have likely been served many a Facebook ad lately regarding a performance called The Empire Strips Back. This is indeed a real show; it opened in preview performances in early July, and this striptease show catering very specifically to Star Wars fans with encyclopedic knowledge of the franchise had its opening Thursday night at the Chinatown’s Great Star Theater, and continues its (Kessel) run through August 28.

But The Empire Strips Back is not a local show. It started a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, specifically in Australia in 2011, and toured that country a few times. It had a brief 2018 engagement at The Warfield and has played a few other U.S. venues. Your emcee for this engagement is Oakland standup comic Eric Newton, who does crack one BART joke while never breaking his semi-canonical character, but otherwise, this touring revue could be plugged in to any city’s theater, which is what it seems designed to do.

Even a stormtrooper can’t miss when doing a Star Wars-themed show in the Bay Area, where the cult fandom runs strong. But still, the hardest-core Comic Con cosplayers out there will find the elaborate prop work, costumes. and puppetry to be most impressive. (In particular, a fully operational R2-D2 unit is capable of some genuinely stellar disco lighting effects.) Thursday’s show clocked it nearly two-and-half hours, pretty much the length of a Star Wars movie, but its asteroid field of slapstick gags never dragged or slowed.

The show is highly heterosexual, proudly lowbrow, and primarily female-centric cheesecake numbers. But this does not stop standout male dancer Jin Kim from pretty much stealing the show, and it helps that he does not have as much headgear slapped on him as his counterparts in Boba Fett and Darth Vader helmets.

Of course, San Francisco has a burlesque scene that’s light years ahead of most cities, and burlesque devotees will hardly be blown away by the choreography. There is no try on any traditional tricks like chair dancing or fan dancing, nor any aerialist stunts or tassel-twirl tricks.

Though there is one standout set, which may or may not be referenced in the above photo, that employs certain costumes in a Chorus Line-Rockettes context that achieves a memorable effect. Otherwise, this show is Star Wars camp set to contemporary pop hits, whose humor is fueled by a non-stop parade of minor-character cameos, with very crowd-pleasing results.

The Empire Strips Back never reaches for an artistic high-water mark, but what will surely stick with you are its elaborately crafted props, puppets, and costumes, plus a light show that absolutely dazzles. This is a traveling show, but does not have the carpetbagger feel of those Netflix-show “immersive experiences,” because it fits well with the culture and feel of the newly incarnated local favorite Great Star Theater. And despite all the droids and wookies onstage, the human element is still strong with this one.    

The Empire Strips Back runs though August 28 at the Great Star Theater, 636 Jackson Street. Tickets here

Related: Photos: Star Wars Premiere Awakens Stellar Cosplay [SFist]

Images: Empire Strips Back

Don't you feel like you need a kick in the pants tonight? I don't know, maybe it's the candy or the 4/20ness or the concussion from the Big Wheel race, but we're all a little draggy (and not in the fun way) today, yeah? That's why SFist is prescribing a trip to the Uptown for what's billed as "San Francisco’s biggest and wildest burlesque show," Hubba Hubba Revue.

Described as "a mix of irreverent comedy, classic striptease and circus and variety acts," HHR just might be the jump-start your week (or something!) needs. Tonight's lineup includes performers Polly Pony Girl, Elle Emme & Boy Toy, Lula Applebruise, Bramani Quinn, Mojo DeVille, Empress Mo, Darla Tiesing Cox and Suzil Von Schtupt.

Still not sure? Then check out the video below for a Hubba Hubba taste, and take a look at their galleries for photos from past events.

What: Hubba Hubba Revue
When: Doors open at 9 PM, show is at 10:15
Where: The Uptown, 1928 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland (one block from 19th Street BART)
Cost: $5, or you can get advance tickets for $10

MUSIC: Toshio Hirano, San Francisco's beloved Japanese cowboy, yodels his way through his monthly honkytonk set featuring, as SFGate notes, "faithful, respectful renditions of heartbreaking country tunes," as part of Amnesia's Monday Night Bluegrass event. Be sure to check out Waiting for a Train, the award-winning short documentary about Hirano. (9 p.m., Amnesia, 853 Valencia Street)

BURLESQUE: Help the owners of the fabulous Fat Fancy, a radical resale plus size clothing boutique, spread their message of body love across the nation at Fat Dancey, a special fundraiser featuring a big line-up of burlesque performances and DJs. (9 p.m., El Rio, 3158 Mission Street)

LITERARY: The Monthly Rumpus presents another great bunch of authors, including Tupelo Hassman, Julie Greicius, Andrew Foster Altschul, and Adam Johnson, along with comedy by Nato Green and music by Shovelman and Luke W Gilbert. (7pm, The Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd Street)

PHOTOGRAPHY: Open Show, which organizes live events worldwide featuring the work of photographers, filmmakers, and multimedia producers in high-profile spaces, is celebrating its two-year anniversary with a special print exhibition featuring more than 60 photographers from 25 Bay Area shows. (5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Rayko Photo Center, 428 Third Street)

LITERARY: SFist has ‎it on good authority that queer literary gemstones Michelle Tea, Brontez Purnell, Annie Danger, Cassie J Snyder, and more will be reading at Occupy SF's: Art and Performance Series tonight. Definitely a great time to check out the camp! (5 p.m., Justin Herman Plaza, 1 Market Street)

WORKSHOP: Now, here's something many of us nerdy San Franciscans can benefit from -- Burlesque Basics for the Shy & Awkward, in which Virgie Tovar, aka Dulce de Lecherous, will teach "sexy book worms and the flirty Frasier-enthusiasts" "the difference between a shimmy and a bump and the power of eye contact" and how to choose your "burly alter ego, and practice your new moves." (6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Good Vibrations, 1620 Polk Street)

MUSIC: Oakland's own Hunx and His Punx look like they put on a really fun show, with their "1960s girl groups, early power pop, and punk" sound and a variety of sexy and hilarious costumes. Also on the bill are Shannon and the Clams and Uzi Rash. (We have a theme!) (8 p.m., The New Parish, 579 18th Street)

FILM: Australian film, Hannah and the Hasbian, which is screening as part of the current Frameline Festival, takes an interesting approach in this "romance crossed with a buddy movie" exploring what happens when one-half of a lesbian couple decides she's no longer a lesbian and embarks on a search for "Mr. Right Now."

BURLESQUE: Continuing the earlier theme -- introducing Burley-esque, a night of gender bending burlesque. "It's a little butch! It's a little burlesque! It's BURLEY-ESQUE!" (Many thanks to Dorothy's Closet for the tip!) (10 p.m., Rebel, 1760 Market Street)