Tramp Sensibility and the Afterlife of Showgirls

"Tramping" is a performative style indebted to the techniques of camp and "trash," but is ultimately distinct from and irreducible to either practice. Like camp, tramping is a form of queer parody; and like self-conscious "trash," it complicates the idea of bad taste. Tramp performance articulates itself in the negotiation of three paradoxes: degraded elevation, constrained freedom, and deceitful truth-telling. This article analyzes the tramp sensibility as expressed in a few recent off-off-Broadway plays, most notably the comedy Showgirls. The Best Movie Ever Made. Ever! and suggests further areas of critical inquiry in the investigation of this complex aesthetic.