HOW do you get to be a burlesque artist? Well, for Miss Tempest Rose it came from a love of showing off.

The glamorous Tempest, who brings Shipwrecked! to Surrey this month, reveals: “I trained as a musical theatre actress and did that professionally for about three years, but then a colleague suggested I audition for the Kitten Club, which is London’s longest-running burlesque club.

“She knew I loved to sing and dress up and show off and said you’d love this.

“So I auditioned even though I didn’t have a clue about burlesque – I’d seen the film Cabaret and imagined it was similar – and got in. That was about five years ago.”

Tempest took to the art form immediately and has never looked back, even travelling to Las Vegas to appear at the Burlesque Hall Of Fame.

“To me burlesque is a way for women performers to be all the things they are in real life, which can be intelligent, funny, playful, inspiring as well as sexy,” she says.

“For people who haven’t seen it before, I’d say if you think of burlesque as a sensual type of theatrical entertainment, you wouldn’t be far wrong. It can be very funny but also very sexy and beautiful.”

Shipwrecked! is being taken on tour by Tempest’s company, the House Of  Burlesque, and while burlesque performers are usually female, this show includes a male artist as well.

“We’ll be singing and dancing all in glamorous striptease costume and with beautiful jazz music.

“We tend to think of burlesque as the British meaning which is ‘satire’ – it’s very playful and funny and tongue-in-cheek. Each of our scenes is tied together by a central theme – in this case Shipwrecked!

“All the acts add to the story from sailing to hunting and there are flamboyant costumes and even a hula hoop routine. Each of the acts has a little story of its own.”

And if you like the look of the outfits and want to dress to impress at a House Of Burlesque show, feel free.

“The audience often dress up,” says Tempest. “Lots of people come in beautiful costumes, and it really adds to the show – but people shouldn’t feel pressurised into doing it. You can come along dressed however you want.”

The House Of Burlesque will present Shipwrecked! at G Live in Guildford on Saturday, July 14.