Margaret Cho is the veritable Renaissance woman. As a stand-up comedian, Cho has boldly targeted both social and political issues in her routines, and is a fierce advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. As a musician, Cho has released three albums, and as an actress has lent her talents to comedy — her three-episode run as Kim Jong-il on 30 Rock is a standout — and the dramatic, earning top marks from Collider for her performance in 2024’s All That We Love. Any one of these could serve as an inspiration, but for American Pickers‘ star Danielle Colby, what Cho inspired in her has little to do with the aforementioned talents, but with another of Cho’s passions: burlesque.
Margaret Cho Turned Burlesque From Taboo to Terrific for Danielle Colby, AKA Dannie Diesel
Colby grew up in Davenport, Iowa, in which she calls “a very loving but strict household” of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Despite taking an interest in burlesque at around age 10 or 12, her upbringing painted the art form as taboo, so she shelved the fascination. But in 2004, Colby attended Cho’s variety show The Sensuous Woman in Chicago, where the show’s mix of comics, singers, dancers, and striptease artists reignited that interest with burlesque, only stronger, saying:
“What I realized after I left that event was how absolutely liberating it was, to be in a room with women on stage who were ranging from a size zero to a size of, easily, 28 – all different types of women, with all different strengths… That’s the feeling I left with, and it was life-changing, and at that point I knew I wanted to do it [burlesque].”
She began by taking classes, which turned into teaching burlesque classes. Colby ultimately toyed with the idea of forming a local burlesque group, but friends and family were not exactly supportive of Colby’s proposed venture. “Oh yeah, people thought I was insane,” she admits in the previously cited River Cities’ Reader, but — as any fan of American Pickers would know — Colby isn’t one to care about what people think. Shortly after, Colby formed a professional performing troupe, Burlesque Le’ Moustache, and took on the stage moniker Dannie Diesel, which she’s kept ever since.
A Health Scare Took Dannie Diesel Offstage
Colby has been very upfront about how burlesque has helped her on her life journey, which allowed her build a healthier relationship with her body and sexuality, teaching her “about what I don’t want to be and what I do want to be.” But life had different plans for Colby.
In a December 2024 Instagram video, Colby announced that she was forced to cancel her upcoming burlesque shows — now and for the foreseeable future — because of a family health issue, which deeply concerned fans. It wasn’t until April 19th, 2025, that Colby announced that she was bringing Dannie Diesel back to the stage after confessing that she was the one dealing with the health issue.
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As American Pickers prepares to enter a six month hiatus, the first real break for the cast in over 15 years, Colby is using the opportunity to open up a museum dedicated to burlesque and the “ecdysiast arts” (as Colby explains, “‘ecdysiast’ is just an old-timey word for peeler, stripper, burlesque — anybody who works in the nude arts”). Interestingly, her day job on American Pickers has been a boon to her love of burlesque history. She’s come across some great costumes from the past, including a 1890s Lillie Langtry original costume from the Follies Bergere in Paris, a banana skirt believed to have been owned by Josephine Baker, and a number of bras from “the First Lady of Burlesque, April March (per the previously cited Fox News).
It is all part of her goal to inspire other women, as she was inspired by Margaret Cho, with her Dannie Diesel performances on stage, and the preservation of treasures from the past off of it, saying, “It would be a shame if this history featuring all of these strong, talented, amazing women were lost because of the shame of being a striptease artist, because there’s no shame in that. It’s a beautiful art.” And who knows? Maybe she’ll inspire Cho to become a picker for the 28th Season of American Pickers when the cameras start rolling again in January 2026.
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