She was the first nude magician in Las Vegas, working in the halcyon days of the 1970s and 1980s, and was inducted into Burlesque Hall of Fame.

And while she went the full monty in her act, she made sure to keep her movements classic burlesque; to maintain a seductive distance from the audience and to inject some personality and individuality into the performance.

"It was never meant to be vulgar," she said.

"I'm sorry, lap-dancing is not burlesque. Those girls get a lot closer that I ever would."

A grandmother, author, university graduate and former nightclub owner, Summers is in Canberra as a special guest at the Kitten and Kat of the Year awards at the Casino Canberra on Friday night.

Presented by Miss Kitka's House of Burlesque, the night will crown the best female (Kitten) and male (Kat) burlesque dancers of the year.

Canberra public servant Harley Quinn, who paid homage to Summers at the 2012 awards in a performance that took out the Audience Choice Awards, was thrilled to meet her in the national capital on Friday.

"To meet a true legend of burlesque is not only a privilege but a great honour," she said.

Summers was equally moved by Quinn's tribute.

"This is such an honour for me and such a delight," she said.

"I still say she looked better as me than me."

Summers was asked to visit Canberra by the award organisers when she posted on Facebook that she was going to make her first trip to Australia.

"You know you have a bucket list? We have always wanted to visit Australia," she said.

"I worked for an Australian in Las Vegas so we have several friends here, mostly in places we don't have time to get to. Why are you guys so big?"

Summers is travelling with her ninth – yes, ninth – husband, Texan pharmacist Ken Burrows whom she married in 1988.

"He must be the biggest gambler of all time," she said, with a laugh.

Burrows just drawled: "You can't shake a Texan that easily."

Her act began when she was working as a burlesque dancer and married to a magician.

"He said, 'Why don't you add some birds to your show?'," she said, eventually training doves to perform with her, hand out to members of the audience and make appear and disappear.

"I was doing the act totally nude so when the birds vanished and the gown vanished, even the people up there, burning the lights, didn't know where the birds went."

Summers still performs – although no longer totally nude – and recently appeared in the Las Vegas show Vegas Nocturn, by self-styled Australian impresario Ross Mollison, of Spiegelworld fame.

"When I do a burlesque show now, I'll go down to pasties [nipple covers] and a corset because I am 68 and there are things that look exactly like I'm 68," she said.

"I still do the birds as I used to do them. Twenty minute shows used to be the standard and you did three, four a day, six or seven days a week, every week. Now, you're doing a show where you're limited to four or five minutes so it's condensed and I try to put in the things I was most noted for which were the shimmy and the burlesque strut, the exaggerated walk, and a few bumps."

So far she has patted a koala, tried Vegemite and, unfortunately, broken a rib getting out of the bath on her trip to Australia, but the showgirl smile remains in place.

She's here to entertain.

"To step out in front of people when they might have had the toughest day of their lives and make them laugh, smile, make them feel special, that's what I love about burlesque," she said.