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minnow

Any place that interests me.

With the current state of affairs, some of you may be wondering if there's an online strip club from which to get one's "fix" from. One such example that I'm aware of is 2001live.com. Within a few days after FL Governor DeSantis closed down all bars and night clubs effective 5 pm March 17, 2020, club management started running stage shows, 9 pm to midnight 4 nights per week. (Wednesday through Saturday). Online presence is nothing new to this Tampa FL club (2001 Odyssey) as it's been running website with dressing room and stage cams full view for VIP members since late 2009. Besides viewing the 2 cams, members had the option to purchase tokens to tip the dancers, or to make it rain (minimum of 25 tokens needed to do that.) One had (and still has) the option to purchase 7, 30, or 180 day memberships. (Latest rates for membership are $9.59, $25.58, and $100.38, respectively). So for the decade prior to Covid19 shutdown, that's how it was for 16 to 17 hours per day, 7 days per week. Exceptions being limited hours on holidays and club closed for hurricane evacuations. Sounds like a pretty good supplement to normal club operations. During present abnormal times, this is the only income stream (trickle ?) for club owners and some dancers. There are some differences between now and then that I'll cover later.

I'm well aware that Tuscl is mostly comprised of strip club patrons who prefer live visits/interactions with strippers over cam sites. As evidenced in several threads, we(tuscl membership) consider online interaction an unsatisfactory substitute for actual club visits. If I may make an analogy, Tuscl members are like a driver who owns a sports car, or a licensed pilot who flies an actual aircraft. (owned or rented). Cam/online only patrons just have a desk top simulator setup. This analogy is well and good, except that in these times your car or aircraft engine crapped out with overhaul taking an indefinite amount of time. Regardless of your thoughts on patronizing these sites, there's no denying that online applications are here to stay, and more a part of everyday life. Indeed, some companies utilize a short video interview as a screening tool to decide whether or not to call a candidate in for further consideration. So, without further adieu.......

THE PROGRAM: As stated before, 2001live.com live stream shows run 9pm to midnight Wednesday - Saturday, though it's not uncommon to extend the shows by ~ 15 minutes past scheduled closing if online patrons are enthusiastic enough. (read active tipping). At 9pm, first of 5 to 6 dancers on shift appear on stage, with DJ in booth playing 3 songs, introducing dancer, and egging users on. The one noticeable difference is there's no customers in club. Just a skeleton crew of 10 ( 6 dancers, 4 staff) to comply with 10 person gathering limitation.

Meanwhile, a second dancer is "on deck" in the dressing room. One dancer at a time only, other dancers and staff practicing 6' social isolation protocol. The dancer doesn't just pick her nose while waiting for her turn on stage, she'll be twerking and doing other moves for tips. No chat capability in this room, though dancers will write their name in grease pen on easel, and include plug for tips. Tip mileage varies, but dancers seem to get 10 to 25 tokens or even more per song in tips. I'm guessing 5 tokens (minimum tip) = $5, though to purchase tokens would cost an additional 7% to 8%.

After the 1st dancer finishes her 3 song set, the dressing room dancer takes the stage for her set, another dancer moves into dressing room, AND last but not least, the original dancer enters for the first time, The Ultra Lounge. (A room with plush couches and pole that can be rented by a private party. I think it's located downstairs with entry door to left of bar). This is where the most noticeable difference from the pre - lock down era occurs. This is an entirely separate room with different music from DJ stage is played. Most importantly, you can hear dancer talk. She can see what online patrons type on a screen, and answer their questions. She can also see who tips and how much. I should have mentioned that dancer enters room PG rated (generally a 2 piece outfit). Like the Atlanta Cheetah, how much the dancer takes off is dependent on how happy she is with the tips. The way it works out is most dancers don't take too long to get fully naked, and display their goods. Much twerking, and booty slapping occurs. No hardcore here. I haven't seen any sex toys, double penetration, or other stuff. One dancer slowly peeled a banana, and pretended to swallow it whole. I suspect the part that most patrons like is being able to see and hear hot babe talk about normal stuff, like her favorite food, books, movies, how she got into dancing, and so on. After 3 songs, she moves on to take a break, while prior stage dancer moves into Ultra Lounge.

So overall, the dancers after the lead off stage dancer works 3 rooms, 9 songs total before taking a break. With 6 dancers on shift, that works out to a 9 song break, then rinse repeat. PreCovid, on a peak night one could go for 3 hours or more without seeing the same dancer on stage again. Now you'll see the same dancer on stage twice within an hour. I'll examine the potential benefits and pitfalls for each of the 3 stakeholders in this thing: 1) Customer
2) Club Ownership, and 3) Dancers.

CUSTOMER: I won't pretend to account for the individual tastes of each 2001live.com member, nor the pool of potential members out there. Whether or not you'd personally consider paying the cost of a lap dance and a beer for 30 days membership just to get your club fix 2 nights/week isn't the issue here. Online porn, paid or otherwise is here to stay, and doesn't show signs of going away anytime soon. If nothing else, watching and interacting with some hot babes (scantily clothed or nude) for an hour sure beats watching Covid19, ad nauseam. Hey, have to stay in practice of evaluating and choosing talent to spend time and money on. (Wouldn't be a buzz kill to find out that a hot looking babe has a voice that grates on your nerves. Conversely, finding a mid range dancer whose voice and style push your buttons just so.) Finding these things out in advance can make for a more enjoyable/productive club visit for whenever things open up again, The one downside to current operations is that the narrow time
window makes viewing the live stream untenable for patrons outside Continental US. Someone like londonguy would have to stay up late (or get up real early) to catch show.

CLUB OWNERSHIP: By continuing their online presence, 2001 Odyssey is at least leaving their name out there for public awareness. Better so to have a global customer base of sorts versus having to depend on local/visiting patrons only for income. Indeed, the April 5, 2020 Sunday edition of "Tampa Bay Times" ran an article on back page 6E about the online strip club show. (I guess one could find an online version of article, but might have to subscribe to read it). The article cites an online membership numbering 370 from around the world. That extra ~ $8K or so per month may not sound too shabby as supplemental income, but not so great if it's the only income. Shoot, they probably made more than that from Friday and Saturday cover charges when club was operating normally. There's additional revenue from online sales such as videos, token sales, and (according to a dancer) a 15% cut of online dancer tips. Even with lower overhead from reduced operating hours, I wouldn't call things lucrative. Yet so far management sees online presence as a beneficial tide over until things return to normal. It may even induce some future Tampa visitors to patronize club. Isn't that what advertising is supposed to do ?

DANCERS: Current setup allows dancers to make some sort of money, plus keep up on their stage dancing/ pole dancing skills. Also can't let customer interaction skills atrophy too much. Yet this setup is probably not enough to replace what they were used to making. First, there's the 3 hour operating window, vs the ~ 4 to 6 hour shift they were dancing before. Secondly, they're only earning money ~ 30 minutes of every hour working the 3 rooms, nothing in the 30 minute down time. Normally, they'd only be on stage for 10 minutes, with the remaining 50 minutes available for selling more lucrative lap dances or VIP rooms. One dancer quoted by newspaper claimed to have made between $200 and $600 on normal Thursday nights. (I guess reporter visited club on a Thursday). On a recent (press time anyway) Thursday night, she made $75. That might have been the night she worked a partial shift, as I've seen some dancers leave early or come in late. Still, for the dancers, online presence is a good advertising medium. A good performance/customer interaction in Ultra Lounge now may very well result in a customer spending a bunch of bucks on her later.

SUMMARY- Even running public school math numbers suggests that present online operating setup is akin to a few slices of bread versus the full loaf. Yet for the time being, those few slices may be better than no bread at all.

Adjudicators

Muddy

shadowcat

Good job.

gobstopper007

DickyDoo2

Eve