Covid has definitely changed my strip clubbing experience, but fortunately the differences as a customer have not been nearly as bad as what it has done to dancers. I typically only visit one club because I don’t go to clubs when I travel and the clubs in my area are pretty bad overall.
The new rules have been more of an inconvenience and those have lessened over the months. My first visit after reopening was surreal, masks all the time, no chairs at the rail or the bar, temperature check and worst of all to me was baskets on stage for tipping. There was zero contact when you tipped. Having to wear a mask during VIP was awful as it obviously limited the experience but missing out on a little grinding when I tipped on stage was really depressing. It really made tipping a dancer feel impersonal, kind of like putting money in a parking meter.
Before Covid I went to a club about every 4 or 5 weeks, since the shutdown in March I have been maybe 4 times. I am probably going less than half as often as I did but am definitely spending at least one and a half times as much. I did get my second vaccine shot a couple of weeks ago so I am not as concerned about getting Covid. Work is not overwhelming right now but the club experience is just not as personal as it was.
I generally went (and still do) in daytime. There have been a handful of dancers who I have not seen since reopening and only a few “baby strippers” have appeared on the scene. I have gotten to know pretty much all the regular daytime dancers so that has made the private dances better. While the familiarity is great I do miss the variety as there are only about 4 dancers at opening for the first 3 or 4 hours, if the club is busy there is a lot of sitting around checking emails. Also there is generally a one song break between dancers.
The private dances have still been as much contact as allowed and since that first night none of the dancers wore a mask or asked me to wear one in VIP. As far as the limo rides, those have been just as they were pre-Covid.
From talking to dancers the nights are definitely still screwed up. Cutting off alcohol sales at 11 was bad but the current 10 pm curfew has really hurt. Several have mentioned that if spring doesn’t bring a lot more normalcy back then it will really hurt the club. I have friend who processes Covid relief claims and he recently told me only one applicant put down “exotic dancer” on her application, but he was surprised to see how many females had home cleaning and hair styling businesses.
Covid has changed my experience but not ended it yet. I’m probably going to try some other clubs over the next few months just to see some different faces (and boobs and butts). Overall the biggest impact Covid has had on my experience is decrease in variety (though I do miss sitting at the bar occasionally), and if you go to clubs more for the fantasy that is definitely something. I enjoy the girls I see regularly but miss that new girl.
