Why more couples are having date nights at the strip club.

For most couples, “catching a show” would mean seeing a play or a musical on Broadway. But for Angela, 30, going to a show with her boyfriend meant visiting one of her favorite strip clubs in Elizabeth, NJ. “It was like going to the movies,” says the digital strategist from Brooklyn. “[Except] none of our friends knew.” ‘I THINK OF MYSELF AS A THERAPIST WITHOUT A LICENSE.’

• Mona Marie, stripper Though Angela and her (now ex-) boyfriend kept it a secret from their friends, strip-club dates have become a more popular outing for couples. Mona Marie — a 28-year-old stripper from The Bronx who dances at Sin City in that borough and Club Lust in Brooklyn — says she and her coworkers have seen the trend of couples in the audience growing over the last few years. “A lot of couples are going just to hang out,” she says. “But other couples may want to go to spice things up. Everyone is different.” Marie says the key to dancing for couples is to have a conversation with them before getting down to business — especially the lady. “I always talk to the woman first,” she says. “You have to get her comfortable because she’s not in her element and there are a lot of other beautiful women walking around with no clothes on.” Angela says she and her former boyfriend would always leave a strip club ready to rip each other’s clothes off. “We would come home and be charged up,” she said. “The environment initiated more intimacy. Our conversations would be very sexual. I can’t get into details, but it always ended up being a very good night.” According to Marie, Angela’s experience should be the goal for any couple who decides to spend a date night beside the poles. “I think of myself as a therapist without a license,” says Marie. “My job is to get the couples who come in to leave wanting to try something new.” Marie adds that the key to a good night is making sure both parties are fully onboard with visiting a strip club. “You have to match your partner’s energy,” she says. “If you come in and act standoffish, the next time they want to go to the strip club, they won’t want to take you.” For Anthony, a 28-year-old writer from the Upper East Side, his first visit to a strip club came courtesy of a woman he was dating. ‘COUPLES MAY WANT TO GO TO SPICE THINGS UP.’
• Mona Marie “We were eating dinner and I mentioned I had never visited one,” he says. “The next thing I know, we’re in her car headed to a strip club.” At first, Anthony was excited when he walked into the gentlemen’s club, but then he saw how expensive the beers were. “That killed the mood,” he says. While his date seemed perfectly comfortable watching the dancers, the experience didn’t add any extra heat to their romance. “Our relationship was already sexual at that point,” he says. “But that environment was not.”