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14 years ago
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rickduganVerified and Certifiable Super-Reviewer
Definitly agree with the glitter. The scent is a tougher question since dancing is definitly hard sweaty work. The idea of putting the scent where it will be less likely to rub off like on the hair and shoulders makes sense.
article comment
14 years ago
Vegas is an unusual economic situation. It is a city whose tourist trade is based on conspicuous consumption. As Robert Venturi pointed out in his book Learning From Las Vegas even stop signs and fast food signs on or near the strip are oversize just so the stand a chance to be noticed. The strip clubs are competing not simply with each other but also with the topless shows at the casinos and taking the drive to Pahrump to the legal brothels. Nobody wants to tell their friends about going to Vegas and stopping buy a personal intimate strip club with a few really gorgeous girls. They won't really feel like they've been to Vegas unless they see a big lavish club with lots of extravagant features. Never mind that they could have gotten better mileage at a club back home, they could have gambled back home at bingo or powerball or scratch-off lotto games. But they didn't.
Another factor behind the vegas clubs is that visitors can usually hide the money they spent at the club as having been 'lost at the tables'. Since gambling and losing are so much a part of having made the trip nobody is going to suspect that the money might have been spent someplace else.
article comment
14 years ago
Unfortunately the voters are going to vote for the candidate promising to 'clean up the scum' every time. So I think that being a good neighbor is very important, but some of the things that you are suggesting would only remind people that there is a strip club in their neighborhood and help the 'crusaders'. But you do touch on the three things that I think really are important, which I call the three S's
SITE: Since nobody is going to be happy with the strip club next door, putting it in a place away from homes is a must. But other commercial tennants can be just as likely to complain about your reducing business. One possibility is to buy the whole center and sublease the parts you don't need. Then when the other tennants complain they are complaining to you. Eventually you might attract a set of tennants that are OK with you.
SIGNAGE: Of course you have to advertize the existence of your business, but choosing to make it look classy rather than tacky goes a long way.
SECURITY: Everything loud, trashy, or violent that occurs anywhere near your facility is going to be attributed to your club, fair or not. If there is a drug bust or a shooting outside of your club it will result in calls for shutting you down. So take responsibility for the whole area around your club. Even more so hire off-duty or retired police as your outside security. They know how to do it, communicate well with the local police and the local police will be less likely to want to shut the place down and hurt the income of their friends.
article comment
14 years ago
If somebody is sitting at a strip club and not tipping the dancers and not buying any dances it is because of one thing. He has no money. Possibly he might have money and has something specific he is looking for, but if he doesn't find it soon enough he is going to leave. If he continues to stay there and not spend it is because he has no money. You may not like the fact that he has no money but he likely isn't pleased with it either.
Grumble all you want, but ask yourself, how much chance was there that an empty chair was going to give you money? Because if mister broke wasn't there you would be dancing in front of an empty chair. He isn't costing you anything compared to the empty chair, and be bought the right to be there with the cover charge and drink.
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14 years ago
<p>@Dudester, you still miss the entire point of the article. Yes I have been around the country and even around the world. I know how things do work. I even know about the story and symphony, (I just didn't see what it had to do with having a panic button in a VIP room.) But let me assure you I DO know how things work in the real world.<br />
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But the point of the article isn't how things DO work, it is about how things SHOULD work IF you reconsidered things around the idea of making it a better working environment for the dancers (while still being a strip club of course). <br />
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So the busboys get plenty of looks all the time, but that is no reason why they should also be peeking into the private VIP rooms too! Not if the club management is trying to do the right thing.<br />
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And if a stripper can't get help from the courts, does that mean that they also shouldn't get help from the club management if the club mamagement is trying to do the right thing?<br />
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And counseling referral services are part of the benefits package as most progressive companies. Yes there is a chance that they will tell the accountant that they should stop being an accountant, but it is just as likely that they will resolve the problems that are keeping the accountant from being a productive accountant. Sure the counseling service might convince someone to leave the job, but if so it will likely be no great loss to the club of a dancer who really didn't belong there. And replacing such a dancer is not hard.<br />
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Again, this is not an article about what would be the normal thing to do. It is about what would be the right thing to do. We changed the entire way in which we fish for tuna out of consideration of what would be best for some dolphins. Yet it is inconcievable to consider improvements in how to treat the women performers who we profess to enjoy so much?</p>
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14 years ago
<p>@Dudester: Certainly the security has to be paid, but there is no reason why the compensation structure has to be such that the security is paid directly by the dancer. It simply creates an envoronment ripe for extortion, which by its nature is intimidating even if no outright extortion occurs.<br />
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I am not sure what you mean by a Peter and the Wolf Situation. Did you actually mean Boy Who Cried Wolf situation? I doubt that it would. And I suspect that a lot more clubs have panic buttons or their equivalent than you think. One of the things that dancers fear most is a customer who gets threatening. And once they get threatening calling out for security could be dangerous.<br />
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Of course the club manager has to meet the requirements of law enforcement, but everybody from cooks to busboys peeking in is exactly why having them generally be regarded as private is fair to the dancers.<br />
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As to sexual harrassment, my point was that management takes problems of sexual harrassment seriously, not the courts. Sexual Harassment cases only wind up in court because the management hasn't taken action.<br />
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I didn't say that dancers had to be employees or full times employees, but some states, like California, do require dancers to be treated as employees rather than independent contractors. And the last I saw the clubs were going just fine anyhow.<br />
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I said other illegal activities which would not include alcohol, which is legal. What on earth could be considered responsible about looking the other way while your employees are dealing cocaine?<br />
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Referral services cost almost nothing. The only fear is that it would cause the dancers to realize that they should be doing something else.<br />
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But overall you seem to miss the whole idea of the article. It wasn't about what a typical club is like or 'that's just the way it works', but rather what a <b>responsible</b> operation would be like. Of course that is a little pie-in-the-sky from the standpoint of how things have allways been done. But they said the same thing when dolphin-free tuna standards were proposed too.</p>
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14 years ago
Costume is not that big a factor. I would prefer what I would call the 4 Ps:<br />
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Physical. Is her face and body of physically attractive. Ther are opinions on physical attractiveness, but also some universal standards too.<br />
Presentation. This includes hair, makeup, nails, scent (or lack thereof) and clothes.<br />
Performance. How does she move on stage, while in the club, and during the private dance.<br />
Personality. Her attitude both on stage and dealing personally.
article comment
14 years ago
<p>1. Most cities that have created smoking bans have after a period of time seen revenues go up. Not instantly, and perhaps not 50 percent, but definitly higher. Also the clubs usually see reduced maintenance costs.<br />
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2. I agree on the loud music. I have yet to see a review complain about the music not being loud enough. Having to shout is not sexy either for you or for her. I think that the loud music is the DJ showing off.<br />
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3. This I agree with generally, but club owners should pick the sexiest and most skilled dancers either way. I can look past a tat.<br />
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And just because lots of clubs are doing it doesn't mean that it is best. </p>
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14 years ago
@georgemicrodong:<br />
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So you buy lapdances unconsciously?
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14 years ago
@gerogmicrodong:<br />
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Menstrual synchronization is a well known phenomenon, and the role of pheremones in it is well known. But this is about changing a conscious behavior, specifically sexual desire.
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14 years ago
@georgmicrodong. Despite marketing claims of cologne and perfume manufacturers I do not think that there has been a single controled, peer-reviewed paper that has shown pheremones actually causing men or women to change behavior (like tipping more). There is plenty of evidence in other species but in terms of humans changing otherwise voluntary behavior, nada. Maybe it is pheremones, maybe something else. If they could conclusively prove it was pheremones, and which ones, it would be a breakthrough.
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14 years ago
@winorhino: Self-reporting was unavoidable. Could you imagine any dancers participating if it meant having a researcher check their money at the end of each shift and then physically verify if they were menstruating or not? I know strippers are used to strange requests, but 'I need to swab your vagina for signs of blood' is over the top.<br />
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Besides, you would have to imagine some reason why women not on hormonal birth control would exaggerate their income more than others, and that they would exaggerate more while they would ovulating!
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14 years ago
True sinclair, I have heard women say how going off the pill suddenly had them feeling incredibly horny. The funny thing is that, horny or not a dancer is going to be doing everything she knows how to do to get your money. And dancers are certainly pros at faking sexual desire. So it is either something she doesn't know she is doing or just can't be faked.
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14 years ago
Things I hate in reviews.<br />
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Wrtitng in texting shorthand. It is fine when you have a limited keyboard and screen, but come on.<br />
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Writing in ghetto style jargon. fine for verbal communication, but we are interested in the club, not you showing off your street cred.<br />
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"it has the kind of stage I like" or "she has the kind of body I like". And what is that?<br />
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No or incomplete mention of money "gave her my usual tip and left satisfied". Ok, one of the main thing that a reader of a review is wondering is how much money might I need to have a similar experience at this club. I know that there is a concern about leaving a written accusation of prostitution, in which case at least give an idea of the total spent at the club.<br />
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Details that are clearly wrong. for example a recent review of the Tropical Lei in Upland said 'nestled in the foothills" when it is next to the airport and 'there is no VIP when several other reviewers specifically mentioned the VIP prices. If you are going to fabricate a review at least do your research.
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14 years ago
I stand corrected, but it illustrates how odd and confusing the borders of the COI can be. Paradise (the one in La Puente) is on the same street (Valley Blvd) as four other COI clubs, two are to the east and two are to the west of it by more than a little distance.
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14 years ago
@Misterguy. You misread what I said. When I said that a prostitute could go to the police without fear I meant the kind of prostituet that is not prohibited under the law: a girl operating as a private individual, independent call girl.
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14 years ago
All free societies fall into two categories. Those that have chosen to make certain forms of prostitution legal and monitored and those that have decided to have certain forms of prostitution quietly ignored even though technically illegal. Depending on the jurisdiction in the US it is some combination of massage parlors, call girls or strip club private rooms that form the quietly ignored prostitution.<br />
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I don't see the US ever getting beyond the quietly ignored stage because the moralizers have considerable political sway. Unfortunately that approach makes it easer to have the sex workers be exploited and harder to protect against serious abuses like human trafficing and underage prostitution and to provide health protection. On the other hand I can see approaches that have the government be an active participant (licensed brothels) or clearly ignoring the situation (red light districts) can undermine government's general credibility.<br />
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The best approach that I haave seen is Canada's, where the court has ruled that what an adult couple agrees to sexually in private, including money for sex, is none of the government's business. That essentailly legalized private independent call girls. Operating a 'bawdy house' is still illegal as is streetwalking and pimping. But a girl can get health services or report a crime against her or a crime which she knows of (such as underage prostitution or human trafficing) without worrying about herself being arrested.
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14 years ago
What the third section pointed out to me is how the strip club experience is so varied around the country. For example the 'black club' distinction and the business about wrist bands and bottle fees is completely foreign to the clubs in LA that I have been to.