Don't come here for the lap...

Don't come here for the lap dances - there aren't any. But you can play games with the girls. Go downstairs and you can either go straight into a pool room/sports bar or left into the strip club. I, of course, turned left. $4 cover charge (Note: all amounts in Canadian $) and you enter a large room with the washrooms on the left and a large square stage on the right. Beyond the washrooms, the bar takes up most of the left wall of the room. The stage has two non-brass poles and is surrounded by a very wide rail/tabletop that keeps you from getting close enough to touch the dancers. If you try to breach this barrier, someone will tap you on the shoulder and ask you to back away. Beyond the stage area there's a row of booths on three sides and another row of booths, bar top and tables beyond those. Some of the booth fabric is in serious need of repair, and the table tops can be quite sticky (drink residue, not body fluids I presume). In the far back of the room are three pool tables.

This being Calgary, there are no lap dances, and the dancers cannot solicit money from the customers. What's a girl to do? Each dancer comes out and does a set of about 5 songs. To their credit, the girls actually strip during the songs, in contrast to many US clubs where they do one song with clothes on and the next without, stripping between. They also come out in costumes that can be elaborate, if not dressy. (I never knew Adidas made track suits with so many sequins and spangles.) They spend the first three songs stripping and the last two nude. Canadians seem to get more excited by simple things than we in the US, cheering loudly when Red Riding Hood removed her cape but remained fully clothed.

The fun begins in the last 2 songs. The dancer spreads a blanket from her bag of tricks over the stage and dances on it. Oh those clean Canadians! To get tips, she sticks a coin or other object on a strategic body part (navel, pussy, ass) and the customers are challenged to throw $1 coins at it. If you hit the target (or if you keep missing but throw enough coins), you get a prize - a small poster, picture magnet, key chain or lighter. After her set, the dancer gathers her belongings, and a bouncer sweeps the coins from the stage for her.