The Entertainment Zone (revised)

From the beginning of time people have used many forms or ways to amuse themselves from gestures in medieval times to us now taking our families places like the circus. This concept of amusement is commonly known as entertainment. By definition entertainment is any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to occupy themselves in their leisure time. There are many methods from which people pull out from to fill that void in their lives like taking up hobbies, for example; stamp collecting. Another way could be to play 3 rounds of golf in the blazing hot sun. Throughout time people have always found ways to keep busy in their leisure time. Entertainment comes in many forms, and during the course of our lives in many levels. Some of the forms of entertainment are dance, music, games, comedy, cinema and theatre, reading, chatting with friend and many more. The activities involved in entertainment vary depends upon the age group.

Some adults use a different form of entertainment to unwind after a long day of work. The history of this form dates back as far as ancient Babylonian times. In the US this style started in carnivals & burlesque theatre in 1896. Regular worker like farmers or even miners would get off and go into town to these parlors, to drink, listen to live music and see ladies giving them a little shimmy then taking it back. Some even went upstairs to continue the party for a fee. A lot of people felt like this form were disrespectful and the participants were going to burn in hell, where some others who didn’t even part take in it say it’s just innocent fun. The form which I’m referring is striptease which is an erotic dance where the performer gradually undresses either partly or completely in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner to entice the viewer. Over time striptease as evolved into a 13 billion dollar industry. In our country that venue that now show striptease on a regular basis in a totally different and are called strip clubs.

I’ve worked in strip clubs where they are also common know as go-go bars or the high-scale ones which are called gentlemen’s clubs for about 10 years now. It was a friend of a friend that brought me to my first one and things just progressed from there. But I can remember the first time I walked into a strip club. It was my sister’s boyfriends;’ sister who took me there, she was a dancer at the time and she invited me to go to work with her one day. The day was a Wednesday, about 8:00 at night when I walked into Alice’s’ Pioneer Pub a gentlemen’s club in Newark, NJ. At first sight I was shocked and amazed at the same time. The bar itself framed a circular pattern around the inside of the club with chairs circling around it as well. The colors of walls were green surrounding a wooden bar. Directly in the center was a catwalk like stage that had two golden poles at each end. This was anew experience for me and the introduction to a whole new world.

Anyhow during this past decade I learned a lot about this type of entertainment both good and bad. What I’ve underlined about it is that this form is all about perception; you see first you must understand the concept, which is to watch or play with females while giving them money. Over time the dimensions of that concept have changed from play to have & pay which is a whole other concept in itself. But before we talk about the now lets first talk about the then. The original concept of a strip club is a place where adults come to watch beautiful women move their body in a sexy & seductive way, while they enjoy good music and partake in great beverage. (Either alcohol or beer) Every establishment operates differently but have core values like each bar pays one to a few dancers to work there stage that’s called a feature in upscale clubs and a booking in other clubs. The females not being paid have to pay the club to work there which is called a tip-in; this can range from $10-$50 depending on the club. Each club has its own rules regarding their “workers” theses consist of dress, hygiene, and basic personal appearance. Meaning a dancer can not work at any club, only the clubs where they meet the requirements concerning their look, personality and performance and that varies from establishment to establishment.

The females in these clubs are called exotic dancers technically but I’ve put these females in sub- categories to fit the level of entertainment you find in the zone. The first one is the ideal name which is an erotic dancer she stays true to the definition she gives a little fantasy and that’s it’s. The second category is the performer she has a lot of tricks & visual stimulating acts and actually commands a crowd but she sometimes does thing that she’s not suppose to do to get the attention. The next category is not a nice one that is a stripper she is a female that only wants to show her body off it’s not about a fantasy or entertainment to her it’s just like bam here I am give me your money and sometimes she does whatever it takes to get it. The last category is that these females are placed in is the worst one , I call these girls UPs’- that stands for undercover prostitute she is the female that wears the uniform of a stripper but never entertains she just solicits sexual favors. Now we can not put the blame for the change of concept in this form of entertainment all on the females some of fault falls on the men also they are the customers.

I’ve composed sub-categories on the customers too they list is a little longer because they dictate the atmosphere of the females. The first type is the regular these men are usually married or very busy professionals that don’t have a lot of time to date so they use these clubs as places to see beautiful women and have a few drinks then they go home either to their family or an empty house. The second type is the flyer he’s usually a man that comes once and blue he spend a lot of money then disappears for a certain period of time. This kind of customer never looks for extra he just respect the original concept of entertainment. The next category of customers is the peeker this guy just drinks he sometimes isn’t even drinking alcohol never tips; he enjoys the lovely women around him but doesn’t contribute to concept of the club he’s in. The last group of customers you will encounter at a strip club is the nastiest they are the perverts these men come into the club with the intention of finding a woman to do extra stuff with, not even considering that that is not what the club is there for. Throughout my time of working in strip clubs I’ve met all these types of people their assistance to the evolution of this type of entertainment is profound and is what I feel is the essence of the change in concept. If they stayed true to the original plan the first idea, maybe there won’t be so much controversy around this venue at all.

There is a lot of argument against this form of entertainment its goes back to the bible toting missionaries of the early days in the parlors and has grown to be the right winged conservatives on Capitol Hill. A few reasons for the opposition for the strip clubs stem form the negative issues you can also find in some of these establishments. One of theses issues is underage dancers; legally a female has to be 18yrs. old to work at a strip club but sometimes you find young high school drop-out with fake ID trying to make a buck. Another issue is drugs, some females fall into this life and it’s really not for them so they start using drugs to cope with what they are doing. Surprisingly drugs are not hard to find in some of these clubs. The biggest issue that happens in some clubs is prostitution there are a lot of UP girls in these bars and they make the environment bad to be in. They are not following the rules and then that reflects on the clubs which is not fair. You that old saying one rotten apple don’t spoil the bunch, but in the strip clubs that apple helps you lose your business and for the bartenders like me you lose your job.

To fully understand the debate we must first know the law. Federal law places strip clubs in two categories either the club is topless or all/fully nude. The first category of topless is where the proprietor is allowed to have the dancers work with their breasts exposed but not their treasure boxes. The females walk around in g-string bottoms. Some states require the females to also wear pasties. (They are bedazzled covers for the nipples) The second category is all/fully nude which is when the proprietor are allowed to have there dancers to work completely nude. Some states subject all nude bars to additional restrictions like no alcohol clause meaning these clubs are not allowed to sell or serve alcohol. Another restriction is the no touch rule. This is really self explanatory but some states adopt this naturally as a way to control the entertainment.

Present-day there is still an on going battle between strip club owner and state officials one example of this struggle is the court case of Barnes vs. Glen Theatre, this case was about two businesses trying to add all nude dancers to there roaster. You see the establishment’s names were the Kitty Kat Inc. which was a strip club and the Glen Theatre Inc which was an adult store the idea was for them to join forces to become one big business adding nude entertainment but the Indiana government tried to ban the business, meaning close the club down. This case went all the way to the US Supreme Court in 1991 were they decided on behalf of the owner saying that a state can’t ban strip clubs because of the first amendment, which includes freedom of expression under the umbrella of freedom of speech.
On the flipside of the argument strip clubs are good places also. They allow adult to use their imaginations. They take couples to places of fantasy when a marriage is becoming stale. They permit undesirable men to feel desirable even if just for a short period of time. It allocates the fantasy union of consenting adults to have a little innocent fun. After all it is entertainment that was the concept for hard working people to be able to go to a place of good music, beautiful women and drinks. Its transition over time is just an outcry of society. But I think they serve a bigger purpose they can prevent some sexual assault. Think about if they were not here just envision all the perverts that are in the clubs out on the loose without a place to go to. Or the peekers, who would they be peeking at without some venue where they can legally peep at consenting lovely women there for their amusement. What would these men be doing? That would be a question we would be asking ourselves, so strip clubs serve a purpose.

Any who today is Saturday and time for me to go to work I still work in one of these strip clubs its not one of the bad ones but it still has the reputation of one. I work from open to close. I deal with every character I’ve talked about previously in this essay. The club I work at uses booking for their paid dancers its five sets of thirty-minutes. The performer does half an hour for the bar and half an hour for themselves. The customers come in many types and I generally enjoy them all. I get to meet new people every weekend as well as connect and form friendships with the repeaters. I can also serve a mean drink so if someday you’re in the area stop in and help you with a hand on tour.