Strip club

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A strip club is a nightclub or bar that offers striptease (the erotic removal of a performer's clothing) and possibly other related services such as lap dances. While usually considered much less objectionable than more explicit adult entertainment such as live sex shows, they are often the focus of morality campaigns and restrictive legislation.

High-end establishments tend to be known as "Gentlemen's Clubs". More down-market competitors may be referred to as titty/tittie bars, nipple derbies, skin bars, girly bars, nudie bars, or go-go bars. Sometimes, they are referred to as men's clubs (not to be confused with working men's clubs). In a bikini bar, dancers typically do not disrobe completely.

Men are the primary consumers of this form of entertainment, ^{[citation needed]} at straight clubs and gay clubs, but at least one chain, Chippendales, caters mainly to straight women. Since the main attraction of a strip club is the stage show, almost all clubs have a cover charge.

Gentlemen's and strip clubs are a $5-billion industry in the US, and generate approximately 22% of the gross revenue in US adult entertainment.^{[citation needed]} In the U.S. more money is spent in strip clubs than is spent on theatre, opera, ballet, jazz and classical music concerts combined.^[1] Some clubs have hundreds of entertainers appear on stage within a single year.^[2]

Sapphire Gentlemen's Club in Las Vegas has been billed as the world's largest strip club; in 2006 it was sold at auction for $80 million. Tampa, Florida is well known for its strip clubs including the famous Mons Venus. Howard Stern, a radio host and television personality, makes frequent mention of Scores, another famous strip club in New York. Scores front man, Big John, opened his own New York strip club, HeadQuarters, in October 2005.

Bangkok and Pattaya are world famous for their go go bars offering a variety of extra services (but no legal strip-tease). Amsterdam is famous for its live sex shows in De Wallen.

There is also a club on Route 17 in Lodi, New Jersey made famous by the television show The Sopranos. The club is actually a go go bar and does not offer nudity, but serves alcohol and not an actual strip club. It is also called "Satin Dolls" in real life, but is known more universally around the world and in the show as "The Bada Bing".

The Gold Club was an Atlanta adult entertainment club receiving national attention for the indictment of several of its owners, managers, and employees. The Gold Club trial also received significant attention because numerous significant professional athletes were called to testify.^[3]. The club was closed after the convictions of its owner, managers, and employees.

Portland, OR is infamously known for having more strip clubs "per capita" than any city in America.

Based on a 2008 article by the AskMen.com portal, the top 10 strip clubs in the world ^[4] are:

1. Hot Lap Dance Club, New York City
2. Night Flight (night club), Moscow, Russia
3. Larry Flynt's Hustler Club, New York, New York
4. 4 Play Gentlemen's Club, Los Angeles, California
5. Spearmint Rhino, Las Vegas, Nevada
6. Le Crazy Horse (cabaret), Paris, France
7. Seventh Heaven, Tokyo, Japan
8. Mons Venus, Tampa, Florida
9. Wanda's, Montreal Quebec
10. K5 Relax, Prague, Czech Republic

A champagne room (also called a champagne lounge, or champagne court) is a specialized service offered by gentleman's clubs where a customer can purchase time (usually in half-hour increments) with an exotic dancer in a private room on the premises. Depending on the quality of the club, the room, which is away from the hustle and bustle of the main club, is well decorated and usually has its own bar. Clubs sell champagne by the glass or by the bottle for both the dancer and the customer. Some clubs also offer a food and/or cigar service.

Comedian Chris Rock pokes fun at the champagne room in his hit single, "No Sex (In the Champagne Room)." Wyclef Jean later noted Rock's comment in his own reflection on exotic dancers, Perfect Gentleman.

Newspaper reports ^[5][6] indicate that customers can occasionally purchase sex in some American strip clubs. In most cases this is illegal, except when it occurs in one of Nevada's legal brothels.

Performers are called strippers, exotic dancers or just dancers, or entertainers. House dancers work for a particular club or franchise. Feature dancers tend to have their own celebrity, touring a club circuit making appearances. Porn stars will often become feature dancers to earn extra income and build their fan base.

Dancers collect tips from customers either while on stage or after the dancer has finished a stage show and is mingling with the audience. A typical tip is a dollar bill folded lengthwise and placed in the dancer's garter. Where legal (or legal restrictions are ignored), dancers may offer additional services such as lap dances or a trip to the champagne room, for a set fee rather than a tip. This fee will typically include a set fee for the room, for a set amount of time.

In the U.S., striptease dancers are generally classified as independent contractors. While a few smaller strip clubs may pay a weekly wage, for the most part all of a dancer's income is derived from tips and other fees they collect from customers. In most clubs, dancers have to pay a "stage fee" or "house fee" in order to work a given shift. In addition, most clubs take a percentage of each private dance. It is customary—and often required in the United States—for dancers to also pay a "tip out", which is money (either a set fee or a percentage of money earned) paid to staff members of clubs, such as DJs, house moms, make-up artists, servers, bartenders, and bouncers, at the end of their shift.^[7]

In several regions of the US, primarily due to the local legal restrictions, strip clubs often fall into one of two categories: topless and all/fully nude. Dancers in topless clubs are allowed to expose their breasts, but they are prohibited from exposing their genitals. Topless dancers typically perform in a G-string and, depending on local laws, may be required to wear pasties covering their nipples.

Fully nude clubs may be subject to additional requirements such as restrictions on alcohol sales or no-touch rules between customers and dancers.^[8] To get around these rules two "separate" bars—one topless and one fully nude—may open adjacent to one another. In a small number of states and jurisdictions, where it is legal for alcohol to be consumed but not for alcohol to be sold, some clubs allow customers to bring their own beverages. These are known as BYOB clubs.

In Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc., decided in 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a state can totally ban topless or nude dancing as Indiana did, though the decision was criticised for not doing enough to clarify to what degree nude dancing is considered free speech protected by the First Amendment.^[9] In the 2000 case City of Erie v. Pap's A. M., the Supreme Court reaffirmed its finding that nude dancing was expressive conduct "marginally" protected by the First Amendment, but ruled that it could be regulated in order to limit "secondary effects" such as crime.

A relatively liberal social climate keeps many locales in the USA from passing stricter legislation against strip clubs, or from enforcing it fully. However, in recent years, many cities, such as New York City and San Francisco, have enacted ordinances prohibiting "adult entertainment" businesses from within a certain distance of houses, schools and churches, and perhaps each other. Often, a distance of nearly half-a-mile is stipulated, thus guaranteeing that no new strip clubs can be opened in many major cities. Courts have generally upheld these zoning laws. “That crime and property depreciation are the inevitable consequences of the presence in a community of exotic dance adult entertainment” has, however, been called a myth, “perpetuated by media sensationalism, vocal minorities of the Religious Right and the feminist movement, the misinformed, ‘studies’ commissioned by various localities, [and] the justice system.”^[10]

Touching of strippers is illegal in most states. However, some dancers and some clubs condone touching of dancers during private dances. This touching often includes the fondling of breasts, buttocks, and in rare cases the vaginal region. In some locales, dancers may give a customer a "lap dance", whereby the dancer grinds against the customer's crotch while he is fully clothed in an attempt to arouse him or bring him to climax. For example in Tampa, Florida, some clubs such as the famous Mons Venus allows patrons to have full contact with the dancers during both private dances as well as while dancers work the floors visiting with the patrons.

• Bar fine
• Burlesque
• Clip joint
• Discothèque
• Go-Go dancing