“It’s just not fun anymore.”
I was speaking recently to an industry veteran, someone who has their ear to the ground and speaks to club owners from across the country on a regular basis. He said that he’s heard that five-word refrain constantly over the past several months, as longtime owners are looking to either sell their clubs or are lamenting the fact that their business is experiencing a consistent downturn like none they’ve witnessed before. They wonder, collectively, what happened to the strip club industry they knew and loved?
“It’s just not fun anymore.”
Ok, let’s stop right there. What, exactly, does that mean? I’d bet that each owner-operator who’s uttered those words may have a slightly varied explanation of what it means to them. I’m going to tell you what I think it means.
We have an industry full of first-generation club owners, and when they bought their clubs in the ‘80s, ‘90s or early 2000s, it was fun. Those guys were young, the club was like one big party, and all they had to do was offer beer and boobs and the money literally just rolled in. There was no internet to compete with, and with the introduction of the “modern gentlemen’s club” in the late ‘80s (thanks to people like Michael J. Peter), the Annual Gentlemen’s Club EXPO in 1993 (thanks to Don Waitt), and the upscale-club-with-fine-dining model of the late ‘90s (thanks in large part to several well-known Dallas clubs like The Men’s Club, The Lodge and Cabaret Royale), the industry was thriving.
Is today’s club industry the same one that existed in the ‘80s, ‘90s or early 2000s? Obviously not — or at least, it should be obvious that it’s not the same industry. Inventions like the internet and social media have changed the landscape of our entire world, and the adult club industry is not immune to these sweeping changes. Plus, your “best customers” from 20-30 years ago aren’t around anymore, and you have yet to “replace” them with 20-somethings (or even 30-somethings).
But when I hear “It’s just not fun anymore,” I don’t believe that the “fun” is gone simply because the internet has changed the way some men consume adult entertainment, or because the younger generations don’t seem to embrace the old-school strip club model. It’s more than that — a lot more.
Some of the guys lamenting that “It’s just not fun anymore” have no problem pointing the finger of blame at one of a few common targets:
• It’s the club chains’ fault. They’re buying up all of the good clubs and making it hard for us to operate.
• It’s ED Publications’ and the EXPO’s fault. They only care about the “big boys” and don’t care about the smaller operator anymore.
• It’s the internet’s fault, I can’t compete with OnlyFans and all of our best girls have left.
• It’s (insert politician’s name here) fault, they’ve ruined everything!
• It’s Gen Z’s fault, they don’t like strip clubs and we don’t know how to communicate with them or get them to come to our clubs.
• It’s the DJs fault; they play music I don’t like because that’s what the entertainers and customers want, but I hate it, and it’s chased my best customers away!
• It’s the entertainers’ fault, they’re just greedy now, they don’t know how to talk to customers, and it’s all about getting the fastest buck possible. And let’s not forget those dancer class-action lawsuits!
What’s the glaring omission from that “blame-game” list? Self-reflection.
When I hear “It’s just not fun anymore,” what I hear is, “When I opened this club it was like one big party. I got to hang out with the girls, I was the big man on campus, and it was easy money. But now it’s hard — I hate social media, I refuse to adapt to modern technology, I don’t know how to communicate with the younger generations of customers … and the dancers don’t want to hang out with me anymore.”
What I’m hearing is, when it stopped being easy, when it stopped being a “party,” you wanted to blame anyone and everyone for why your business took a turn for the worse. The more time passes, the more you’ve become stuck in your ways.
It’s not you that’s changed, right? Your club is still the same great club it always was, right? So what’s the problem?
Well, to be very blunt, YOU just might be the problem.
If it’s everyone else’s fault but yours, YOU are the problem. If you refuse to embrace modern technology that can save you money and/or help you make more money, all because you don’t want to learn a new way of doing things, YOU are the problem. If you look at the internet as the enemy rather than seeing the opportunities that it presents you to promote your club, YOU are the problem. If you think that cranking old Van Halen and ACDC tunes are the key to cultivating a “desirable customer demographic,” YOU are the problem (and that’s hard for me to say, because I love Van Halen and ACDC). If you refuse to attend the EXPO because you “know more than any of those idiots” and you don’t want to be part of the adult nightclub community, YOU are the problem. If you have re-used old dancer contracts from 10 or 20 years ago and then wonder why you’re vulnerable to a dancer class-action lawsuit, YOU are the problem.
Let’s digress there just a bit. If there’s one entertainer-related issue that’s risen above all others it’s the scourge of class-action lawsuits being brought by ambulance-chasing attorneys who have found a cottage industry for easy paydays. But I’m not going to let clubs off the hook as if they have no responsibility for these lawsuits.
Quite the contrary. In many cases, YOU (and/or your managers) were the problem that led to the lawsuit. Why? If you took an old, out-of-date dancer contract (i.e. stole a contract) and used it at your club, you screwed up big time. Allow me to present leading First Amendment and labor attorney, Brad Shafer (also an inductee in the ED Hall of Fame), who explains why this could be a disastrous decision:
“While I am certainly flattered that so many club owners send dancers into my clients’ establishments to get copies of my contracts to use in their own clubs (yes, I’m aware how prevalent that is), this really is legal suicide on your part. First, my contracts are drafted to match specific club operations, which probably do not match how your club operates. Second, laws change often, and you are most likely absconding with a contract that is legally out-of-date. Third, my contracts may contain specific provisions that are legally compliant for where my actual client’s club operates, but may well be illegal where your club is located. Using contracts without direct attorney input can easily result in a court or arbitrator deciding not to enforce any of the terms of “your” contract (including the arbitration provisions), which can be the kiss of death in a dancer misclassification claim or governmental audit. Don’t say later that I didn’t warn you.”
What you do, or don’t do, doesn’t just affect your club, or even the clubs in your city. When you operate fast, loose and careless, if you create bad case law or, if your club gets shut down by the city, those things can have ramifications that reverberate throughout the industry, in your city and beyond.
The old-school, “we’ve got beer and boobs” mantra is dead
Yes, there was a time when all you had to do was offer booze and dancers in various forms of undress (or if you were really lucky, offer full nudity with full liquor) to have a successful adult nightclub. Some didn’t even need to offer the booze; juice bars have also enjoyed a great deal of success over the years (and yes, some still do).
But the unfortunate reality is that, by and large, those days are over. And why shouldn’t they be? Why should adult nightclubs be any different than traditional nightclubs? Nightclubs never allow themselves to become stale and stagnant — if they do, they won’t last long.
Here’s what I mean: According to bar and nightclub experts, nightclubs regularly reinvent themselves to stay relevant, maintain popularity, and adapt to changing trends, typically within a period of two years or less. Yes, I said two years. This reinvention can involve changes in décor, music genre, theming, marketing strategies, or even a completely new concept.
To further drive my point home, I’ll quote EXPO ’24’s Keynote Speaker, Michael Tipps of Maverick Theory, a hospitality expert with many years of experience in the bar and restaurant business (he’s also consulted for adult clubs as well):
“A venue that can have nudity as a selling point still has to have a purpose beyond the nudity itself. This is the key to the entire industry, of the evolution of it. And guess what? It’s going to happen. We are one entrepreneur away from flipping the entire business upside down, where everyone’s gonna go, wow, it’s so simple. Why didn’t we do that? It’s not gonna take rocket science to do this. But it’s one Mark Cuban away from changing everything.”
Tipps continues.
“How many of you think that the industry is lazy and relies on nudity as it’s only source for income and revenue? Come on, let’s be honest. I want to go to the best cocktail mixology spot that has nudity. Take me there. I want to go to a (strip) club that offers Michelin-star dining. Take me there. Because the first person who does it is going to smoke everybody, and it’s going to become a new standard when the ‘normal’ operator sees the opportunity that you have.”
I can almost hear you saying, “Wait — a club that has an iconic brand or dominant market position doesn’t ever need to reinvent themselves or alter their format! That would be a huge mistake!”
One club you might point to is Tampa’s famous Mons Venus, perhaps one of the most-well known clubs in the US from an outsider’s perspective. Virtually everyone who comes to Tampa for a Super Bowl or other sporting event has heard of Mons Venus. I’ve done countless interviews with different media outlets over the years, and whenever I mention that our office is located in the Tampa Bay Area, they immediately say, “Ohh, Mons Venus! I’ve heard of that club!”
For decades, ED Hall of Fame owner Joe Redner did little to change Mons — fact is, he didn’t need to. He had a jukebox in the corner for chrissakes! Mons was as old-school as it gets, and it was successful.
Notice I said “was.” Because yes, even the legendary Mons Venus has reinvented itself. New Mons operator Don Kleinhans (also the owner of another famous Tampa venue, 2001 Odyssey, located right across the street from Mons) knew that even though Mons Venus had the brand name and the reputation, it was no longer competitive in the market and needed a massive overhaul. You can read all about the reinvention in our May issue with a multi-story section on the “new” Mons Venus — what they did, why they did it, and the impact that it’s already had.
Is it time for a really tough decision?
It’s absolutely not my place to tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t do with their business. But as the Publisher at ED Publications, as someone who’s worked in this industry now for 27 years, I think I’m in a place where I can offer some suggestions.
I can understand if you’re on the precipice of selling your club and/or retiring, that “reinventing” your club — taking on a renovation, updating technology, or changing your club’s format — could seem very overwhelming, unnecessary … and not a lot of fun. But what’s the alternative? Watching your club slowly disintegrate? Living in denial, as if everything is going to magically “go back to the way it used to be”?
But no, there is no going back. There is only forward, and the future is unstoppable and unavoidable. As the renowned American writer William S. Burroughs stated, “When you stop growing you start dying.” For many years, it seems, the adult nightclub industry has not grown; in some cases, there’s been outright refusal to innovate, or change, or evolve.
If you decide to sell your club, I truly wish you the best in your retirement. But if you’re committed to staying in this business, I sincerely hope that you embrace the now, that you either take on the current challenges or you bring in people who can help you modernize and adapt with the times.
Or, you can join us at our Annual ED EXPO in Las Vegas this August. That might seem self-serving, and it is to a degree. But I feel very confident stating that if you attend the EXPO, especially its seminars and tradeshow, you will return to your club with advice, information, and potentially products and services that can help your club evolve and grow. The EXPO is not just a convention and tradeshow, it’s a community of club owners and operators just like yourself, who are more than happy to share ideas and camaraderie with their fellow industry professionals.
I want this industry to thrive. I want the standards by which clubs operate to remain high. I want to see the industry evolve. I didn’t write this to put anyone down, but it’s no longer a time to pull punches. As Andy Dufresne says in the Stephen King adaptation The Shawshank Redemption, “Time to get busy living or get busy dying.”
