Former award-winning entertainer, Bambi Wilde, talks about the her career transition, and how she was able to utilize two decades of experience on the stage to make her equally effective off the stage as the GM of Mons Venus.
(NOTE: This story appears in the May 2025 issue of ED Magazine.)
For every feature entertainer, there comes a time to hang up the Pleasers. Whether it’s for personal choices, career change or simply the desire to pursue different opportunities, change is inevitable. For Bambi Wilde, it was the impending feeling that her journey as an entertainer was coming to an end and it did, but as the cliche clearly states, when one door closes, another shall open. And that is just what happened.
The realization of change set it for Wilde in the most obvious of places — namely, on the road.
“You wake up in yet another Hampton Inn, in another state, and you’re not necessarily sure where you’re at, it’s not even the performing,” Wilde says, recalling the moment she decided to take a step back from entertaining. “I got to the point where I felt that that was enough.”
After 22 years of entertaining around the world (she’s originally from Wellington, New Zealand) Wilde decided to retire. While she loved the stage, she had felt burnt out by constant travel and longed for a different role within the industry, to vertically integrate herself but still remain close to an industry that has given her so much, namely club managing.
While working as an operator at LUXXX Showgirls in Peoria, IL, Wilde learned a great deal about managing and overseeing staff, “We had a GM, but I was doing a lot of the general managing,” says Wilde, adding that she credits LUXXX for giving her the knowledge to build up her managerial experience. “It was a lot more work because they served liquor and had a restaurant.”
When she moved to Florida, she went back to house dancing at 2001 Odyssey in between her bookings on the road. While the money was easy, the expectations were stagnant. Essentially she was covering familiar floorspace. It was a short time after that she started to think about her future role in management with Don Kleinhans’ group.
“Once you work for yourself for a long time, it can be difficult to work for someone else,” says Wilde, noting that she was initially hesitant to take on the role. “But I really liked the team at 2001, so it wasn’t such a struggle.”
In January 2025, the 2001 management team assumed control over Mons Venus after Joe Redner entered in a management agreement with Kleinhans and his group of investors. Since then, Wilde has moved to the General Manager position at the neighboring club, “as a general manager, I like to make myself available to anyone who wants to talk to me and be on the floor as much as I can be,” she explains.
Shortly after the managerial transition, Mons Venus underwent remodeling, adding carpet, redoing the upholstery on permanent furniture and removing the well-known, well-used jukebox. They have also added new champagne rooms and extra rooms for private dances.
Along with all the physical changes, the new managerial team also implemented a new balanced stage rotation system.
“We needed to have more structure, some entertainers were on the stage for close to 30 minutes, so when we implemented the change plenty of the dancers were very grateful,” remarks Wilde.
While Mons Venus has seen a recent increase in sales, Wilde says she doesn’t want to take for granted that the success will continue without a consistent effort from their entire team.
“Little by little you make all these changes — make the club beautiful again — but the most important thing is maintaining that level of entertainment,” says Wilde. “You have to constantly adapt to changes because to maintain that standard, you have to learn how to evolve.”
