Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Staying Power

"Chippendales."

What: "Men, the Show."

What: "Thunder from Down Under."

The blushing young bride-to-be from Iowa sat anxiously onstage.

She giggled coyly as the muscular male dancer, clad in nothing but a G-string, thrust the lower regions of his anatomy close to her wide-open eyes while lip-syncing "My Girl."

As he guided her timid hand tantalizingly close to his manhood, thunderous applause and shouting rocked the room filled with more than 200 women of various ages, sizes, shapes and cultural backgrounds.

The farm girl in the spotlight wasn't the most beautiful female in the Riviera's La Cage Theatre, but for that moment she was the center of attention.

She was every woman, not a calendar girl or a model or a hard-bodied starlet but the girl next door who soon would marry, raise a family and, as she grows older, reminisce about that night years ago onstage in Las Vegas with a hunk.

Welcome to "Men, the Show."

In May "Men" became the third all-male revue in Las Vegas, joining a lineup that includes "Thunder From Down Under" at Excalibur and "Chippendales" at The Rio (audience members must be age 17 or older for all shows.)

As Las Vegas focuses more of its attention on adult entertainment, women have not been forgotten.

"Women represent 53 percent of the tourism in Vegas," said Collin Foster, the co-producer and host of the show at the Riviera.

Foster, a magician who once appeared regularly at Caesars Palace's Magical Empire, isn't concerned about Vegas becoming inundated with male strip shows.

"If half the women who come to these shows like ours better, we will still do great," he said.

Foster says the main difference between "Men" and the competition is that his show aims at a broader audience.

"We go after single women, married women out on the town, couples, gays, straights," he said. "We get a lot of couples in here."

Foster is no newcomer to male revues. He wrote and directed "Men of Paradise," which debuted in 1987 at Vegas World (now the Stratosphere). And "Men" had a monthlong trial run last year at New Frontier.

For the past three months it has been the late show at the theater occupied for the past 18 years by Joan Rivers tribute artist Frank Marino's "An Evening at La Cage."

Foster says men often are reluctant to attend a male strip show, where they sit in a room full of screaming women, many of whom have been drinking and are expressing themselves in ways often more audacious than men at topless bars. "But typically a man who sits through the show will say he had a blast," Foster said. "They forget they are watching a male revue -- they are being entertained."

"Men" is a collection of diverse scenes that range from the cast dressed in Marine Corps uniforms and performing drills with rifles, to performers dressed as the Village People and lip-synching "Y.M.C.A."

There is ample stripping, shirt-ripping, bumping and grinding to satisfy any woman's lust, but within the structure there are a variety of routines.

"In male revues," Foster said, "there is nothing you can't do."

Including igniting your genitalia.

In one scene Robby Chow performs a Hawaiian dance routine in which he uses torches to light a thin film of oil on his arms, legs and shoulders -- and the form-fitting G-string that snugly covers his lower region.

Women screamed. Men cringed.

"Our show is a lot more than bump and grind," Foster said. "The foremost idea is to turn the ladies on, of course. That's a generic statement. But we are there to entertain."

Part of the entertainment is bodybuilder Rico Elbaz, Mr. Nevada 2003, a native of Italy, and world-class dancer Devon Michaels, formerly of Dallas.

All of the performers are top-notch dancers and bodybuilders.

Chow, born in Arkansas and raised in Hawaii, began his entertainment career as a dancer in Honolulu. He has since appeared in several Las Vegas shows, including "Splash," "Men of Paradise," "Midnight Men" and "Minnie's Boys."

While there is lots of sexual innuendo in "Men," Foster says it's basically a clean show.

"We don't have to be nasty or foul," he said.

Fun from Down Under

"Women want fantasies," Las Vegan Theresa Chiasson said.

It was difficult to hear the registered nurse explain her fascination for "Thunder From Down Under" because of the din of 400 liberated women shouting approval of the eight male Australian strippers who have been at the Excalibur's Merlin Theatre for 13 months.

Chiasson, a native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, has seen "Thunder" seven times.

"It's the ultimate show," she said. "Initially, I didn't want to come. I don't like strip shows. But this is not about stripping, it's a fantasy show."

Chiasson also likes the music, mostly from the '70s and '80s ("Y.M.C.A."; "Proud Mary").

She says the entire show is fun, "Without it being an overt, in-your-face sexual thing."

"Thunder" began as "Manpower" in Australia in the early '90s and first came to Las Vegas in 1993, debuting at the Stardust.

"The Stardust brought it over for two or three weeks at a time every year for several years," Adam Steck said. "But the show never had a chance to be here on a full-time basis."

Steck became the show's producer four years ago when the show's creator, Billy Cross, set it aside to pursue other interests.

"When I got involved I saw what an amazing show it was, with great potential," Steck said. "I said the show should be in Vegas permanently, that there was a niche for it here. It was something unique."

But, he said, he couldn't find a venue that would take "Thunder" on a full-time basis.

"Then four-walling came along and became popular and so I decided to take a chance and four-walled at the Frontier for one year," Steck said.

The gamble paid off. At the end of the year a call came from the Excalibur.

"Thunder" has been playing before near-capacity rooms ever since. It has proven to be so popular this summer that four extra shows were added each week, bringing the total to 12.

"The timing is perfect for it," Steck said. "For so many years it was about entertainment for gentlemen, but now the tables have turned."

It's girls' night out, now.

"There is a sisterhood bonding going on here," Steck said. "Daughters, mothers and grandmothers are coming in together. We're getting the best audiences in all of Las Vegas."

He says compared to the girls at a "Thunder" performance, men are tame at some of the strip clubs around town.

"You watch these guys at a club and they quietly put bills in the G-string of a stripper," Steck said. "But you get 400 girls with a little alcohol in them and the decibel level goes through the roof."

It gets so loud at Merlin's that earplugs are available.

Steck emphasizes "Thunder" isn't a raunchy show.

"Out philosophy is to keep it tasteful, but sexy and sensual at the same time," he said.

He described "Thunder" as more like a production show than a strip show.

"There's a lot of humor and acrobatics and dancing," Steck said. "It's a party atmosphere, and it's not about how pretty the male dancers are, but about the girls having a good time."

"It's a totally different show," said Adam Hughes, one of the original cast members who recently rejoined the show. "We took the sleaze out of stripping. Basically, it's a meet and greet. There is no thrusting into faces, although there is a little bit of tongue in cheek on stage."

The performers, who are all dancers, acrobats and bodybuilders, romp around the room, hugging, squeezing, kissing, letting the girls feel their rock-hard bodies, but quickly pulling away when a fan starts to touch something too personal.

Girls are brought onstage to become part of the act; there's a contest to see who can demonstrate the best fake orgasm.

"We have different themes," Hughes said. "Sometimes we take romantic characters from the past and resurrect them. We had World Fantasy I and II."

Do the guys frequently get hit on?

"Good question," Hughes said. "Quite often we do meet girls. It's hard to do these kinds of shows when you're married."

Chipper strippers

"Chippendales," the name that comes to mind most often when someone brings up the subject of all-male revues, also has a presence in Vegas.

"The basic differentiating factor between us and other revues is that we have the brand name," Kevin Denberg said.

Denbert is vice president and executive producer of Chippendales International.

"Another difference is the level of the creative team we employ to put the show together," he said. "A lot of others that attempt to get into this industry don't have the financial backing to create a million-dollar show."

"Chippendales" celebrated its 25th anniversary April 27. It began in Los Angeles in 1978, moved to New York in '83 and then began touring the world.

Today there are permanent "Chippendales" shows in Vegas, Reno and Boston and three touring productions, one in Europe and one in the Americas and one international company.

" 'Chippendales' is the framework for what has evolved in this industry of ladies' night out," Denbrg said. "Is everyone else a rip-off? Probably yes, to a certain degree. All of the others have a tough challenge, just because of the success we have had, the driving force behind it."

Chippendales has been described as 80 minutes of sex, thinly disguised as choreography.

The company has gone through a series of owners during its 25-year history. Louis J. Pearlman bought it in 1995 but then began to manage 'N Sync, the Backstreet Boys and O-Town and put Chippendales on the back burner as his musical groups grew in popularity.

Denberg said when he joined Chippendales in 2000 the show was practically dormant.

"Lou was preoccupied with other acts," he said. "Now, we have six companies across the world."

Denberg says "Chippendales" is the "exclusive provider of the ultimate girls' night out."

It's part of the social revolution.

"Males used to sit around and play poker and have a boys' night," Denberg said. "Now it's acceptable for the wives and girls, too."

But if females are trying to keep pace with their male counterparts, they will have to burn more than their bras.

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