Brazilian MP candidate pledges a strip club in every town

From: http://arbroath.blogspot.com/

It's an unusual campaign pledge: a strip club in every town. That, however, is what Adriely Fatal, a stripper and "erotic actress" from north-eastern Brazil, is promising voters as she hits the campaign trail in search of a place in parliament. With general elections taking place in October, four adult entertainers are preparing to battle it out for a seat in Ceara state's local assembly, aiming to rock the political establishment by forming a powerful "sex lobby" within government.

Leading Ceara's campanha erótica is 23-year-old Fatal, who also promises to focus on hospitals and education and is campaigning outside the local football stadium, where she dances on an open-backed truck dressed in skin-tight shorts. "My campaign is different to the others. I'm using sensuality to attract votes – I'm trying to attract young people and men," Fatal, a former stripper in Boate Tropical, one of the state capital Fortaleza's most popular erotic clubs, said.



"I campaign outside football stadiums, in squares and bars, in car garages, on the beach. I'm going to concentrate on healthcare and on showing people that just because I use tight clothes it doesn't mean that I can't do a proper job," added Fatal, a member of the Christian Workers party, who also counts waiters and taxi drivers among her support base and cites the leftist presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff as one of her political idols. Fatal, whose real name is Maria Isabel Gomes Cardoso, claims that the latest opinion polls show she already has around 10,000 votes in the bag.

If she can increase that to 12,000, her campaign manager, who was inspired by the Hungarian porn star La Cicciolina, elected to Italy's parliament in 1987, believes Fatal will soon become Fatal MP. Fatal is joined on the campaign trail by the Democrats party candidate Maria Adelina Nascimento, AKA Katia Heffner. Named after Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy, she runs a popular swingers club in Fortaleza. Another adult entertainer, nicknamed Deborah Soft, is running for office with the slogan "Vote with pleasure".

STRIPPER LOVE! - The Wonderful World of Strippers (Graphic)

imagebath.com — There’s more to strippers than dollar bills, revealing clothes (or none at all), and a long slippery pole! Here are some interesting facts about the less risqué side of exotic dancing.


Via: Online Schools.org

Inventor unveils $7,000 talking sex robot

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Dancing girls promote strip club in see-through bus

From: http://www.baynews9.com/

---

Deja Vu Showgirls strut their stuff on a windowed bus rolling through Bay area streets.

BAY NEWS 9 -- A Tampa strip club has hit the road for a promotional stunt: Déjà Vu Showgirls are dancing in a big windowed bus, which is driving around Bay area streets.

"Of course there is no nudity because it's just advertising. Simple pole dancing," said Eric Terrell, general manager of the strip club.

A number of drivers paid a lot more attention to the bus than the road. Some even took pictures and video with their cell phones. Others were concerned for their own safety.

"The semi comes off the exit ramp -- we're on Dale Mabry -- and is obviously very distracted," said Paige Madison, a driver. "They see like 10 weird people in a see-through truck and like, I was scared, I had to merge over to the left lane because the semi wasn't paying attention."

The dancing women on the bus said they try to avoid offending anyone.

"If we see people we're going to offend, we sit down, because we don't want to offend anybody," said Twee, one dancer.

Although the women on the bus are local, the bus itself is not. Bay News 9 found that officials in Las Vegas had a problem with the same bus, and they eventually banned it.

Now Déjà Vu is sending it across the country. Authorities said it will probably only be in Tampa for a few days before it goes to Miami for Super Bowl week.

• Watch the story

'Stripper-Mobile' Proves Every Las Vegas Stereotype Correct

Just read an article about a truck that drives around Las Vegas with a stripper dancing in it, and boy are my preconceived notions about that place tired (from being completely confirmed.) Whatever happens in Vegas, is ridiculous in Vegas.

The article (which is incomprehensibly only the second most-read article on the Las Vegas Sun's website) focuses on the "safety" and "decency" concerns raised by locals re: the mobile sin platform, which was devised as an advertisement for Deja Vu Showgirls and is described thusly:

It's akin to a small U-Haul truck but with Plexiglas surrounding the brightly lit cargo area instead of walls. In the middle is a gleaming stripper pole. Swinging around the pole is a scantily clad young woman. Two of her fellow strippers are in the back of the truck too, awaiting their turns.

Puttering up and down Las Vegas Boulevard on Monday night, it was photographed by nearly everyone it pulled alongside, from CityCenter construction workers to an SUV-load of 20-somethings from Colorado.

Yes, that sounds pretty distracting. In fact, I would say if a driver making his way down the Strip was watching a DVD of Wall-E on a television screen that covered his entire windshield while simultaneously breaking up with his girlfriend via text message and solving a complex math problem on an abacus he would be only 76% as distracted as if he was watching the stripper-mobile wend its way through Sin City. Imagine seeing the Pope-mobile driving down the road, only the Pope was stripping in it. That's the level of distraction we're dealing with it.

Concerned citizens have been complaining to city officials about the stripper-mobile. But it turns out, unsurprisingly, that Las Vegas does not have any laws precluding women from stripping in a truck:

Nothing about the women or the truck is illegal, a Metro Police spokesman said. "As long as it's not impeding traffic, it's fine," Officer Jacinto Rivera explained.

Yes, everything is kosher so long as people continue driving their cars while they photograph the stripper-mobile, like in this CNN report:

And if the mere existence of the stripper-mobile does not prove to you that Las Vegas is a gloriously wasted blight upon America from which our eventual destruction will spring, consider the hilarious way councilwoman Chris Giunchigliani went about expressing her concerns about it:

I don't care about the content or that they're female dancers. I'm sick of the women, in fact - let's get some men up there for once. But this is just illegal.

Viva Las Vegas!

UPDATE: A blog calling itself the "Nevada Progressive" is defending the Stripper-mobile as an example of "free speech." Now the stripper-mobile has confirmed my preconceived notions of progressives, too!

(photo via Roadsidepictures' Flickr)

Send an email to Adrian Chen, the author of this post, at adrian@gawker.com.

Subway Sandwich Shop Doubles as Strip ClubBy BRUCE GOLDING and LIZ SADLER

By BRUCE GOLDING and LIZ SADLER

A notorious sleaze merchant could be on the hook for nearly $100,000 after opening an unauthorized Subway sandwich shop that doubled as an after-dark strip club.

A federal magistrate has recommended slamming Anthony "Cousin Vinny" Agnello with triple damages for serving up deli delights by day and nudes at night, according to a report filed Tuesday.

Magistrate Frank Maas said Agnello -- who gained infamy after supplying the stripper for a wild high-school party in 2001 -- should pay the fast-food giant's corporate parent $90,000, plus another $7,900 for its legal fees.

Doctor's Associates Inc., which operates Subway, estimated Agnello took in about $23,000 in profits from the eatery last year.

Agnello -- who last year told The Post he started slinging sandwiches because "the money in stripping isn't as profitable as it used to be" -- did not return calls.

Convention attendee challenges $29,512 tab at adult club

By Steve Green (contact)

A conventioneer from Massachusetts is challenging a $29,512 bill for a night of entertainment and drinks at a topless dancing club in Las Vegas.

James Hackett of Andover, Mass., filed a lawsuit Friday in Las Vegas against the owner of the Club Paradise Gentlemen's Club and American Express Co., disputing the amount that was billed to his American Express card last Oct. 12.

Adam Gentile, general manager of Club Paradise, said Tuesday he was not familiar with Hackett's claims. He said it's not unusual for someone to run up a large, confirmed bill at the club and later regret it -- in which case the dispute over payment of the bill would be between the customer and the credit card company.

Hackett says he flew to Las Vegas Oct. 11 to attend the Direct Marketing Association Trade Show. After checking in to the Las Vegas Hilton, he went to a Hilton hotel bar to watch a Boston Red Sox baseball game on television and had some vodka martinis, his lawsuit says.

While watching the game, someone handed him his wallet and said Hackett had dropped it, Hackett's suit says. Nothing was missing from the wallet, but Hackett noticed his driver's license and American Express card had been switched from their usual positions.

Hackett said in his lawsuit he talked to some Red Sox fans from Phoenix, left for the hotel lobby and apparently blacked out there and can't remember anything else that may have happened that night.

He called his wife the next morning and told her about the dropped wallet incident and had her check with his credit card companies to ensure there were no unauthorized charges, the lawsuit says.

No problems with his credit cards were immediately detected. But after returning to Massachusetts, Hackett said he learned of a series of charges to his American Express card by Club Paradise between 2:55 a.m. and 8:54 a.m. on Oct. 12.

These totaled $29,512 -- about $4,000 for a bar tab and more than $25,000 for "unexplained services" involving entertainers "Paulina," "Jani Lee," "Isabel," "Vanessa," "Roxanne" and "Lexi."

Hackett said in his lawsuit he has no recollection of visiting Club Paradise and that he filed police reports in Massachusetts and Las Vegas about the incident.

But the lawsuit says that after he challenged the charges, Club Paradise provided him with documents purportedly signed by Hackett in connection with the charges.

The documents said the club is not involved with prostitution or escort services, that he was not drunk or impaired and that he was not under duress when he purportedly signed the documents, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit, filed in Clark County District Court, asks the court to determine if Club Paradise actually provided services to Hackett, and if so, whether Hackett knowingly consented to the charges or if he was intoxicated, drugged or otherwise impaired; and if the services provided were prohibited by law.

The lawsuit questions not only whether the charges were valid, but the amount charged.

"Such charges are astounding and cannot be supported as reasonable, including charges for entertainment totaling over $25,000 and charges for alcohol of $4,000, the value and quantity of which would have rendered any person so intoxicated as to have no capacity to knowingly consent to any services or charges supplied by defendant Club Paradise," the suit alleges.

Minors in R.I. can be strippers

By Amanda Milkovits
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE –– Rhode Island teens under 18 can’t work with power saws or bang nails up on roofs.

But dance at strip clubs? Sure. Just as long as the teens submit work permits, and are off the stripper’s pole by 11:30 on school nights.

It’s enough to surprise even those in America’s mecca of striptease and sin –– Las Vegas.

“Everybody buzzes about ‘Nevada and Sin City, tsk, tsk,’ ” said Edie Cartwright, spokeswoman for the Nevada attorney general’s office. “But we regulate it.”

Providence police recently discovered that teen job opportunities extend into the local adult entertainment world while they were investigating a 16-year-old runaway from Boston. The girl told detectives that she worked at Cheaters strip club this spring, and the police got tips about other underage girls working at another club on Allens Avenue.

That’s when the police found that neither state law, nor city ordinance bars minors from working at strip clubs. Those under 18 can’t buy pornography, and no one may take pictures or film minors in sexually suggestive ways. But the law doesn’t stop underage teens from stripping for money. Even if the police saw underage boys or girls on stage at a strip club, they wouldn’t be able to charge them or the club owners with a crime.

“I’ve been doing this a long time,” said youth services Sgt. Carl Weston, “and I can’t find anything that says it’s illegal for a 16-year-old or a 17-year-old to take her top off and dance.”

State law says that anyone who employs a person under 18 for prostitution or for “any other lewd or indecent act” faces up to 20 years in prison and up to $20,000 in fines. But that isn’t enough to prevent underage girls from working in strip clubs, said senior assistant city solicitor Kevin McHugh, who researched the issue a dozen years ago when a teenage dancer was found at a raided strip club.

The term “lewd or indecent” is subjective, McHugh said, and is applied to behavior that’s protected by the First Amendment. “Since we have strip clubs in Providence,” McHugh said, “citizens don’t consider [stripping] lewd.”

With the age of consent at 16 in Rhode Island, the police worry that teenage strippers could take their business to the next level and offer sexual favors –– and it wouldn’t be illegal. State law currently allows indoor prostitution, and two bills intended to ban it have stalled in the General Assembly.

State and federal child labor laws dictate the number of hours and times of days that minors may work, and forbid certain jobs considered to be hazardous. For example, those under 16 can’t work on ladders or pump gas. Youths age 16 and 17 can’t work in manufacturing or excavation.

“Nowhere does it say anything about a kid not being able to strip,” Weston said.

Establishments with city liquor licenses need to keep the teenagers from the booze, but not the stage. “You can’t serve alcohol if you’re under 18,” Weston said, “but you can be the target of a man’s groping hands at age 16.”

But a Rhode Island teen stripper won’t find work in Massachusetts, where state law prohibits anyone from hiring minors under 18 for live performances involving sexual conduct.

Other states have had mixed encounters with the issue.

After a 12-year-old girl was found dancing nude in a club in Dallas last year, the city council swiftly passed rules barring minors from strip clubs and automatically revokes for a year licenses for sex businesses caught employing or entertaining minors.

But an Iowa county judge ruled last year that a striptease by a 17-year-old girl at a strip club was artistic expression protected by the First Amendment. The state attorney general’s office has asked the state Supreme Court to review the ruling.

Nevada, meanwhile, doesn’t let anyone under 18 work in casinos or in public dance halls where there is alcohol — and there are no strip clubs in Nevada without one or the other, or both, said Cartwright, of the attorney general’s office. Minors aren’t even allowed to deliver mail to brothels.

When questioned about Rhode Island’s law, Michael J. Healey, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, offered a copy of the current state law but did not comment for this article.

But Weston, of the Providence police, was adamant that the law should be changed.

“It leads to a societal breakdown,” he said. “These are just little girls.”

amilkovi@projo.com

Video shows Jones in Vegas nightclub

Texas strip club sues 14-year-old exotic dancer

By BRIAN CHASNOFF San Antonio Express-News

June 20, 2009, 7:19PM

A strip club that hired a 14-year-old as an exotic dancer is now suing the girl, saying the seventh-grader swindled them into breaking state law.

The San Antonio teen allegedly exposed her breasts while working at Cheetah Club in Corpus Christi, a violation of state law.

Alan Yaffe, the club’s attorney, said the club didn’t know the girl was a minor.

“She came (into the club) with 6-inch stiletto heels and a miniskirt and looked just like a model from a Miss America’s contest,” Yaffe said.

Yaffe also disputed the sequence of events that authorities say brought the 14-year-old girl to Club Cheetah, where she exposed her breasts — a violation of state law.

Police say Leslie Campbell, 48, kidnapped the teenager in San Antonio in March, took her to Corpus Christi, sexually assaulted her over the course of a week, gave her a false identification card and forced her to strip at the club.

Police say the girl, who has not been identified, escaped from Campbell’s home and has been reunited with her parents in San Antonio.

Campbell was arrested and remains in Nueces County Jail on charges of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping.

Seeking damages

RJL Entertainment Inc., — which is doing business as “Cheetah Club,” according to tax records — filed the lawsuit last week.

The suit seeks unspecified damages from Campbell, the girl and her parents, as well as a declaration from a judge that it did not intend to hire a minor.

“We’re the victims here,” Yaffe said.

Authorities also arrested Jeffery Shawn Martinez, a manager at the club, on charges of employment harmful to a minor and sexual performance of a child. He was released on bail.

Martinez’s attorney, Fred Jimenez, said his client is not guilty.

“The minor walked in there with a fake ID and presented herself to be 22 years old,” Jimenez said. “She looks very mature.”

Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Sgt. John Mann disagreed.

“I’ve seen this young lady’s picture, and I assure you she is a 14-year-old seventh-grader,” Mann said. “I personally think any reasonable and prudent person could tell you that is an underage girl.”

Mann said he expects his agency to take legal action against the club.

bchasnoff@express-news.net

More women needing cash go from jobless to topless

By KAREN HAWKINS, Associated Press Writer

AP – Rebecca Brown, 29, talks about the economics of being a stripper as Eva Stone, background, works on her …

CHICAGO – As a bartender and trainer at a national restaurant chain, Rebecca Brown earned a couple thousand dollars in a really good week. Now, as a dancer at Chicago's Pink Monkey gentleman's club, she makes almost that much in one good night.

The tough job market is prompting a growing number of women across the country to dance in strip clubs, appear in adult movies or pose for magazines like Hustler.

Employers across the adult entertainment industry say they're seeing an influx of applications from women who, like Brown, are attracted by the promise of flexible schedules and fast cash. Many have college degrees and held white-collar jobs until the economy soured.

"You're seeing a lot more beautiful women who are eligible to do so many other things," said Gus Poulos, general manager of New York City's Sin City gentleman's club. He said he got 85 responses in just one day to a recent job posting on Craigslist.

The transition to the nightclub scene isn't always a smooth one — from learning to dance in five-inch heels to dealing with the jeers of some customers.

Some performers said they were initially so nervous that only alcohol could calm their nerves.

"It is like giving a speech, but instead of imagining everyone naked, you're the one who's naked," Brown, 29, said.

Eva Stone, a 25-year-old dancer at the Pink Monkey, said dealing with occasional verbal abuse from patrons requires "a thick skin."

Makers of adult films cautioned that women shouldn't rush into the decision to make adult movies without considering the effect on their lives.

"Once you decide to be an adult actress, it impacts your relationship with everyone," said Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of adult film giant Vivid Entertainment Group. "Once you make an adult film, it never goes away."

The women at the Pink Monkey say dancing at a strip club might not have been their first career choice, but they entered the business with their eyes wide open. The job gives them more control and flexibility than sitting in a cubicle, and "it's easy, it's fun and all of us girls ... look out for each other," Brown said.

In this economy, "desperate measures are becoming far more acceptable," said Jonathan Alpert, a New York City-based psychotherapist who's had clients who worked in adult entertainment.

For some, dancing is temporary, a way to pay for college loans or other bills. Others say they've found their niche.

Dancers at the upscale Rick's Caberet clubs in New York City and Miami can make $100,000 to $300,000 a year — in cash — even with the economic downturn, club spokesman Allan Priaulx said.

Priaulx said 20 to 30 women a week are applying for jobs at the New York club, double the number of a year ago.

Rhode Island's Foxy Lady held a job fair Saturday, seeking to fill about 35 positions for dancers, masseuses, bartenders and bouncers. The Providence Journal reported that more than 150 job seekers showed up to apply for work at the strip club. Foxy Lady co-owner Tom Tsoumas said a recent promotion to cut prices helped the club regain business lost due to the bad economy, forcing it to hire more employees.

Still, analysts say, the industry isn't immune to the economic recession. Business is down an estimated 30 percent across all segments, including adult films, gentleman's clubs, magazines and novelty shops, said Paul Fishbein, president of AVN Media Network, an adult entertainment company that has a widely distributed trade publication and an award show.

"In the past, people have said this industry is recession-proof," said Eric Wold, director of research for financial services firm Merriman Curhan Ford. "I definitely don't see that; maybe recession-resistant."

Strip club dancers and managers said they're drawing in the same number of customers, but fewer high rollers.

"They're not getting the big spenders," said Angelina Spencer, executive director of the Association of Club Executives, a trade group for adult nightclubs. "They're not getting the guys who come in and drop $3,000 to $4,000 a night anymore."

Still, the clubs' operating structure leaves them with low overhead and profit margins of up to 50 percent, Wold said.

Dancers are independent contractors, paying clubs a nightly flat fee depending on how long they work. At the Pink Monkey, for example, dancers who arrive at 7 p.m. Sunday through Thursday pay a $40 "house fee," while women who don't arrive until midnight pay $90. And they keep their tips.

Wold and others say it's almost impossible to estimate the size of the adult entertainment industry because few companies are publicly traded. He does pay close attention to three that are: Lakewood, Colo.-based VCG Holding and Houston-based Rick's Caberet, which own clubs, and New Frontier Media, a Boulder, Colo.-based adult film producer and distributor.

All three are profitable.

Rick's Caberet had $60 million in revenue in its 2008 fiscal year, up from $32 million the year before, Wold said, and he estimates VCG will have $57 million for last year, compared with $40.5 million in FY2007. New Frontier Media generates more than $400 million in consumer buying a year.

Larry Flynt, whose half-billion dollar Hustler empire publishes magazines, produces and distributes films and operates a casino, said he's continued to do well. But he doesn't expect those who are solely in the film business to survive.

"A lot of the small studios are out of business now, there's no doubt about that," Flynt said.

Adult magazines also are struggling along with the larger publishing industry, and have to cut pages like everyone else.

But the economic realities aren't keeping jobseekers away.

Vivid Entertainment's Hirsch said the number of women in his business has doubled in the last couple years, with roughly 800 working as adult actresses. "It is more competitive than I've seen it in 25 years," he said.

That doesn't mean all the newcomers are planning on lengthy careers in the industry.

Stone, who has a bachelor's degree in graphic design, took up dancing four years ago to help pay her student loans. She plans to go to graduate school this year to pursue a master's in education.

Brown, meanwhile, has a ready answer for those critical of her career choice.

"I have job security," she said.

Pole positions: Strip club holds job fair

‘Foxy Lady’ club in R.I. looks to fill openings in bad economy

The Associated Press

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Here’s a job opportunity you won’t need to buy a new wardrobe for.

Hoping to take advantage of Rhode Island’s floundering economy, owners of the Foxy Lady strip club in Providence plan to hold a job fair on Saturday.

They say they’re looking to fill around 30 positions, from strippers and waitresses to disc jockeys and bartenders, at that club and two others in Massachusetts.

“I need more managers, I need more competent staff, and I need more attractive waitresses to go along with the ones I have right now,” said co-owner Tom Tsoumas.

The naked truth is that Rhode Island’s economy is among the worst in the nation, with an unemployment rate of 10.3 percent in January.

The Providence club isn’t immune from the recession but is still drawing customers willing to drink and pay for lap dances, said manager Bob Travisono.

“It’s taken a hit,” he said. “It’s not as bad as restaurants and stuff like that. In times like this, they seem to drink their sorrows away.”

Tsoumas said he hopes some who might shun strip clubs when the economy is good might consider shedding their clothes now — or at least working as a floor host or bartender.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Tampa's adults-only businesses hope to cash in on Super Bowl

By Susan Thurston, Times Staff Writer

---

As the Super Bowl approaches, dancers at clubs such as Deja Vu in Tampa hope to draw big crowds and make big bucks.
	[LUIS SANTANA | Times]

TAMPA — Mons Venus strip club dancer Bernie Notte knows the cash a Super Bowl can bring. It flew at her like confetti during Tampa's 2001 game. She earned $6,000 in four days.

She danced so much that her feet bled. Customers didn't flinch at paying $100 for a $25 lap dance.

"It was crazy,'' she said. "Money was everywhere.''

Notte, 43, packed up her stilettos seven months ago to wait tables at the Mons. But the lure of Super Bowl XLIII tickled her toes.

She's headed back to the pole.

The Super Bowl is a command performance for a city defined, in part, by its international reputation for lap dancing. Tampa has 30 licensed adult dance clubs, adult theaters, live model studios and adult bookstores on record at City Hall. That's roughly 1 per 11,300 residents, among the highest rates nationwide.

The infamous adults-only scene gives Tampa part of its luster, some say.

"I don't think it's a stretch to say that the adult entertainment industry helps us get things like the Super Bowl,'' said Paul Allen, publisher of NightMoves magazine, one of the oldest adult club publications in the country.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy scoffed at that.

"That's ridiculous," he said.

But come next week, expect a steady stream of out-of-towners lined up outside a small, shoebox-shaped building on Dale Mabry Highway, in the shadow of Raymond James Stadium.

Each will pay a cover charge of maybe $60, up from the normal $20, though Mons Venus owner Joe Redner says demand will dictate price.

Inside, five or six dancers at a time gyrate around a pole, catching cash as it flies at them. A jukebox blares. Customers sip water, soda or juice — no alcohol at Tampa's all-nude clubs — until a spot opens on padded benches along the club perimeter.

Technically, lap dancing is illegal in Tampa. Technically, nude dancers are supposed to stay 6 feet away from customers.

"People need to be aware of the laws that apply," warns Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy.

Redner will keep the Mons open around the clock all week, closing it only for housekeeping. (Now and then, someone must polish the pole.)

Longer hours require more dancers. Weeks ago, the Mons started getting calls from out-of-town women wanting work.

"We tell them to come on down, and we'll take a look at them," said Redner, who often drops by the club to say hello, slap a butt or get a hug or two. "If we have extras, we'll send them to other clubs. We take the cream of the crop.''

Dozens will simply appear at the door, ready to go on stage.

Local dancers, told to welcome the carpetbaggers, will do so, hoping Super Bowl brings riches to share.

But the weak economy looms large. Redner said business is half of what it was two years ago. Lorry Kasner, a manager who danced at the Mons during the 2001 Super Bowl, warns that girls may have to work more hours to bring in the same tips.

"I think the money is still going to be there, but it's just not going to be as easy,'' said Kasner, 43.

They'll know better Wednesday, when the first flights of fans arrive. Last time, the surge continued a day after the game, sustained when customers stopped by for parting gazes on the drive to nearby Tampa International Airport.

Nichole Romagna, a.k.a. Nakita Kash, started thinking about the Super Bowl months ago. A pole dancing instructor who appeared on NBC's America's Got Talent, she posted ads on Craigslist seeking strippers to work Super Bowl week.

They had to get to town on their own dime and then try out. She promised to set them up at clubs during game week and find them places to stay.

About two dozen tried out, including one who Romagna said is a student at Dartmouth College. The dancer said she wanted to "get away" and didn't care how much money she made. She brought a suitcase full of makeup, 6-inch heels and high hopes.

In the end, she decided not to come back for game week. But six others start arriving Tuesday.

They will come from as far away as Washington state and California, Romagna said. They'll perform at the Tampa Gold Club and at Mermaids in St. Pete Beach, both of which reduced the dancers' house fee. Clubs typically will charge dancers $100 to $150 just to walk through the door.

Escort services also hope for a profitable week. Scott Outland, a manager for Florida's Hottest Escorts, said he's optimistic.

"I heard that there are unbelievable amounts of money to be made,'' he said. "But I'm holding my breath that it will be that good.''

His service charges $250 an hour but offers a 10 percent discount for Super Bowl clients. An overnight package goes for $1,800.

He said one customer who will arrive Sunday hired an escort for seven days straight at a cost of $24,000. His company's cut: half. The customer hinted that he might take the escort to the game.

Outland insists that his six escorts provide companionship only.

"It's all legitimate,'' Outland said. "All my girls sign a seven-page contract saying they won't do anything illegal."

Tampa police say they'll keep an eye on adult businesses, although keeping the public safe will take priority. This is Tampa's first Super Bowl since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and security will be extra tight.

Two women have already landed in jail on prostitution charges, arrested Jan. 16 near Raymond James Stadium. They told police they were in town for the Super Bowl. One listed her employer as the Moonlite BunnyRanch, a Nevada brothel.

Before Tampa's last big game, the National Football League warned players to avoid adult clubs. The city had been cracking down on lap dancing, most visibly with the arrests of two National Hockey League players.

This year? No memo.

"People figured out that lap dances do not advance the decline of western civilization,'' interprets Luke Lirot, Redner's attorney.

So, the party will go on.

Dancers will put on their Lucite heels, naughty smiles and little else for what may be the most lucrative days of their careers.

Tiffany Schrader will dance as long as her legs allow.

The 26-year-old from Clearwater joined the Mons Venus crew a few months after the last Super Bowl.

She has heard all the stories, and game week can't come fast enough.

"I'm not going home for a few days,'' she said. "I'll stop when it's over.''

Susan Thurston can be reached at sthurston@tampabay.com or (813) 225-3110. Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

Road to Super Bowl XLIII flanked by 43 strip clubs

By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer Mitch Stacy, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jan 26, 6:34 pm ET

AP – Cars are parked outside an adult entertainment establishment in Tampa, Fla. on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009. …

• Slideshow: Super Bowl XLIII

TAMPA, Fla. – There's Lip Stixx and Centerfolds and the Bliss Cabaret.

There's Diamond Dolls and Bare Assets and the Wild Gentlemen's Club. In fact, there are, by one count, 43 strip clubs in the Tampa metropolitan area — one for each Super Bowl. And the week of Super Bowl XLIII is to Tampa's naughty nightlife what Black Friday is to America's shopping malls.

All the exotic dancing joints have earned Tampa a bawdy reputation — the lads' magazine Maxim even put it on its top 10 list of best U.S. party cities a couple years ago, based mostly on the two score and more night spots to see naked or nearly naked women.

Now, with at least one spot planning to have a tent in the parking lot to handle the overflow of free-spending tourists, locals expect to profit mightily through kickoff Sunday evening.

"Based on what we did last Super Bowl (in 2001), the numbers will quadruple during that weekend," says Nick Polefrone, general manager of 2001 Odyssey, a landmark club known for the spaceship-shaped VIP room rising from the top of the building.

Across the street is Mons Venus, a joint that is listed among the best strip clubs in the world by users of a Web site called The Ultimate Strip Club List. The two upscale clubs — walking distance from Raymond James Stadium, where the Arizona Cardinals will play the Pittsburgh Steelers — have been fixtures for decades. Polefrone figures Tampa's naughty national image grew out from there.

"Tampa has a reputation for having the most strip clubs and the most girls who are a lot of fun," says a 25-year-old exotic dancer named Claudia, who left her usual gig in Las Vegas to work the Super Bowl week here. (She asked that her last name not be used to save her family any embarrassment.)

Claudia says she's worked four previous Super Bowls and expects to make as much as $2,000 a day performing at 2001 Odyssey. Most clubs treat the dancers as independent contractors who pay a flat fee to the house and keep the rest.

"It's so crazy, everybody is in a such a party mood," she says. "It's a whole new level of everything."

The clubs have been busy auditioning more dancers and upgrading their interiors. Some will stay open 24 hours.

The Tampa Tribune helpfully added a feature to its Web site listing the 43 strip clubs and allowing Super Bowl visitors to search for such information as the cover charge and dress code.

Tired of Tampa's sleazy reputation, local lawmakers passed an anti-lap-dance ordinance before the last Super Bowl here in 2001, making it a misdemeanor offense for dancers to come within six feet of patrons. The measure got a lot of publicity, but police didn't arrest anybody during Super Bowl week.

Police spokeswoman Andrea Davis says officers won't be patrolling the clubs looking for dancers who get too close this time, but they'll be obliged to investigate if someone calls in a complaint.

"Our primary focus during the Super Bowl is going to be public safety," she says.

Bob Buckhorn, a former city councilman who pushed the six-foot ordinance, laments that the adult entertainment industry is "ingrained in the fabric of this community." The point of the law, he says, was to attack prostitution and prevent other crime by trying to keep guys away from those places. He wishes it was more aggressively enforced today.

"It's like cockroaches," Buckhorn says. "If you don't stay on top of it, it will infect and run you over. And that's exactly what's happened."

To the city's promoters, Tampa's image as the Lap Dance Capital of America is not exactly something to tout in the glossy brochures. Travis Claytor, spokesman for Tampa Bay & Co., the tourism bureau, would rather point out other attractions, such as:

• Beaches. Some of the best white-sand beaches anywhere are a half-hour or so from downtown. Two of them — Fort DeSoto Park and Caladesi Island — have topped the list from Stephen P. Leatherman, a Florida International University professor dubbed "Dr. Beach" for his annual rankings of the nation's best coastlines.

• Ybor City. The historic former Latin quarter east of downtown is a thriving entertainment district whose nightclubs will host some of the glitziest, celebrity-heavy Super Bowl parties. (There's a strip club there, too, of course.)

• Cigars. In the early 20th century, more cigars were made in Tampa than anywhere in the world, by Cuban immigrants. The city retains a rich cigar heritage, and some shops are still rolling them right on the premises.

But in the end, a lot of visitors will still be packing the clubs at night.

"It's not necessarily a negative thing, it's just one aspect of this destination," the judicious Claytor says. "There is so much more to our area than that particular industry."