Booty and the Beats

How one local establishment is blurring the line between nightclub and gentlemen's club.

by A.D. Amorosi

Michael T. Regan Cheerleader leader: Meehan (above) - along with King Britt, Dozia Blakey and Peek-A-Boo Revue - is completely reimagining his club. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Cheerleaders is not your run-of-the-mill gentlemen's club. No actual stripping takes place by its bikini-wearing babes.

When John Meehan bought the place 11 and a half years ago, he thought that would be a problem, the lack of a license to peel. But then the club started using its unofficial motto: "The women are so beautiful they don't need to take off their clothes."

WYSP-FM DJ Jacky Bam Bam began to spin its biggest nights and happy hours with metal aplomb. Bartender Kathy Flocco-McMaster played den mother to the young lasses. Crowds crowded from the nearby sports 'n' concert complex. And life was good. Still, with Crazy Horse Too, the Gold Club and Delilah's around, competition could get ... uhmm ... stiff.

Bring on Cheerleaders' loosely organized last-Wednesday-of-the-month parties. It's 7:45 p.m. on Sept. 26 and the rooster-haired Bam Bam is winding down his regular set, spinning Mötley Crüe platters and telling rude jokes. At 8 p.m., Jacky's putting on a floppy hat and leading his girls off the catwalk. Across the room, legendary club DJs Dozia Blakey and King Britt start spinning La India's "Love and Happiness" mix with M.I.A. and Skipmode's remix of Mos Def's "Ms. Fat Booty."

Outside in a tent, Nigel Richards and his crew of 611 DJs will hit the decks with dance music far icier. "Why am I in here where I can't see the half-naked women?" jokes Richards. "Can we discuss this?"

While Barry Silver's flame throwing troop and Carlos and Romeo's steel drums and congas pound the pavement, the Peek-A-Boo Revue burlesque troupe will do their thing indoors. Or violinist Micah will saw the catgut. Or Brian Sanders' athletic JUNK will hit the dancefloor and perform as Koresh/Rennie Harris prancer Sammy Reyes has during last Wednesdays.

This used to be a special-guest situation. Now Dozia, Britt, Richards and Peek-A-Boo — none of whom you'd have thought to find in a strip club or even a pseudo strip club — do this regularly.

"I actually got a lap dance there the other night and the dancer, she paid me, 'cause she got excited," says Britt when asked what he's tipping the girls. "That's what I'm talkin' 'bout," laughs Britt, a Pew Grant recipient who has performed at the Painted Bride. "Besides, it's every DJ's dream to spin at least once in a strip club. We can play some guilty pleasures like Timberlake and E-40."

Part of this bringing of talent that doesn't doff its duds is, yes, to compete with the other adult clubs. But in the mind of Meehan and his event promoter/booker, Darlene Walton, it's about expanding the range of entertainment a bar of its kind can have and bringing in new audiences — from women who had never before felt comfortable in a strip club environment and hipster doofuses afraid of flesh to house-music heads and Fringe Fest fanatics.

"As I see it, all nightlife clubs should have that crossover," says Walton.

Meehan isn't much of a Fringe type of guy. "Not really," he laughs. "But that's Walton's basis of expertise." Still it was Meehan who started the strip-club-as-a-night-club notion when, for Cheerleaders' 10th anniversary in 2006, they booked Rob Base, E-Z Rock and Jazzy Jeff. The crowds loved it. Meehan wanted to expand but wasn't sure exactly where to go. Enter Walton, who's booked DJs and entertainment for The Mansion, Shampoo and the nearly open Level. It wasn't so much a matter of survival for Walton as it was a cross-pollination of ideas and crowds that blurs the line between club life and striptease.

"Really, it's about using the venue to its fullest potential — kind of like the best of both worlds," says Walton.

Lulu Lollipop, director of Peek-A-Boo Revue, knows that burlesque means always being on the fringe of the sex industry. "To be approached be a gentleman's club was no shock," says Lollipop. "We saw it as another opportunity to wear fantastic costumes and do what we love to do: Show glamour, class and sex all at one time." At first, according to all parties, not everyone knew how to take it. "Not every dancing girl likes my mixes," says Britt. It's funny seeing women work a pole to Louie Vega as opposed to Aerosmith.

"This is much more up-close and personal for us," says Lollipop. At first, there were many Cheerleaders regulars that Lollipop didn't think understood the burlesque vibe. They weren't quite sure how to act. "It felt as if any girl looking sexy was an object to be touched," says Lollipop, who's used to being watched but never handled. "Our regular crowd wants to touch but wouldn't dare. This crowd dares ... oh, they dare."

But now a more mainstream crowd attends. And the regulars get the point — maybe even respect the Cheerleaders' dancers a bit more. "They've learned how to act," says Lollipop of Cheerleaders' usual audience. "It absolutely changes the seedy sort of connotation that a gentleman's club may have. It's different for us — took a bit of getting used to, but now we love it."

Plus all the dancers had to get used to each other. The interaction between Peek-A-Boo girls and Cheerleaders dancers was tense at first. "Being an ex-stripper myself, I understood why some of them were feeling tentative at first," says Lollipop. "Once they understood that we were not there to take money from them but actually to make money for them by bringing a new edge to the party, all was peaceful." By the third event, Cheerleaders girls seemed excited to see what Peek-A-Boo was wearing.

"Our girls love these nights," says Meehan. "They get to hang with other performers. They get to dance with customers in a different light. Everybody lets their hair down."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

Guest DJs for Cheerleaders' last Wednesday/Halloween party are Rob Paine, Willyum and Jeff Heart, Wed., Oct. 31, 2740 S. Front St., 215-467-1980, www.cheerleadersweb.com.