The Colosseum

 I stopped into the Colosseum Thursday night. It was once a sister club to Penthouse, owned by the same person back in the day. The Colosseum is where they filmed the short-lived Showtime show Topless Prophet. The city decided to clean up the strip clubs. They shut down Penthouse and forced the owner to sell Colosseum.

I arrived before eight. The dayshift girls were still lingering, and the night-shift girls were slowly starting to mingle. I texted Tinkerbell, "It's full of black chicks and fat chicks so far."

It's been almost ten years since I was a regular at a strip club. Several things have changed. Some are easy to point out, but others are more elusive. The girls are bigger and less attractive. The customers do not dress as well. I saw one guy wearing cut-off sweatpants and a t-shirt with his belly sticking out. He would not have made it through the door in the old days.

Overall, the clubs are changing with the times in a desperate effort to survive. The girls carry buckets with them on stage. I noticed this in the two other clubs I've visited recently. That was never the case in the old days. Seldom did a customer "make it rain." They tipped girls on stage. These young guys have seen too many music videos. No girl wants to sweep up a wad of singles thrown at them while they are on stage.

I witnessed one guy get up from the bar, throw three or four singles at a dancer on stage, and walk back to his seat. He didn't talk to her. He barely looked at her. His whole demure showed a certain lack of respect. I went to the dancer after and slipped a dollar into the band of her g-string on the side. "Feel out of place. Am I supposed to through this at you and walk away?" I joked.

Later, while we talked at the bar, she commented that I was more of a gentleman. I said, "You don't throw your money at the gas station cashier. Why would you do it here?"

The girls don't do extras in the back at Colosseum--not anymore. The curtains are gone, and the backroom is one ample open space. When I went back for a dance, the room was empty. The dances were not worth the money.

It is too much effort to work myself back into a club and become a regular. I don't want to spend the time, the money, or drink the alcohol it would involve. None of the clubs I have visited lately and none of the dancers have changed my mind.