NOTE: I'm not sure if I can place any links to the clubs mentioned anywhere on this page. I'll give you the address, phone number and other info if possible, but check with the Usenet newgroup alt.sex.strip-clubs or tuscl - The Ultimate Strip Club Guide

I've been going to strip-clubs ever since I was 18 years old - back when if you were old enough to get credit, get tried as an adult for most non-violent crimes, join the Armed Forces and get married without parental approval, you were old enough to at least drink beer in some state and liquor in several others.

There were many topless bars in Raleigh, NC in the early-to-mid 70's, but there were only two when I turned 18 in 1978. The first strip club I ever went to in Raleigh was called "My Apartment Lounge". It was located on Hillsborough Street across from NC State University in Raleigh. In those days, the cover was $2.00, the beer was cheap, stage tips usually got you a long and deep French kiss from the dancers, and there were no table dances.

The only other place in Raleigh was "The Keg" at 3100 Hillborough Street ("Cup-a-Joe's" coffeehouse on Hillborough west of NCSU is located there now). The "Keg" was also the place where legal history was made in North Carolina by a Keg dancer named Kathy Carol Jones. She was charged with having, on or about February 12, 1969, with committing indecent exposure by exposing her breasts when dancing topless. The NC Indecent Exposure Statute proscribed the "willfull indecent public exposure of private parts of his or her person in any public place or highway" and made the offense a misdemeanor. North Carolina interpreted the law, often called the "anti-nudist colony law", to proscribe the exposure of a woman's breasts in public places such as bar. Strict interpretation of the law would also criminalize exposure in a single-gender locker room as well as between a husband and wife. NC spent a lot of time and money busting dancers and club-owners for one thing or another in an attempt to keep topless bars from springing-up in the late 60's and early 70's. The NC Court of Appeals rules in Ms. Jones' favor by ruling that a woman's breasts were not considered "private parts" within the meaning of the NC law. So The Keg could continue to feature topless dancers and serve beer, and titty bars started to spread all over Raleigh. At one time, there were several: My Apartment Lounge on Hillsborough St. (and another sister club on Capital Blvd near downtown); The Keg, Shirleys Topless on Hwy. 64 east by the Neuse River bridge; The Foxy Lady on Capital Blvd. near the Duncan Donuts; and I believe one or two others.

Most of the dancers were biker chicks without tattoos, but there were a few dancers who were college students working their way through school - usually grad school. I ended-up spending most of my time at "The Keg" because there were no stairs to fall-down at the end of the night. Plus you could always walk out the back door and take a leak at the back of the parking lot if the men's room was full-up or really disgusting. "Keg" dancers were also more friendly and approachable than MAL dancers. I also had an "in" there because I worked with one of the dancers before I knew she worked there, so I was OK. That is when I first found out that no matter how much money you drop on a dancer you meet in a club, they will not treat you as well as if you knew/met them before you knew that they danced. Leaving Raleigh for an out-of state college, I didn't go to strip-bars often while in college because my money would go further in regular bars and diners. Besides, I was spending lots of time working with nude models while in school, so why pay for something you can see for free!

After graduation, I returned to Raleigh and settled into a fairly hectic life of working in my field, so there usually was no time to go to strip-clubs. After getting bored with the quality and intensity of the work in Raleigh, I left for NYC - the Big Apple. And there I found "Billy's Topless", located at the southwestern corner of E24th Street and Sixth Avenue. Great dancers, no hustle - just three topless dancers on stage at all times! And they would be happy to spend time talking with you over a drink between sets. Most of the dancers I met at Billy's were working there in between jobs in legitimate theater, or while in school, or until they got a modeling contract. One ex-Billys dancer and I still keep in touch after all these years - she is a freelance makeup person in NYC to this day.

I did go to other clubs in NYC - lots of them were nude. I stayed away from the clubs with the most hustle, prefering low-key places where you didn't have to keep a fresh drink in front of you at all times. Strip bars over the river in northern New Jersey (where I lived at the time) were called "go-go" bars (where the dancers wore bikinis and didn't ever go topless) - with very few exceptions. Those exceptions were called juice bars, because no alcohol was served, and the dancers went toally nude. It was in these north Jersey juice bars that I first became aware of something called a "lap dance", although I never received one at this time.

After returning home to NC, I didn't frequent any strip clubs in the area until after I found myself sitting next to a dancer (and four other naked people people) in a hot-tub at a now-defunct nudist club. After she invited me to visit her at the Foxy Lady Lounge in Raleigh, the Foxy became my second home for a couple of years. I actually got my first lap dance (albeit a low-milage one) from a dancer at the Foxy. A buddy and I travelled to Woodstock 94 with two Foxy ladies - that was also their CB handle on the day-long road trip. But it wasn't until I was working a freelance gig in NYC in May 1995 that I found what I have to say was and still would be my NUMBER ONE FAVORITE CLUB (if it had not been for Mayor Rudi Gulliani) - The Blue Angel Erotic Cabaret.

The Blue Angel was located in the basement of an old building on Walker Street in the TribeCa (Triangle Below Canal) section of lower Manhattan and was run by an German ex-dancer named Ute. TBA was a juice bar - the dancers worked nude for the most part. They worked on one of two stages, stripped totally nude, then passed the hat or basket for tips after each performance - which would not work in a larger club but it worked in TBA and the girls earned from their stage work. M-Th was for regular stage shows, but Friday and Saturday nights were open-mike nights - anything goes on stage! This is the club where Drew Barrymore danced nude back in 1994. TBA had a fantastic MC named Dominic (the dude with the shiny tux and black hat in the Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante ads) who really kept the crowd going! There were other comics (including a lesbian passive agressive comic), but the other acts were wild! There were magicians, flame-eaters and sword-swallowers, people who worked with beds of nails, dancers who smeared their bodies with food on stage and made themselves into a large sundae, and wild skits! On the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in NYC (where the customers of NYC gay bars rioted against the mob-owners and the NYPD), there were several memorial skits - one dealt with a bride-to-be whose maid of honor really comforted her after her fiance failed to show for the wedding. One of my favorite skits was Jigsaw Julie's tribute to Bugs Bunny - complete with a foot-long carrot! ;-).

While the stage shows were great - it was the lap dances that were totally awesome! On the first night I was there, as the guest of a dancer who had done some modeling for me, I saw lots of guys going back to this curtained-off area of the club. I asked my friend to show me the place. She took me to the back and showed me a small area with low cushioned seats and couches. There were men and women - singles and couples - getting lap dances from female dancers. The dancers were topless, and there was lots of grinding and customer contact with the dancers - manual and oral. My friend told me that most dancers would let you touch them anywhere that wasn't covered by clothing - basically you couldn't touch under the g-string. When I asked about the guys going into the mens room before getting lapped - she said that the guys were doning rubbers so they wouldn't soil their trousers if they came. My friend said she took it as a compliment if a guy came when she danced for him, and she said that most guys did come for her. Since we had previously-existing professional relationship, she didn't dance for me. But she did recommend someone to me. This dancer didn't "motivate" me as well as my friend led me to believe she would - the grinding didn't provide the right stimulation. And in the many laps I received that night, none were really "motivational". I did get a chance to feel every bare inch of this dancer - including the first and hardest breast implants I ever felt. I have since found out that the implants weren't hard - it was the scar tissue that had formed around the implants. While they looked quite impressive, they felt less than desirable. While I have never dated a dancer, I do not envy their SO's who have to feel these rocks.

While I got my first relatively high-milage lap dance at The Blue Angel in NYC, I first achieved "Clouds and Rain" with a dancer at Choo Choos in Waldorf, MD. Her secret - she basically used me to get herself off and I had fun in the process. Of course, I wasn't ready for it - I didn't think that anyone could do me that way. So the first one was a messy experience for me. Luckilly, I did have some latex products (and a pair of lap-dance trousers) in the car, and I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the night once I was properly equipped and attired. Choo Choos was the only club in Waldorf worth going to - the other club (the first one you will see driving down from DC) is a waste of time and money! DO NOT GO THERE! (NOTE: According to www.tuscl.com - the club is no longer in business).

After I came back to NC and told my friends about The Blue Angel and Choo Choo's, some of them told me about a wild place in Fayetteville, NC called Mickey's (formerly known as Rick's Lounge and formerly located on the Hay St. strip). For the first couple of times I went there, Mickey's was really wild - my nose was pretty torn-up from getting scratched by sequins on the dancer's g-strings - and that was while they were on-stage! Needless to say, the private lap-dances were of Blue Angel caliber and quality, albeit no one was needing to wear their rubbers. Recently ALE has effectively stopped contact between dancers and customers at most NC clubs - they think that lap dancing is a bigger problem than drunk drivers or underage consumption.

I suppose I have always has a soft spot (and sometimes a hard one) for women who like to take their clothes off - either in private, in a bar or in public. I love to go skinnydipping and nude sunbathing, and there is nothing like meeting a woman on a nude beach who has the confidence to talk with you while she is buck naked. Some of my best friends are woman I have met at nude beaches or nudist clubs. What is truly amazing to me is that women who earn a living dancing nude or topless often do not feel comfortable going to a nude beach or even posing nude for artistic non-sexual photographs. There are of course some notable exceptions.

Back in 1998, I was interested in getting into the web design business, and I had heard that the adult web sites has some of the most interesting designs and features. No snickering out there - I really did not see any adult sites until this time!

I was surfing the Net and believe it or not this was the first time I came across an Adult Amateur web site - belonging to Jen & Dave of Baltimore, MD. They were going to be attending a bar meet for another web-mistress in Woodbridge, VA (near some nudist friends of mine) and I decided to attend. I met Jen and Dave and some other web honeys at this party and they were some of the most friendly people I have met this side of a nude beach. Especially Jen and Dave - Jen is just so cute and as sweet as can be, and Dave is a charming and affable racconteur (storyteller). I kept in touch and went to a few of their other parties - including their 4th and 5th site anniversary parties. We became friends and eventually I shot their wedding photos in October 2000.

It was in anticipation of their 6th site anniversary party that I happened to see who else was officially invited to their party - Sweet Camri. I recognized most of the other names on the list, but I did not recognize this one. So I went to the site and found that Camri and her hubby live in in the same town I do - Raleigh, NC. So I sent them an e-mail message, they called me and we have gotten to know each other quite well. Check out the photo page to see some of the pics I have shot of Camri for this and one other site or hers. And check out her site for the full selection of pics.

One or two of those other notable exceptions are two remarkable young women I met earlier during the summer of 2001. While getting some coffee in the Five Points area of Raleigh with my buddy Lazy Dave, I saw a poster for artist's model who wanted to pose for artists and photographers. I contacted her and we began planning to work together. She was also an artist in her own right, and did extensive work with digitizing and manipulating the pics of her taken by other photographers. But she had never done any silver-based film and print darkroom work, and also wanted to learn more technical camera work. I figured with a BS degree and some teaching experience from one of the nation's best photo schools (located somewhere near Rochester, NY) I could teach he what she wanted to know.

I also found out that she and her mother both liked to get naked - they both have skinnydipped extensively in South Florida, and Jezabel (the model) has also danced in South Florida strip clubs. We ended up spending my birthday (June 11, 2001) naked on a secluded beach on a lake near Raleigh) just hanging out and planning a photo shoot there. We did a shoot on a Sunday afternoon, and I found her to be a beautiful and talented model - she had an excellent sense of her body and how to move and pose. And she is a quick learner in the darkroom too!

Of course a girl's gotta eat as well as pose and print, and Jezabel was learning something I knew for a long time - North Carolina is not a great place to earn a living unless you are a computer geek, corporate lawyeR, bank executive, lobbyist or aide to Governor Easley. Modeling rates in NC hadn't changed in years and were nowhere near as high as in Florida. Pay for regular service jobs (waitressing, working in a flower or coffee shop or bookstore) were pathetic. So she decided to put on her garter and t-backs and start dancing again. I accompanied her to her first amateur night contest at Thee DollHouse on Yonkers Road in Raleigh. She came in first and began dancing there as a regular the next night. Guys - when in Raleigh stop in to Thee DollHouse and ask for Jezabel - she's all natural and hot as hell!

Talk about your small worlds, but while I was taking Jezabel into TDH for the contest, I ran into a pretty waitress who had a charming accent from the mid-Atlantic area - where I lived when I graduated high school. She did indicate that she was from that same area, and we got to be friends. She has a killer body with great muscle tone. So good in fact that dancers would lose the attention of their customer when she came by with their drinks. I had to take her pics soon, and she went out with me to a nearby lake and we did some great pics. She also wants to learn to do some darkroom work. Hopefully Jezabel and I will be able to do a tandem shoot with her, and maybe I can get them to both pose together. I'll keep you posted!