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Newsinsight: Peeler primer

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There are hundreds of strippers performing in the naked city. Here are just a few. NOW chatted them up to save some valuable time in councillor Howard Moscoe’s busy schedule. The licensing commission chair charges that City Hall hasn’t been keeping tabs on their working conditions. Well, we have. It’s hard work, but someone has to do it.

JILLY’S ( 106 Broadview)Sunday, 8 pm

Scene: Downmarket. Dancer onstage is hardly moving for the dozen or so live-theatre aficionados in attendance.

Private dance: $20

Lowdown: Performer asks if she can sit on my lap when there’s a perfectly fine chair across the table. Leads me to a more secluded back room. While she’s willing to talk, she draws the line at discussing what she makes. She’s a scheduled dancer. (Scheduled dancers get paid a set rate per shift and are usually required to perform onstage. They also make money from private dances.)

CADDY’S (2787 Eglinton East)

Saturday, 4:30 pm

Scene: Thin Scarberian crowd older men, younger Eminem clones. Disco Duck blasting on the sound system. (Offer up naked women and guys will listen to anything.)

Private dance: $20

Lowdown: Talk to a dancer who has freelanced here a year, who says conditions are OK. She pays the house $50 to work if she doesn’t perform on the stage ($20 if she does three performances). Says scheduled talent is guaranteed a minimum of $40-$75 a shift, plus private dances.

FAIRBANK HOTEL (2418 Dufferin)

Saturday, after 5 pm

Scene: Quiet beverage room at the raunchier end, nothing flashy. Small change room evident at back of room. Private dance: $8 (two-dance minimum)

Lowdown: Client gets to pick a dancer out of a binder and then buys tokens. Performer I speak to says she pays DJ and doorman but appreciates not having to take cash from customers.

BOOBY TRAP (355 Rexdale)

Saturday, 7 pm

Scene: I show up on the shift change. It’s the second club where I haven’t found any strippers. There is porn on a big screen. Lots of leather, marble tables and mirrors. Milli Vanilli tune on sound system. (Is this hell?) Two women ignore me and chat up clientele at another table. Cashier in front of VIP room laughs sympathetically as I pass him on the way out.

Private dance: $20 · VIP room: $10 cover, plus $20 per dance

CHARLEY T’s (1111 Finch West)

Scene: Hard-rockin’ club with imposing amplifiers pumping it out centre stage. Mixed crowd, but the big-hair set will like it.

Private dance: $20

Lowdown: Performer from eastern Europe came here through an agency and has been working T.O. clubs for six years. She works on schedule ($60 a shift), five mainstage performances a night and pays the DJ $10. Prefers being on schedule, because it can be slow.

ZANZIBAR (359 Yonge)

Sunday, around 9 pm

Scene: For tourists and out-of-town businessmen. Waitresses decked out in white garters and stockings are a tacky touch.

Table dance: $10 · VIP room dance: $20 · VIIP room: $20 cover, plus $20 per dance

Lowdown: Performer from Southeast Asia working here for six years came through an agency. She works on schedule ($50 a shift) and does two to five performances a night.

BRASS RAIL (701 Yonge)

Sunday, after 9 pm

Scene: Bustling, mixed business and working-class crowd in this middle-of-the-road venue. Real theatre atmosphere around main stage. VIP rooms at either end.

Private dance: $20

Lowdown: Freelance dancer says she prefers to come and go when she wants and not be tied down to a shift or be forced to perform. She says bouncers should be better at handling bad clients.

THE LANDING STRIP (191 Carlingview)

Monday, 9:30 pm

Scene: Jets roar over this high-end club in west Etobicoke. Greeted by large doorman in tux who seats me. Refined scotch-and-stogie set. For business discretion, strip chips charged to a client’s credit card appear as D.E. Limited or L.R. Inc.

Private dance: $20 · VIP room cover: $11.50 · Champagne room: $60

Lowdown: Eastern European performer steers me right when I accidentally walk into champagne room. A freelancer who came through an agency a year ago, she pays $40 a night to work. She doesn’t like to perform on the main stage.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (563 King West) Monday, 10:30 pm

Scene: Upscale. Similar to the Landing Strip (they’re affiliated). Same doormen in black and white.

Mixed crowd, with the more frugal clients on the main floor and the big spenders upstairs in the VIP rooms along with most of the talent.

Table dance: $10 · Private dance (VIP room): $20 · VIP room cover: $11.50 · Champagne room: $60

Lowdown: Chatty freelancer hopes to get on schedule. She pays $40 to work and has performed around town, but heard this place was better. She wishes she could dance to hiphop, but they won’t play it.

PRIVATE EYES (255 Old Kingston)

Saturday, 4 pm

Scene: Not exactly Porky’s. No loud music. Not a peeler in sight. One customer at the bar. Bartender says no T&A (currently renovating), but have $4.25 tallboys. As appealing as it is to drink in a dark, dingy Scarborough strip club with no strippers, I’m working.

LAP TALK

Licensed strippers in T.O.: 2,741

Licensed strip clubs in T.O.: 32

Gay strip clubs in T.O.: 1

Cost of stripper licence: $192

Annual renewal fee: $100

Cost of strip club owner/operator licence: $3,414

Six-month renewal fee: $3,314

Cost of strip club operator licence: $1,708

Six-month renewal fee: $1,657

Bowling alleys, pool halls, amusement arcades, barber shop licences: $143 · Renewal: $45

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