KINGSTON, Jamaica – While many Jamaican men are enamoured with gravity-defying routines by exotic dancers at go-go clubs, brute economics and safety concerns have reportedly spawned a new phenomenon where patrons have been getting their kinks at local bars instead of strip joints.

Traditional watering holes across the Corporate Area are increasingly offering ‘topless’ nights, where patrons are able to enjoy exotic night club service in a relaxed community bar setting.

Research has shown that it is a win-win for most parties concerned. The exotic dancers work more flexible hours with better tips, while patrons don’t have to stray far from their communities to get their groove on.

Actor and exotic club promoter Bad Boy Trevor said that the pandemic helped this phenomenon to flourish.

“The pandemic has produced that kind of hustle for the girls. The dancers in the club had to find ways and means to survive during the COVID lock down, and the only places opening at that time were bars and round robins or little private parties,” Bad Boy Trevor, who operates a mobile exotic club, told OBSERVER ONLINE.

“They find out that they make more money that way. And so it creates a different kind of mobile exotic club. You have to pay them to be there and they dance and make tips.”

However, not everyone is so hunky-dory about the new power dynamics at play.

“The problem is that post pandemic now, some of the dancers don’t return to the club. Because they find it more profitable and more manageable. This new trend helps to attract new talent for the popular and more name brand clubs. But it also affects the non-traditional clubs or anyone trying to open new clubs, because it is hard to attract new talent, people have been calling me to find girls, it hard because there is a big demand. Right now, the girls want $15,000 per night to work in a new exotic club,” Trevor said.

One exotic club owner in the Corporate Area said the phenomenon has “significantly” affected his bottom line, as he now finds himself directly competing with a bar located on the same premises as his go-go club. He said he has lost many of his once loyal customers to the bar, where liquor prices are less expensive. He complained that the playing field is not level and said the authorities need to regulate the bars, many of which, he argued, do not have the necessary permit to operate beyond certain hours.

“Many of these bars don’t have club licences, but yet they are operating as clubs, open to the wee hours of the morning,” the night club owner, who wished to remain anonymous, told OBSERVER ONLINE.

Economics plays a major role in driving the new trend. A typical dancer who lives in Portmore charges $8,000 per night to dance at a bar, and at least $10,000 outside of Portmore if they don’t have to travel too far. A typical exotic dancer can take home at least $20,000 a night between tips and a stipend from the promoter. The patrons also find the new terms of engagement quite attractive.

A popular promoter, Gotti aka the Hottest Man Alive, who owns the Bamboo Hot Spot in Portmore, said that male patrons love this new trend because it is more amenable to their pockets and their security concerns.

“The man dem prefer to stay in their hometown than to go a road because of the crime rate and the next thing is the funds, if they have a $1,000, they can tip the girl two bills and buy two beer. Anywhere else, they have to pay to go in and the liquor is more expensive at the strip clubs,” he said

“Plus, the patrons have a better chance to get the dancer than the go go club, dem girl de ah look big money,” Gotti added, laughing.

His event is called Inferno Thursdays held each week at his club on West Henderson Boulevard in 7 West Greater Portmore.

“This new trend is here to stay, everybody can get a taste of what they need and then go home safe,” he said.

As it relates to morality, there may be concerns about public nudity in these bars. SECTION 9(B) of the Towns and Communities Act, as amended in 1995, provides that “every person who shall, in any thoroughfare or public place, indecently expose his or her person” shall, upon the second or subsequent summary conviction, be liable to a fine of $1,000 or imprisonment for not more than 30 days.

The statute in question does not specifically define “indecent exposure”. According to the dictionary, the term indecent exposure is defined as “an offensive display of one’s body in public, especially of the genitals.”

The Act defines a town as all cities and villages. This seems like everywhere in Jamaica. A public place is defined in the Act to include ‘every road, street, footpath, court, square, lane, alley, public building, park, garden, church, wharves, passenger ship, theatre, bar’, among other places.

Checks with the Corporate Communication Unit showed that no arrests have been made for public nudity in any bars across the island.