Swinging Richards update

[EZEtoGRU]

I was at Swinging Richards on Thursday night during a very short visit to Atlanta. I thought the line-up of dancers was very weak in comparison to my last few visits there. The hottest dancer was so stoned, he could hardly stay standing on the stage. When he finished his show, he fell asleep (passed out) on one of the sofas in the VIP area and that was the end of him. I don't know if the line-up I saw on Thursday is representative of SR's talent now. If it is, I would say they have really declined in the last year. One dancer was actually seriously overweight (although, admittedly, he did have a huge penis). Pretty disappointing night there. I tipped a few guys on-stage and that was the extent of my "fun" even though I came to the club with a wallet full of cash that I was intending to spend.

[+ azdr0710]

thanks for that update, @EZEtoGRU ....I hope it was just an off-night for the club as this place is the best the US can offer!....one former dancer at SR who I now occasionally meet with in my hometown said there was neighborhood pressure to close the place (maybe this has existed for years) and some proposed condos or similar were threatening.....any locals have new news about these concerns?

Edited December 24, 2017 by azdr0710

[EZEtoGRU]

thanks for that update, @EZEtoGRU ....I hope it was just an off-night for the club as this place is the best the US can offer!

I agree azdr. I really hope it was a one-off weak night. I'll give them another chance in a few months.

[Boy4]

I went there are few years ago. Got a private dance. Dancer was more about the money and himself then my needs. he came in the booth much to his pleasure.

 

I guess I just picked the wrong dancer.

[geoffk]

I was there the Thursday after Thanksgiving. I had a very good time. No lack of talent that night.

[Chidude]

I was there the Thursday after Thanksgiving. I had a very good time. No lack of talent that night.

 

That’s a relief to hear, @geoffk!! I’ve always had a blast there. Headed back for some debauchery this Spring :-)

[LaffingBear]

Amazon Prime video has a documentary "All Male All Nude".... its about Swinging Richards.

 

They interview managers, dancers, a DJ, etc. Show everything. And of greatest interest to me, describe the business mechanics

• What the Dancers pay to work there.... they're not employees, but sign a contract and pay the house a flat rate just to start a shift.... then....
  
• Patron rates for different venues, including fees for private show of various lengths. And the splits going to the dancer and the house. $500.00 for a one-hour VIP private!
  
• Dancers' mandatory percentage of tips, and per-shift payments to the DJ and the doorman.
  

One memorable line for me was a dancer's "Five years ago, I was able to make $1700.00 a night; now its the same work for $150.00. And the newer dancers, they never experienced those old earnings, so they think $150.00 a night is good money."

 

Every dancer does say its a nice place and they work with nice people.

 

For me.... I used to frequent NobHill Theatre in SF. Enjoyed bars with house dancers in SF, FTL, Key West, DC, Chicago, and Vegas. Was always curious about Richards. Based on the views of the club, the dancers shown, and the things said, I wouldnt go to Swinging Richards.

 

I recommend the video for those who are curious or considering a first visit.

Edited February 19, 2018 by LaffingBear

[Atlanta_Guy]

A couple of things from someone who is a “regular” of the club. The video is not a good advertisement or representation of the club.

 

Most of the video was shot in 2009. Thats 10 years ago. Dustin, a dancer whose death was spoken of in the video died in the summer of 2009. The ‘movie’ started out as a concept for a reality TV show. It never went anywhere. Most of the dancers wanted nothing to do with it. Many of the dancers come from conservative homes. There is a reason the Deep South is known as the Bible Belt. There were probably 10 to 20 really hot guys working st the time that refused to be a part of it. So basically, you had the attention whores who were convinced they were going to get fame and money.

 

As for some of the guys

• Dallas: still there. He’s actually aged well if you liked his look. I never had a thing for him but he’s actually a nice guy.
  
• Matthew: I spit my drink out laughing when he said he “slept mostly with women.” I think the only time he’s ever touched vagina was when he was born. He left Atlanta and for a time was the DJ st floppy roosters.
  
• Pierce: must have been having a bad week or month. He was hot, very sexy and he didn’t look up to his usual standards In the film. He was smart. Never understood how he got caught up in the film. He got an education and I’m told is doing very well.
  
• Shawn: he’s the guy that talked about how the money had gone down. This is the same shit every dancer talks about when they lose the “new meat” factor and/or lose some of their regulars. As a point of reference I was there Saturday night and one of my favorites was disappointed he had only made $600 as of midnight. So much for no money...Oh and this “favorite” of mine isn’t new but has been dancing for 4 years. To be fair, he is smoking hot and one of the best looking guys in the club now. PS - there is another dancer named Sean at Richards now... he’s been there since about 2010.
  
• Stephen - he was 40 plus years old when the film was done. He was a nice guy, attractive for some people but not really what you would expect appearance wise from a dancer. As the film mentioned he disappeared and was found dead. The official report said foul play wasn’t suspected.... but I never understood why.
  
• Matt Colunga - he was the DJ/Manager. A bit moody at times but he was good and did a good job of recruiting talent. I haven’t been to his new cub in Florida (Johnson’s) but have heard good things.
  

The bottom line is the film does not give you a great picture of what you can expect at Swinging Richards. I’ve been to almost every strip cub and many gogo dancer clubs. Outside of Montreal Swinging Richards is the best you will find. The warning I would give is that they do have “off”nights... especially during the week. The weekends are almost always pretty good.

Edited February 20, 2018 by Atlanta_Guy

[+ BigRic]

The ‘movie’ started out as a concept for a reality TV show. It never went anywhere.

 

Sounds very familiar. I sat for playful interviews by a producer working on a reality show based on Adonis many months ago. Haven't even bothered to follow up with Matt about status.

 

Thanks for your comments, @Atlanta_Guy (and welcome). Some good context before I try to squeeze this in soon.

[BSR]

A couple of things from someone who is a “regular” of the club. The video is not a good advertisement or representation of the club.

 

Most of the video was shot in 2009. Thats 10 years ago. Dustin, a dancer whose death was spoken of in the video died in the summer of 2009. The ‘movie’ started out as a concept for a reality TV show. It never went anywhere. Most of the dancers wanted nothing to do with it. Many of the dancers come from conservative homes. There is a reason the Deep South is known as the Bible Belt. There were probably 10 to 20 really hot guys working st the time that refused to be a part of it. So basically, you had the attention whores who were convinced they were going to get fame and money.

 

As for some of the guys

• Dallas: still there. He’s actually aged well if you liked his look. I never had a thing for him but he’s actually a nice guy.
  
• Matthew: I spit my drink out laughing when he said he “slept mostly with women.” I think the only time he’s ever touched vagina was when he was born. He left Atlanta and for a time was the DJ st floppy roosters.
  
• Pierce: must have been having a bad week or month. He was hot, very sexy and he didn’t look up to his usual standards In the film. He was smart. Never understood how he got caught up in the film. He got an education and I’m told is doing very well.
  
• Shawn: he’s the guy that talked about how the money had gone down. This is the same shit every dancer talks about when they lose the “new meat” factor and/or lose some of their regulars. As a point of reference I was there Saturday night and one of my favorites was disappointed he had only made $600 as of midnight. So much for no money...Oh and this “favorite” of mine isn’t new but has been dancing for 4 years. To be fair, he is smoking hot and one of the best looking guys in the club now. PS - there is another dancer named Sean at Richards now... he’s been there since about 2010.
  
• Stephen - he was 40 plus years old when the film was done. He was a nice guy, attractive for some people but not really what you would expect appearance wise from a dancer. As the film mentioned he disappeared and was found dead. The official report said foul play wasn’t suspected.... but I never understood why.
  
• Matt Colunga - he was the DJ/Manager. A bit moody at times but he was good and did a good job of recruiting talent. I haven’t been to his new cub in Florida (Johnson’s) but have heard good things.
  

The bottom line is the film does not give you a great picture of what you can expect at Swinging Richards. I’ve been to almost every strip cub and many gogo dancer clubs. Outside of Montreal Swinging Richards is the best you will find. The warning I would give is that they do have “off”nights... especially during the week. The weekends are almost always pretty good.

A question for you or anyone else who has some insight into the internal workings of Swinging Richards: where does all the money go?

 

SRs makes money from cover charges, drink sales, dancer fees, a percentage of VIP privates, and apparently even take a cut of dancers' tips. Just from what they make in alcohol sales, I would think that would be enough revenue to keep a business well in the black. When you add in all their other revenue streams, it has to be an eye-popping sum. So where does all this money go? Are the owners swimming in money like Scrooge McDuck? I can't imagine that's the case because if SRs were that lucrative, people would open up competing venues to get a slice of the pie. Does the city of Atlanta impose all sorts of crazy taxes and fees on a strip club? (that's my guess, but I'd like to hear confirmation) Or does the club incur "unofficial expenses" to maintain good relations with local law enforcement and city government?

[Atlanta_Guy]

It goes in the owner’s pocket. I have no idea what he does with it. The city of Atlanta doesn’t give out new licenses for adult clubs. They haven’t given a new adult club license in 20-30 years. So the existing ones are golden. There are maybe 20 adult clubs. Richards is the only gay one. I think it was 6 or 7 years ago one of the straight clubs changed over. It was called Bliss. Matt Colunga even managed it for a while until the owner at Richards hired him back. Bliss did well for a while. But it was a smaller club and Richards didn’t really seem to be impacted very much. When Matt left... the quality of the dancers fell off and bliss converted back to a straight club.

[+ tassojunior]

Gay clubs are pretty much closing down left and right everywhere. I doubt if it's as much the neighbors harassing SR as it is income in freefall. We nowadays speak in terms of which ones are "still open".

 

The exception is Fort Lauderdale where there are now 3 gay strip clubs in Wilton Manors. And Matt, the former manager of SR Atlanta and then SR Pompano owns the new one, Johnsons, which is terrific. Of course the demographic in WM is much older.

[Jake]

Wasn't there one other gay strip bar besides SR and Bliss? I forget the name, but always had a good time there. I think it was called Roosters. It was in the same area as Bliss. I only got to go a couple times. Would be bummed to hear it's closed down. I went to SR once and it was fun for the fans of the buffed up guys, but I'm more into college age twinks and muscle twinks.

[SuperJunior]

Wasn't there one other gay strip bar besides SR and Bliss? I forget the name, but always had a good time there. I think it was called Roosters. It was in the same area as Bliss. I only got to go a couple times. Would be bummed to hear it's closed down. I went to SR once and it was fun for the fans of the buffed up guys, but I'm more into college age twinks and muscle twinks.

BJ Roosters is still open.

[Jake]

Ok thanks man! Good to hear. Bliss was my favorite, but Roosters was a close second. They were both great in their own way. BJ's was rowdier and more of a party. But Bliss was definitely sexier. I loved that they were close together.

[Jake]

Thanks for the heads up about the movie. Doubt it would have crossed my mind to look on Amazon for a swinging Richards movie. LOL. It was definitely no Oscar winner but a fun way to spend an hour. Troy Would definitely make me change my mind about swinging Richards. Wonder how long he lasted at the club.

[Boy4]

BJ Roosters is still open.

Got a review on that... ? Mostly twinks?

[EZEtoGRU]

I just wrapped up another Atlanta/Miami trip combo. I was in Atlanta on Friday through Monday. Went to Swinging Richards on Friday night and was, once again, very disappointed with the line-up. Plenty of dancers but very little to hold my interest. There were maybe 30 guys there. I'm into masculine muscular macho alpha male types. Only 2 or 3 of the guys kind of fit that description.....but not fully. The rest were just a mix of twinks/fems, or just average looking guys who you might not even give a second look at if you saw them in a pick-up bar. The best word to describe the line-up last Friday at Richard's is mediocre. I was so disappointed that I did not bother returning on Saturday as I had initially planned to do. This is now my second consecutive disappointing visit to SR's. I'll give them one more chance in a few months.

 

The lineup at Twist in Miami, on the other hand, was solid. I'll report those details in the Twist thread.

[Jake]

Plenty of dancers but very little to hold my interest. The rest were just a mix of twinks/fems, or just average looking guys who you might not even give a second look at if you saw them in a pick-up bar.

 

Translation to me: twinks? Might be worth a visit again lol. This is why I applaud the guy running Johnsons for trying to appease all tastes in one bar. It's not easy I'm sure. When you have a mix of muscle and twink, half the roster is already unattractive to a typical customer. It's like having an election results party with republicans and democrats. I've only been to SR once or twice, but there were only one or two guys my type. That's why I was curious about Roosters. But next visit to ATL I'll give SR one more try.

[EZEtoGRU]

Translation to me: twinks? Might be worth a visit again lol. This is why I applaud the guy running Johnsons for trying to appease all tastes in one bar. It's not easy I'm sure.

 

Like you, I have no problem with a club offering a mixture of guys to appeal to all tastes. That is fine if it is a true mix. To me, SR's had a very unbalanced line-up. If out of 30 strippers, only two or three were kind of attractive to me, that's a problem. There were some twinks....but the majority of the dancers seemed to just be of average attractiveness and body shape. Just your run-of-the-mill average looking guy who has suddenly become a stripper. Sure they have youth going for them....but as far as being attractive....not really. Half of the strippers you wouldn't give a second look at on the street. How they manage to get a job at a strip club is beyond me.

 

Anyway, give it a shot. You might like it.

[LaffingBear]

The comments from @EZEtoGRU and @Jake above are why I havent tried returning to NobHill Theatre in SF.

 

I remember when there were at least some buffed guys there, and a period when it was ALL my type. Now the website show house dancers who appear to be slender waifs only a few meals from homelessness. Hence, havent been in about 12 years.

[+ BigRic]

For anyone else interested in All Male, All Nude:

 

Just to minimize some possible confusion, "Shawn" is (too bad he smokes fellow Southern boy) Sean in the film (real name Paul per the credits). "Stephen" is Steven (there is no "Dustin"; there is, however, a Justin who identifies himself as a GM not a dancer). And I'd opine that it is the filmmaker's relationship with Steven (it's even dedicated to him) that is, if not the film's genesis, at least became something of a motif given what happened to this dancer-singer-songwriter apparently during filming.

 

I don't recall any bit about $1,700 years ago versus $150 now. Maybe a previous edit of the film?

 

Met ironically named Matt C. while working Adonis Palm Springs. Funny how what he has to deal with reminds me of Matt Adonis' travails. 'A lot of the times the guy dancers are worse than the girls.' LOL.

 

Ironic, unsurprising and sad how (IMO hot) Sean and (IMO loquacious/pretentious) Steven end up in different places based upon how they present in the picture.

Edited March 11, 2018 by BigRic

[Atlanta_Guy]

so, I misspelled Sean/Shawn. My fault. Same for Stephen/Steven. You are also right, there is no Dustin in the film. He was only referenced in an announcement they made at the club which was caught on film, it is seen on the version available via Amazon prime. I remembered he passed away in the summer of 2009 which is how I was able to place the date of most of the film.

 

Matt was fired and rehired by the owner at Swinging Richards (Atlanta and Florida) multiple times. you probably met him at Adonis during one of those "fired" phases. Justin wasn't the GM. He was at the front door or the VIP door a few nights a week. They had a few GMs in between Matt's tenures and after his last departure when he moved back to Florida.

 

Early in the film Sean made references to how everyone used to make '$1K+ a night without even trying. But were only making $150 now' It is in the film online at amazon prime now.

Edited March 12, 2018 by Atlanta_Guy

[jrroth580]

Went to SR this past Friday night (4/13/18) and was a good time. Most of the tables were full of patrons and a good mix of men dancing. As previously stated, some were pretty generous in terms of getting out of their underwear while others were a bit more reserved. One guy, in tight white briefs and a hat, had a great bulge but never shed his underwear. Still, a great time and some great guys to look at.

 

Would be nice if some of them had the nerve or desire to get it hard before stripping off their underwear (like at Stock in Montreal). The tips would really be flying if they did that.

[Chidude]

Was at SR earlier this Spring and had a fantastic time. The roster was full of hotties, the bar was packed (after about 11pm) on Fri and Sat. And most importantly, the boys were VERY friendly. Thank you Baby Jesus for strippers!!!!