Axis Weekend featured the student body

It's nearly midnight on a Friday and Axis nightclub is conspicuously devoid of patrons. The driving beats of hip hop explode from the speakers, but the dance floor is vacant. At first, the 50 or so patrons who are scattered about the bar's tables seem bored, but as Nelly's harsh rapping begins it becomes apparent that the group is collectively sharing a different emotion entirely -- anticipation.\n"It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes."\nNelly's chorus seems to serve as a subconscious call to everyone within earshot. Suddenly there is a line of both men and women at the door waiting for admittance. Women at tables sway rhythmically and men softly rap along to the hit song. \nThe chorus is a precursor to the night's activity, the event that all here anticipate, The Hot Bod. The Hot Bod is a contest in which participants get on stage and attempt to win votes from the crowd by removing many articles of clothing. \nKen Nickos, manager of Axis Nightclub, says that in the seven or eight years that Axis (formerly Mars) Nightclub has been holding The Hot Bod competition it has become a Bloomington tradition.\n"Everybody has a good time," Nickos says. "It's something different. There are no other college campuses that do it."\nMost people come to The Hot Bod merely as voyeurs. They have come to watch their friends and peers get wild on stage and check out some of Bloomington's hot bodies. Some, however, have come tonight to be participants and their motivations are quite different. While they are here to entertain themselves and others, most want to win the money. First place winners walk away with $150 and second place takes home $50.\nThough the money is a great incentive, not all people eagerly volunteer to remove their clothes in public. Even with a good buzz going, many contestants need to be coaxed. Tonight, coaxing is the work of Amanda Scott, a junior.\nScott has been working The Hot Bod competition for a year and a half. In that time she has become astute at recognizing potential contestants and then convincing them to compete. \nShe has also developed an excellent sales pitch.\n"All you have to do is get up there for 20 seconds for 150 bucks," she says as she tries to lure potentials to the stage. \nFew can combat this kind of logic. But, some need more convincing. \n"How often do you workout?" Scott asks a potential male contestant. "What are you working out for? To stand in front of your mirror? No, you do it for the girls. Get up there and do your thing."\nMany different people get on stage to "do their thing." While some use their real name, stage names are also common. Contestants come up with names such as Pimpalicious, the D.A., Sugar and Spice, Luscious Lisa, the Real Thing and Sexual Chocolate to protect their identities while stripping down for the crowd. \nThough Scott has helped with The Hot Bod competition for almost two years, she says she has only recently moved into the spokesperson position. She says the best part of doing what she does is that it offers her the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people.\nAs tonight's contestants are called to the side of the stage by Brent Polzin, master of ceremonies for the contest, excited spectators rush to get a better look.\nFor Polzin and Scott, The Hot Bod has been the basis for several crazy memories. \nPolzin says that one of his favorite contestants was the guy who won doing a Hulk Hogan impression, and he and Scott agree that the wildest thing that they ever saw during a competition was a girl in a whipped cream bikini.\n"She used real whipped cream and it all ran off," Polzin says.\nIt's easy to see why the crowd is so eagerly anticipating the start of the competition. As the men's competition is about to begin, women from the crowd climb atop the club's two bars to serve as judges for the first round. Men from the audience will judge the first round of the women's competition. The applause from the audience after the first round determines who will go to the finals and, ultimately, the male and female winners. \nIn the men's competition the duo of the Real Thing and Sexual Chocolate perform what seems to be the necessary activities for male contestants -- remove shirt, expose and shake posterior -- they are defeated in the finals by a man who simply calls himself Kyle.\n"I did it for the beer money," says Kyle Heerdink, the winner of the men's competition. As he walks offstage, he is swarmed by friends and congratulators. As soon as Heerdink admits he competed for the money, his friends begin chanting in celebration. Heerdink joins in on the chorus, and soon he and his friends are jumping around and chanting in jubilation.\nThe win tonight has earned Heerdink an invitation to The Hot Bod finals in April. He says winning was great, but it took a little preparation to get ready for the show. Prior to the competition, Heerdink shaved his whole upper body. He also says he needed a little help lowering his inhibitions.\n"I drink enough alcohol to kill a horse," he says.\nHeerdink's friends also played a big part in getting him on stage. He says they will be there again with him in the finals, pumping him up and cheering him on to victory.\nIn the women's competition a quartet, featuring members named Sugar and Spice, gyrate and grind with each other on stage. One member of the quartet even removes her shirt to reveal she is wearing nothing more than pasties. Their performances are enough to defeat Crystal Kenealy in the finals.\nThough Kenealy did not win first place, she is still pleased with the outcome.\n"The four girls that won got less than I did," Kenealy says. "I didn't even have to show as much."\nShe says it was well worth competing because she does it for fun, not the money.\n"I like to be on stage," she says.\nFor others, the money is the primary motivator.\nThough A.J. Kinser, who has worked at Axis for a month, did not compete tonight, she has competed in The Hot Bod three times in the last year.\n"I do it mostly for the money, but it's also fun," Kinser says. \nAside from the monetary prizes, Heerdink says the attention is a big reward.\n"Girls were everywhere," he says.\nScott says this kind of attention is another reason that many people compete. She says that contestants get all kinds of phone numbers and usually end up hooking up. She says the competition can often give regular Bloomington club-goers a chance to become something more.\n"It's like being famous for 20 seconds," Scott says.\nRyan Heath contributed to this story.