There are clubs and then there are strip clubs.\nBloomington offers Hoosiers many choices for basking in brews and hearty ha-ha's, but where can community members go if they seek half-naked human beings sliding down poles or sex toys to bring home to share with their partner? Also known as "adult entertainment," the city offers most forms of sensual self-indulgence and perverted pleasure, including topless dance clubs, bookstores with XXX video arcades, and lingerie boutiques offering everything from fluffy handcuffs to nipple clamps.\nFor students who wish to throw a bottle or two of beer into the back of their throats while a gyrating woman dressed in only thong panties hangs upside down from a pole, Bloomington offers two alternatives.\n
Look but don't touch
\nConsidered the "classier" of the two, Night Moves offers the traditional strip club experience. \n"People come here for the girls," said Jerimy Koch, manager of Night Moves. "That's what the bar's here for."\nNight Moves' interior resembles a black-velvet painting with neon-colors splashed on the walls, which mimics the computerized eeriness of the film "Tron" without the graphics but with the constant action. Visitors have several seats to choose from, albeit a booth or at the front of one of three stages, although community member eyes seldom drift from the half-naked dancers on poles.\nKoch said no one kind of person visits Night Moves, because it is a popular destination for college students, professional folks and working class heroes from all walks of life. He said a 90-year-old man once came a knockin' for a "couch dance" that got his libido rockin'.\nNight Moves "couch dances," formerly known in the strip club world as "lap dances," cost $15 each. During a lap dance visitors are seated in a chair and strippers rub, brush and fling their bodies and hair against the patron while the disc jockey spins a song from a record.\nDespite the close contact during the couch dance, Koch reminded possible patrons that they must observe "strip club etiquette" that includes sitting on their hands and not touching the dancers.\nThose who don't mind their gentlemen manners or strip club rules can expect a closer encounter with Night Moves doorman and IU Judo instructor Vern Ellett as they exit.\nEllett, armed with a judo black belt, is charged with checking IDs regardless of aging appearance, collecting the cover charge and keeping an eye on the strippers who work on stage and hustle patrons on the floor.\nA typical night for Ellett involves herding rowdy patrons out the door or detaining belligerent customers until local law enforcement arrives. Although, he said he is sometimes asked to display his judo skills in the form of disarming folks who think flashing a weapon is the best way to say "thanks for an enjoyable evening."\n"Being topless brings a whole different element into [the bar scene]," Ellett says. "You get to see here what you only hope to see at another bar. It brings aggressiveness out in some people. It can get pretty serious."\nAround 9 p.m. on a Wednesday evening, Night Moves is a happening place. Several dozen people congregate around the pool tables and a handful sit enamored by the dancers. A couple patrons are sitting on their hands as half-naked women dance atop them.\nAn hour later, a more restrained scene is unfolding a few miles down the road at Legends Class Act Room.\n
Mom and Pop strip show
\nLegends is also decked out in neon lights, but there's a much more sinful tone here because of the purple fabric seats, unpainted and bare-black walls, working fireplace near the bar, single-dance floor with solo pole and a black leather couch pinned in a shadowy corner.\nExactly two people sit at the bar downing their umpteenth brews. The barman said the dancers have yet to arrive for the night but he is expecting the first few around 10 p.m.\nBusiness has fallen here in recent years, a trend returning-manager Tony Keene blamed on a combination of Bloomington's March 2005 smoking ban, misguided former-management that was prone to berate customers and an overall sputtering national economy. An upsurge in customers was spotted in recent weeks, and he said he is looking forward to the return of students for the fall semester. \n"We are a mom and pop strip club with a laid back, relaxed atmosphere," Keene said.\nAs an advertising bit to attract more customer bite, Legends offers free admission to customers possessing a student, military or government ID. For community members 21-years or older, Keene said his bar offers nightly drink specials, including one dollar tequila shots on Tuesdays.\n"Lap" dances cost two for $20 through September.\nThere is no judo black belt roaming the crowd, but common strip club etiquette does apply. Keene said he looks out for his dancers, and he never hesitates to take care of unkind business when necessary.\n"Customers know what the girls allow," he said. "My rule is that if it's covered up by a bathing suit you're not allowed to touch it."\nKeene managed Legends during the early months of 2000, but he said he found his customer-based lacked women as paying customers. Upon his return, he said, he has figured out how to attract the women clientele and the Legends crowd now consists of about half men and half women.\nThe women, Keene said, are often a lot rowdier by closing time.\n"There's a lot of alternative lifestyles that come in here nowadays," he said. "The men are crowding around the stage but the girls get up there with the dancers."\nAn investment group has its eyes on Legends and they want to remake the club with pool tables, new lighting and cages on the stage. But in the meantime, Keene admits that it is difficult to maintain a "regular" customer base because there is a pretty high turnover of dancers, and strip club patrons seem to focus their attention on a few favorites rather than the bunch. \nHe said most new dancers to the stripping world are not prepared for the experience, and they often have no idea what they are getting themselves into.\n"We get new girls constantly. By the end of their first weekend they have bruises and their knees are cracking," Keene said. "I've had girls come in here the day after their 18th birthday and they dance like straws. I tell them they don't have to climb the pole and hang upside down -- 'just picture yourself having sex and do that on the pole; don't look at people, just put yourself in that frame of mind.'"\nOf course, the biggest downside of any adult entertainment venue like Night Moves or Legends is that like Chris Rock said, "No matter what a stripper says to you, there's no sex in the champagne room"
