Heed this tip-top tip for topless success: “They audition in very, very bad lighting,” says Matt Stabile, co-producer of the "X" stable of topless Vegas revues. “If they look OK in that lighting, we know they will look tremendously good in the shows because we light for the girls.”
So, you wanna be a producer of adult revues in Las Vegas? (We’ll take that bemused expression as a yes.) You know—the ones for age 18-plus eyeballs that kindly allow female performers to break free of annoying restrictive clothing, most notably below the neck and above the belly button? Your tutors are Stabile and his "X" producing partner/spouse/ex-Crazy Girl Angela Stabile. (Daughter Tiffany serves as general manager, as the trio exerts family-wide control.)
Credentials? Copious. Start with their "X" flagship, the Flamingo’s 14-year-old, variety-style "X" Burlesque, which has since birthed a litter of hot offspring. Gyrating alongside it at the Flamingo is the participatory XBU (as in “X" Burlesque University for aspiring sensualists) and "X" Comedy (laughs on the lewd side). Expanding outward, the Stabiles mounted "X" Rocks (soundtrack and style as the title suggests) at the Rio and "X" Country (ditto) at Harrah’s. (Venturing beyond the brand, they’re also producers of a Flamingo show starring offbeat comedy-magician/America’s Got Talent finalist John van der Put, alias Piff the Magic Dragon.)
Before you can do what they do, watch what they’ve done—say, the sensuality-soaked segments of "X" Burlesque.
Watch as a half dozen ladies emerge from a red curtain in sparkly black jackets, all swiveling hips and swaying chests (still covered but revealing in sheer fabric), spinning iridescent trumpets that electrify the darkness as a thumping pop-rock soundtrack (eventually expanding to jazz and country) floods your ears. Watch as two supple ladies wrap themselves around—indeed, become one with—a pole atop a platform in the audience, twisting and flipping to the flapper rhythms of the “All That Jazz’ intro. Watch as another performs a sexy feather dance to Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” her voluptuous image reflected back at us via a mirror. Watch four dancers enter through the crowd and ascend the stage to the Pussycat Dolls’ “Right Now,” with its alluring request: “Puts your lips at my command.”
Watch as tops are doffed.
How does the provocative process begin? Finding a home is key—say, Bugsy’s Cabaret for "X" Burlesque, Harrah’s Cabaret for "X" Country and the King’s Room for "X" Rocks. “The girls look better and perform better on smaller stages,” says Matt, noting that the seating capacity at Harrah’s is about 300, and Bugsy’s at the Flamingo is an even cozier 165. “For sexy revues, the venues we are in are perfect,” Angela says.
Then auditions—’natch. “We have them for all the 'X' shows at once,” says Angela, whose own Vegas dancing career commenced with Minsky’s Burlesque and wove through productions including Lido de Paris and Crazy Girls, where she was one of the original performers. (And yes, hers is among the shapely forms and striking derrieres since immortalized, Vegas-style, in the famed, butt-tastic Crazy Girls statue.)
“When they come in, we can go, ‘Oh, you’re perfect for 'X' Rocks or perfect for 'X' Country or 'X' Burlesque.’ It’s hard to pinpoint what that is but you can just see it,” she says. Let’s give that pinpointing thing a try, okey-dokey? “'X' Country has a little bit more of a wholesome look, more of a country girl, and the more gothic, tatted-up girls would fit more with 'X' Rocks,” Matt says.
While supervising auditions, think … diversity. “Crazy Horse (Paris) years ago at the MGM Grand, they had everyone (looking) the same and it looks amazing but that was their thing—ours is more of a variety thing,” says Angela. “We wouldn’t want two gorgeous redheads in any of the shows. If there is an amazing girl, and she does have ‘it,’ which is indefinable, and everything else works, we’ll say, ‘Are you willing to do your hair this color or that,’ and they always are.”
Think … height. “Size is a big deal,” Matt says. “The girls can’t be way too taller than the other cast members, or too small.” Think … moves. “A lot of girls can’t make these shows,” Matt says. “A lot of girls are beautiful but they show up and they can’t dance, they can’t hack it. If you’ve got one bad dancer in that line, it throws everything off. A lot of girls are like, ‘Oh, I was in Jubilee,’ but in terms of choreography, this show is one of the toughest.” Think … well, breasts. And conducting inspection. (C’mon, you know you want to.) “They take their tops off and they face forward, sideways and back,” Angela says.
Consider the multimedia elements, constituting a complex, puzzle-like plan to—if you’ll pardon the expression—flesh out the show. Figure in the powerful effect of lighting—bright and sharp, soft and warm, white and colored, smoky and sensual. Imagine the enhancements of special effects—the faux-mist, the neon-lit chairs, the illusionary smoke.
“Angela and I map out what should be happening during and between the numbers, the lights and edits in the videos and when it happens and when a light will change,” says Matt. “We’ll bring it to our lighting designer and link to those video and audio sections. And props like those lit-up trumpets, they are technically very challenging to have made. It doesn’t happen quickly.”
Piff the Magic Dragon
Assemble the videos—of the gals applying makeup, the flight simulation accompanying the “Mile High Club” airline parody, the dreamscape-style visuals that create the atmospheric underpinnings of the live sensuality. “We buy a lot of video images, but we shoot a lot of our own stuff,” says Matt, who is the founder of Stabile Productions Inc., his own TV/theatrical production company. “It’s projection mapping, creating multiple images. If the set needs to be changed, it’s something for you to watch, it’s icing on the cake.”
Carefully craft the musical edits—the bits and pieces of songs that bounce and blend almost seamlessly between “Diamonds are Forever,” “Who Run This,” “She’s Country,” “Fever” and “Welcome to the Jungle,” among others. “We’ve seen many shows that we think make a mistake by using an entire song unedited and it just gets monotonous,” says Angela, who prefers a more club/DJ-style soundtrack. “It takes a long time to perfect the timing of each song, but now it’s part of the magic of our shows and a lot of people have tried to copy us,” says Matt. “You really can’t hear the edits, they go right into something else after a minute and a half. The audience isn’t really aware that it’s happening.”
Evaluate your backstage area, calculate your set-piece needs—then pray. “The backstage space is so small—we pull off miracles here,” says Angela about the tight Bugsy Cabaret dimensions “We’ve been told we can’t put anymore props in the show because we have so many—the most difficult to set up is the ‘legs box,’” says Matt about the enclosed, gam-centric “Hot Box” segment. Adds Angela: “The mirror for ‘Dream On’ s is a huge thing to get through the curtain.”
Don’t forget to insert that special adult-revue participatory moment, such as the airline sketch in "X" Burlesque, when a male audience member—looking half-thrilled, half-terrified—is escorted onstage to get caressed, teased and even re-outfitted in a rather titillating ensemble, to crowd giggles. “We sell that seat once a night, it’s called the 'mile high ticket,’” Matt says. “It’ a little higher-priced ticket. Some nights if it doesn’t sell, the girls will come down and pick someone out of the audience.”
Oh, and one other thing: When trying to formulate a top-notch show, modulate the toplessness. “Not all the numbers are topless and that’s where Angela’s past comes into play,” says Matt about his ex-dancer spouse. “You don’t want to give it to them all the time. Why would you give it away all the time?” Experience plus instincts is the key for Angela. “It really is the individual number, if it feels it should be topless or not, and at what point to take it off,” she says. “We have one number that is a long tease, with a long gown. That’s a striptease. I think you fail when you try too hard, that’s one mistake I see in other topless revues. You don’t want to be obvious.”
Hopefully, these glimpses into the adult-revue world will assist you when launching your own swanky, slinky, sexy showcase like, say, "X" Burlesque. Where girls wriggle around poles cooing about the joys of “Down Home Cookin” (wink, wink). Where ladies splash seductively in a bathtub and execute a frisky frolic in a giant champagne glass. Where a gorgeous woman struts, pouts and mouths the song lyrics, “I find you very attractive—would you go to bed with me?”
Deep-six your current jobs, Mr. and Ms. Producers-to-Be. This is the gig you really want.
