Fun_People Archive
26 May
The REAL Real Monty

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Tue, 26 May 98 12:20:48 -0700
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Subject: The REAL Real Monty

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Forwarded-by: Matthew Kleinosky <mkleinosky@bigfoot.com>
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Reuters
               25-MAY-98
               By Ayumi Moriyama

SHEFFIELD, England, May 25 (Reuters) - They loved the movie, The grim
industrial city of Sheffield in northeast England has cashed in on the box
office hit ``The Full Monty'' in a big way, with a group of ome-grown male
strippers calling themselves The Real Monty leading the rebirth of the
city's nightlife.

Thanks to the success of the movie, business has been booming for the
company which began promoting the revue group composed of four male
strippers and a drag queen.

'Ladies' nights have been existing with ever increasing popularity for the
past 20 years,'' said David Bacon, drag artist and manager of Primecore
Promotion, a Sheffield-based company which specialises in exotic
entertainment.

Male strip shows have become more socially acceptable in the last 10-15
years with the advent of the Chippendales, a U.S.-based revue group which
tours worldwide, he said.

``'The Full Monty' finally turned the key and pushed the door wide open,''
Bacon said.

G-STRINGS AND UNION JACKS At Bradbury Hall near Sheffield, 450 fascinated
women enjoyed the group's three-hour spectacle to the fullest.

The only men allowed were the performers, the bouncers, waiters clad in
g-strings and the revue's staff.

Women of all ages cheered and clapped as each member of The Real Monty
danced to the thumping beat, stripped off his glitzy outfit and revealed
his tanned, chiselled torso.

Admirers also queued up on the catwalk to have their pictures taken with
the performers.

``It's fun to see, although I'm quite happy with my husband,'' said an
ecstatic middle-aged woman.

``I've seen their video too. It's very good,'' she added, jumping and waving
to the well-oiled dancers.

A woman in her twenties was slightly more reserved: ``It's the first time
(I have been to a strip show). I'm having a good time.''

``It's just laughable,'' said another as The Real Monty prepared for the
finale where they sing their original song ``I Want It'' and peel off their
black and orange g-strings.

The four naked hunks then wrapped themselves in large Union Jack flags,
jumped off the catwalk and ran into the frantic audience spattering shaving
foam.

The frenzy culminated as the glistening men sprang onto tables, thrusting
their bodies and occasionally letting themselves be caressed by the
screaming women.

Bacon, 48, said the show, which contains three to five minutes of full
nudity, was designed to be sensual yet in the tamest way possible.

HUSBANDS WAIT OUTSIDE Outside the car park, well past midnight, husbands
and boyfriends waited patiently for their women to come out of the show.

``(Women) want to...relax and get away from their day-to-day existence but
at the end of the night they want to go home thinking they have done nothing
wrong,'' Bacon said.

The team, which made its debut on February 13, performs throughout Britain
at least six nights a week.

``We've recently been in situations where we've had 20- to 26-day runs
without a day off,'' Bacon said.

Paul Westhead, a 30-year-old stripper known by his fans as Highlander, said
the scale of the shows has grown to cater for an ever bigger and wider
audience.

``Before, there were more smaller shows in pubs and we worked single or as
a  duo but now shows are much bigger, with an audience of hundreds.''

Thanks to ``The Full Monty'' effect, the income of each of the members of
The Real Monty is expected to at least double to around 50,000 pounds
($81,400) this year, Bacon said.

Lavish publicity, including a British television documentary, is helping
the group gain recognition.

But contrary to conventional wisdom, Bacon said he has never known a
stripper who was actually an ex-steel worker.

`I've been in the business for 30 odd years in this location and to my
knowledge there has never been anybody who was directly a steel worker,''
he said.

Previous occupations of the members of The Real Monty include a postman and
a pop musician.

For the time being, The Real Monty tours only within Britain, but Westhead
and his colleague Howard Fleetwood, known as Decker on stage, said they
would like to perform abroad if opportunities arise.

The Real Monty said the group has been so successful that travel agents were
opting to include their show in some of their package holidays.

``(They ask) when they can organise coach trips from South Wales to come to
Sheffield, have the conducted tour around and see The Real Monty at the home
of 'The Full Monty','' Bacon said.

Wendy Ulyett, visitor services manager at the tourist information centre
Destination Sheffield, said although the city now enjoys worldwide media
coverage, it was still too early to determine whether the number of visitors
had actually increased.

In tandem with the popularity of the film and exotic shows, Sheffield now
also boasts a buzzing nightlife, with many clubs and bars in modified
industrial buildings.

The Leadmill, the city's most popular nightclub, is a converted factory
while the Republic is a converted engineering works.

Sheffield's night spots have become so fashionable that clubbers and
party-goers assemble from cities 60 miles (100 km) away, said Neil Anderson,
public relations official at Sheffield City Council.

``It's amazing what people do for a night out,'' he said. ($ - 0.613 British
Pounds)

© 1998 Peter Langston