[231] in Humor
HUMOR: Nude Shower Dancing Banned
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (abennett@MIT.EDU)
Thu Apr 28 16:56:55 1994
From: abennett@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 94 16:52:07 -0400
To: humor@MIT.EDU
From clarinews@clarinet.com (AP)
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- No more nude shower dancing at the Odd Ball
Cabaret. Not because it's lewd -- because it discriminates against
women in wheelchairs.
The city's disabled access commission ruled 4-0 Thursday that
the Odd Ball must close its shower dancing stall. The strip club
had argued that the shower was a prop, not a stage.
``If an able-bodied person could have been up there doing it, a
disabled person should have been able to, also,'' said Ron Shigeta,
chief of the Department of Building and Safety's disabled access
division. ``That's what it comes down to -- you're denying people
the opportunity.''
Customers had been paying $20 a pop to sit inside a curtained
enclosure and watch a naked woman shower to music.
Odd Ball owner Alfred Reechio wouldn't comment on the order. But
some of his customers said the city was stretching the rule to
crack down on strip clubs.
``They're kind of searching for a technicality for anything they
can do to damage the business,'' said Darren Branch.
Commission member David Honda called the 4-0 ruling absurd, but
he abstained from voting because he didn't want to be seen as a
defender of strip clubs.
``I wonder what the building inspector was doing in there in the
first place, to notice it?'' he said.
