▶ entertainment
▶ events
▶ issues
▶ music
▶ art
hilltopics
the university
daily kansan
wednesday ◀
11.17.99 ◀
tena.☎
Chippendales dance, disrobe to delight of female crowd
By Sarah Hale and Katie Hollar writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writers
"Are you all ready to see some naked men?" the master of ceremonies velled.
He egged on hundreds of women, taunting them with promises and seducing them with bad jokes and sexual innuendoes. He was trying to energize the crowd at Tremors, 729 New Hampshire St., and get them ready to see four Chippendales dancers last Saturday night. Yes, only four.
The music started, one by one four "hunky" men paraded out onto the small stage highlighted by blue and red lights and strobe lights. They thrusted, grooved, turned and saluted to more than 500 women screaming "Take it off." Eventually, they did.
Dell St. Germaine, Rick Edwards, Kevin Cornell and Bill Beezel, better known as Troop B of the Chippendales empire, each took turns dancing and stripping to the songs and themes of their choice. They took turns inviting the many women who paid between $25 and $100 to sit on the stage.
While the emcee warned the crowd that touching the dancers wasn't permitted, the men openly fondled, spanked, kissed and licked the many women who paid. Even some who didn't.
Sarah's story:
Reporters are taught to ask the hard questions. so I did.
When Rick, the tattooed beefcake we called "Shorty" walked by oozing sweat, I calmly tapped him on the shoulder.
"Why don't you guys have any hair?" I asked referring to their creepy lack of leg and armpit hair.
"You want to see some manly hair?" he leered.
“Sure,” I said, watching him unzip his pants and pull out his G-string, giving myself and my friends a view of his manliness. Needless to say, he has hair.
While we didn't see any of the other dancers' members,"Captain America," "Thor," (our nicknames) and the others put on a spicy show, though I laughed the entire time.
"Thor," a Fabio wannabe, rocked to Guns N' Roses "Welcome to the Jungle," while "Captain America" sported an American Flag G-string. Classy.
I was into my second vodka tonic when one of the "himbos," a swarthy brute named Dell, sashayed up to me. He grooved for a few minutes before he leaned in close to whisper seductively in my ear. "Baby, you got to tip."
Katie's story:
I had vowed to go through this sober, but soon the pelvic thrusting and the infinitely repeated "Genie in a Bottle" song drove me to drink.
When I denied to stuff his thong, he promptly stopped grinding his crotch against my thigh.
It was the horny girls vs. the nasty girls in a ruthless battle to see which side screamed and tipped the most. Seated on the right side of the club, I was classified a horny girl, though I wasn't exactly turned on by bad teeth, turquise G-strings and Top Gun medlews.
Dell, a 29-year-old Canadian, is the oldest of the four dancers who visited Lawrence. Though he's only been with Chippendales since April, he's stripped with other companies in the past.
Poor Dell has had a hard month. His girlfriend broke up with him a little more than a week ago. She finally saw a show.
Dancing Dell's story:
"It's a very lonely profession," he said. "I shouldn't even call it a profession."
Dell has a degree in criminology and plans on quitting in April to pursue a career in search and rescue.
Guess he's sick of all the crazy questions — and crazy women.
Students expose women of KU
Three entrepreneurs set out to improve swimsuit calendar
By Heather Woodward
Campus editor
Thousands of people will witness Kendra Foster's first time in a bikini.
Prodded by her boyfriend and enticed by a free trip to a tropical locale, the Clay Center sophomore ended up as January's poster girl in the 2000: Women of KU calendar — surrounded by the surf and sporting a red, white and blue two-piece. Although she had considered modeling before, she said the calendar offered her the chance to work without the demanding weight requirements on which some agencies insist.
"It was all real natural," Foster said. "I think this calendar was more just trying to show women as beautiful."
"A lot of these calendars just show tall,
Women of KU was the braincild of Roy Ben-Aharon, president of University Calendar Productions, L.L.C. and Plano, Texas, sophomore. Both he and Arjun Amaran, his resident assistant in Naismith Hall last year and Overland Park senior, had wanted to start a business.
skinny, blond girls — sorority girls," Ben-Aharon said. "We wanted to make one that really represented KU, since it's so diversified. We had two African-American models; a Jewish girl; a Catholic; Corinne, who is half Chinese; Graciea from Costa Rica."
After seeing a copy of another KU women calendar they both deemed poorly produced, the two set out to make a better one. The other calendar was produced by Manhattan-based Blue Iguana Inc., which also produces a Men of KU calendar.
Fellow Naismith resident T.J. Kilian, Derby senior, joined the two in their endeavor.
Above: Clockwise from front left: Katie Herbst, Overland Park sophomore, Kendra Foster, Clay Center sophomore, Gracie Stanley, Costa Rica junior, and Lisa Colbert, Chicago sophomore, will be pinned up on a wall near you. Photo by Eric Sahrmann/KANSAN
Below left: The models and crew had to drive for 27 hours to reach the site of the photo shoot, South Padre, Texas. Contributed art.
Their dream was of a business. A calendar just happened to be its product.
Both Ben-Aharon and Amaran said they never had owned a swimsuit calendar in their lives, and Kilian said he only bought one a long time ago.
"I didn't think badly of them," Amaran said of swimsuit calendars. "I just didn't think much of them. I've never had any pictures of girls on my wall."
Local sponsors and advertisers pushed their entrepreneurial dream right along.
The trio placed an ad in the University Daily Kansan, posted fliers and visited sororites in search of potential models. Nearly 100 women responded. Interviews and an audience vote at Dos Hombres, 815 New Hampshire St., narrowed the pool to 12.
The pool included Kilian's girlfriend of four years — Kelly Newman, a Derby senior who has modeled since she was 13.
Newman, who seductively crawls on the sand, her blond hair blowing, for the February shot, said working with her boyfriend wasn't hard.
"At first I was a little worried about what people would think," Kilian said. "But she really wanted to do it. And I'm proud of her, so if she wanted to do it, she can."
"At some points it was awkward or weird," Newman said. "But we know how to draw the line when it comes to a working relationship."
This summer, the group piled into two 15-person vans bound for South Padre, Texas, making room for a professional photographer, a hair stylist and a makeup artist. The four-day trip was a predawn to post-midnight blitz to the beach for two days of sunrise and sunset photo shoots. They were rewarded with a nonstop 27-hour ride back home.
"We had a good time," Ben-Aharon said. "But we were only sleeping like two hours a night."
Printing the calendar and the Padre trip have been the company's largest expenses thus far. Kilian estimated that it had cost the company about $20,000 to produce 5,000 calendars, about half of which are in the stores for $12.79. The rest of the calendars are being held for restocking purposes. Customers can find the Women of KU calendar at 10 locations in Lawrence including Hastings, Alley Cat Music, Priscilla's and Sixth Street Dillons, nine locations in Kansas City, four locations in Topeka and four Web sites including Amazon.com
So far profits are uncertain. Ben-Aharon said he hoped the company broke even.
Next year, Amaran said the company would do some things differently. The founders want to expand and create a Men of KU calendar as well as others. They also will begin marketing their calendars earlier to get them in stores before the vital Thanksgiving through Christmas shopping time.
Eight percent of the company's profits will benefit various charities — 2 percent of company money and 6 percent of the founders' income. Included in the recipients is a poor high school in India that Amaran's grandfather founded.
Foster said sometimes customers looking at the calendar would notice her standing nearby and recognize her picture. But as far as she knows, the biggest customer has been her father who bought 50 copies.
Not all parents were as enthusiastic.
Next December, walls will be graced with the fluorescent-striped Amanda Lackey, Parsons senior, who said her parents were divided when they initially saw the pictures.
"My mom was not excited," Lackey said. "But my dad thought it was really cool. My mom thought they were too sexy."