With online shows, “we are our own creative directors, we’re our own art directors, we’re our own cinematographers, lighting designers, set designers.”Īnd with nightlife still on pause, “all these creative outlets that we used to have don’t exist anymore,” she continued. “Strippers in general are often insanely creative people,” said Reagan, who has an MFA from CalArts. Her work often explores societal taboos, food fetish and her Korean heritage. Sketchy was a take-down of gender-reveal party culture.Ĭoco Ono is a performance, burlesque and installation artist who has performed at the nonprofit arts space Human Resources Los Angeles, REDCAT and Art Basel Miami Beach. Another act by the dancer who performs as Susan B.

In one show, Kitty performed a pole number in a cow costume - complete with sparkler-enhanced udders - and accidentally set part of her living room on fire. But mixed in with the stripping is a level of zaniness, edge and political commentary. Dancers strip down to pasties and G-strings, or to their birthday suit, with some strategic covering. The tips are eventually pooled and split evenly among all the performers. Like an in-person strip club, viewers (about 100 for each show) are encouraged throughout the night to tip the dancers using payment platforms like Venmo or Cash App. Some dancers use portable poles, and others make creative use of bathtubs, windowsills, cars or apartment corners transformed by a makeshift set. Each follows a theme - “Star Wars,” disco and funk, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” - and features a different lineup of dancers who perform two short pieces in their homes. The co-founders take turns hosting and performing in the virtual show. Although they emphasized that Jumbo’s is a supportive environment run by women, other strip clubs can be exploitative. (Tickets to the Zoom show are sold through Eventbrite.)Ĭo-founded by Gabrielle, Reagan, Coco Ono (real name Kayla Tange) and Kitty, the Stripperina (real name Kelly Vittetoe), the show has given the strippers a new sense of agency and empowerment in an industry that is notorious for taking advantage of women. And within 24 hours they launched Cyber Clown Girls, which has now become a twice-weekly three-hour show featuring current dancers and alumni from Jumbo’s, and other performers from exotic dance communities. In early May, one Jumbo’s dancer named Gabrielle reached out to a few of her coworkers to create a virtual strip show. “Then we realized that we were those people.” It was in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when a group of dancers from the East Hollywood hipster strip club Jumbo’s Clown Room realized no one was coming to save them.Īfter the club closed in March, they were waiting on a call, “for someone to swoop in and take the reins and tell us what to do,” said the performer who goes by Reagan (real name Megan Rippey).

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