Club Erotica is a large and popular strip club in Pennsylvania. The place has a big presence in the area with lots of advertising. It almost reminds me of all the ad campaigns for Private Eyes and New York Dolls in New York years ago. Though Erotica seems to rely a lot more on locals and word of mouth than the aforementioned clubs which stationed hustlers in the streets of Times Square to get unsuspecting tourists through the doors.
According to the Club Erotica website the place was voted best strip club in Pittsburgh. Having visited some other clubs in area recently I don’t know that I would agree. Then again no asked me to cast a vote. So I must write out this review for the readers of this website to look over. I hope that you will at least find it entertaining.
Inside Club Erotica
Club Erotica is located in a rather large yet somewhat nondescript building not far from the previously reviewed True Diamonds. Like that bar Erotica follows an all you can drink model. So although the entry fee is $20 USD it does include an unlimited supply of draft beer and low end alcohol. I would imagine that alone would be more than enough to get some for the door. Being more interested in women I am motivated by the idea of nude dancers.
The entrance fee is paid just inside the door. Past that the club opens up into a rather large space. The place is illuminated by black lighting that gives everything a sort of blue or purple glow. The stage is one of the largest I’ve seen anywhere. It twists and turns around the floor. The stage sparkles thanks to some sort of coating and the large poles give the dancers a lot of room to move.
There are of course seats all along the stage for up close views. There are also other seats around some smaller stages that get little or perhaps even no use. Bars are available for patrons to get their fill of drinks. Upstairs there is another floor where the lapdances take place. There are also some gambling machines that seem to get a good bit of attention even though there is a large casino nearby. The place is relatively clean considering the type of place we are talking about.
Stripers, services, prices and summary
Although Club Erotica is much larger than many other clubs in the world it doesn’t seem to staff a very large number of women. Obviously staffing levels can fluctuate from one day to the next. In this industry it all comes down to who actually shows up. But I don’t think I saw more than ten ladies inside the club in an entire night. That is not much to work with. With all the bouncers and a DJ in the place the men may actually outnumber the women!
The ladies who do work at the club all seem to be in their twenties or perhaps early thirties. Most are white women with plenty of tattoos. There are also a couple of black dancers. The diversity goes no further than that. When it comes to size there is a lot of range however. A couple of dancers have the bleach blonde bombshell look complete with big bolt-ons that was so popular in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Others are quite large and have the big builds all too common in present times.
Each lady takes the stage at some point. Their sets are very long and last through many songs. So the same woman can be on stage for some time though they do get fully naked and expose every inch of their bodies to the patrons. Most of the other dancers disappear into some back room until its their time to perform. That excludes the gals who are upstairs doing lapdances at any given time. Those dances cost $20 each. They are performed on reclined sofa style seats. There is plenty of contact and even closer views than can be found on the stage downstairs. Of course it goes no further than that. Especially since the room is totally open and watched by a bouncer plus whoever else is around.
In summary Club Erotica is a fairly average place. The decor and pricing is not bad at all though there is a definite lack of dancers. That could come down to the sheer number of other clubs in the immediate area. Or something else could be at play. The atmosphere is also cold and mechanical with bouncers all over the joint and little interaction between dancers and customers. From the perspective of a traveling reporting examining adult entertainment venues around the world the place certainly is nothing special. I give it two stars. 
Club Erotica. 824 Island Ave, McKees Rocks, PA 15136 USA. Click here for a map. Open every day from 7:00 PM until 4:00 AM. Website: http://cluberoticapittsburgh.com
In most countries in the West the sex industry is portrayed with contempt. Violance, trafficing, drug use and most girls are victims. This view exist in American culture as well, but in the US there are also many examples of sweet stories with high likeability. Bogie nights, Best little whorehouse in Texas, Urban Cowboy, Lou Reed songs, Hangover, just giving a few examples.
Is that because people traditionally are kind in American heartland and in US society and it reflects this business as well? I travelled by buss (Greyhound) alone when I was 17, across America and met all kind of people who invited me to come and stay for a few days, I remember a sweet 30-something hooker in Reno who pampered me for two days. She resembled the girl in Hangover.
Is this impression an image of old time America, or has it some truth to it today. Has the cultural climate or/and the industry changed? Never visited a stripclub in America.
There are still many friendly and helpful people in the US. It also has one of the highest violent crime rates of any developed country. In terms of sex things are quite hypocritical. Free speech laws make the country a world leader in porn production. But the sale of sex is banned in almost the entire country. It is sort of like Thailand. That country is also home to many friendly and helpful people. Yet it has one of the highest violent crime rates in Asia. The hypocrisy is reversed in Thailand. There’s plenty of prostitution. But porn is illegal. Cheers.
The Cultural climate varies over time. I (again) saw the movie The nice guys last night. Its about LA during the mid- late 70th. To quote Roger Erbert, in a time when “porn was as big as the auto industry”. And Deep throat was mainstream and the talk of the town. Boogienights is an excellent movie about this liberal America. I experienced America back then but I was a little to young to fully appriciate all the possibilites, with a few happy exceptions. The movie Argo also capture this vibe.
As an intellectual and a liberal, America 2022 is a frightening place and it will probably only get worse?
Neither porn or the auto industry are as big as they used to be in the US. Maybe that is tied to everything else. Cheers.