KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Kansas City adult entertainment business has been showing videos of naked dancers next to the stage in an attempt to get around new regulations concerning what dancers can wear.
Bazooka's, in downtown Kansas City, offers videos of its nude and seminude dancers next to the stage while a dancer performs live with her intimate areas covered, as the law requires, The Kansas City Star reported Thursday (http://bit.ly/z9pylh).
The strategy may help the business sidestep a new state law requiring "sexually oriented businesses" to close at midnight. Last November, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld that restriction and several others in rulings that adult club owners said crippled their business.
If the dancers exposed private areas they would have broken the law, or forced the club to close at midnight. The club's owner, Dick Snow, says they are legal because they appeared on screen. Not all the dancers perform on video. And those who do are not always naked.
"It adds to our entertainment. The customers like it. Sometimes we get applause," Snow said.
Dick Bryant, an attorney who represents adult businesses, said, the on-screen images of the nude dancers complies "with the statutes and the U.S. Constitution."
Missouri's law states that sexually oriented businesses include "adult motion picture theater(s)," and are subject to the early closing time and other rules. It defines those theaters as places where films emphasizing parts of the anatomy or sexual activities are "regularly shown" to audiences of five or more people.
Phillip Cosby, executive director of the American Family Association of Kansas and Missouri, which helped draft the law, said that means Bazooka's may still be a sexually oriented business and be improperly open past midnight.
"We anticipated these creative props to try and circumvent the law," Cosby said. "We will pursue it and see if we can get some remedy."