By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
It's OK to be bashful at Saturday's Magic Men Live male revue. And, you know, probably understandable, what with all the popping pecs and bulging thighs on display.
"A lot of women, coming into a situation like this, they don't know what they're getting into all the time," said host and show creator Myles Hass. "But when everyone starts to have a good time, it's contagious.
"They leave in a euphoric state, like they got off a rollercoaster or something," he said. "That's very gratifying to me."
But, Hass said, it's not his gratification that's important: It's the women's.
That's the goal of his five-year-old creation, Magic Men Live, which makes its Amarillo debut with a 9 p.m. Saturday performance in the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Buchanan St. Tickets are $25 to $80, plus fees. (Guys are free to buy tickets, as well.)
"A lot of our positive feedback (from women) is that our show gave them a different perspective on life," Hass said. "We weren't expecting to get this kind of feedback, but they've written us letters about how much they appreciate what we do, how we make them feel special and young again ... that they're able to forget about a lot of the issues they're having in their life and remember what it's like to be happy and have fun.
"That's something that's really motivating for us and really great for us to hear."
Hass grew up in the adult entertainment industry, going to work for his uncle's business after graduating from high school.
"I ended up doing everything in the business within the first couple of years ... (and) shortly after that, I started my own agency that took the same concept but had a more professional appeal, a classier vibe, but did the same thing," Hass said.
About five years ago, a Detroit-area radio station asked Hass to produce an exclusive ladies-night event, giving away 200 tickets to the show; about 400 women showed up, instead.
"That's when we realized that there was something there," Hass said. "We started hosting a ladies night once a month at a club, and the first night we did it, we broke every record the club had."
Male strippers were back in the zeitgeist, thanks to the success of 2012's Magic Mike, based on star Channing Tatum's past as a dancer.
"Almost two years ago, we decided we wanted to start touring the show and started traveling to neighboring states, cities, markets, just in ourcars at first, and we were performing sold-out shows pretty much every weekend," Hass said.
Now, they've graduated to performing arts halls and theaters, traveling with two full-size tour buses.
"It's definitely grown quite a bit in a short amount of time," Hass said. "It's a bit of a surreal experience."
Magic Mike and its 2015 sequel, Magic Mike XXL, "definitely brought a lot of awareness to the entire process," Hass said.
"Things like that always help bring more awareness and make it more socially acceptable, not as taboo," he said. "We definitely pay tribute to that in a lot of ways in our show, to give the audience a lot of things that are familiar."
Hass said his show is set apart from bar revues because of "the level of production and the thought that goes into it, and the amount of interaction with the crowd that we have."
"I don't want to give away any secrets or surprises, but we do have a more unique approach," he said. "I go to a lot of concerts and music festivals, all these different types of big productions, and I try to incorporate them into the male-revue world."
And though Hass said he believes his men "surpass" the Magic Mike strippers, he does borrow some of the approach of Magic Mike XXL.
"They had a lot of subtle messages in the movie about positivity towards (women), and I love that," Hass said. "That's what it should be about. ... I wish all of the male entertainment world kind of viewed it that way."
Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and at www.facebook.com/chipchandlerwriter on Facebook.
