A row has broken out between two rival male strip outfits over their shows in Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Dreamboys’ members claims UK Pleasure Boys have given the stripping industry a “bad name” after the furore they caused with an X-rated performance in the Devenish hotel in Belfast earlier this year.
“What those Pleasure Boys did in Belfast, they tainted platforms for other companies by giving us a bad name because people’s other halves don’t want their other halves go to a show like that,” stormed Dreamboys performer Shane Finlayson.
“It’s had a knock-on effect, where they’re not performers and artists.
“They put a bad name to people like Dreamboys and Magic Mike and Forbidden Knights.
It’s not really a show – they don’t really dance. That’s my opinion.”
Shane with one of his co-stars
UK Pleasure Boys chief John Woodward hit back.
“I don’t think we have given it a bad name,” he said.
“I don’t think they’re as well known in Ireland as we are. There was a bit of negative publicity over that one show, but we will be turning to Ireland and we have several gigs lined up throughout the whole of Ireland, and there will be more attendances than ever.
“We are not going back to the Devenish, but we are planning a return to Belfast and it will be a much bigger show.
“They [Dreamboys] are finding it hard to get gigs in Ireland as they’re not as high profile as us.”
Dreamboys will appear in Belfast’s Waterfront on November 21, and have also lined up shows in Galway and Drogheda later that week.
Their appearance comes on the back on controversy UK Pleasure Boys caused last February after their appearance in the Devenish hotel.
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That show saw women storm the stage to join fully naked performers and mimic sex acts.
The members of the troupe initially put on a teasing performance with dance routines and lap dances, but at the end of the show they shed all their clothes and went stark naked.
Videos of the UK Pleasure Boys visit in February went viral online
“I have never seen anything like it. I was gobsmacked, but I did not leave as it was all for a laugh and was glad that none of the men came near me as I would have died,” said one woman at the Belfast show.
One X user remarked: “No one has Sunday fear more than the women who were at the Devenish last night,” while another joked “‘off to bleach my eyes after those Devenish videos.”
Belfast City Council was said to be investigating the event, which is also being “reviewed” by the PSNI.
Since that controversial show the troupe has performed in Derry, Omagh, Banbridge and Dublin.
Dreamboys star Shane (36) hails from southern England, but his grandmother is from Belfast and his father has roots in Dublin.
The 6’2” hunk started stripping alongside Katie Price’s ex-husband Kieran Hayler.
“I was about to quit the stripping and then Dreamboys came in offered me the tour and teach me the dancing and I wouldn’t have to strip nude anymore,” he explains.
“When we are on tour there’s normally eight to 10 of us, and two strip all the way, and the others just strip down to their boxers or topless or whatever.
“I usually just go topless, and I’m now the joint manager of the tour.”
Dreamboys have been on the road for 35 years, and their members have included high-profile Dan Osbourne.
“We are the top ones, we’re the ones that are around for years that put on an actual show, where they [UK Pleasure Boys] just all just get fully nude and in trouble,” he claimed. naked
The Pleasure Boys
“They’re the ones that got in trouble in Ireland. We do various places around Ireland, including Belfast, Dublin and Galway.
“It’s a massive production. You rehearse for six weeks before we even go out on tour. We travel around Europe. It’s very different. Where they get girls up on stage and get completely naked, that’s not a show to me – that’s something we wouldn’t do. We are more tasteful. We have been around for years and sell out theatres, unlike them who did it in a hotel.
“Our team are professional dancers and have been to college and uni, and worked on the likes of Thriller and Whitney Houston in the West End. We’re professional dancers where they’re not.
“The two guys that go naked in our show are dancers as well, but literally at the end they will be on stage – no women on stage – and they flash at the end and then it goes pitch black,” he points out.
“So it gives them a taste. A few years ago we weren’t allowed to do that, where you could only have a flag or something down there.
“We have security, so we come down, pick a woman or man to come up on stage, and they’re escorted up. We have had to stop shows though because of people getting overly eager. We perform to women, men, trans.”
Dreamboys dancer and manager Shane Finlayson with his girlfriend Rebecca
Woodward insists the Devenish incident with the UK Pleasure Boys was “blown out of proportion”.
“The main video that went viral was just a section at the end of the show, where – bear in mind they [the audience] had three hours of entertainment prior to that and they had a lot of alcohol – so they just jumped onto the stage,” he maintains.
“The guys are not just going to walk off when a load of girls jump on the stage because it just makes it look like they’re intimidated by that’ they just played with it. They went along with what was happening.
“There was no actual sexual contact happening, it was all simulated.
“Girls were dropping to the floor, the guys were sort of hovering over them. But the video of the clip does look pretty extreme. But when you analyse it, you realise there’s nothing going on.
“It just looks very extreme because there’s so many people on the stage doing various things.”
Dreamboys appear ion Thursday November 21, in Waterfront Hall, Belfast; Saturday November 23, TLT Concert Hall, Drogheda; and Sunday November 24, Town Hall Theatre, Galway.