It’s our pleasure to be back’ – Controversial strip act Pleasure Boys return to Dublin

The UK Pleasure Boys are booked to perform two shows on Saturday week at the new Warehouse venue in the Red Cow hotel complex on Dublin’s Naas Road.

The 11-strong strip act sparked outrage over their performance in the Devenish complex in Belfast in February, which 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.

“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 and Banbridge.

Now they are coming back to the Republic for the first time in more than 10 years.

“We were also in the Red Cow back then, but it was just a small nightclub,” Pleasure Boys owner John Woodward tells the Sunday World.

“This time they have a purpose-built venue out the back; we are running two shows back to back, so there will be about 800 people in total.

“We are going to have so many seated and so many standing. We intend to sell out both shows.”

John promises a similar show to the one in Belfast, but insists there’ll no sexual contact on stage.

“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 were all excited — so they just jumped onto the stage,” he explains.

“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.”

John says they have learned their lesson since the Belfast controversy and have hired 20 extra security staff.

“We are going to have security there, because if we learned nothing else from Belfast, we need to make sure we have extra security,” he admits.

“We’ve got people travelling down from Northern Ireland, they are coming from all parts of Ireland to the Dublin shows.

“It’s going to be the full XXL show, it’s going to be as we normally do.

“The guys invite girls on to the stage for certain performances. It might be like a lap dance, or a certain part of the show.

“But if anybody gets out of control, they can take them off the stage straight away.”

He adds that the lads are eagerly awaiting their first shows in the Republic in a decade.

“There’s a lot more effort involved with coming over the water. There was no specific promoters taking us on to promote the shows in southern Ireland.

“But this is our own event. We have so many people that want us to come to Dublin, that’s why we actually made an effort to put the show on ourselves.

“It is unusual to do two shows in the one venue on the same day. But because of the demand and because certain people can’t make one of the times, it made it more sensible to do two shows on the one day.”

John himself was a stripper for 25 years with both the British Chippendales and also their main rivals, the Dreamboys, before forming the Pleasure Boys in 2007.

“Most of our guys are English,” he reveals.

“We have a couple who are east European, they are more the acrobatic acts, fire acts and things like that.

“We get a lot of applications, and since we blew up in Ireland we have had quite a lot of guys from Ireland that have sent over images and tried to join.

“We haven’t taken on any of them yet because none of them were what we really wanted.

“The guys have to have the whole package. We try and take guys over 20 and sort of shut off about just over 40, provided they are in shape.

“It’s called the XXL tour because not only are they all ripped but they’re all big in that department downstairs. There’s nobody below a certain size!

“They are all very big guys, all in great shape. Different looks for every one of them, there’s a big team as well.

“We are well-known for providing a good show but then the final showpiece where they go nude, that’s what they’re known for.”

One of their past members is Dubliner Marc O’Neill, who was a housemate on TV show Tallafornia and also took part in Celebrity Big Brother.

He was also once part of Ireland’s only male strip troupe, the Chain Gang.

The former solider is now a laboratory chemist and recently got engaged.

“Marc is actually coming to the event, believe it or not,” says John. “I’m still in touch with Marc, he’s quite a good friend of mine. He was part of our troupe in 2015. This time around he’s not taking part.

“He’s well and truly done that, although you never know with Marc, you never know exactly what he’s going to do!

“Anybody that wants a bit of fun will be there,” he smiles. “It’s exciting, isn’t it, to see a bunch of men that are dancing around.

“Women are used to doing their day job or being at home. Now all of a sudden, they’ve got this show, a little bit like a Las Vegas show, coming to their home city, so why not?

“We also have a big gay following. I would say if we have 800 at this Dublin event, I’d say at least 100 would be gay.”

John reveals that some of the strippers have met partners from shows.

“There’s one current guy who is still with somebody who he met at a show,” he admits.

“Then was another guy who has since split up with the girl he met, she was a lap dancer and he was part of the Pleasure Boys.”