One outrageous party coming to Vegas, direct from San Francisco

By Jerry Fink

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2008 | 2 a.m.

It started as a lark, a way to raise money for a nudist presidential candidate.

Over the past 30 years, the Exotic Erotic Ball has became a San Francisco institution.

Now the organizer is bringing a version of the uninhibited party to the Orleans Arena on Labor Day weekend and calling it the Strippers & Hustlers Ball.

One wonders why it took so long to reach Las Vegas. It seems a natural fit — an outrageous party in a city that takes pride in outrageous parties.

“The thing about lifestyle-oriented events is you can’t cookie-cutter them,” organizer Perry Mann says during a phone interview from his office in Beverly Hills, which is miles and years from San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, where he used to sell sweaters before he got into the exotic-erotic business. “Those people that do wind up running afoul of the municipalities that play by different rules. It has to be right.”

And Vegas is ripe for a naughty party, Mann says, within boundaries.

“There are some restrictions in Las Vegas that prohibit us from selling some stuff we would like to sell, but we want to comply with the local ordinances,” Mann says. “Las Vegas is not that wide open.”

Mann organized San Francisco’s first Exotic Erotic Ball to help his friend Louis Abolafia fund an independent run for the presidency.

Abolafia, who died in 1995, is little more than a political footnote. But back in 1968, he was a political trickster in wide-open San Francisco. Abolafia ran on the Love Party ticket, appearing nude on campaign buttons and posters and proclaiming, “What have I got to hide?” (That was the year Richard Nixon beat Hubert Humphrey.) Abolafia also ran against Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

“Louis was an activist when it was cool to be an activist,” Mann says.

Even though Abolafia lost, his fundraising party was a resounding success. The first ball attracted a few hundred partyers to a suite at the Hilton.

“It was packed,” Mann says. “The next year we had adjoining suites and it was packed.”

The party kept outgrowing its venues, eventually getting too big for the Cow Palace — a giant municipal barn built to house rodeos and livestock shows. On Halloween it moved to Treasure Island — an artificial island in the bay that has housed a world exposition and the military. The ball and its trade show are expected to draw as many as 30,000 people this year.

“We have, over the past few years, really grown the San Francisco event. It’s been going on for a long time and we have built up the business-expo side of it,” Mann says.

But Las Vegas already has that covered with the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. There are more than 100 product booths in San Francisco but only 25 or 30 at the Orleans — selling items ranging from T-shirts to sexual aids.

“So we’re focusing on this being a party event.”

The Strippers & Hustlers Ball will include:

• A stripper competition with up to $20,000 in prizes;

• Burlesque and exotic dancing;

• DJs including Richard Vission, Scooter and LaVelle, Drummer KC, Gen-XX and Mobius8;

• Bands such as Gilby Clarke and the Genitorturers, D’Amato and Girls Girls Girls;

• And host Unkle Paul (Nathan) and his Wheel of Depravity.

“There are going to be lots of things to do in Vegas that weekend, but why would you go to a club when you have this?” Mann says. “Clubs are great and maybe they’ll have a DJ you love — but we’ve got 10 of them, as well as strippers and people in funky outfits and some of the world’s best burlesque acts.”