I suppose the first time I saw one of the shows in Bangkok I found it exciting and I do remember a show at Adam's Apple in Chiang Mai that was quite well done in large part because they boys did seem to be having fun ... that was probably 10 years ago.

Since then if I go to the bars at all, it's as near to opening as possible, only to find someone to off and then leave quickly.

The shows which are choreographed by some farang who fancies himself as Bob Fosse's double (the old Icon and one or two other places in Pattaya come to mind) tend to be mildly entertaining for the first 5 minutes and painful as they labor on and on.

The dripping candles, showers, stringed object pulled from anuses, luminous paint in addition to the j.o. or other supposedly sexy peformances somehow always seemed to be an embarassment for all concerned on either side of the "footlights." The performers have to have gone well past being jaded assuming they'd been on stage more than a couple of times.

I still find the boys in the bars to be as enjoyable as ever when taken off, especially when you off the same guy repeatedly and he comes out of his shell, but the whole gogo bar experience really has to be no more than a means to an end , rather than something that can be enjoyed in its own right, for someone who's been around for awhile. And for the boys who are there night after night, it must be terrifically mind-numbing.

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