Making a Hep Hop From Clubs to Recording Scene

The Dames are on fire. In part, it’s the heat. The temperature inside the Union club on the Sunset Strip must be more than 100 degrees, and everyone in the packed room is squeezed in so tightly there’s not even room to dance. The Dames--erotic dancers clad in lingerie and vintage dresses--aren’t helping matters, as they writhe and buck in front of the stage like uncaged colts.

It’s Monday at midnight, show time for “The Toledo Show,” a smoky, retro nightclub revue created by 36-year-old dancer, choreographer and poet Toledo Diamond.

For about a year, he and his dancers have dominated clubland on Mondays, transforming the Union into a sensual playground reminiscent of the after-hours clubs from Hollywood’s golden era in the ‘30s and ‘40s.

Backed by a jazz-accented quartet, Toledo speaks, cackles and howls his words into an ancient microphone. The spirit of Raymond Chandler pervades the cozy room as Toledo takes his audience--which frequently includes the likes of Johnny Depp and Snoop Doggy Dogg--on a journey through seedy hellholes, drug dens and damaged love affairs.

“They say, ‘Write what you know,’ ” says Toledo, who prefers to go by his first name. “And that’s the life I know.”

Although his lyrics concern modern times, Toledo has had an affinity with the ‘40s ever since he saw his first Bogart flick as a teenager. This fascination carries over into his show in subtle and engaging ways: A cigarillo is always propped between his lips or fingers, allowing smoke to become its own character. A vintage hat tilts down over dark sunglasses, obscuring his face. The suit is always ‘40s, as are the ties, suspenders and two-tone shoes.

Incorporating the style of old musicals, he’s choreographed the performance numbers so the dancers capture the essence of his words, both on an emotional and physical level. “Showgirls” this ain’t.

“The movement has to reveal something about what I’m expressing,” says Toledo, relaxing in his one-bedroom Hollywood bungalow, whose every crevice is filled with thrift-shop relics.

Will all this excitement come across on record?

His debut album, “Fishnets & Cigarettes,” came out last month on Moonshine Music, a Los Angeles label specializing in such electronic music as dance, acid-jazz and trip-hop.

While the label is a respected player in the dance-music arena, its releases so far haven’t broken into the pop mainstream, with sales averaging about 25,000 per title. Steve Levy, Moonshine’s president, thinks the prospects for Toledo’s album are good.

“It has the old-school appeal of a Tom Waits album, with Toledo’s personal stories and presence, and the fact that it was recorded live,” Levy says. “But we bring the new-school production values of trip-hop, which goes against the rules. The combination should give it a broad appeal.”

The man at the apex of Hollywood club cool--Toledo recently added a regular Friday show at Nice, a Moonshine Music dance club at the 8531 Club, to his schedule--is also stepping out with roles in two upcoming films. He performs several songs in the independent feature “Don’s Plumb,” which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, and has an acting part in Skyline Entertainment’s “Lunch Time Special,” featuring the directorial debut of “Punky Brewster’s” Soleil Moon Frye.

He’s been around town long enough, however, to know that nothing is guaranteed.

“I’ve seen too many one-hit wonders,” he says. “People who surround themselves with folks who tell them how great they are burn out fast.”

With choreography credits on videos such as Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up” and Us3’s “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia),” Toledo is simply grateful for everything that has happened so far. After all, he says, his past includes such shady occupations as a drug dealer and a pool shark.

Toledo began cultivating a more respectable career during the break-dance days of the early ‘80s. He started dancing to cash in on the “easy money” being made in street dance contests. He then began dancing in, and eventually choreographing, music videos.

In his songs he reaches back to his gritty experiences as a longtime drug addict. In “Downtown” and “Danny,” he tells the stories, respectively, of two troubled friends--one who overdoses in an alley behind the Mayan Theatre, another who ends up dead on the floor of his mother’s bathroom.

“I used to sit with them downtown on Wall Street, under a cardboard box, getting high for days,” he recalls. “Wall was a horrible place to be, but it’s also a memorable place. . . . Drugs will take you to the absolute depths of your human weakness and it will demoralize you to a state you don’t even comprehend and let you know the absolute truth about yourself.”

Now that he’s off drugs, Toledo’s become a workaholic. He says it keeps him focused.

“I look back to who I was,” he says, “and it lets me know two things: One, I could be that person in a heartbeat if I ever got high again. And two, just because that’s your state at the time, that doesn’t mean you have to be that person. If you want to change, you will. This keeps me going.”

* “The Toledo Show” on Mondays at Union, 8210 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, midnight. 21 and over, $2 cover. (213) 654-1001. Also Fridays at Nice, 8531 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, 11 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. 21 and over, $10 cover. (310) 364-3313.