City Asks Nightclub to Explain How Law Permits Bondage Show

City officials have asked the owner of Metro Nite Club to explain how a weekly bondage performance at the downtown bar conforms to a city ordinance that prohibits adult businesses in the redevelopment district.

Mark Stephens, a senior city planner, sent a letter to Metro’s owner this week along with a copy of the city’s adult-oriented business regulations.

“We asked that they review what they are doing by those regulations and give a response within 30 days,” said Stephens, who has not seen the show called “Bondage, Fetish and HotWax.”

The city has asked Metro Nite Club, 317 E. Main St., to cease doing anything illegal, or, if its owner thinks the bondage and fetish activities are permissible, to explain why.

Metro’s owner, Michael Avrea, was out of town Thursday and could not be reached for comment. But General Manager Shawn Butler said the series of three, 15-minute midweek shows has grown in popularity since it began four months ago.

“We usually get about 75 to 100 people, which is pretty good for a Wednesday night,” Butler said.

Ventura city regulations forbid adult entertainment within 500 feet of churches, synagogues, schools, residences, or within a redevelopment district--of which Main Street is a part.

Specifically, the codes forbid “masochism, erotic or sexually-oriented torture, beating, or the infliction of torture.” City regulations also forbid the display of the buttocks, or of a fully exposed female breast.

Assistant City Atty. Jim Neuerburg said Ventura is not yet ready to take legal action against the nightclub.

“Mark Stephens and I . . . concluded that we better get some reporting from the nightclub about what is going on,” Neuerburg said. “What would be disturbing is if some presentations like this are becoming a significant part of their business.”

Two performers, known only as Master Aaron and Mistress Kelly, use whips, chains, hot wax and handcuffs to stimulate and subdue each other.

During the show, staged in a restricted area of the nightclub behind a curtain, Master Aaron secures his “slave” to a chair with chains or handcuffs. In one recent performance, he then dripped hot red wax on Mistress Kelly’s buttocks, then spanked her with whips, paddles and riding crops.

Aaron, who refuses to reveal his last name, argues that the pain he inflicts during shows is no worse than the tattooing and piercing going on up the street at a nearby tattoo parlor.

“Up there you can permanently scar your body, so why can’t you temporarily scar your body down here?” he asked.

Aaron, 27, said he is considering beginning a petition drive to change the city’s regulation of adult businesses.

“We’re going to try to change the ordinance,” he said. “We are going to work on getting the signatures we need to have the ordinance amended.”

Neuerburg said that Avrea has been very cooperative in the past with problems at the nightclub--acting quickly to solve security and parking problems.

As for the performers’ intention to try to get Ventura’s adult entertainment ordinance amended, Neuerburg said it would not be impossible--just unlikely.

“They always have the 1st Amendment right to petition officials,” he said. “But I have a hunch that they would be swimming upstream here--it was adopted with strong community support.”