Full of razor-sharp events

The hunt for fresh blood in the club-going market is as intense as ever. So what’s a shark to do in a feeding frenzy but keep moving or die?

“With all the competitive pressure, we wanted to make sure we’re staying up to date,” says Greg Hanour, owner-general manager of the venerable Costa Mesa nightspot the Shark Club, which this summer marks its 15th year. “Probably this year we’ve had more promoters open up than any other year.”

Yes, there have been some cosmetic changes at the Orange County club -- including the addition of a VIP space called the Aqua Lounge -- but the Shark Club’s biggest transformations have been under the surface.

After eight years without a Saturday night promoter, Hanour recently enlisted 24-year-old actor Jeremy Jackson, who spent nine years playing the role of Hobie on the beach phenomenon “Baywatch,” to promote Shark Club’s new Saturday night event, Blow.

“Someone introduced Jeremy to me about three or four years ago,” Hanour says. “He’s very real, he has a particular way to him, and he’s just a sincerely good guy.”

Hanour also liked that Jackson could keep the club constantly evolving, whether by bringing in celebrities or mounting special events.

“A lot of venues are just you go to the club and you dance or whatever. We have events. We have stuff that no other club in O.C. offers,” says Eddie Penalosa, who during the week helps get the word out about Blow.

A recent Saturday night saw a fashion show with some of the models from the annual Lingerie Bowl. Some may cringe at the cheese factor, but it’s hard to argue with a Disneyland-at-Christmas length line stretching from the door at the ridiculously early hour (for club land) of 9:30.

Though the fashion show doesn’t start until nearly 11, there are plenty of adult playthings, including seven gold-and-mahogany pool tables and the red-curtained private dance room.

After making their way through a security check so tight and hands-on it would bring a tear to Donald Rumsfeld’s eye, patrons enter the 12,000-square-foot club and are greeted with a choice of three bars. The most popular drink is the Shark Bite -- a mix of amaretto, Blue Curacao, vodka and lemon-lime juice.

There’s an expansive dance floor, its central area populated by women in miniskirts so skimpy you’d think there was a fabric shortage. Appreciative men line the outskirts of the dance floor like, well, sharks. Providing the soundtrack to this mating ritual is a state-of-the-art sound system pumping out hip-hop and Top 40.

In the center of it all is a 2,000-gallon tank with a live shark. Patrons in the house at midnight get to watch the shark feed, sucking down its dinner hungrily.

If Shark Club offers a smorgasbord of choices for patrons on the prowl, the diversity of the entertainment keeps other club entertained. All of the pool tables are occupied, whether by couples or groups of friends, and the good vibes extend from the dance floor to an area of tables and booths, where people are literally dancing in the aisles while waiting for their choice of bar food, and to a heavily populated outside smoking area.

Later, from the tented smoking patio, fans can see a line that now encompasses much of the parking lot. Blow is definitely bringing people in, says one club regular. “I’ve been coming here for years,” Kenneth Gho says. “Once [Blow] came in I definitely saw an increase in people. It’s literally almost tripled; I’ve never seen it this crowded.”

For Hanour, it was all a matter of good business. “We didn’t drop off, but I didn’t want to wait for us to drop off either,” he says. “We beat the decline and boy, did we do it.”

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Steve Baltin can be reached at weekend@latimes.com.

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Shark Club

Where: 841 Baker St., Costa Mesa

When: Blow is 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. Saturdays

Cover: $15

Info: (714) 751-6428 or www.sharkclub.com