Wicked In More Ways Than One
If you're straight and want to walk on the wild side, your options are limited. Besides clubs and bars, a pick-up option that comes loaded with a dizzying amount of rules, rituals and regulations, guys and girls are generally out in the cold when it comes to being given free reign to exercise their kinky side.
Enter the swinger's club, otherwise known as a bathhouse for the rest of us. A haven for those who know what they want (and want to get busy) it exists primarily for the purpose of getting like-minded folks together to get off.
Club Eros, the longest-running community in the area, holds events all the way out in Etobicoke but for those of us who don't play outside of the downtown core, there's Club Wicked, the only "on-premise" club around.
(For those of you who don't know, an on-premise club allows sexual encounters between members as opposed to off-premise clubs where interested parties have to leave if they want to have sex.)
Located at 1032 Queen St. West, in the space formerly occupied by spooky goth-bar the Vatikan, you might think Wicked was in a bit of an out-of-the-way spot for such a alternative endeavor but it caters to a very specific crowd as I was soon to find out.
While I'm something of a hedonist, I wouldn't label myself a swinger. All the same, I was very interested in seeing what this kind of club was all about. According to their website, they have a very strict dress code with the doorman being empowered to arbitrarily decide whether or not you're "erotic and elegant" enough to get in. This was no huge issue but the bit about no single guys being allowed in without the presence of a lady presented me with a problem. I needed a beard, someone to disguise my agenda.
It was rather difficult finding someone willing to explore this uncharted territory with me and the ones who were up for it had boyfriends who didn't look too favorably on the idea. Eventually, a partner was secured and after picking her up, we headed off to Club Wicked dressed in our finest.
If you arrive before eleven on Fridays, it only costs $10 to get in but I had to pay $20 because we were late. Regardless, I can't see why anyone would want to arrive before that because we got upstairs to find the place at death's door. The small bar was completely occupied so the Beard and I sat down one of the disturbingly-antiseptic naughahyde beds lining the wall to sip our $7 gin-and-tonics.
There were about thirty souls in attendance and a sketchy, nervous vibe pervaded the room. There were two or three couples engaging in some exhibitionist behavior but everyone else seemed to be waiting for something to happen while they talked and drank. The Beard and I both noticed it and came to some conclusions about Wicked:
1. One of the underlying goals of going out is hooking up but most places you end up at don't incorporate that so baldly into their modus operandi. A club that does puts a lot of pressure on its guests, particularly the newbies.
2. Those same folks might get that "fresh meat" feeling that most guys have never had the pleasure of experiencing. Every walk to the bathroom is punctuated by quite a few come-hither stares that you can't help but be aware of and, depending on who's doing the looking, this can either be incredibly flattering or just plain creepy.
3. It reminded me of a make-out party I went to last year. The host was jumping from one group to another, cheerfully encouraging everyone to get started. Like summer camp but more arts-and-crafts than the let's-make-out-in-the-bunk variety. That's just not sexy.
Apparently, if you fill out the form they present you with at the door, you'll be given a tour of the place and, if kinky hosts Schlomo and Aurora decide you're hot enough, offered a $60 membership that gets you and your honey into the VIP area where the real action is. (If you really dig it, you can always splurge for the $295 yearly membership.)
The Beard and I didn't fill out the form (she had made it very clear that she wouldn't go any further than the main room) so we didn't get the tour but my reliable source tells me that there are an assortment of rooms with quite a few beds, a two-way mirror and a hot tub. Similar to a bathhouse, members are required to strip down to a towel or lingerie but I'm sure most don't need to be told twice. From that point on, anything goes but the regulations in place are there to make women feel comfortable. No means no and the absence of lone wolves seems to cut down on the trench coat flasher factor. However, bisexual boys should think twice before attending; my source also told me that the only same-sex pairings that occur are between ladies.
Granted, a lot of this hanky-panky takes place on Saturday, when Wicked gets a bit livelier. Friday is a more relaxed affair so if you've got deep pockets and are looking to find Mr. and Mrs. Right, don't bother going then. That being said, it might be a good starting point for those of you who want to get your feet wet before diving in.
After an hour of sitting in the main area, the Beard and I were bored stiff and we left for a livelier bar. While all accounts I've heard so far point to Wicked as the primo place to hook up with some like-minded swingers, it's not something you can just check out on a whim and those who aren't interested in what it has to offer really shouldn't bother.
Many regulars attend on a weekly basis. One woman is driven in from Oakville by her husband. After he drops her off, she makes use of every available partner and he gets to hear about it on the way home which is how he gets off.
If Wicked is fulfilling their needs (and the needs of many others), it deserves kudos for that. Accounting for the power dynamics inherent to sexual relationships between men and women is not an easy task and I, for one, am impressed with their progress. If we're really lucky, this venue might even foreshadow a gradual relaxing of Toronto's often-uptight attitude towards sex.
Unfortunately, all is not well in this swinger's haven. Look for part two of this report on Club Wicked in a couple of weeks where I'll delve into a former employee's experience with the company.
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Photos courtesy of the Club Wicked website.
Comments (34)
Actually, most of the people I saw were not unattractive (just not my type) and from what I hear (and judging from the pictures which, given the sheer number of them, would be difficult to fake) there are quite a few good-lookin' swingers.
"$7 gin-and-tonics" ? Funny, I remember reading on their website that they didn't serve alcohol... though I can't find that now. Maybe something changed.
Japhet, you said the tone was cold, but did you get a chance to talk to anyone? Did anyone break the ice?
Great article, looking forward to your follow up interview of the employee.
I talked to a couple of people but most of them were rather occupied.
I wouldn't say we were made to feel particularly welcome but we didn't really try that hard either.
Ooo, I have two more semi digruntled employees if you need it, one of them being myself (I worked there for one night.)
Ask me about being asked to pick up wet-spotted sheets and innumerable tissues with no gloves.
Although I heard they changed that now.
Man, the upstairs part was so not hot, to me at least. The best part actually was looking out the window to see the people screwing in the alley, the good ol' fashioned way.
The girls in those particular pictures are "Schlomo's Angels," I do believe.
the whole place was boring beyond belief! i couldn't believe it!
i think if i was incredibly tanked, i might have been much more interested, but even at 27 years old, i felt that most of the people there were too grown up looking for my taste (suburban men do not turn my crank!)
Bryanna - I'm also interested in talking to you, just out of curiosity's sake. I used to work with them in the summer and had an AWFUL experience.
Email me at themightykiwi AT hotmail DOT com if you'd like to get a little catty.
Nice read. Limited to writing only about the main room though? You need a more adventurous beard next time.
Wife and I are considering a visit to our local swingers bar. I read nothing but wonderful things about it from its regulars.
Clearly Wicked is to be avoided. Also, there is an error in this good article. Wicked is NOT the only on-premise swing club. Club Hers on Lakeshore is also on-premise. You will get a tour automatically, you will be introduced to the staff and security and you will wonder how you lived before Club Hers.
Wicked is probably the best lifestyle club out there. X Club is not far behind. Club Hers, Happy Hedonist and Abstract are focus to 45+ couples. Obvioulsy Japhet and the Beard are not into the lifestyle so their opinion is somehow biased. Talk to anyone in the lifestyle and will agree than X and Wicked are the best 2 clubs on the scene.
In conclusion this is a review made by a "vanilla" person that was accompanied by a "vanilla" friend; so cannot be considered a reliable and objective source for lifestylers looking for a club.
My 2 cents!
Out of all the clubs in the GTA Club Hers is the worst one. Don't waste your time or money going there, unless you want to be surrounded by creepy single guys and 50+ y-old couples.
I'm not a swinger but I'm definitely not vanilla. I've heard tons of bad things about Club Wicked and I wasn't impressed when I visited.
I had a way better time at X Club.
Attending in September and have to say wasn't impressed at all. The owners wouldn't give you the time of day for these first-timers and were actually quite rude when we wanted to have our questions answered and the promised tour upstairs. He claimed to be busy but stood at the end of the bar for the hour that we were there and did nothing. Slomo, I think is his name? Yeah that sums him up. Not to brag but we are a nice looking couple and fit in quite nicely so I don't know what his egotisticll problem was.
Never ever attending again. Never recommending this club to anyone. Trust me, avoid this overpriced and undelivering club.
We visited both club Wicked and Club Hers. Personally, I was not impressed by club Wicked. The atmosphere was quite cold. People didn't really talk, there were a lot of new people or experimenting people on the scene. We didn't get a tour and got the cold shoulders from both the owners and the staff when we requested a tour. The showers didn't have hot water, the washroom were dirty, it ran out of toilet papers and nobody bother to replace them. The massage table was nice but when I gave my significant other a massage it ran out of massage oil. We weren't exactly a shy couple but most people didn't want to talk, they were so impersonal and just wanted to screw, nothing else. We tried sex with two couple, the first the woman was totally not into and and seemingly pressured there by her husband (which is a turn off for both of us). The second, her husband wanted to enjoy himself with me and got jealous when my boyfriend was doing such a good job on his wife. He saw that she was getting into my boyfriend and yanked her back to him. That sucks! We are in our late twenties, both love the swinging lifestyle and love it that we both love to see the other enjoy ourselves with others. We would not go to Wicked anymore because of the service and the unexperienced crowd. We felt very welcomed at Club Hers. We love the staff and the people that frequent there, they are a lot more relaxed about swinging and friendly.
Generally speaking some of these comments are true and a lot false.
We've been to quite a few swingers (term nowadays is 'lifestyler') clubs and to be honest, even with the negative aspects that i do not like about Wicked, it is still probably the best club I've been to (planning a trip to Miami soon so that may change).
Wicked is like any club and not some house party. You still have to be sociable and reasonably good looking to make it easy to fit in. Either subsequent visits or even better, go with friends (preferably in the lifestyle) will make partying there better. Compared to other clubs i would say:
Pros:
1 easy to meet people 2 fairly good looking crowd 3 fairly affordable ($20/cpl b4 11 and $60 gets you an orgy! C'mon!) 4 younger crowd
Cons:
1 if you're shy,overweight, or not good looking fitting in difficult 2 owners are a little cold 3 some people overly aggressive 4 crowd rarely represents Toronto's diverse population
overall though the wife and i have a difficult time going back to a boring 'regular' club
Wicked is so uncool its not funny. I mean: "Vogue Bar"? That was Madonna in 1993! You can't feel more out of place trying to slip into this place on west Queen west with all the cool kids walking past. I don't know what they were thinking moving to that area - just shows how out of touch they are. The crowd is just a few lame 905ers on their night in the city.
The staff really knows how to make you feel unwelcome, its a total ripoff and the crowd is pretty unsexy. The place is also filthy - if your going to pick up crabs, herpes or worse this will be the place.
Rumours are they keep the male-female balance with "hired help" if you know what I mean (re-read that sentence about crabs and herpes when you think about this).
Take my advice: check out the other options!
Hi everyone. We run a "lifestyle club" for attractive Lifestyle couples here in Vancouver. We are planning on moving it into a commercial space in the next few months. So far, we've pretty much only received positive feedback about the experience on our forum. However, this discussion has been great for our consideration on the dos and don'ts of this style of club. Would love to hear your top 3-5 recommendations that you think we should definately include to make our club a top notch experience. One thing we've been told so far on a regular basis is how "no-pressure" our environment is. We focus first and foremost on throwing a "kick ass party" and then if anything happens up stairs, so be it, but we're not pushing people up the stairs to go and get it on.
Would love to hear the top 5. Thanks in advance.
Eve
Anyone else think they have a mafia connection? Their owners really seem like puppets for a larger scale of operations going on.
My common law girlfriend and I is planning to go to a swing club for Halloween. We have limited experience in swinging, however we are definately not newbies. We are an interracial couple in the 35 - 40 age group, and would like to go somewhere were we can have a great time. We live in the North York area and don't mind driving. Been to Wicked (not on halloween)....it's okay. But wouldn't mind trying somewhere new, good music and good company. Was hoping someone could recommend one of the clubs to give a try for halloween.
Thank You.
lastima que no hay nada en castellano me interesaria saber que comentan sobre uds. aparenta ser algo interesante y me gustaria saber que es!!!!!
(905) what the hell is that supposed to mean most of us 9-5 ers keep toronto going, boy the ego on you is pretty big start looking at yourself before you talk about others
my wife and I are strickly looking for a 3some with another girl. Does this club mostly have just swinger couples?
Hey jack pro. My boyfriend and I are looking for the same. I heard it was pretty friendly that way from some of my bi friends. I'm a girl btw.
There are apparently mostly young good looking people at the club...it really depends on which night you go though. Keep in mind this is secondary information.
The girls of Schlomo do seem like hired help, you will see it on the sites gallery. The owners look like they are part of a bigger organization. This is nothing more than a safe haven for prostitutes, high end call girls, not the junkies looking to make a quick buck for a quick high. Organized crime always find ways to legalize prostitution rings, down to massage parlors and bath houses. Good luck if you're into this kind of lifestyle.
Btw, the pictures in the galleries seem to always be of the same girls. It's the non hired patrons that don't have their faces blurred out.
charrise, what the hell do you mean 905ers keep Toronto going? Are you nuts? It's the 905ers that have completely taken over clubland on the weekends and believe me, the 416ers do NOT want it that way. Miller is trying to get the clubs ousted for a reason and I agree. What 905 brings to the core is violence and guns.
Oh, a wicked isn't all that great. I think it depends on what you are looking for, crowd wise. My experience was a mixed crowd, with a very small percentage making up those that we would consider playing with. Schlomo himself just comes across as entirely too greasy, although Aurora is nice enough. In any case, the little lady and I have much better results simply attending one of the various fetish parties around Toronto.
Did someone actually do a poll on what area code everyone was from??! Who gives a sh*t what area code anyone is from...and don't bullsh*t everyone about the guns and violence stuff, its everywhere buddy, and 416 is far from being peaceful. What a load of sh*t!!!...LOL...and the word of the day is....
If we go to Wicked, we go to have fun, not to be entertained by the owners. I could care less about them. You can have fun anywhere usually if you have the right attitude. As for the pic's on the Wicked website...those girls are usually the staff or hired "models". I do agree that they should take more pic's of the club goer's...it would give a more honest opinion on what people are really going to see. The club does need to get on it with the promised tour for newbie's...but I guess some business owners don't care as long as they get their money at the door. Oh...and you cannot trust the door guys...one night was "upstairs free before 11pm" night. The door man still asked for 60 when we signed in and asked "how did you know about that?" when we corrected him on the cost. We told him it was on the website...we got in for 40 but he proceeded to scam everyone else that night, including our friends who arrived after us. Shady...but I guess that sort of thing happens.
Wicked sucks! Not a good crowd, TERRIBLE bar staff (they tried to rip us off for a round of drinks), dirty upstairs (no changing of sheets and lack of condoms). Some of the people at this club don't know the basic rules of swinging, like always asking before trying to touch others: some CREEPY people at this club. Another thing, smile when Aurora takes your picture! She takes pics through the night (downstairs) to post on the web site. I guess they don't know privacy is actually important to some people! Another thing, most of the girls on the site are staff, don't be fooled. If you think this is a club with some hot women looking for action, don't be so naive! We have been there three times and on our last trip, we were so put off we won't go back. Heath code violations, people "sneaking" a feel rather than asking, and no staff around to complain to? I would hate to see newbies go here and think this place is what swinging is about, because it's not. There are certainly better places to go, with a better environment and a better class of people! I can't see Wicked lasting for too long...and moving to Queen West?! Like someone else said, what were they thinking?!
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