By Rona Proudfoot and Melissa Hebert

ELYRIA — The male revue show at Vic’s Night Club on Thursday night ended up being a low-key affair.

The show by “The Chocolate Factory All Male Revue Show,” which was advertised as starting at 9 p.m., did not get under way until after 11 p.m.

Elyria police made their presence known, as three officers showed up around 9:30 p.m. They looked around, talked with club staff and left.

About 10 p.m., the show emcee apologized for a promotional flier featuring a man posing with two guns.

Because of the “publicity” over the show, and the police presence, the emcee told the all-female crowd of about 60 that the show would be toned down.

Vic’s Night Club owner Dean Costa said Thursday that he had no knowledge of the flier and was appalled when it was brought to his attention.

“We didn’t make it or know anything about it,” Costa said.

The flier was produced by the manager for the show, Costa said, who added the manager was “a really good guy” who is not from our area and had no idea about Elyria’s problems.

Costa said he spoke with Councilman Forrest Bullocks, who had demanded the show be canceled, and said of Bullocks, “He was surprised I agreed so totally with him.”

Bullocks said Thursday that he was disappointed the show wasn’t canceled but was on good terms with Costa after speaking with him.

Costa said manager Mande Kamms, who addressed the flier Wednesday, was actually talking about a different flier that had been produced by the club. That flier had nunchucks on it, not guns, he said, but speculated Kamms must have thought the nunchucks were being interpreted by people to represent guns when she responded to a reporter’s questions.

Costa said Kamms was upset when the actual flier was brought to her attention and called several police officers to apologize and clear up the miscommunication.

Costa called the flier “the worst thing we ever could have done,” considering his passion about cleaning up downtown.

“I don’t want them in our club,” he said, referring to people with guns. “It’s bad for business. We’re losing customers to Amherst and other places” because of the perception downtown Elyria is violent.

Costa said his club is the only one with metal detectors in Elyria. He said an incident over the weekend in which two men were arrested after one of them flashed a gun in the club happened after the man left the bar, returned and forced his way in at closing time.

Councilman Bullocks said he doesn’t necessarily buy that explanation.

“The last incident they had was after (the patrons) left the club,” Bullocks said. “ ‘Women only’ doesn’t mean that when they leave that there won’t be some sort of confrontation.

“It not the business themselves, it’s the clientele.”

Contact Rona Proudfoot at 329-7124 or rproudfoot@chroniclet.com and Melissa Hebert at 329-7129 or mhebert@chroniclet.com.

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