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Asex show is a form of liveperformance that features one or more performers engaging in some form ofsexual activity, typically on stage, for the entertainment or sexual gratification of spectators. Performers are paid either by the spectators or by the organisers of the show.[1][2] In the 21st century interactive and live-format online sex shows have become increasingly popular,[3] often performed bywebcam models.
The range of sex shows is wide. At one end of the spectrum, they may contain little more than artisticnude dancing. At the other, they can involve the performance of explicitsexual activity for an audience. They may be private shows for a single individual or performed in front of an audience of fifty or more. In some cases there can be physical contact between members of the audience and the performer or performers.[4]
The sexual activity can include actual or simulatedautoerotic acts and/or sex acts with another performer. The performance can be in a theater style, or it can be in apeep show style. Sex shows can overlap with other sectors of thesex industry. For example, astrip club may also offer live sex performances, and a prostitute may offer to perform sex acts with another prostitute for the gratification of a patron.[citation needed]
InHavana, Cuba, in the 1950s, during thesecond presidency of Fulgencio Batista, there were semi-legal sex shows and live pornographic theaters, such as the Shanghai Theater and the Tokyo Cabaret.[5] The English novelistGraham Greene, writing in his autobiographyWays of Escape, described "the Shanghai Theatre where for one dollar and twenty-five cents one could see a nude cabaret of extreme obscenity with the bluest of blue films in the intervals".[6]
TheLaotian capitalVientiane was famous for sex shows at the height of American influence during theVietnam War.[7] Travel writerPaul Theroux described a bar in 1973 Vientiane thus: "Your eyes get accustomed to the dark and you see the waitress isnaked. Without warning she jumps on the chair, pokes a cigarette into her vagina and lights it, puffing it by contracting her uterine lungs."[8] British journalistChristopher Robbins wrote thatThe White Rose, a famous Vientiane bar during the war, featured floor shows in which women used their vaginas to smoke cigarettes and fling ping pong balls,[9] a performance known as aping pong show.
At the end of the 20th century, there was a significant increase in the number of live sex shows in downtownMelbourne andToronto.[10]
Around theReeperbahn, the red-light district ofHamburg, several sex theatres (Salambo,Regina,Colibri,Safari) were once located in theGroße Freiheit ("Great Freedom") street. They showed live sex acts on stage, but by 2007, theSafari was the only live sex theatre left in Germany,[11] and that closed in 2013.[12]
In thered light district ofDe Wallen inAmsterdam there are three main venues for sex shows: ahostess bar called theBananen Bar, and theMoulin Rouge andCasa Rosso theatres, which feature on-stage sex acts and variations on the ping-pong show.[13][14]Casa Rosso puts on 90-minute sex shows which are made up of nine different performances. The acts include a woman smoking a cigar using her vagina, a dominatrix who humiliates a volunteer from the audience, and a couple having sex on a rotating stage.[15]
In Thailand, locations likePatpong inBangkok,Walking Street, Pattaya, Bangla Road inPhuket and Ta Pae Gate inChiang Mai have numerous venues hosting ping-pong shows.[16] The expression "going to Bangkok" sometimes serves as a euphemism in the West for "going to a live sex show".[17]
Sex shows are subject to varying laws such as licensing requirements and locations are subject to local zoning regulations.[18] Some jurisdictions regard a sex show as prostitution.[19] Although it can be difficult in law to differentiate sex shows from prostitution, if a show is repeated then in some cases it can be argued that it is a form of publication, giving it a degree of legal protection under theFirst Amendment to the United States Constitution.[4] Live sex shows in Europe have become rare since 2010, partly due to increased legal restrictions. In Germany, commercial live sex shows have been illegal since 2015.[3]
The content of a sex show may also be subject to national and localobscenity and other laws. Some areas allow striptease, but no sexual activity, others may allow only simulated sexual activity or autoerotic activity, while others allow anything that is legal in recorded pornography to be performed live.[citation needed] Generally, as of 2010, autoerotic activity is the most common legally-available kind of live sexual activity.[citation needed] In some cities and countries throughout the world, live sexual activity between multiple performers is legal. Webcam performances are largely unregulated.
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