Former DC Councilman Starts New Career as Gay Male Strip Club Boss

Only in Washington, D.C. can a former city councilman become a gay strip club impresario. Meet Jim Graham, the 69-year-old former politician with a new start-up touting topless men and screaming patrons at something he calls “Rock Hard Sundays.”

According to the Washington Post’s Monica Hesse, Graham had a hankering to blend his two passions of art and erotica in the District and thought he’d start a new night at House nightclub on Georgia Avenue. House’s owner Darrell Allen was interested in the idea, since warmer weather and basketball season ruin his foot traffic. He even had a few stale nights where he’d sit in his own club’s audience and “call out, ‘Easy, Baby! You’re beautiful!’ just to keep up the pole dancers’ spirits.”

Thus Rock Hard Sundays were born, produced by Graham, who hired sexy dancers, bartenders and a sullen “shoot boy” from West Virginia, and even passed out fliers to locals to drum up attendance. Naturally, that was the weirdest part for some of Graham’s former constituents, who were used to seeing their former councilman spouting politics instead of advertisements for six-packs on naked men.

But it all seems to have worked out. Thanks to Graham’s political and media connections, Rock Hard Sunday made the local news, and the club joined the Georgia Avenue neighborhood association in advance of the opening night. And as the dicks swung free during showtime—except Rick’s, the guy whose abs were featured on the flier, because he wants to be different—Graham nervously settled into the first successful night of his new career as exotic entertainment manager.