- I am very nervous, in order to, like,
really perform and be a Magic Mike guy
I feel like I have to match their energy,
but right now I just need to feel my feelings,
get my schoolgirl nerves out, I am sweating.
(bassy saxophone music)
- So we're here in Las Vegas at the
Magic Mike theater because they invited us
to come dance with them today.
- My name is Ryan Carlson, I'm the dance captain
of the show, we perform at Hard Rock, Las Vegas,
and this is called Club Domina,
this is where we perform in a 360 experience.
- In my work, you know, at Ladylike
I work with mostly women, and then
at S Factor it's completely all women
so I live my day-to-day life in
kind of a very feminine space, and even when
I teach pole dancing, while it may be very sexy
and empowering, we do it with the lights off, so this is
definitely pushing me out of my comfort zone a bit.
A while back, I think it was about a year and a half ago,
I saw Jenna Dewan's dance on Lip Sync Battle,
you know the one, where she dances "Pony."
And I just thought it was so cool
and gender-bending and she was able to be herself
and sassy while being this kind of masculine bro,
and it was really, really cool
so when I heard about this opportunity to dance
with the Magic Mike guys I was like,
"Yeah, of course I want to do that, I wanna try it."
- So today we're gonna be teaching Devin a part of the show,
a choreography part that has a lot of improv in it
so she can make it her own, I'm curious to see
how it's gonna go, because it's not easy, it's not easy.
- It's not easy.
- At all.
(smooth synth music)
(record scratch)
- Whoa.
- Yes, incredible, you guys, okay
so I have a lot to learn, you guys are incredible.
- [Chantel] Jen, how do you feel?
'Cause you'll be doing lights, right?
- Yeah, I will be doing lights.
Hi, Sharon.
- Hi.
- I'm Jen.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, thank you for having me.
- Sure, of course, welcome, out theater is,
what we call, in the round, which means
that there's audience on all sides,
so we don't really have a backstage area per se,
so we kind of have to be the eyes and ears
all over the venue and make sure that everybody's safe,
everybody's where they're supposed to be,
making sure that all the light cues are happening,
all the sound cues are happening,
all of our automation cues are happening,
and that the show is continuing on.
- We dance everywhere, upstairs, downstairs, ladders,
we try to leave no one out, that's why we dance everywhere.
- [Kyo] It's a safe and comfortable environment, but
everyone has an equal opportunity to be a part of the show.
- Gotta wipe the camera, that's a Kyo thing.
- My specialty is my sauce, so I always
have to trademark it with the camera wipe.
- [Chantel] What does sauce mean?
- Sauce is just, sauce is just your flavor,
you know what I mean, sauce is, it's swag, what
separates you from everybody else, you know?
- I am going to muddy up the choreography
in the middle, I just know I am,
but if I add it with a little bit of sauce.
- We're going to start with the choreography section.
- Okay.
- We'll backtrack into the less choreographed sections.
- Okay, cool.
- It's less structured it's more like whatever you wanna do.
- Cool.
- One, two, three, and four, five, six.
- Gotcha, okay.
- One, then just turn your whole body
the opposite direction, 180, two, stop three.
- Yeah, Kyo, c'mon, yeah.
- Throw a little ball of change.
- Yeah, you gotta look at me, though.
- Yeah, you gotta look at his face.
- Like, "Yeah, we about to do it."
- We're about to do it, one, it's gonna be-
- Just don't miss it, 'cause it's really awkward.
- They seem like nice guys.
- Yeah, oh totally.
- Devin's doing great, she's starting to to add
her own little flavor slash sauce slash swag,
I taught her eye contact and I taught her
the importance of eye contact and making that connection
with the woman, or male, in this case,
that she's gonna be dancing with.
You're providing a service for that person
that you're dancing for, so you're not just
dancing just to dance, you're dancing for somebody,
and specifically you're asking for permission,
you know, you want that person to feel comfortable.
That is the most important part for me,
that's the most important part of the flavor.
- Kyo and I sat down and we worked on eye contact,
because something I just learned about myself, today,
is that I have a problem with direct eye contact
when it comes to things like this,
and it's true because when I pole dance,
I do it with my eyes closed, so it makes sense
that this entire time I've been closing my eyes
where I need to just focus and make that connection.
- [Chantel] Why did they bring you in
specifically to do the flavor?
- Because that's what I specialize
in you know what I'm saying? (laughs)
- I fell like people just think it's all
lap dances and just guys taking their shirts off,
but there's so much intricacy and this show, with
the choreography, the lighting, the one-on-one interactions.
- [Kyo] It's because it's all about the moment, you know,
Channing and the choreographers Allison, Teresa, and Luke,
they wanted to create this moment for women
as soon as you walk in the door.
Like, as soon as you walk down those stairs,
you're walking into this crazy, comfortable environment,
that you feel like you can just be yourself,
where women fell like they can just be themselves,
and a lot of people don't know that beforehand,
they expect us to just take their clothes off
and start clapping and just give them this raunchy show
and it's not that at all, it's just a really comfortable,
safe place for women to just be themselves.
- When we first heard they were gonna do this I was like,
"Okay, it'll be fun for them, I'm excited, good for them,"
and now I'm just like, men.
- (together) Men, men, men, men.
- Five, six, seven, eight, one, two, clap three.
- Eye contact, yeah.
- Yeah, three, and then bam four, hands, hand,
five, six, and you're gonna snap, eight.
- I can't snap, can I (smack)?
- You can do whatever you want.
(cheering)
- Yeah, I'll do that.
- One and two.
- Yeah.
- And then, from this awkward position
you're gonna push this leg back and slide onto your hip.
- Like this?
- So roll around, and you're gonna do the same,
I'll give you the counts in a minute,
but you're gonna do the exact same dive you just did on her,
but you're gonna do it on the floor.
- [Devin] See, that's the move I'm worried about.
- Five, six, you're gonna do another body roll,
but this one's with just your waist, seven, seven, yeah.
- So I'm midway through the rehearsal,
I just learned all the choreography,
and now we're just putting it to beat.
I think I'm most concerned about my body rolls,
and the footwork, it's deceiving because there's so much
quick footwork in this choreography that you want
to make sure you nail, because then it really makes
the body rolls look really cool, I've got some knee pads.
- She's awesome.
- Aw, my teacher, you guys wink a lot, you wink a lot.
- It's part of the occupation.
- I need help with my winking, I've been trying
to wink to the camera this entire time and it's been weird.
- It's part of the flavor, I got you, we'll get you.
- Okay.
- Hi, Jen, how are you?
- I'm good, good to see you.
- This is your "Push to talk" right there,
when that light's on your mic is on.
- Okay.
- Right, and you can use these video screens, you can watch.
So we're gonna put this headset on
you and we're gonna trade places.
- Okay.
- And then you'll say, when we get ready to go,
"Sound 271 and lights 133, go."
- I'm gonna wear my hat, 'cause I feel like
it's a guy thing to do like a, "What up, girl?"
You know, I think that's kind of hot, right?
I think that the hat's gonna help get me
to that spot, to that Usher spot.
- Sound 271 and lights 133, go.
(latin pop music)
- She's doing great I can't believe how fast she learned it.
I do the show so often I forgot how fast the choreo is,
we do it so fluid and we try to do it, it's almost like
you can't see the transition between moves,
as you can see she's doing an amazing job.
- A lot of people can't just come in one day and learn
what we do and learn how to dance, you know what I mean?
It takes them a long time it takes them months and years,
so for her to just come in one day and just pick up
what we do and to perform it on camera, that's amazing.
- Oh my god, the guys are my fairy god mothers today,
they were my fairy god brothers in dance,
and they just pulled all the elements of
Magic Mike together in me, I just changed into my outfit,
which is just tennis shoes and jeans,
and now I'm gonna go slay, I'm gonna be Magic Mike.
- Okay everybody, stand by.
- [Tom] Quiet in the room please.
("Lips" by John Dillon Conneally)
(cheering)
- Did you guys see me give them business cards at the end?
- [Chantel] I did.
- [Mike] Professional.
- I'm a really professional lady.
So that was it, I did it, I really did it, I did that.
After the show we went upstairs, we changed for dinner,
this is the smite dinner wear, same pants.
Something about moving your body in this way
really makes you feel confident,
so I feel like I can do anything now.
Thank you, Magic Mike, for really making me feel like I'm
a Magic Mike dancer, like, you guys were so welcoming
and warm, and inclusive, it was really great,
I feel awesome, you guys should check out
the show, though, it's pretty incredible.
- Thank you for having us, guys, come see the show,
Wednesday through Sunday at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino,
you can buy tickets online, magicmikelivelasvegas.com.
(Check 'Em Out by William Davies)
- Hey, Unsolved is on a a new channel, and now your part.
- (together) Subscribe here.
- That was my part.