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He’s a throwback to the tradition of classic showmen like P.T. Barnum and Flo Ziegfield, with a dash of Studio 54 legends Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager mixed in. The New York-born Ivan Kane got his gift for presentation from his father, a men’s clothing designer whose elaborate showroom sets taught him the value of a good fantasy in selling your product, whether it’s a suit or a nightclub.
“I grew up with an appreciation for details,” the one-time dancer, actor and screenwriter explains. “That’s my signature and what I’d like to think is my recipe for success. I don’t approach nightlife as a landlord, but look at it as an art form. I take in all the creative energy that has flown through my universe and put it into turning nightlife into a theatrical experience.”
The mission of Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce clubs is to bring back nightlife’s mystique, fun, glamour and danger, but most of all; it’s about good, old-fashioned sex. With current locations in Los Angeles and in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, the club entrepreneur has added his own unique blend of excitement, sexual allure and a little bit of edge to going out.
“I want to create a complete sensory experience, whether through ambience or an actual show,” he says of his venues, “to convince you there’s another reason, aside from cocktails and canoodling, to go out.”
Kane grew up as a Broadway fanatic, “second-acting” shows by sneaking in with the smokers after intermission when he couldn’t afford the price of a ticket. He became a successful “character” singer and dancer on stage before segueing into films with a role in Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning Platoon, which prompted him to drive cross-country in 1986 to pursue a film career in L.A. After several film roles, among them Born on the Fourth of July and Bound, and numerous television appearances, Kane wrote a screenplay which he sold to HBO, which aired as the HBO Original movie No Alibi with Eric Roberts and Dean Cain.
Trying to gain control over his own destiny, Kane took a left turn and put all of his savings into buying Small’s, a bar on Melrose Avenue opposite Paramount Studios, which he gutted, redesigned and reopened as Kane in 1997, with his partner and wife, burlesque dancer Champagne Suzy.
“We didn’t just want a cookie-cutter club with four walls, lights and sound,” he explains. “We wanted high concept. Kane was one part 60’s Vegas Rat Pack, one part 70’s Super Fly cool. We had a female Cleopatra Jones style DJ playing nothing but funk, flanked by two dancers in bra and panties doing L.A. jazzy go-go. I cast it as if I were doing a show.” The intimate venue, a kind of sweaty house of soul, drew an A-list crowd of celebrities, lined up around the block, purely by word-of-mouth.
Three years later, Kane opened deep on the corner of Hollywood and Vine, an homage to an early idol, All That Jazz, Cabaret and Sweet Charity choreographer Bob Fosse. “deep pushed the envelope in terms of sexuality, voyeurism and decadence,” says Ivan. “There was a plexiglas box over the dance floor and two Amsterdam-style rooms over the bar with two-way mirrors, where dancers performed their ménage a trois. Nightlife as art. It was hot!”
In 2002, he launched Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce, a burlesque striptease show and nightclub. “The naysayers said no one in L.A. would stop what they were doing in a club to watch a show,” Kane says, but with Champagne Suzy as his muse, together the two redefined burlesque and put it back on the map. Kane literally dragged the concept of pre-pole dancing striptease into the 21st century. “The look and feel of the room had to be right. The brick walls stained with the smoke of a thousand cigarettes, so to speak,” says Kane. “The club had to feel lived in and worn in, it had to have a soul. You want those ghosts of burlesque dancers dancing for two rummies at the bar.”
“This kind of striptease is very empowering to women,” explains Kane of IKFD’s phenomenal success. “It appeals to both sexes.” This led Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino to come knocking, so Kane opened up a new branch of Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce in Las Vegas, an event documented in the hit four-part Bravo reality series, Forty Deuce, directed by Zalman King and Executive Produced by Kane.
These days, Kane is spreading his name brand to other cities, both in the U.S. and abroad, while maintaining his hands-on approach to maintaining quality. Kane plans on opening Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce clubs in London, Miami and San Diego’s red hot Gas Lamp district and, in a well-publicized partnership with Sting and David Bowie, in Manhattan. The entrepreneur has also just launched Ivan Kane’s Royal Jelly at his Los Angeles IKFD. This “new” burlesque substitutes a live rock & roll band for the usual jazz combo, and adds five dancers instead of one to the show. Ivan Kane's Royal Jelly will soon open in Las Vegas, as well. Ivan Kane's Cafè wa s, a new lounge, will open on Sunset and Vine in '07. Kane is also eyeing such possible future destinations as Paris, Moscow, Singapore and Shanghai for IKFD.
“I have to create. It’s my juice. It’s what keeps me going. I’m like a shark that has to keep swimming to live.”
His long-range goals include continuing to build the Ivan Kane Enterprises brand name and building his dream project, a boutique hotel called The Tarantula Arms, which he has already conceptualized and designed.
“My family keeps me very grounded and very balanced,” says Kane, who has a 13 year-old son named Zak. “My wife is rock solid. I couldn’t do this without her. She’s my partner in everything.”
He’s been called an impresario and a nightlife guru, but most of all Ivan Kane is an innovator.
“I’m constantly looking to redefine nightlife,” he concludes. “I don’t compete with other nightclubs. If you want what I do, you know where to find it. I’m happy in my niche. Nightlife as theatre! Giving more than what’s expected”
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