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Monday, November 29, 2010

A Thanksgiving House Call: Back Home in Upstate NY - Part 1














Doc here... I am finally back in The Valley near the small women's liberal arts college, after several long days back in Upstate NY for Thanksgiving.  It's good to be back in the control room at The Good Doctor's practice.

Remember those special episodes of "Little House on the Praire", or "Life Goes On", and it was aways prefaced in the coming attractions as  "A very special "LIfe Goes On..."?  Well, this House Call Report is  "A very special Dr. Emilio House Call Report".  Why?  It's my original home turf.


Talk of the Town Video
820 Connecting Rd., Niagara Falls, NY


I was able to devote one evening away from standard Thanksgiving rituals and return to my old adult theater haunts in Buffalo and Niagara Falls, NY.

A little upstate NY adult theater history for you, the good readers of The Journal.  Let's jump in The Way Back Machine and set the clock for 1988.  The 4 large upstate NY cities are from West to East: Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany.  And all had a nice adult theater scene...

Buffalo: Capri Art Theatre
Niagara Falls: The Niagara Falls Cinema, Good Time Charlie's
Rochester: The Monroe Theater, The Lyell Theater
Syracuse: The Paris Twin
Albany (Troy): The Cinema Art

(Note: Theaters in BOLD had an extra crazy adult theater scene)

Let's now fast forward to 2010. Of the above theaters, only The Paris Twin in Syracuse still exists.  In Buffalo, the only adult theater is Video Liquidators #3 (more on that theater later).  In Niagara Falls, the NF Cinema closed and was "replaced" by Talk of the Town Video.  Rochester is a no-fly zone.  And The Cinema Art in Troy closed in 2006 after a police raid.

On Black Friday, instead of standing in line at 3am at my local Walmart for a great deal on a toaster, I decided to jump into the Lizardo 3000 and drive the hour or so to my old stomping grounds of Buffalo and Niagara Falls.  It had been years since I had been to Talk of The Town... Info I have read on the net was not very positive, but not subscribing to the court of public opinion, I wanted to find out for myself.

I drove by Talk of The Town on Friday afternoon, and the parking lot had at least 20 cars in it.  Could there be a couple or two at TOTT?  The Good Doctor threw the Lizardo 3000 into reverse and parked in the spacious lot.

Talk of the Town is an ABS, with a large video arcade area, and a smallish adult theater that holds about 50, plus a standing area in the back of the auditorium.  Back in the day, TOTT had a decent sized screen that threw all the light needed for the auditorium.  However, now it had a 50" hi-def flat screen that was way too small for that space.
As my eyes adjusted to the very dark theater, the only action inside the theater was from two cross dressers enjoying each other's company.  Lola, meet Lola.  But where were all the other people belonging to the cars in the lot?

Well, they happened to be inside the newest feature of TOTT: The "Red Garter Showroom".  It is possibly the worlds smallest strip club.  It stands in what used to be the back right of the ABS, and measures maybe 20' x 30', with a VIP area about 1/3 the area of the "club" behind a curtain.  I poked my head in, and there were about 8 guys watching the show.  I saw two different dancers when I peeked in.  IMHO, kinda goofy.  It was like having a strip club in your finished rec room.

Not much has changed there since I last walked in through it's doors.  Bathroom is dirty and disgusting, and not as couples friendly as it used to be.

Pros:
  • Plenty of parking
  • Discreet location
  • Theater is very dark
  • Back standing area
  • Video arcade area
Cons:
  • Bathroom still hasn't been cleaned in 10 years
  • Perhaps way too dark in theater
  • Staff not very friendly
  • How couples friendly is TOTT?
Bottom Line:
Since there is so little going on the area, sure, check it out.  But TOT does not hold a candle to Video Liquidators #3 in Buffalo (same owner, btw).  Video Liquidators House Call will be in Part 2.

Thanks,
Doc