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SINGAPORE : Ladies, Singapore has just gotten hotter.
It's hunks galore as popular Las Vegas-based male revue group, Chippendales, are in town to perform at the Resorts World Sentosa as part of their "Ultimate Girls Night Out" Tour.
Described as a "naughty fantasy colliding with the boy next door", the men of Chippendales have been dancing and teasing their way into the hearts of women in over 25 countries and over 800 cities.
In Asia for the first time, they have been heating up the Hard Rock Hotel's Coliseum with their naughty song-and-dance striptease since Friday, and they said they have been pleasantly surprised by the reaction from the crowd here.
"We were told when we came to Singapore that the girls were going to be really subdued and they are just going to sit there like this (stays still)," said Chippendale performer Jaymes Vaughn.
"Two seconds into the first show, I was like 'Are we in Singapore? This is not what I was told what was going to happen!' As the show goes on, they get wilder and wilder, by the end of the show, they are just standing up and screaming, on top of their chairs."
The Chippendales said the crowd that they performed to on Sunday was perhaps "the slowest to warm up to us", but by mid show, they were raring to go.
"We feed off of that [energy] and it just makes the whole show keep climbing and climbing to get to the end," said Vaughn, 25.
But just because you've seen the show before doesn't mean you should give this one a miss. The boys said they sometimes tweak their performance to accommodate the show to the area they are in.
"We put in numbers on the fly, throw things together, take things from the hotel to use as props, we got to do what we got to do," said Bryan Chan.
Added Kevin Cornell, 32, "There are certain acts that we will or won't put in the show or modify the acts so it will be a little bit less risque ... or choose different songs or maybe more boyband-ish songs or rock songs, it just depends where we're at."
Describing their show as "Broadway-esque" and "theatrical", Vaughn said that unlike most people's perceptions, there's a lot that goes into the production. Their Michael Jackson tribute, for example, a new number which they had just added to their Las Vegas show, took a month and a half to put together.
He said, "[We had] to bring in choreographers, teach the guys the choreography, get all the staging, the lighting, the costumes, it's a whole complex process. It's not just guys getting on stage and taking their clothes off, it's an actual production so we make sure we take all the time needed to get it together to make it look like a top-notch professional production."
And the guys will have you know that it takes more than a hot bod, good looks and slick moves to earn a place in the group. Height - you have to be at least six feet tall - and a great personality are a must, not to mention talent.
"You have to have some other skill," said Vaughn. "Bryan and I both sing, Kevin plays live guitar in the show, you have to do something else besides just be a guy that can look good with his shirt off."
So impressed was Cornell's mum with the Chippendales that she asked her son to join the group.
"My mother went to see the show and was so excited and overwhelmed by what she saw that she came and said, 'Kevin you have to be a Chippendale! You got to do this.' And I told her, 'Mum you're crazy. It's not me, I'm not someone who runs around with his clothes off.'
"She wouldn't leave me alone so I went to an audition," he said
"To be a Chippendale in the States is a prestigious thing, something that so many guys want to do and they don't really understand everything that it takes to do it, you need to have these special skills as well. And our families are proud of us," added Vaughn.
So what's their advice to guys looking to join the Chippendales?
Said Chan, 35, "If they work hard and are persistent, and they get to the gym and get a little practise under their belts, it's absolutely possible they can be a Chippendale."
"But you got to be six feet tall," added Vaughn.
Guess that rules out a lot of guys in Asia.
The Chippendales perform until March 10 at 8pm at The Coliseum, Hard Rock Hotel Singapore, Resorts World Sentosa. Tickets are available at Sistic. For audiences aged 18 and above.
- CNA/il
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