Jilly’s Gentlemen’s Club Seedy Underbelly

I volunteered my Saturday morning to help out with an ACTRA Co-op production the other day being shot for the Reel World Film Festival. I did it to support the team, but the real hook, I must admit, was to get a crack at exploring the generally off limits areas of our location for the morning — Leslieville’s notorious Jilly’s Gentlemen’s Club.

I can’t say it was my first time inside (not that I remember being there lol, but I’m sure my curiosity’s been piqued over my few decades of living in TO), but it was definitely my first time exploring the basement and change rooms. We all have this idea that a strip club’s, ahem, gentlemen’s establishment, rear ends, might be a little rough around the edges, but nothing could have prepared me for the raw and dingy unfinished spaces, save for the change room space, that is every bit as grimy as you would expect.