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August 27, 2000, Sunday
New Jersey Weekly Desk
NIGHT LIFE; Wildwood Club Draws Crowd With Effervescent Dance Floor
By PATRICK PAWLING
IT involves lots of bubbles, but nobody's calling it good clean fun. Starting about 12:30 a.m. on Thursdays, a disc jockey at a nightclub called the Nile asks, ''Is everybody ready?''
The crowd screams back, ''Yes!''Then a machine mounted in the ceiling starts spewing a soapy, bubbly foam. Higher and higher the foam goes, until it covers some people's heads. Everyone dances in it. They practically swim in it. They disrobe in it, down to bikinis and well, it's difficult to tell. Once the foam gets high, anything could be happening in there. Some say it does.
Liquor might do a lot to loosen inhibitions, but the foam doesn't seem to hurt.
''Where else can I go out on a dance floor and say to a woman, 'Let me soap you up' and run my hands all over her body?'' screamed a man who declined to identify himself. ''I mean, think about it!''
Thinking isn't much necessary. It might even get in the way. As the movie ''Coyote Ugly'' screams, every bar needs good buzz. Tons of places serve alcohol. Buzz brings action. That's where the foam comes in.
Such is the state of nightclub promotion at the southern New Jersey shore, where strict drinking-and-driving laws and other factors -- the Internet, maybe? -- have made it tougher to make money. Actually though, foam isn't new, and nightclub promotions in other areas are pushing much harder past the boundaries of taste and decency. You'll still see ladies nights and happy hour promotions, but the cutting edge is political indecency, according to Chuck Fresh, who runs a company in Alexandria, Va., that has done promotions like lesbian kissing contests and the Cast Iron Stomach, where contestants are fed a series of gross things -- cupcakes, pickles, kielbasa, chicken heart, boiled sheep eyes, crickets -- ''until they either give up or throw up,'' Mr. Fresh said.
''You have to get crazy to create a buzz to get people out of their house and back into the clubs,'' he said.
Foam may be mild by comparison, but people are talking in Wildwood's competitive club scene, where patrons pay a cover charge of $7 or $10 and then get frisked before they're allowed in. Yet they line up at the door.
''Absolutely insane! It's the hottest thing in Wildwood for sure,'' Tom Cunningham, 24, of Philadelphia, said on a recent Thursday morning. ''Lots of women. There! Look! See what I mean? As a man you have got to be in heaven here.''
Five minutes after the foam started, one T-shirt was already discarded on the floor, and women were stripping down to bathing suits. Music pounded. Lights flashed. ''Oh my God,'' exclaimed a young woman on the dance floor, foamy bubbles dripping off her head, face, shirt and clothes. Then she disappeared in the foam.
At the bar sat Chris Melilli, 26, who looked like he had just come out of a washing machine. Covered in suds, he sat calmly smoking a cigarette. His girlfriend, Christine Gilger, 31, was dry. She hadn't been in the foam yet but would soon. Under her shirt was a bathing suit.
''I don't ever dance,'' Mr. Melilli said. ''I don't even like the music, club music, but when I get into that foam I just have a blast.''
Lisa Altoonian, 21, of Wildwood, said she danced in the foam earlier this summer. But lately it is too crowded on the dance floor, and at her height -- 5 feet 2 inches -- she tends to get knocked around. So now she comes to the Nile because of the buzz.
''It's good times,'' she said. ''I practically lived there last summer, and now I pretty much go on Wednesday.''
The club's owner, Darryl DePiano, said he was always searching to find something different.
''The same old stuff wasn't working down here,'' he said. ''Our research team is now looking for something new for next year. This is no longer the 1980's where you open your door and you're packed every single night. You have to do something to bring them in.''
Mr. DePiano said the foam solution is patented. He declined to say exactly what it's made of, except that it's milder than baby shampoo. There are different flavors, he said, including pina colada, strawberry and peach. Yes, he said, some people's skin could be irritated, but not many.
Asked if some people were engaging in groping or sex in the foam, Mr. DePiano said: ''To my knowledge, no. My answer to that, that they're having sex in the foam, is that I'm going to the next nightclub and say they're having sex in the bathroom. People just like to talk.''
He says he employs 15 security guards on a typical night, and two are assigned to roam the foam.
''It's a memorable experience and a unique experience and nobody has gotten hurt,'' Mr. DiPiano said. ''People say it's almost like going to a water park and a bar at the same time.''
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