1000 West Jolly Road (map)
Lansing, MI 48910
(517) 882-0236

When you approach this club on MLK you have to keep an eye peeled because the exterior is very low key. No big flashing sign, nothing to really attract your eye. If you didn't know this place was there, all you might notice would be the muffler shop on the corner as you drive by. But, look behind the muffler shop and there it is. Parking's around back, off of Jolly. From the parking lot you enter into a large, empty vestibule, facing a wall of larger than life pictures of Déjà Vu dancers (all of whom are much too attractive to actually be working in this particular Déjà Vu of course.) To your left is the Love Boutique. I can't tell you much about that as I don't spend much time in there. I believe, that besides the selection of adult toys, videos and magazines, there are video booths at the back. To your right is the entrance to the club. Entrance is accomplished by feeding the cover charge into a dollar bill reader and entering through a turnstile. There's a guy out here who can give you change for the bill reader if you need it.

As you enter the club they funnel you to the right past the bar just to the right of the entrance to pick up your "bottomless" soda/water/juice drink, then out onto the main floor to find a seat. You should note, because you'll need this later, that the exit is not out the way you came in, but rather through a door that's straight ahead, next to the DJ booth, headed in the opposite direction you are right now. Easy, huh? The stage is up front, a square about 20' x 20', about 4' off the floor with chairs all around. The stage tippers sit here. Small circular four-top tables fill the rest of the floor. There are a couple of small stages out on the floor, not much bigger than those four-tops, with a pole in the middle and chairs around. The boundary of the main floor is marked off by booths with built-in love seat sized couches. These are reserved and cost $25 if you want to sit there. Beyond these on the left side of the floor is the DJ booth and a side alcove that houses the lap dance area. Here you will find about 20 of these telephone booth on steroids lap dance stations. Think of 10' long, 4' wide coffins stood up on end in rows with benches built into each one. You sit on the bench and your dancer works from out in the aisle on in to you on your bench. There is the illusion of a bit of privacy. You can't see the dances being done next to you, only those in the coffin or two across from you.

Along the back wall, filling the part of it that isn't taken up by the juice bar, is the VIP Room. The VIP Room contains a number of small private booths with doors where your favorite dancer can take you and make your dreams come true, maybe. There's the illusion of privacy here but cameras are watching, mostly. VIP sessions are $400 an hour or $200 for a half hour, about the same as what it would cost you to buy consecutive, non-stop dances on the floor for that length of time. As always, your VIP experience will vary widely depending on the dancer you pick, who's managing tonight, the phase of the moon, how good your cologne is, and all the rest of the usual intangibles. Pick wisely or you'll regret it. (They do have fifteen minute, $100 VIP sessions on offer. If you aren't sure, see if you can get her to do one of those as a try-out.)

One hint: if you're like me and your game is a long string of ten, fifteen or twenty dances with a smokin' hot dancer, then the VIP is the only way to go. They've got this electronic dancer tip-out collection system they use in the lap dance coffins that makes it more or less impossible to get on much of a roll back there. Too many interruptions for the dancer to feed the tip-out bill reader, punch in for the next dance, etc. The booths are ok for a one or two dance try-out with a dancer but, once you find a keeper, move things into the VIP. Doing so will reduce your exposure to Déjà Vu lap dance factory approach to stripping enough that you may be able to tolerate it.

Dancers do two song sets on stage, topless by the end of the first, nude through most of the second. You can tip from the chairs at the tip rail, or advance part way up the stairs along the wall at the side of the stage. The dancer will relieve you of your cash most often with a Stevie, but occasionally they'll invent some other trick and guide you into that. The two table stages out on the floor that I mentioned get used as the club gets busier. They don't rotate a dancer through all the stages in sequence like some clubs do, dancers do a two song set on one stage and then they're back on the floor while a set of new dancers take over the stages. The lap dances here are topless or nude, your choice. The interaction between you and the dancer can be pretty good with the right dancer but it does vary widely from one to another. Experiment a little, she'll tell you what her boundaries are and you can go from there.

During the day there's just a DJ playing the 3 minute songs and introducing the dancers. At night they add an MC who tries to be entertaining and rile up the crowd. Maybe the young guys find these dudes amusing, to me their juvenile crap is just annoying. You really need to be able to believe that the guy cracking wise about sex up there on stage actually has had enough pratical experience to have an actual clue.

The restrooms are in the corner opposite the corner where you entered. There's an ATM in the club but there's also one directly across on the other side of MLK at the grocery store that'll give you more money with none of the outrageous strip club fees. Tell the door boy you need to get something from your car, walk over there and get your money, and he should let you back in without a second cover charge.

The Déjà Vu used to be one of my favorite clubs back in the late '90s when Lansing was the best place for clubs in the state. Back then Detroit was cracked down, Omar's was smokin' and the Déjà Vu was a good after hours stop with a few really hot dancers. Now Detroit's cracked wide open, all the hot dancers work over there, the smoke has cleared at Omar's and management continues to squeeze what little fun was left right out of the Déjà Vu. Top that off with very young crowd, a crop of very young and inexperienced dancers, and it's Detroit airport clubs, here I come.