Former Revel club owner opens Kiss Kiss A Go-Go at Atlantic City's Tropicana

The last time nightclub entrepreneur Ivan Kane got Atlantic City dancing, it was with his Royal Jelly Burlesque Nightclub at Revel.

But when Revel went under, it jammed up Royal Jelly.

"It was a sad day when it closed," Kane said in a recent phone interview, "because we were incredibly successful there.

"The silver lining is that it introduced me to the Atlantic City area, and I met Tony Rodio."

That meeting with the president and CEO of Tropicana Entertainment has paid off with Ivan Kane's Kiss Kiss a Go-Go, the new night spot opening Thursday at the Quarter at the Trop.

Kane - who's married to burlesque performer Champagne Suzy and has had nightclub success in Hollywood and Las Vegas with burlesque-themed Forty Deuce clubs - said his new club wouldn't have a burlesque theme.

This time, Kane is heading to Bangkok.

"It's a very neon, sensory experience when you walk the streets there," Kane said, "very psychedelic."

The new club will be a "trip down the rabbit hole," Kane said, featuring an entrance with a LED-video wall with images of models. "It's going to be sensory overload before you even enter."

In keeping with the club's go-go theme, Kane said, the go-go booths will be virtual at Kiss Kiss, but the dancers will be real.

"The dancers who perform for me are the best from New York," Kane said, adding that makeup and wigs for the performers are being created by people who do similar work for Cirque du Soleil. "This will be a Broadway-caliber theatrical experience."

With DJs and bottle service.

The club's original announcement said that, behind the go-go dancers, "a huge LED video wall of stacked vintage TVs satiates with kaleidoscopic, schizophrenic, mind-blowing visuals in phantasmagoric patterns of erotic lip art that pulse to the beat of the DJ, hypnotizing patrons into a parallel dimension, where sexy meets edgy."

But classy.

Kane said the images would be "what you would see in Vogue magazine - couture nightlife. We never cross the lines of bad taste. It's nightlife as art."

Even though there's nothing "nonfamily about it," Kane said, "it's definitely a nightclub for adults.

"The only food is olives."

As for Kane, he got into nightclubbing after working for 20 years as an actor. He had small roles in TV (Fame; 21 Jump Street; Who's the Boss?; Murder, She Wrote) and movies (Platoon, Patriot Games, Gettysburg).

"I had a successful career by most people's standards," Kane said, "but I wasn't the star I felt I needed to be."

In 1997, he wrote a screenplay that he sold to HBO, he said, and had "some change jingling around" in his pocket. He bought a small bar in Los Angeles, renamed it KANE, and turned it into a "sweaty house of soul. I never looked back.

"I like being the guy who pulls the strings."

At Kiss Kiss, Kane said, partyers are "going to get a completely different experience.

"My clubs are concept-driven. We start with a concept and build around that, as opposed to four walls, lights, and sound."

Ivan Kane's Kiss Kiss A Go-Go, on the second floor of the Quarter, Tropicana Casino & Resort, 2831 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, opens Thursday. Hours are from 10 p.m. until the party ends Thursdays through Sundays. $20.