Barlesque: Workout, TPAN’s seventh annual month-long online strip-athon and fundraiser pitting bartenders from Chicago’s LGBT bars against each other in the quest to choose “Chicago’s Sexiest Bartender,” held its closing party Sun., Nov. 23 at Progress Bar, 3359 N. Halsted St. As of midnight, it was announced that they had raised a total of $72,581, in addition to $19,000 from a variety of sponsors. This brought the grand total to $91,581, which is well in excess of last year’s record amount of just over $58,000.
Brian Kapolka (representing Club Krave in Blue Island) was the winning bartender, raising $11,915. He beat out 15 other bartenders, most of which had raised at least $2,000 each.
The contest took place throughout the month of November and included many individual fundraisers at each of the participating bars, plus a website, through which donors could peruse photos of the contestants, in increasing levels of undress according to the total amount which had been donated.
Text and photo by Kirk Williamson. See many more photos in this week’s Nightspots.