Night Moves

Good (not so) clean fun, downtown on Naughty Night

Words by Shelton Hull

Thursday nights are typically mellow in downtown Jacksonville. There’s music bingo with Trei Klyde at Justice Pub, followed thereafter by the Lyricist Live freestyle sessions hosted by Mal Jones. And that’s about it, save for the occasional baseball game or concert at Underbelly or the Florida Theatre. Every fourth Thursday, however, is a whole different story, and that just happens to be the story you’re reading right now.

“Naughty Night” is a tight-but-loose assembly of kinksters and kittens and just regular folks who meet at Ocean Street Tequila (the former 1904 Music Hall) for fun, for fellowship and flogging. Sponsored by Pleasure Intimates, a store on Southside Blvd It’s a scene where people cosplay as their authentic selves, fetishists festooned in leather and lace. Founders Samantha Amador, Alex Matthews and Tim Turner are all old friends who each bring different skills and specializations to the table. “We started doing this in June, 2022,” says Matthews. “June 22 was our first show,” adds Amador, “but we always have our birthday parties in July”

Matthews and Turner established the business together, with Amador joining about three months in, working the front door at first, but not for long. “I did that for about 18 months,” she says, “then I started looking around and seeing what gaps needed to be filled–administrative stuff, social media.” She now functions effectively as the public face of the brand, taking the lead on promotional matters, which is how we found out about it. “Tim works the dungeon,” she says, “so he can’t be out on the floor as much. And even when Alex isn’t DJing, he’s so busy on the floor sometimes that he can’t always see if a vendor needs some help, or if there’s some other concern. I can step in and fill that gap, because I’m an easier access point.”

Events have a hard set of rules, strictly enforced to ensure safety and comfort for all. Each night starts with a meet and greet, introductions, group chat, etc., with the dungeon sessions beginning soon afterwards. The periphery is populated by regional vendors like Chaos Pixie Collective, Dye Addict Rope, Fleur De Lis Toys, Grand Witch INC, The Irish Scott, Unique Boutique Jaz and Wolf Dragon Crafts. Whips and paddles, collars and corsets, music and art of various types. The amount of effort put into these crafts is remarkable; some items are virtually indestructible, and sometimes they almost need to be. Much of the equipment is made by Turner, a veteran woodsmith who also does carpentry.

Risk-Aware, Consensual Kink (or RACK, of course) is the principle around which they operate. “From the beginning, we really wanted to have an emphasis on education,” says Matthews. “It’s one thing to give people a place to do something risky, but it’s another thing to teach them how to do it safely.”

The fourth Thursdays at Ocean Street are just part of the array of events presented by Naughty Night during any given month. The next ones are on 8/9, 9/13, 10/11, 11/8 and 12/13. They also return to Ocean Street for events on second Fridays; those are on 8/22, 9/26, 10/24 and 12/26. Underbelly, the other cultural cathetus that combines to form The Elbow downtown, hosted their second anniversary party on July 12, and they do quarterly things there. Ticketing is tiered for both events, with pricing for singles, couples and triads. (Yakuza pays full price.)

Public events are fairly anodyne, as such things go, owing on account of regulations. The more adventurous-minded can raise the stakes a fair bit at the Kink Kastle, a fully tricked-out (no pun intended) rental house in Arlington that functions as basically an AirBNB for hardcore BDSM purposes. It rents for $199 a night on weekends, $179/night otherwise, 21+, no pets, BYOB. It has an outdoor grill, projection-screen TV, full-size bed and a litany of lascivious loungewear, including impact toys from local and regional vendors, a spanking bench, bondage restraints, a cell, a cage, Shibari rope, a Crucifix chair and a St. Andrews Cross. It even has free wi-fi.

Ocean Street Tequila is also hosting the inaugural “Risque Wrestling” on Saturday, Nov. 9. It’s a joint production by Matthews and announcer/promoter Brandon Alexander, known for his work with River City Wrestling Con (RCWC) and the United States Wrestling Association (USWA). That’s got four actual matches, plus music and burlesque, in addition to the regular Naughty Night scene. Ironically, the same venue hosted “Evolve 33” in August 2014,  notable because 11 of the 18 wrestlers that night eventually advanced to WWE, with several (Drew McIntyre, Ricochet, Johnny Gargano) becoming legitimate legends of that industry.

A consistent thing that comes up in discussing this stuff with the promoters, the vendors and the attendees is that Naughty Night is not so much about physical stimulation, so much as mental and emotional release, the rush of chemicals that flood the brain before, during and after such acts, and the comfort that comes. The fact is that, for some people, sometimes nothing feels better than a little pain. That’s a concept that everyone can appreciate, in their own way.