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All the world's a stage at some of Minnesota's bars. A new state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots contains an exception for performers in theatrical productions. So some bars are getting around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in costume, and pronouncing them "actors."
All the world's a stage at some of Minnesota's bars. A new state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots contains an exception for performers in theatrical productions. So some bars are getting around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in costume, and pronouncing them "actors."
The customers are playing right along, merrily puffing away - and sometimes speaking in funny accents and doing a little improvisation, too.
The state Health Department is threatening to bring the curtain down on these sham productions. But for now, it's on with the show.
At The Rock, a hard-rock and heavy-metal bar in suburban St. Paul, the "actors" during "theater night" do little more than sit around, drink, smoke and listen to the earsplitting music.
"They're playing themselves before Oct. 1. You know, before there was a smoking ban," owner Brian Bauman explained. Shaping the words in the air with his hands, like a producer envisioning the marquee, he said: "We call the production, `Before the Ban!'"
The smoking ban, passed by the Legislature last year, allows actors to light up in character during theatrical performances as long as patrons are notified in advance.
About 30 bars in Minnesota have been exploiting the loophole by staging the faux theater productions and pronouncing cigarettes props, according to an anti-smoking group.
"It's too bad they didn't put as much effort into protecting their employees from smoking," grumbled Jeanne Weigum, executive director of the Association for Nonsmokers.
The Health Department this week vowed to begin cracking down on theater nights with fines of as much as $10,000.
"The law was enacted to protect Minnesotans from the serious health effects of secondhand smoke," Minnesota Health Commissioner Sanne Magnan said. "It is time for the curtain to fall on these theatrics."
At The Rock earlier this week, a black stage curtain covered part of the entrance, and a sign next to it with an arrow read, "Stage Entrance." Along the opposite wall, below a sign saying "Props Dept.," was a stack of the only props needed: black ashtrays.
At the door was a printed playbill for that night's program, with a list of names of the people portraying bartenders and security guards. Playing the owner: "Brian."
Courtney Conk paid $1 for a button that said "Act Now" and pinned it to her shirt. That made her an actor for the night, entitling her to smoke. She turned in an understated, minimalist performance, sitting with cigarette in hand and talking to a bass player with the band.
"I thought it was funny that they found a loophole," Conk said. "I'm more of an activist-actor tonight, you could say. I think it's kind of this way of saying what we think about the ban."
While The Rock asks nothing of its actors by way of creativity, a few other bars have been a little more theatrical.
At Barnacles Resort and Campground along Lake Mille Lacs, a "traveling tobacco troupe" dressed in medieval costume on the first theater night. Mark Benjamin, a lawyer who pushed bars to exploit the loophole, wore tights, a feathered cap and black boots.
"Hey, I'm a child of the '60s. I can do a little improv," he said. His improv amounted to speaking in medieval character to other patrons.
In Hill City, Mike's Uptown owner Lisa Anderson has been offering theater night once a week. The bar had a Mardi Gras theme last Saturday, attracting about 30 patrons, most of them in costume.
"I was dressed in a Victorian dress with the old fluffy thing that weighs 500 pounds," she said. "We had some fairies and some pirates and a group of girls - I'm not sure what they were, but they had big boas and flashy makeup."
Though there were no skits, Anderson said some people "start talking with different accents." She added: "It's turned into the funnest thing I can imagine."
One bar on northern Minnesota's Iron Range, the Queen City Sports Place, calls its nightly smokefest "The Tobacco Monologues."
Proving anew there's no business like show business, Anderson said her theater-night receipts have averaged $2,000 - up from $500 right after the ban kicked in. Similarly, Bauman said revenue at The Rock dropped off 30 percent after the ban took effect, then shot back up to normal once the bar began allowing smoking again.
He and other bar owners said they plan to continue putting on theater nights.
"There's no question we were struggling," he said. "And we are extremely nervous that this is going to go away, and we will be back to the way it was."
The state Health Department is threatening to bring the curtain down on these sham productions. But for now, it's on with the show.
At The Rock, a hard-rock and heavy-metal bar in suburban St. Paul, the "actors" during "theater night" do little more than sit around, drink, smoke and listen to the earsplitting music.
"They're playing themselves before Oct. 1. You know, before there was a smoking ban," owner Brian Bauman explained. Shaping the words in the air with his hands, like a producer envisioning the marquee, he said: "We call the production, `Before the Ban!'"
The smoking ban, passed by the Legislature last year, allows actors to light up in character during theatrical performances as long as patrons are notified in advance.
About 30 bars in Minnesota have been exploiting the loophole by staging the faux theater productions and pronouncing cigarettes props, according to an anti-smoking group.
"It's too bad they didn't put as much effort into protecting their employees from smoking," grumbled Jeanne Weigum, executive director of the Association for Nonsmokers.
The Health Department this week vowed to begin cracking down on theater nights with fines of as much as $10,000.
"The law was enacted to protect Minnesotans from the serious health effects of secondhand smoke," Minnesota Health Commissioner Sanne Magnan said. "It is time for the curtain to fall on these theatrics."
At The Rock earlier this week, a black stage curtain covered part of the entrance, and a sign next to it with an arrow read, "Stage Entrance." Along the opposite wall, below a sign saying "Props Dept.," was a stack of the only props needed: black ashtrays.
At the door was a printed playbill for that night's program, with a list of names of the people portraying bartenders and security guards. Playing the owner: "Brian."
Courtney Conk paid $1 for a button that said "Act Now" and pinned it to her shirt. That made her an actor for the night, entitling her to smoke. She turned in an understated, minimalist performance, sitting with cigarette in hand and talking to a bass player with the band.
"I thought it was funny that they found a loophole," Conk said. "I'm more of an activist-actor tonight, you could say. I think it's kind of this way of saying what we think about the ban."
While The Rock asks nothing of its actors by way of creativity, a few other bars have been a little more theatrical.
At Barnacles Resort and Campground along Lake Mille Lacs, a "traveling tobacco troupe" dressed in medieval costume on the first theater night. Mark Benjamin, a lawyer who pushed bars to exploit the loophole, wore tights, a feathered cap and black boots.
"Hey, I'm a child of the '60s. I can do a little improv," he said. His improv amounted to speaking in medieval character to other patrons.
In Hill City, Mike's Uptown owner Lisa Anderson has been offering theater night once a week. The bar had a Mardi Gras theme last Saturday, attracting about 30 patrons, most of them in costume.
"I was dressed in a Victorian dress with the old fluffy thing that weighs 500 pounds," she said. "We had some fairies and some pirates and a group of girls - I'm not sure what they were, but they had big boas and flashy makeup."
Though there were no skits, Anderson said some people "start talking with different accents." She added: "It's turned into the funnest thing I can imagine."
One bar on northern Minnesota's Iron Range, the Queen City Sports Place, calls its nightly smokefest "The Tobacco Monologues."
Proving anew there's no business like show business, Anderson said her theater-night receipts have averaged $2,000 - up from $500 right after the ban kicked in. Similarly, Bauman said revenue at The Rock dropped off 30 percent after the ban took effect, then shot back up to normal once the bar began allowing smoking again.
He and other bar owners said they plan to continue putting on theater nights.
"There's no question we were struggling," he said. "And we are extremely nervous that this is going to go away, and we will be back to the way it was."
As a non-smoker, I'm appalled at the idea of a private business in a capitalistic market not following the anti-capitalistic laws on the book to keep their customers and employees safe. As the director of the Association for Nonsmokers implied - surely everyone would be much safer if the customers simply stayed home to smoke. The employees would be home too all day look for a way to pay their bills and safely away from the smoke. The other non smoking customers would be home as well and safe from smokers. The bar owner may have to change professions as his/her business closes, and there will be less money coming into the community, but at least they will be safe.
Yeah, I thought it was funny when I read the articles about Nebraska's upcoming ban, and the quotes from politicians all said they considered arguments like yours. Of course, they went ahead and ignored them.
I was actually okay when Maryland enacted laws that said smoking portions of a restaurant had to be separated (by walls) from non-smoking areas. Then they banned smoking in all restaurants that didn't serve alcohol, which took away the weird smokey glassed in area of Denny's, but okay. Then they banned smoking from everywhere except bars, and I thought that was a little much. But seriously, if you are hanging out in the bar, you can't go crying health concerns to me. Kill your lungs, kill your liver, whatever. I don't think its fair that cigarettes are legal, its just not okay to smoke them anywhere you go.
"I don't think it's fair that cigarettes are legal, it's just not okay to smoke them anywhere you go." - Yet the exact opposite applies to drinking and driving. You can drink alcohol at a lot of places but you can't legally drive anywhere while drunk. And if you end up getting caught, you serve a small sentence/fine and you are off the hook. In the case that you end up killing someone while drunk, you can just blame it on being drunk and therefore not responsible.
I'm not advocating getting rid of alcohol (it's just too precious to me) but still it is a double standard that just makes no sense.
Well, I don't smoke while I'm pumping gas for my truck, thats because its dangerous. That would be the same logic for why you can't drink and drive. I don't see the same "dangerous" aspect to sitting in a bar with a cigarette. Sure you can argue second hand smoke, but again, I would argue that hanging out in the bar probably isn't what you should be doing if you are that uber concerned about your health anyway.
You know, they actually have shown that one glass of red wine a day is good for your health. So what if you go to the bar to hang out with friends and just have a glass of red wine? What then? And what about the designated drivers? I don't remember ever seeing a line of taxis outside of bar because everyone inside was drinking. Just a thought.