Chippendales and Thunder from Down Under are the two most popular male revue shows. The equivalent of female burlesque shows, male revues feature men performing dances, and strip-teases to audiences that are mostly women. Both are based in Las Vegas and tour internationally. The former has been around since 1979 and the latter since 1991. However, to this day there has yet to be a successful “urban” erotic male revue.
Enter Vivica Fox of Independence Day, Kill Bill, and soap opera fame. With hopes to create the first exotic urban male revue, she partnered with Lifetime to follow her journey in Vivica’s Black Magic. Hip-hop inspired and unapologetically colorful, Black Magic is the revue that Vegas did not want but needs.
Fox is attempting to do this with her own money and with two right-hand women. Eurika Pratt handles the day to day going-ons. Kiana Rene keeps them in line.
And with names like Heat, BOLO (Be On the LookOut), Alvester, Slo-Motion, White Chocolate (the only white dancer), Profit the Problem, Charm and … Penetration, Kiana’s job is a handful.
Each episode follows Fox working on finding avenues to make her dancers better. Otherwise they will not receive a Vegas residency. Plus there’s consistent drama due to the dancers. When Vivica isn’t calling investors, she’s handling misbehaved men. Alvester constantly leaves practice and disrespects their choreographer Darrin Henson and the other seven dancers. This is especially grating considering Darrin has choreographed with Prince, Michael Jackson, among many others. Alvester even skips out on practice to record a music video for his original song with another Black Magic dancer!
It would be really easy to focus on just Alvester’s bad attitude since it’s the most dramatic issue in the show. However, Kiana’s budding relationship with one of the dancers and Profit’s worry his teenage daughter will find out about his job from the internet are both given the appropriate amount of time in each episode. Both issues are realistic and relatable and do more to normalize the cast that Alvester being a snob.
The best part of this the show is its main emphasis on Vivica’s entrepreneurship. The investors she works extremely hard to find, the eight dancers actually need to impress. They create engaging and successful routines in hopes of having the investors sign onto the show. As a whole most of these investors actually do not like Black Magic at first but slowly warm up to the idea and point out ways that the show can improve.
The show currently only has eight episodes with the finale airing this week. So if you liked either Magic Mike or just want a new reality TV show to watch that is actually fun and entertaining, Vivica’s Black Magic is for you!