Jasmine Masters from RuPaul’s Drag Race performs at Prism in September.
This weekend marks the last act for Prism Dance Club — a final karaoke happy hour on Nov. 8 and a farewell party on Saturday night featuring the venue’s longstanding DJ, Nick Nice.
Corey Gresen and Rico Sabatini founded the LGTBQ club as Plan B in 2009. They created the business with the goal, Sabatini says, of establishing “an inclusive place [where] people could feel comfortable being who they were no matter what.”
Karizma Mirage, a drag queen who cut her teeth at Plan B in the venue’s first years and later served as its show director, says the club was once “the singular place to be in Madison.” Though she says it faded as a community hub in recent years, she is still sad at its closing. “This is sort of where I grew up.”
The club saw ups and downs over the last decade. It founded “Fruit Fest,” the popular annual pride event hosted in the lot adjacent to the club, which has become a community institution. The venue has also showcased a host of prominent drag performers, including Trixie Mattel, who went on to win RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars in 2018.
But that same year, customers reported instances of club staff discriminating against black and trans patrons. And in December 2018, when drag performers reported that they had been denied access to changing rooms and bathrooms, regular customers and entertainers disavowed the establishment. Following the reports, Gresen announced the bar would shut its doors.
Sabatini, who had sold his share of the business in 2014, stepped back in. “I just kind of jumped into action, I just couldn’t see this place shut down like this,” he says. Sabatini bought the club, quickly rebranding it as Prism and retraining staff alongside partners Lili Luxe and Apollo Marquez.
But after just eight months at the helm, Sabatini is shuttering Prism. “Prism wasn’t doing terribly, but it wasn’t doing great, either,” he says.
Sabatini says lukewarm revenues, plus the possibility of development projects on Willy Street affecting Fruit Fest, prompted the closure. He also argues that the market for queer-specific dance venues has shrunk. “There’s a lot of programming catered to the LGBT community in different bars, so there’s not much of a need for one [dedicated] venue,” says Sabatini. He says dating and hookup apps also provide alternatives to the bar scene.
But Micah Lê, a Madison-based DJ (DJ Kalycho), believes that it is possible to have thriving, queer-inclusive downtown venues in Madison. “I have seen them [in other cities]. It’s a question I hope people don’t ask themselves and say ‘oh it can’t happen’ — it absolutely does exist.”
Similarly, Dave Eick, owner of FIVE Nightclub (aka Club 5), located off the Beltline, says there is ample demand for queer bars in town. He recalls that his own club was in trouble in early 2015. To survive, it needed to reach out to queer trans people and people of color.
“That’s what saved the bar; we have to be very active in seeking out people who need us, to make this venue home for not just one identity,” says Eick. “Customers have to see someone on stage that looks like them so that they can identify,” he adds, citing drag nights spotlighting black and trans entertainers.
With Prism set to close after Saturday, Sabatini has mixed feelings about the end of his bar. “I’m ultimately sad that it’s ending...[but] I feel a sense of relief that it’ll end on a positive note. I jumped in not knowing if we were gonna fold, and I just wanted to give it a good ending.”
Chuck Chvala, who owns Prism’s building, says that he has not yet leased the space, but has received “plenty of interest” in it. “It is a great spot to have a business,” he adds. Chvala did not disclose the names of prospective tenants or buyers, but predicts that an agreement could be finalized within a month.
