Admittedly, it's been about 5 yrs. since I've been in London, but what happened to me is that, despite being warned about staying away from Soho, I let myself be enticed by a scantily clad hottie on the street into one of these private shows. I sit down, order a drink, the girl asks me if I want her to sit with me, I say OK. She orders a drink too, which I understand I'm paying for. Drinks come, along with a 300 lb. black woman who asks me to pay the 400 pounds now. I'm like "400 pounds for what?" She points to a placard on the table that says if the girl sits with you, you're on the hook for 400 pounds.
I say I don't have 400 pounds, the girl says I must have because I told her it was my first day in London. By now, the black woman is screaming & swearing at me, telling me to go down the street to the Bureau d'exchange & get the money wired from Canada. I'm saying no way. She leaves & comes back with this skinhead, & by now, I'm getting a little worried. Thankfully, he tries to play the good cop to her bad cop. I end up tellling him to go & get a policeman to mediate this because I'm not paying. For whatever reason, they end up letting me go, probably because I'm 6'3" & 210 lbs. & because I wasnt budging on paying. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, they tried to get me to sign a promissory note agreeing to pay it. Yeah, like that would happen. Anyway, I heard later that these kinds of scams are pulled on tourists all the time in Soho, & lots of guys just cough up the dough so they can get the hell out of that situation. Quite frankly, I think I was lucky to get out unscathed. Antaeus, if you choose to go, consider yourself forewarned.