Illustration: Michelle Kwon

Instagram After Dark Is Getting Sexy

The experience is virtual, but the spectacle — and moneymaking — is very, very real

Bonsu Thompson
Published in
10 min readApr 22, 2020

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Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.

These days, Saturday nights feel like any other night; a never-ending parade of Netflix, TikTok dances, and celebrity DJ sets has come to define our locked-down lives. But on this particular Saturday night — at 1:25 a.m., to be exact — a brand-new sort of experience is heating up on Instagram Live.

“Welcome to Club Covid!”

Kevin James, known around Toronto as DJ Snoopy, stands behind turntables, a surgical mask over his mug. Next to him, his MC for the evening, BadBreed, yells into a mic, his mask off, scrunched around his neck.

The colorless space redefines the word “nondescript”; with its utter lack of ambience, it could be an event space, a garage, or a spare room in someone’s home. The one thing it does have is a pole, and that pole is currently occupied by three women. On the right, Alana Cakes grips the pole in one hand, her back to the camera as she twerks, her blue and cream one-piece clinging tight. She skips the standard-issue heels, instead opting for all-white Air Max — and a mask.

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Bonsu Thompson
Writer for

Bonsu Thompson is a writer, producer, Brooklynite and 2019 Sundance Screenwriters Lab fellow.