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Get 'em off! Man gets into a strip club wearing Google Glass

Patrick Hill -- an irregular visitor to strip clubs (allegedly) -- fascinates the doorman with his device so much that he's allowed into a New York strip club wearing Google Glass.

Chris Matyszczyk
3 min read
He's fascinated. Patrick Hill/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszcyk/CNET

The heart of wearing Google Glass isn't merely the wish to be at the forefront of technology -- it's the excitement of seeing what you can get away with.

And so it was that last month New York web developer Patrick Hill decided he'd see if he could slide past the doorman of a strip club wearing Google Glass.

Accompanied by a New York Post reporter, Hill tried to enter the VIP club in Manhattan.

Subsequently, he posted the footage to YouTube, where, oddly, few have taken a look. So I thought I'd embed it here, as the next chapter in "Men Wearing Google Glass And Filming Not Much Happening" Series.

First, there was Chris Barrett who witnessed an arrest on the New Jersey shore and then wandered into an Atlantic City casino, looking like a borg from the 'burb.

Hill's quest, though, was even more daring. Strip clubs have doormen. They are men built like a door. They can be a lot less friendly than many of the staff inside.

Perhaps this doorman was charitable because Hill and friend entered before 9.

He was also quite fascinated by the device. He asked if it was a computer. The next question: "How much d'you pay for that?"

Hill proudly explained what it was and then promised that when Google Glass is available to consumers it will be "like five-, six hundred bucks."

That must be news to Google.

The doorman -- clearly a future Sergey Brin disciple -- was enchanted by one aspect: "So you don't have to pick up the "f***ing phone or nothing," he said.

I can see the perfect Google Glass tagline emerging through those words.

What's curious is that even though Hill explained to the doorman that Glass has a camera, he was allowed right in.

This belies the notion that all strip clubs have already banned the device.

When he entered the club, one bartender served him. However, a second bartender came over and asked if he was recording.

Her suspicions brought the manager over who requested he check it at the coat check.

"I told him I wasn't going to check my $1,500 device," Hill told me. So a compromise was reached. He kept it in his pocket and promised not to film.

Hill told me: "He agreed with that but warned if he saw it out of my pocket he would kick me out."

This sort of negotiation might become commonplace as Glass use becomes wider. Certainly, some establishments will set firm, public rules.

Hill, though, thinks this is all overreaction. He insisted: "Even without Glass, we have no privacy. So to think people are up in arms about privacy when it comes to Glass is pretty silly to me when we already have no privacy. I think people need to be more worried about what Uncle Sam is prying in on."

If only life were quite that simple. No one wants to be filmed without their knowledge. Least of all Katya from Kazakhstan as she's performing.

It's not merely about privacy. It's about acting like something of a pillock.

Would you walk into a strip club, waving your cell phone before you, obviously filming everything that's happening? Then don't do it with Google Glass.

In any case, you really think that wearing Google Glass in a strip club is going to make you look more attractive?

Oh, you do, you you?

Update, 12:25 p.m. PT: Hill would like to point out that he truly isn't a frequenter of these places. The attempt to enter the strip club was genuinely a scientific experiment and he couldn't wait to get out of there. Joking entirely aside (for once), I believe him.