Rudolf's Ruleless Rule

Clubography

Pravda,

1979.

Danceteria,*

1980.

Peppermint Lounge,*

1980.

Underground—

Modern C/assix Wednesdays *

1981.

Studio 54—

Modern Classix Wednesdays,*

1981.

1982.

Palladium,

1985.

Tunnel,

1986.

Hoi Polloi,

1988.

*With Jim Fouratt.

There's the rest of New York nightlife and then there's Rudolf. Whereas most clubs in the Reagan era have catered to black-clad, adult-acting people sitting around looking as if someone had just passed wind, Rudolf is bucking the trend by emphasizing the new, energetic, and unpretentious; his clients are club kids who wear rag-doll wigs and hose one another down with squirt guns. Call him crazy, but then also call him rich—his trend-countering has tapped into a huge market of rambunctious partyers.

Tall, mysterious, and witty, Rudolf, forty-two, is a phantomlike creature who is always meticulously scheming with endless party ideas. His latest club, the five-floor Hoi Polloi, situated in Manhattan's West Village, will defy the constipated M.K.-Nell'sAu Bar syndrome. "Taste is a dictatorship like any other," he says. "It has to be opposed." Rudolf subscribes to bad taste and anything that rattles the petite bourgeoisie. He has no affection for anything older than fifteen minutes, which may explain why some of his girlfriends are so young.

Rudolf's background, like his clubs, conforms to no rules. A hippie-club innovator in his hometown of Berlin, he went on to become an economist, Laundromat owner, and party thrower in Brazil, sometimes all at once. "Brazilians like things they see on TV but don't have," he explains. They liked Laundromats but didn't have any, so he started a chain there and spin-dried parties at them a la My Beautiful Laundrette. "Everyone came with elegant bunches of clothes to wash. It was the most surreal thing I've ever seen."

In New York, he debuted in '79 with the New Wave Pravda—the Moose Murders of nightlife—which lasted only one night, but what a night. With Jim Fouratt he did four clubs (including one Danceteria) before going solo to direct entertainment at Palladium, Tunnel, and a club on Martinique, which he consults for. He's had a hand in a total of ten clubs—more than anyone still living it up and never living it down. Nothing makes Rudolf happier than seeing a whole new crowd throwing caution to the wind at one of his clubs. "People are energy vampires," he says. "I love energy in the air. "

MICHAEL MUSTO