Atlantic City Weekly

'Guess what, if you've got several good-looking girls who are guaranteed to show up each week for a bikini contest, people will show up.'

Generally at the end of a hectic workweek, the average Joe just wants to relax at home with a couple of beers and put the rat race behind him. Summoning up the motivation for a Friday night on the town can often be a chore, especially with the thought of contending with traffic and those huge summertime seashore crowds. The Deck at Trump Marina has discovered that live bands and quality musicians are usually enough to get some potatoes off the couch, but to really pack the house calls for a bit more sweetening of the pot. Free drinks? Not if you're interested in turning a profit. Young, shapely, bikini-clad women? Jackpot.

The Miss Deckadence swimsuit competition kicked off its fifth year at The Deck on June 30 (Fourth of July weekend), and takes place every Friday this summer beginning around 7pm. The top-three weekly winners advance to the finals on Friday, Sept. 1 (Labor Day weekend) for grand prize money and the crown of Miss Deckadence. The competition is jointly sponsored by Trump Marina and Hooters Restaurants, and guests can meet the contestants from 5-7pm on Fridays during Happy Hour at the Trump Marina Hooters.

"We usually have between 12 and 15 girls each week, and before Hooters got involved [the Miss Hawaiian Tropic pageant, the forerunner to Miss Deckadence] just wasn't drawing that many," says Adam Goodman, a Hooters' managing partner who oversees operations at both Atlantic City locations (Trump Marina and Tropicana), as well as other locations in N.J., Pa. and Del. "And guess what, if you've got several good-looking girls who are guaranteed to show up each week for a bikini contest, people will show up. I've heard it's just about doubled their [Friday night] business."

On a recent Friday night, when bikini-contest weather conditions were less than ideal, all of the contestants were Hooters employees and The Deck was standing room only. Of the nine girls competing, three were local, three were from other parts of New Jersey, and three were from out of state. All were wearing Santa hats in keeping with a series of events at Trump Marina called "Christmas in July." Usually about two or three of the 12-15 average are non-Hooters employees, according to Hooters promotions manager Kathy Walls, and some are occasionally asked to join the company's workforce if they possess the right apparatus.

"If a contestant who is not a Hooters girl is competing and meets all the right criteria, we might ask her to fill out an application," says Walls. "We make our own schedules at Hooters, so if there's a girl who might want to join us and pick up a few extra hours and some extra money, this could be a good opportunity for her.

"It's an excellent company with a lot of room for advancement," adds Walls. "A prime example is the fact that I'm speaking to you from Las Vegas."

Walls returned a voicemail message from the 10th annual Hooters International Swimsuit Pageant, which was held this year on July 25 at the Planet Hollywood Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Her assistant, Alex Polillo, later joined her on the business trip. The international competition selects 130 contestants (from a potential 150,000 girls employed by 400 Hooters worldwide) through a series of regional pageants, and offers a chance at $150,000 in cash and prizes. Miss Deckadence is not one of the qualifying pageants, but can serve as a training forum for those girls who might want to step up to the larger stage in the future.

"[Miss Deckadence] offers girls who might not have much pageant experience an excellent chance to learn how to compete, build self confidence and stage presence -- basic things like that," says Polillo, a 23-year-old Brigantine resident and past Miss Deckadence contestant.

A different panel of three judges votes on the top-three Miss Deckadence winners each Friday, and those three weekly winners move on to the finals Sept. 1. Judges are often "high rollers" or frequent casino patrons selected by Trump Marina's staff, or those chosen randomly by G-106.3 FM (which broadcasts the competition each week) or through filling out a judge's form at missdeckadence.com. Contestants are welcome to return each week, but since Miss Deckadence 2006 began on June 30, the top-three place-winners have been different each Friday, says Polillo.

DJ Brian Phillips from the Big G Morning Show (106.3 and 98.5 FM) emcees the competition, announcing each contestant's name, hometown and physical dimensions as she walks onto The Deck's stage. Each girl is asked a series of questions, such as her turn-ons, turn-offs, future ambitions, the wildest thing she ever did, and what she would do if she hit for $1 million at the Trump Marina casino. Responses to the latter question varied from the comical ("buy everybody at The Deck a shot") to the tender ("take my parents on a cruise around the world").

"By 9pm The Deck is mobbed on a Friday night, but the whole marketing reason for doing Miss Deckadence was to bring the crowd in a little earlier," says Todd Moyer, Trump Marina vice president of marketing.

"When we made the deal to get Hooters involved in the off-season five years ago, we made sure they provided a representative for us each week who was in charge of interviewing, pre-screening and bringing in a minimum number of contestants. If we were going to do something, we wanted to do it right. We didn't want to do anything half-speed.

"That's been sort of the key to the success of this thing," adds Moyer. "Hooters is protecting their brand name and we're protecting ours. And the relationship's worked out very well."

Miss Deckadence is presented by Hooters and Trump Marina Hotel & Casino, and takes place each Friday at the Deck at Trump Marina beginning around 7pm. Happy Hour and "Meet the Contestants" takes place 5-7pm at the Trump Marina Hooters. The top-three winners each week move on to the finals Friday, Sept. 1 for the chance to win the grand prize of $1,000. The weekly contest is hosted by DJ Brian Phillips from the Big G Morning Show and broadcast live on 106.3 and 98.5 FM. An outdoor poker tournament called "Deal at the Deck" is held concurrently each Friday night. See www.missdeckadence.com.