Eddie Edwards isn’t one to let the complaints of a few neighbors stop a troupe of burlesque performers from shimmying across his stage at his North Monterey bar, Eddie’s.

“If you know anything about burlesque, it’s comedy,” he says. “It’s nuances. High school cheerleaders show more flesh.”

While this is true—the Chica Boom Burlesque performers dance, sing and crack jokes without any nudity—it seems some neighbors have their collective panties in a bunch about the pinup-era-looking ladies whose performance leans more toward variety show than strip-tease.

A recent Casanova Oak Knoll Neighborhood Association newsletter attempts to link Eddie’s show with prostitution. “Disturbing issues continue to return,” it reads, in bold letters. The“article” discusses a City Council hearing to revoke a use permit for a massage parlor on North Fremont where the, ahem, “massage therapists” allegedly performed sex acts. In the next paragraph, it moves on to Eddie’s.

“Many years ago the old Brickhouse [now Eddie’s] was a huge problem,” it says. “In February 2005 our residents noted advertisements for an Erotic Art Show at Eddie’s. Their alerts to the City resulted in the show being moved to a venue not adjacent to homes.

Edwards admits that the Brickhouse, where he worked as a DJ, was a hotspot for police calls. “But I didn’t own it back then,” he says. “The Brickhouse had a bad reputation. But Virgos was a perfect country and western club.”

Edwards bought the bar in late 1990, and opened Virgos six months later. He says he jumped through all the City’s hoops: building a sound wall between the dance floor and the back door so that noise wouldn’t bother the neighbors, and allowing the Architectural Review Committee to choose the structure’s paint color. In 1991 the City signed off on Eddie’s business license.

In 1993, he applied for and obtained a liquor license from the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. He says the agency told him that his bar at 2200 North Fremont St. was already established as a bar and restaurant with live entertainment, and that this use should be grandfathered in.

“I completed every task they asked me to complete,” Edwards says. “Nobody ever told me I needed a permit for live entertainment.”

County bands regularly played live music at Virgos. But when line-dancing fell out of fashion, Edwards changed the bar’s name, and tried other types of entertainment.

“I’ve experimented with other things—R&B, jazz bands, DJs, bellydancers,” he says. The burlesque shows, which started in February, proved to be a hit.

This doesn’t matter to CONA President Richard Ruccello.

“The city of Monterey zoning code prohibits live entertainment adjacent to residential,” says Ruccello, adding that he’s not speaking on behalf of CONA. The association hasn’t taken a position on Eddie’s entertainment, burlesque or other.

Ruccello refuses to answer when asked if the neighbors have complained when, say, a jazz or country band played at Eddie’s.

“It’s a use that he’s not allowed,” he says. “It’s not something that’s optional. It’s the law of the land.”

But Edwards, whose mother worked as a burlesque performer in Harlem in the 1930s, says he thinks the recent gripes have more to do with the nature of the shows than the law of the land.

So, Edwards invited Monterey Code Enforcement Officer David Wright to check out the Chica Boom show. “I wanted him to see that there was nothing lewd or lascivious about it,” Edwards says. According to Edwards, Wright is a fan. “He said, ‘This is great. We had a wonderful time.’ ” (Wright didn’t return phone calls.)

But a few days later, Edwards says, Wright told him that he had to stop the show because he didn’t have a live entertainment permit.

“I’m in limbo,” Edwards says. “They tell me I have to get a use permit, but I can’t get a use permit now because I’m adjacent to a residential neighborhood. All of the sudden, they have a problem with everything I do.”