A night that began with a strip tease was quickly followed by its main event: the ultimate guy stripper’s movie. Magic Mike XXL, the sequel to Magic Mike, came back with more story, sexier performances and funny lines that give both guys and gals a strip for their money. Some call it an all female film. But the truth is it was created with the intention to have a good time. For the ladies, the couples, and the singles.

In creating this film and writing a story that was enjoyable, writer Reid Carolin confessed it was a struggle at first. But after speaking with Tatum, a story quickly evolved. “There might have been a bottle of bourbon involved. I got in the hot tub with him [Tatum] and I was like, ‘Dude, what happened in that food truck in real life when you were out riding up to the strippers convention?’ He was like, ‘Nothing. Nothing happened. That’s why we’re having the problem because we didn’t do anything.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, but what did you do? What did you talk about?’ He was like, ‘Nothing, man. We just blew each other up.’ I said, ‘What do you mean blow each other up?’ And he said, ‘We just told each other how great we were all the time, how wonderful we were, and how good we looked.’ And I was like, ‘Well, we have a movie.’ That was the turning point for me. I said, ‘That’s it!’”

And it was. The magic in this movie is mind-blowing. Dance solo scenes and group performances are played throughout the film, allowing the viewer to have just as much fun as the actors. “One of the fun things about doing a road trip movie is that every day was a new adventure. We never stayed in one place too long. One day we were at Rome’s Club and I was seeing Donald freestyle, and you’re getting to dance with Jada, and then you’re with a bunch of drag queens. It was all kinds of adventure,” said Matt Bomer (Ken). “But for me, in particular, seeing the minimart scene with Joe, who I’ve known since he was 18, seeing the culmination of all those years just come to fruition in that moment, it was so mind blowing and epic that I literally just stood behind the camera wanting popcorn or really even carbohydrates to eat while I watched and with my jaw on the ground and thanking God.”

Director Gregory Jacobs told us, having produced the first movie he was emotionally invested. Coming back as a director after years, he expressed it was quite thrilling. “I really had a great time. It was such an incredible collaboration. Reid and Chan and the whole cast, it was a really special group of people to work with. I felt so proud of them… They worked so hard, each of them, on these routines. It was pretty amazing to watch and really a dream to be able to get to shoot them. It was so fun to get to shoot those dance routines, and at that convention at the end to have 900 cheering people every day energizing them and us and trying to blaze through it as fast as we could because we only had 28 days to shoot the whole movie.” Tatum added, “There’s no one else that we could have done the film with. Soderbergh had sort of retired and the torch wasn’t going anywhere until Greg picked it up. So thank you man.”

During one of the main performances, and as most will find to be epic, Mike (Tatum’s character) dances with Zoe (Amber Heard). She described her acting as being genuine and admitted it was fun, though quite scary. “I wish I could take credit for the acting, but I wouldn’t say it was acting.” Heard also said, “It’s funny with this movie because the energy between everybody is palpable both in the room and on set, and you can also see it on the screen with everyone’s personalities. There’s a strange truth represented in the characters.”

Among the forever epic performances is one including Michael Strahan as Augustus. Adam Rodriguez (Tito) expressed the difficulty of getting the image out of his head. “Michael is in baby oil from head to toe and he had on that tight pair of gold shorts. A Hall of Fame NFL player jumping six feet in the air over a woman on a table that he’s massaging. I just can’t get the image out of my head.”

Another hard-to-forget is Jada Pinkett Smith’s performance as the lady boss. While her character, Rome was originally written for a man, it’s safe to conclude the part was made for her. Jacobs mentioned, “Jada was really the first person we thought of.” Tatum added, “And then [she] came in and really created that character. We were just a bunch of dudes trying to figure it out. Basically, we just wrote placeholders for all the female parts and then wanted to cast the women and have them tell us how they wanted to do it because they’re brilliant and they’re amazing creators in their own right.”

On playing Nancy Davison, a wild female or “crazy woman” as described by Andie MacDowell, she revealed this film can be arousing. But it’s not just the men.  She said, “There are a lot of really sexy, hot women in this movie. And also, I think it’s a great date movie… I think the best thing to do is to take a woman to go see this fantasy and have some plans for after the movie, because it’s already warmed up.” Channing concludes with an invitation. “Go create your own explosions. July 1st is now International Give Your Partner a Lap Dance Day.”

Magic Mike XXL open in theaters Wednesday, July 1^st.