Heads up: The information this article is based on is from the early 1990s. Things may have changed. The article was originally written somewhere around 1998-99.
If you’re here reading this, you are probably one of the many people who has sent me email asking about how to get started in a topless dancing job, or something like that. I get so much mail asking for this type of advice, in fact, that I concluded this must be one of those “Uncharted” areas in the huge mountain of information available on the web. Well, as you must have noticed, I’m a sucker for a web-page-idea with a pretty face … errr … or something. Anyway, needless to say, I immediately set the task upon myself to correct this problem.
The result of my labor is this page. Here I have created a rather free-form narrative expressing my views, opinions, experiences, and general thoughts on the matter. Sometimes it rambles, sometimes it is inspired, but in the end you should be able to get some useful knowledge and hopefully be better equipped to make the decision “to Dance, or Not to Dance” and carry through your decision without feeling like an unarmed soldier marching onto a gory battlefield in a hailstorm of bullets and arrows. Or something like that.
My advice….. Lets see…. ok, first of all, topless dancing is different everywhere in the country. Hopefully you live in an area where it is fun. And then in each area, clubs vary. Some places the attitudes are terrible…the men treat you like whores, the girls are sleazy, bitchy, and willing to do anything for a buck, (effectively making a more subtle, tasteful dancer stand out as inhibited and prudish by comparison, no matter how well you dance) and the management gives favors to customers and looks the other way instead of keeping the men in line and giving the dancers a chance to do their job with dignity. I hope that negative start didn’t scare you off….. I just want you to know that some places, well….. SUCK.
Houston is a good example. Don’t work in Houston. [note: I’ve heard Houston has changed since I was there. Your mileage may vary] Oh, the clubs are beautiful … huge, classy, luxurious … meals served on china with silver and so on… but the girls are … um … and the guys expect … well, let me just give an example: dancing at Caligula XXI, I saw girls performing oral sex on each other, one sitting on a customer’s lap, the other kneeling in front of her, and a manager walked by, glanced over, smiled, and kept walking. —A typical tableside attraction, apparently. I gathered from what I heard (from customers and dancers alike) that the way to make the “big money” was to do really close lap dancing… REALLY close. As in… he unzips, you sit down, and do…um….you know.That or make the ‘rounds’ giving ‘musically accompanied blowjobs’ [aka ‘table dance’ in Houston.] for cash and booze [local laws vary as to dancers drinking. Back in AZ you cannot; in Houston, a manager actually told me, in a no-nonsense voice, “if a customer offers to buy you a drink, you order something—whether you want something or not— That is how we make our money.”]. Not being the type to do what was apparently ‘expected’ of me, I made far less money than the other girls, as you can imagine.
Now, where I lived, in Tucson, AZ, the state had—and what’s more, enforced—strict laws about dancing. “No touching” is way up at the top of the list. The club I worked at, (I had the good fortune of working at a club with the reputation of being the “classiest” and most professional club in town) I saw dancers get fired for violations [undercover cops are common] such as ‘touching their buttocks’ or ‘dancing closer than 18 inches from a customer’ and so on. And whereas in places like Houston, the girls compete to be one step lewder than the next girl, in Tucson if the dancers notice another dancer doing ‘extras’ like flashing or touching or … well … anything really, that would count as ‘dirtier’ dancing than the “Way It Is” they notify the management. The managers and doormen and waitresses… even the bartenders, will keep an eye on the “questionable” dancer, and if they see rules broken they are quick to act.
The dancers don’t want to feel like they have to slide their thong over and expose their crotch just to avoid having a nastier dancer steal their customers. Also, the customers are always being eyed by big, protective doormen who will warn them against illegal (or even just rude) behavior… 2nd time they escort the jerk out of the club.
— 06:00:16 PM
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