TakeItOff (4 page)

There was a man who was more than eighty years old, went by
the name Disco Frankie. He was on a talk show about being the oldest male
stripper. Even this old dude, who was clearly a comedy routine at the start of
the show, thought he was gonna get laid. He really worked the floor and was
working his angle. You go, Frankie! R.I.P.

Twice-Retired Old Guy Who Keeps Coming Back
: Similar
to the Too Damn Old Guy, he uses the same acts, music and dance moves from a
decade or two ago, has the same old-school costumes, same knee-high, white
leather boots, and can’t figure out why he is not as successful as he once was.

Balding Dancer
: There was a dancer who had a toupee. Before
that, when he was thinning on top, he used the head paint stuff. Literally, you
cover your scalp with special paint. It’s supposed to make your hair look
thicker. In Texas, in the dead of summer, he had a strip-o-gram at an outdoor
pool area. When he got back to the club, his forehead was covered with this
black paint mixed with sweat! He didn’t even realize it until we told him.

Justin
and Taylor with EC author Koko Brown

Chapter Four: Earning a Living

When you first get into the biz, money is hard to make. There
is a weeding-out process that only the strong survive. Some guys start out as
waiters first. This helps because it enables them to build a client base. If
you have that, the first few months are much, much easier.

As the movie
Magic Mike
says, we do it for money,
chicks and a good time! However, the beginning is not anything like that. When
you start, it’s so hard to make money that most guys have to supplement their
income with other work. Some are lucky and are able to do some modeling or film
work. Some are in magazines as well. Until you’re famous, none of these things
make you much money. Some guys have to resort to working at a gay bar to make
extra cash because gay bars pay a shift fee of usually sixty to a hundred
dollars, in addition to tips for a three-hour shift, where pretty much all you
do is stand on a box. No table dancing allowed.

On a slow night at a ladies’ club, you might actually lose
money working that night after tipping out. Tipping out means paying the stage
coordinator a tip of at least ten dollars and the DJ a tip of twelve to
twenty-five dollars. So financially, you might have to work at a gay bar for a
time to make ends meet until you get regulars at another club and can quit.

Most guys have stripper girlfriends. For one thing, it’s
easier to date someone in the same business who has the same hours. Plus, they
make a lot of money! The average male stripper makes less than fifty thousand
dollars a year. The average female stripper makes seventy-five thousand easily,
and the hottest ones make well into six figures. Sometimes, when a guy’s chick
makes so much, he will float in and out of the club because he has less
incentive to make money.

The club is the main source of income. Open four to five
days per week, this is where the guys really hone their skills. Main stage,
side stage, stage act, table dances and selling merchandise—these are the ways
we make our money in the club. We used to refer to the side stages as the meat
rack. It was funny. Sometimes we watched the girls point to each guy to figure
out which one they wanted to get a lap dance from.

The stripper/customer relationship is formed at the club.
Some guys will go out to dinner and lunches with customers for free, building a
relationship so they will be tipped in the bar. Others will get paid to go out
with a customer. The club has nothing to do with this, but it is not looked
down upon. It’s actually encouraged because it will help the club in the long
run by bringing in more regulars spending money.

How do you get a customer? It usually starts with a tip of a
one-dollar or five-dollar bill at the stage. Then a lap dance. Then, before you
know it, you are her best friend and man-toy, and she only has eyes for you!
Even if she knows it’s all just a fantasy. The truth is, we actually do help
some women through rough patches in their lives. We listen to our customers in
much the same way a bartender does.

In this business, you’re a star one day, nobody the next. One
day the show could be rocking. Money flowing, hot girls, after-party! Next day,
twenty to thirty total girls at the show. No money flowing and no possible
hook-ups.

Strip-o-grams are the most common way for a rookie to earn a
living at stripping. The club will book these for the girls who are holding
their birthday/bachelorette parties at home. The rookies love the guaranteed
money. They usually only last about thirty minutes and pay anywhere from fifty
to two hundred bucks, plus tips. The price depends on how much demand the
dancer has.

Tricks…Yes, That Kind

Do male strippers do tricks? Depends on the guy. Most of the
guys we’ve worked with make their money at the club. The best guys will make
their money without doing anything extra. A few guys will make extra on the
side, but it’s not commonplace, and the other dancers will get mad if they find
out. It’s all about conditioning the girls to not expect too much other than a
lap dance and a fun time.

For example, Dancer One has a tipper for a few months, and
she is getting antsy to go on a date. He spends time on the phone with her, but
that is all, outside the club. She now turns her attention to Dancer Two. She
tips both, but Dancer Two starts to tell her that they will go out. After they
do, she tips Dancer Two almost exclusively now. Dancer One lost his customer
because Dancer Two spent more outside time with her. Still no sex, just dinner
and a movie, but Dancer Two is her main guy now and Dancer One has lost a
tipper. Sometimes this will cause a fight, depending on how the second dancer
snaked the tipper.

Other guys know to steer clear of the tipper out of respect.
However, if she comes and tips you on main stage on her own accord, she can be
transitioned as your exclusive tipper eventually and without any incidents. “You
fuck your customer, you fuck your money!” We say that for a reason. The best
tippers are looked upon that way. If a guy is gonna have sex with the tipper,
she will be cute.

We’ve known two dancers who turned to a life of
prostitution. Soliciting men. The reason everyone knew is that they were
advertising for men, using their own picture. At that point, the two guys had
stopped working at the club, and once we all knew, they would never be welcome
back! If you allow that, the club will get hurt in the long run. It’s important
to maintain a certain level of cleanliness, and prostitution makes the business
dirty.

For the most part, male dancers aren’t selling their bodies.
They tend to give it away because they’re guys, and that’s what guys do. We are
programmed to want to spread our seed, even if we don’t want babies. Sex is much
less complicated for a man than for a woman. We can hit it and quit it easily.
Women have more of an emotional bond. Even if it’s a one-moment stand, chances
are she will want to hook up again.

The other form of prostitution we’ve seen happen a few times
is with swingers. Sometimes a swinger couple comes in where the guy is twice
the girl’s age. He pays the dancer to pleasure his girl while he watches. Not
at the club, mind you; this takes place after work. The club has a strict
policy on “no sex” in the club. That doesn’t mean that it never happens though!

Taylor: On the Road

In addition to the exotic clubs, we make money on tours and
roadshows. Roadshows are done on a more local basis, within a five- to six-hour
drive. Sometimes we get lucky enough to have tours. Tours are roadshows that
are done in consecutive order and out of state, possibly to Europe or even more
exotic locations.

Roadshows are the most fun aspect of dancing. That’s because
the girls treat you as if you’re famous. The busy shows are like that anyway.
Having hundreds of girls chanting over and over, “Take it off! Take it off!”
makes you feel pretty darn good about yourself!

The other great thing about roadshows is that you get to
travel, and you get a base pay too. So it’s like a paid vacation. It’s usually
someplace where the women don’t often get to see male strippers, so it’s more
of an event to them. The club will promote more because they want to capitalize
on the unique venue.

When we enter the club, you can feel the excitement in the
air; it’s electrifying. The crowd roars as soon as the first guy walks in. It’s
almost chaotic. As you walk through the crowd to the dressing room, girls are
touching you all over. Hands are groping and pulling on you. They grab your ass
and caress your cock, seeing what they can get away with. This is a roadshow,
so pretty much anything goes. If you see someone you’re attracted to, you stop
and straddle her as you introduce yourself to her party, hoping she will grab
you and get turned on. You make your way to the back with your costumes. All
the guys are so excited because they know what’s in store for the night.
Tonight we are rock stars!

We sell raffle tickets at the roadshows in the first ten to
fifteen minutes of the show. One of our prizes is a backstage pass. Each show
is different. It depends on who the guys are. If they are mostly single, the
raffle is always fixed! We give the winning ticket to a hot chick, preferably a
whole group of hotties. At the end of the roadshow, the winning tickets are
announced and the girls come backstage. Rock stars have roadies to pass out the
backstage passes; we have to do it ourselves with raffle tickets, but the end
result is the same.

Backstage, everyone is in such a rush to get started. Laying
out costumes. Getting music ready. We draw numbers to see the order we will
dance. We write the numbers on tiny pieces of paper and throw them in the air.
Each guy quickly grabs a piece and slowly unfolds it, hoping it’s not first or
last. There are usually about five guys dancing on roadshows, so if you’re
first, the crowd isn’t sure what to do yet. If you’re last, they may be out of
money by the time you go up.

At one particular show, I draw three, the perfect number because
the crowd will really be into the show by then and will still have plenty of
cash.

When it’s time to get the show started, one of the guys who’s
a good MC goes to the DJ booth. The music and the lights die down a little. You
hear a loud and enthusiastic voice. “Are you girls ready to see some naked men?”
The girls let out almost deafening screams. The noise dies down and instantly the
MC yells, “You girls aren’t loud enough!” And the place goes wild. “Do we have
any bad girls in the house tonight?” he asks, and again the crowd goes crazy.
“Who wants to get strip-searched out there?” The ladies are jumping up and
down, yelling and waving their hands in the air to volunteer.

The first guy goes on, dressed as a cop. He takes a girl
from the audience and frisks her onstage. The crowd is screaming, laughing and
cheering him on. He bends her over and puts his flashlight between her legs,
moving it back and forth like a dildo. Then his clothes come off, and there is
a steady line of girls waiting to tip. The MC still pumps him up at every key
point of the dance. “Put your hands together for your first entertainer,” the
MC says. The girls clap and cheer. He exits the stage with arms full of dollars
and makes his way to the back, where he is greeted by the dancers with high
fives. “Good job, bro,” the other dancers say.

The MC comes onstage with some well-rehearsed witty lines
that always get a cheer. Then he yells, “You ladies want more?” The women scream
yes.

The second guy comes out. Military act. Women always like
those. He stands at attention in his naval whites. The MC asks, “Who likes a
man in uniform?” He pauses.

“Who likes a man
out
of uniform?” the MC yells.

The music starts, and the girls almost can’t contain
themselves. He slowly takes it all off. The crowd gets louder and louder. Ten
minutes of dancing and taking money are never long enough. The MC calls him off
stage. And by this time, the crowd is in a frenzy.

I’m in the dressing room adjusting the last articles of my
costume. My heart is racing. I hear the MC talking to the girls and making them
laugh with a funny story. The stage guy is setting things up for me, including at
dead center stage a wood log with a hole cut in the middle, which has a pan of
flammable liquid. The lights go down again. The MC yells, “Where’s all my
cowgirls tonight?”

The uproar is the loudest I’ve ever heard. The MC says, “If
you like to get on top and ride all night long then you’re a cowgirl, so where
are my sexy cowgirls tonight? Make some noise!”

It’s so loud now I can barely hear my music start. The MC
says, “Welcome out to the stage, Taylor Cole!” The music picks up, and I start to
make my way to the stage. Girls are touching me as I walk onstage. Some are so
nervous, I feel their hands shaking. I get to the main stage just as the beat
kicks in to the song, and the stage lights all go on. Every girl is standing
and shouting. “Take it off!” they repeat over and over. I kneel down to the log
and dip my hand in the liquid and, with a cigarette lighter, I light my fingers
and hold them in the air. Before it starts to sting, I put my hand in the log,
and all the alcohol lights up. Every light in the house goes dim, and now it
looks like I’m at a campfire. I lip-synch the words to the music, Bon Jovi’s
Blaze
of Glory
. The women are mesmerized by the flames, which light up my chest
and arms perfectly. The beat hits, and I rip off my shirt and throw it to the
crowd. They tear it into pieces fighting over it. I grab my lasso and spin it
around my head. The MC yells, “Who wants to be tied up out there?”

Screams get louder than the music. I put the rope around a
girl’s head, wrap it around her body and pull her close. I grab the back of her
head and give her a kiss on the cheek while grinding on her. I spin her around
to unwrap her and go back to the fire. I dance behind the fire so it lights my
abs. I pull my belt off and slap it on the ground. The crowd throws money on
the stage. The crescendo of the song hits, and I rip off my pants. The place
goes nuts, and I start to walk to the edge of stage.

I barely have time to dance because the audience is shoving
dollars in my underwear so fast. From one girl to the next, I let them touch
and rub against me. This goes on for ten minutes. I have the biggest smile ever
because they make me feel as if I’m on top of the world. I finish my set, take
off my cowboy hat and bow to the crowd in appreciation of the standing ovation.
The stagehand helps gather the money and we head to the dressing room.

The next guy up stops me on my way back. He says, “Good job,
man.” I tell him it’s a great crowd, and he’s going to rock it. I stuff my
money in my suitcase and dry the sweat off. I can hear the intro to the next
guy, and the girls love it. A quick spray of cologne and it’s back to work.
Table dances for the rest of the show.