Stripping
By: KK
Copyright @2001

When I was twenty-two I was fresh from a broken up relationship. I had just moved out of my step-father's house because I caught him peeping on me through my bedroom window. A girl I barely knew let me sleep on her couch. My sister shared a beat up, chocolate brown car that had to be kick started just to get around the block. I was the first person in history to get fired from a video store, I had two dollars in my wallet and the car my sister and shared caught on fire and disintegrated right before my eyes. I had hit rock bottom and it was time to get my shit together.

The girl I was living with was kind enough to let me live there for free, but she was quickly growing tired of the situation. She had every right to slap me in the back of the head and get my ass motivated. She not so subtly suggested topless dancing. In fact she drove me to Cheetah's just to be sure that I would follow through. She stroked my ego and praised my body, my looks and that I had the aggressive personality to succeed in such a business. I was not adverse to taking my clothes off. I grew up in a strip club and modesty was not in my vocabulary. My nerves were rattled with the thought of being on stage in front of a bunch of strangers.

The first day I watched the girls and their various routines on stage and while performing table dances. Everyone had their own techniques. How the hell was I going to do this? There was a tremendous amount of competition, combined with a lot of comradery between the girls. Was I going to fit in? Would the girls accept me? It was nerve wracking and I truly felt that I could not do this. I was a ham and could flirt with men, but climbing onto a stage in six inch heels and a rubber band between my ass really shook me up. I was not all that comfortable with hustling men for money either.

I have heard that in some clubs girls were required to strip down for the manager before being hired. I was fortunate that I was not required to do that. Later some girls told me that I was one of the lucky few that did not have to get naked for the manager. I was hired on the spot and could start as a night shift girl that evening. In Las Vegas it is considered a privilege to dance as a night girl. They are considered to be the prettier girls and the better performers. Girls that did not meet the night shift standards were offered the day shift. This could be for any number of reasons, lack of looks, talent, their bodies were not in shape or they were too old. Being chosen for the night shift made my self esteem shoot off the charts.

I did not have money to purchase a costume. Instead I showed up wearing a silk, spaghetti strapped baby doll type lingerie and a pair of my own g-string panties. I was quite the outcast and looked completely ridiculous. The other girls were decked out in rhinestones, shimmery dresses and glow in the dark costumes. I vowed that whatever money I made that night would be put towards a legitimate costume. The manager was incredibly patient and told me that I could get on stage whenever I was ready. Just let the D.J. know and he'll put you up next. Two hours and five shots later, I thought that now is a better time than ever. I thought that maybe I should try and make some money before I passed out. I told the D.J. that I was ready and I selected my songs.

I walked up to the steps of the stage and my name was announced, "Gentleman, please welcome our newest addition, Alex!" Great, now everyone knew I was the new girl. No pressure there. All that kept running through my head was don't trip and fall. Thankfully there were two polls on the stage and I attached myself to those for my two songs. Once on stage I became a different person. All of my nervousness disappeared. I felt completely natural and melted into the music. Other than the music, the room was totally silent and all eyes were on me. I felt euphoric and at home. I realized that it was natural for me to perform. Just don't ask me to speak on stage. It was exciting to let this unexplored stifled part of my personality out and be free. With the quick change of just my name I had officially released my split personality.

When my set was over, I headed to the edge of the stage certain that my one night career as a stripper was over. I was positive that my boobs were too small or that my dancing really sucked. I was surprised to be overwhelmed with praise from the girls, the bartenders, the D.J. and the manager. Everyone asked where I had worked prior to that. When I told them that it was my first time ever on stage, they did not believe me. To be complemented by experienced people in the business is one of the highest accolades a dancer can receive. I now had the confidence to handle the stage. Now I had to learn to hustle the customers.

I did not have a clue as to how to approach the customers and most girls will not give up their secrets readily. I was on my own. I began with the basic approach of, "Hi, how are you, I'm Alex." That usually ended with the customer looking me over and saying, "No thanks honey". I quickly realized that I had to come up with my own tactics and be more aggressive and flirtatious. The art of getting a table dance is not necessarily how a girl looks but what she says and how she talks to the customers. Customers want attention from hot girls. They know it's not legitimate but it's better than what they are getting at home. They want the fantasy and they are willing to pay for that attention. As much as they want their dick stroked they realize that in most cases the only thing that will be stroked is their ego.

I was always enthralled by a dancer named Alexis. She was always doing table dances and she really raked in the money. We quickly became friends and she showed me the ropes. We became partners and started dancing as a "sister" team. The only resemblance that we had to each other was blonde, frizzy hair. Any idiot could see that we were not sisters, but none the less, the men loved the thought of having two sisters and we banked. She played the dumb aggressive blonde and I was the business girl. She attracted the working class, blue collar crowd. I attracted the business men and black men. This meant that we could pretty much hit every guy in the club and make money off of most of them. Together we performed on stage and doing table dances. We did very light lesbian acts and had our routine down to a science. Some girls were jealous of this team effort only because we were bringing in loads of money.

A year later Alexis and I moved to a new club in town, The Glitter Gulch. We quickly gained seniority because we were two of the first girls to start in the club, we were friendly with the managers, showed up on time and made loads of money for the place. We quickly became spoiled and were two of the few girls that were not screwing the managers and were able to make our own schedules and come and go as we pleased. Most girls had to follow the managers schedules or be fired. We took full advantage of this freedom and our ego's were out of control.

Dancing on the stage offers the girl exposure to the customers and the chance to secure table dances when their set is over. I only liked the stage because it gave me the opportunity to be in the spotlight and let me bask in my own ego. I relished in the compliments, real or not. I loved flirting with men and then rebuffing them. I was in control and out of control. If a man did not tip me, he was promptly told off. When the men did tip me, I demanded more. It's rare to get $20 and $100 bills on stage, but it does happen and it's a customer I would hunt down as soon as I was off stage. It was also easy to steal from the drunk men. I had one man fold a one dollar bill lengthwise and slip into the side of my g-string. As he was doing this I noticed that a $100 bill was folded inside of the $1 bill. I instantly knew that he did not mean to do that, but he was drunk and I was arrogant enough to palm the money and hide it inside my g-string. Immediately he realized what he had done and complained to a bouncer. I ignored him and finished my routine. When I came off stage, the bouncer and the drunk confronted me. I swore that I had no idea what he was talking about and showed my money to the bouncer. When he didn't find the $100 he told the customer that he was mistaken. The customer became irate and was promptly thrown out. I handed the bouncer $20 and thanked him. He knew I had the money, but in this business a girl is protected from her evil deeds if she treats the other employees properly.

I was not a contact dancer and I did not let customers touch me. I will admit that the more money a man spent, the closer and more intimate the dance would be. This was typical with most girls. It was not uncommon to lightly brush up against the men with my breasts and rub my ass or knee in their crotch. I held firm to the hands off rule. If a man continually tried to put his hands on me he either ended up wearing his drink or he was forcefully thrown out of the club. Other girls could ruin a dance for the "no contact" girls. Many girls would let the men suck their breasts, lick their ass and fondle them. This disgusted me and could make the legitimate girls lose money. I had no desire to have a strangers hands anywhere on my body. I may have been a con-artist, but I was no whore and $20 for dance was not worth letting a filthy pervert touch me.

Alexis and I were not above stealing from the customers. We set our own prices, and we conned the men by dancing first and then charging them. If they refused to pay we had the bouncer force them to pay or kick them out. At that time the bar would pay a girl for her dance if a customer refused to pay. That did not last long once we realized we could turn on the pouty faces and just get our money from the club. Alexis actually "found" a wallet in a booth and shoved half the money in my bra, dumped the wallet in a tampon box and we went back to work. Sometimes men would pay us to leave the club to gamble with them and then we returned to work to make more money. Once, I found a wad of money on the back of a booth that a girl stupidly left there and I kept it. If she was dumb enough to leave it there then she didn't deserve to have it back. We would have customers thrown out for not buying dances or lie and say they touched us if they weren't spending enough money. There was a lot of back stabbing, cat fighting and jealousy. Most girls got along fairly well, but there were cliques and Alexis and I definitely had our own.

There were quite a few regular customers that came in to see specific girls. These were the men that the dancers really relied on for those slow times. I had customers that would bring gifts and would drop hundreds of dollars on me right when they walked in the door. Most of those customers just wanted someone to talk to. Some wanted dates but I refused to see customers outside the club. I did date a couple of customers briefly and on a personal level only. There was no money exchanged ever. For the most part girls do not date the customers, but on rare occasions I did meet people that I was attracted to and would date. It happens.

I was drunk almost every night, partied like a rock star and went home with wads of money. But some nights were excruciatingly slow and there were nights that I couldn't even make tip out. Tip out is a payment that each girl makes to the club to work there. We are considered independent contractors and at that time the tip out was $20. Not to mention tipping the D.J., the bouncers and even the managers if they saved your ass that evening. Although there is a tremendous amount of money to be made in dancing it's realistic to say that the business has its off seasons too.

I danced for four years and I enjoyed it. I was young, beautiful and had zero responsibilities. I was partying and making money at the same time. This job helped me get a car, a place to live and money to spend. I only regret not saving any of that money. I always knew that I would not dance forever. The business is tiring and wears on a person physically and mentally. I met my husband (outside of the club) and I left the business. I went back a few times, but I found that it was no longer the lifestyle that I wanted. I still think about dancing and have fantasies of dancing on the stage just to see if I could still do it. I don't have the desire to hustle or steal from the customers or party with the girls. Believe or not, I have matured. In hindsight I know I did what was right for me at that time in my life. I learned a lot about other people and myself. I know that in order to survive in such a competitive business I had to be ruthless. It is a business like no other.