Ask any female stripper why she does it and she’ll tell you: “It’s for the money!” As a male stripper, I really wasn’t much different….money and secondly, the opportunity to work on a graduate degree during the day. Back in 1992 at the age of 23, following graduation, I moved back to Houston. Worked for a bank for about 3 months, barely making ends meet and bored out of my fucking mind. A friend helped me get a job at the old La Bare. First as a barback. Pay wasn’t all that great but even working as a barback had it perks. Six months later I started waiting tables bare-chested. A year later, following a string of amateur nights, my entertainment career took off. In those days dancers were doing all the work while the club owners were reaping the profits. Basically we were independents and much different than the private contractors today. The other thing that’s different today is that male dancers in Houston strip clubs must wear custom-made bikini briefs, as thongs are illegal. Trust me, the job was HARD (no pun), and made harder by 40-something wives, drinking far too much . The noise ran the gamut….whispers of obscenities, screeches, laughter, etc. and some even growl at you. . It’s like, “Oh yeah baby, I want some of that!” Being a male stripper was a whole lot different than that of the ladies who strip in men’s clubs cause in the latter the guys can’t touch the girl. The girls, however, can practically do anything they please. They’ll grab your ass, they’ll slap your ass, thug and pull at your thong, you name it. Do anything. And they do. Not all of them, but usually the ones who sit in the front row. They’re the real wildcats or should I say cougars. Sometimes the look on their faces is enough to convince you that they could eat you alive. It’s easy to spot them from the stage. Wild eyes! And generally they’re the ones with their legs pressed tightly together, touching themselves. Aside from the money, you need to realize that by nature, I’m an exhibitionist. As such, it was only rarely, that I found being touched/used by someone else objectionable. My routines/actions were such that I could easily get into it with a woman or group of women without any emotional commitment on my part whatsoever.
I went on to make the transition to dancing in gay clubs. For me, this was easy because of my bi-sexuality and the pay was a hell of a lot better. Dancing for the pleasure of women was great, however, having been to New Orleans several times for Southern Decadence, what I really wanted to do was dance off Bourbon St. Working primarily as an independent and sometimes under short contract, I stripped for nearly 11 years – NOLA – you name a gay bar and I probably took most of my clothes off (all in private dances) there, at one time or another. Miami, Key West and a number of other places in the Southeast and a few jaunts in the DC area.
I woke up to the fact that as I aged, the demand for younger boys seemed to increase and I realized that I couldn’t do it forever. It’s really not the dream job that a lot of guys probably imagine. As one ages, its almost inevitable that you either get out, enter the escort circuit, or worse. In my case, stripping enabled me to work on a Master’s Degree during the day so that I could get out of the business. Thus, my advice for anyone entertaining the idea of being a stripper, irrespective of whether it’s in a gay bar or a women only club, is that you realize that it’s merely a transitional period in your life.
