Alright so you did an amateur night at the local peeler pub and made a couple of bucks and found out you’ve got some moves, you might even be considering this as a career move, paying for college or help you get ahead in life. Well it can be a lucrative job with good pay and keeps you in shape. EvS has some survival tips (for men and woman and others in this area, including transgender)….
Ive known some professionals in this area active and retired and have seen some success stories but usually some not so successful ones.
Rule #1- you are not going to be this good looking and healthy forever!
Have a plan for retirement. Take a tip from (at right) Henny Youngman, he was a traveling comedian and violin player who never really retired but didn’t live lavishly although he had a pile of cash but never had want for anything-
“I get on the plane. I go and do the job, grab the money and I come home and I keep it clean. Those are my rules. Sinatra does the same thing, only he has a helicopter waiting. That’s the difference.”
Wages? A really rough average is about 100 or so per night (on a slow night) to as high as 2000 ( for top performers). So having said this it is usually in cash and some clubs want money up front to dance there ( say 50 to 100 depending) and/or half the lap dancing tips. Its not an easy job and you sure as hell work for the money. Now comes taxes. Getting paid in cash has it’s benefits but claiming some of that money and paying into an employment insurance can help later on. Accidents happen all the time and a broken leg or other dancing injury can ruin a career in 10 seconds or less. So paying into an insurance is a smart thing to do. Investing your money (property,gold,silver) is also a wise option as you will not be a dancer forever. We’ve all seen the dancers that have been relegated to second string after hitting the over 10 or 20 plus years in the industry and are usually strung out and being exploited by drug dealers and lousy club owners. DONT BE THAT PERSON. HAVE A PLAN. Also live within your means, dont spend a damned dime if you can help it. Many dancers get sucked into the party atmosphere including the drugs and boozing (which by the way can make you really ugly and out of shape really quick) as many unscrupulous club owners like having dancers “in their pocket” and working for their drugs. Its cheaper for them to pay in drugs and have control over the dancers, not to mention you’ll be broke and eventually out of work with nothing to show for it. Remember the advice of Henny Youngman above!Also if possible upgrade your education, you’ll need some new skills for the post dancer period of life.
Believe it or not there are unionized exotic dancers theses groups provide (with a monthly or yearly membership due) sick benefits, maternity and accident insurance, guaranteed meal breaks and downtime, etc. Also see the International Union of Sex Workers.
Now as usual we appreciate contrary opinions as there are always 5 sides to every story usually. Below is a link to “No one should have to be a stripper” from the Woman’s Space Blog. I understand and appreciate what they have to say there but the reality of the last 10,000 years of history is that a world with no strippers (or sex trade workers for that matter) is not going to happen any time soon.
Lily Burana has also written here accounts(Strip City: A Stripper’s Farewell Journey Across America) as a stripper and was involved in labor union activism for strippers. -EvS
This is the page which I learned a lot from this post, but supposedly I’m trying to look for o’hare strippers.
lmao, glad we could help someone out on this one. good luck. Cheers- EvS