I tried to count the strip clubs I’d worked at the other day, but had to settle for counting states. I got confused and stopped counting around twenty eight. Some are states where I’ve danced in every club, and others just one. All the clubs are so different, but they mostly fall into these two categories for me. There are lap dance clubs, and there are champagne room clubs. There used to be performance oriented clubs, but they’ve mostly died or changed. Except for Portland and DC, and it seems like even Portland is in the process of changing.
Champagne room clubs tend to be slower, but it’s okay because you only need one or two customers to make your night. These are clubs where you could sit talking to a guy for ages, trying to win him over before closing. There are still lap dances, but they are just an appetizer, a test run before the champagne room. When I am confident I tell them we should do a lapdance first to test our chemistry, and it’s an extra twenty dollars in my pocket. When I’m less confident I tell them I’m so awesome that I don’t do lapdances and we’ll have to go straight to the champagne room.
That’s where it starts. You can’t just dance in these clubs, you have to talk. You have to be sexy and get in their heads and feed yourself to them at whatever angle will make them fall a little in love. When the bouncer/host comes to say the hours up and see if he want’s another one, you get him to say yes, and then he’s your soulmate of the night.
There are variations, of course. Sometimes they’re foot fetishists who want you to rub their feet the whole time. Sometimes they want to snuggle and be held by a woman. Sometimes they want to spend two hours discussing why you will not fuck them. Mostly they’re looking for some intimacy – physical, emotional, spiritual, whatever you make it.
I love those clubs, but you can imagine it gets exhausting after a while, to constantly create and prolong such intense connections.
That’s where lap dance clubs come in. A good lap dance club has plenty of customers from open to close, and not too many dancers. You sit down, introduce yourself, chat for one or two minutes, and pop the question. Rinse, repeat. Of course there are guys that get three or four or ten dances, but most of the money comes twenty or sixty dollars at a time. You have to do thirty dances to have a good night in a club like that. Sometimes I keep rubber bands on my fingers and move them back and forth in this strange configuration that represents dances done to keep myself motivated.
Sure, sometimes a customer falls apart or otherwise tugs at your heart strings, but mostly you keep moving. Hustle, dance, dance, hustle, dance, repeat. It’s refreshing after a few months of champagne room clubs, and it’s infuriatingly superficial when you do it for too long.
Infuriatingly superficial? Absolutely. Tasteless. Sometimes boring, but I thrive on how raw it is at moments.
It’s interesting that you do the rubber band thing, I think that’s a really good idea.
(I’ve been reading your blog for a bit, but I finally got my own and decided to comment. )
I like lap dance clubs. I dont have the patience to sit with needy men. Id rather rinse, repeat. I get bored easily, so this is my best option. But yeah, it does take it out of you a lot quicker!
I’m with Catskills. I don’t have the patience to sit with a customer for long enough unless there’s REAL chemistry, and in any case, I haven’t gotten good enough at being not-so-weird as to be attractive to the big money types.
I can sell VIPs of the type that are extended lapdances in a private room, and if they want to talk in there, that’s always a fine surprise, but in the few clubs I’ve worked in that had them, I’ve never sold a CR.
I guess that’s why I am an escort, not a dancer.
Hate the hustle and superficiality.
And if I want deep and intense, I’d rather do it like a lover and really experience intimacy on all counts; rather than face artificial restrictions of a Champagne room (at least that’s how I imagine a Champagne room to be).
Hi, Hobo. Been reading for a while, I especially enjoy hearing about the nomadic and minimalistic lifestyle. Stories like this one horrify me. (Not intended as a criticism.) What do you suppose drives men to solicit your services? An hour after they’ve left, do you suppose they feel better or worse than when they arrived? It sounds terribly depressing to me.
sounds like there are those kind of people for any sort of sex work – the ones who are all about the emotional engagement and those who are much more detached from the person they’re with and more attached to the process…
no one describes it better than you.
I was a VIP/Champagne room in tourist club dancer myself.
Tourists offer the variety and are on holiday so in a different mood
and the VIP meant 400 per hour (in Vegas)
Girl I know exactly how it is in the champagne room. Sometimes you just put up with a little extra just because it’s such good money for being in there for the hour. In my exprience, guys pull the same thing in the booths for a lap dance. If you ever do get the chance, head up to Chicago and try the club I’m at, Scores. The money is decent and the hosts keep an eye on the room. http://www.chicagoscores.net
Have you ever danced in Galveston?
Oh my fucking god Tara. I know we don’t talk anymore, but I just started at a “champagne room” club a few months ago. It is absolutely horrific. I had no idea what an Oregon stripper I am until I started working at VIP’s in Chicago. I have never done so horribly at a strip club in my entire life. I’m never leaving Oregon again once I save up enough money to get out of here, but I don’t know if that will ever happen working at this club!
Ha, remember I tried explaining that to you once? Anyways, you might find the dive bars by the airport more tolerable but also kind of miserable.
It was like fifteen years ago now, but I really liked that strip club that was also a steak house…