Cash Money

For as a long as there’s been music, women have danced for the entertainment and titillation of men. Scheherazade. Minsky’s Burlesque. Cage dancing go-go girls in the psychedelic 60’s. Times Square strippers, pole dancers and lap dancers. Women dance. Men watch.

Three naked ladies talk about their view from the stages and laps in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and today.

Naked Ladies get around! Look for the Three Naked Ladies and a new topic every Wednesday on thedirtygirldiaries.com, $pread Magazine Blog, and laurishaw.com.

Lauri Shaw: In 1997, I averaged $2200/week, four nights. Good hustlers could make $1000/night. Never mind what they promised the customers or did in the back rooms — we’re only talking about money, right? The money was there.

Jodi Sh Doff: Barmaids made $15/shift in ’75. I’d been making $80/wk in an office and suddenly $85/day in tips, plus shift pay, just being behind the bar in a leotard! When I left in ’84 dancers made $75/shift, plus tips & commission, but rent was only $200/month and cigarettes, less than a dollar. Two shifts a week was more than enough to make crazy money.

Rachel Aimee: Unfortunately those days are over. Money is still better than your average office job, and really good hustlers or girls at high end clubs can make a LOT, but there are also girls struggling to make $50 or $60 for an eight hour shift. And even those clubs charge the dancers to work now! The introduction of house fees has been an awful development in the industry.

LS: Every club I worked in charged a house fee or tip out. Topless clubs made money off house fees and the bar, so they didn’t take a cut of your dances. In nude clubs, house fees were low ($15 – $35) but then they’d take a large percentage from your sales: 50 – 75% of your lap dances, drinks, and champagne room money.

RA: Some of the high end clubs charge $300 a night! I can’t imagine having to do fifteen dances just to break even. I’ve worked at semi-upscale clubs that charged $100 a night — I spent the whole night in a panic, terrified of going home in debt to the club.

JshD: I love that I worked before house fees, tip outs or fines. You showed up and got paid. The options were make money or make more money. Even on a slow night you left with cash. I averaged $150-$300/night and was never expected to give anyone bribe money. My best night was bartending at a club called the Butterfly. Barmaids hustled the same as dancers. I sold one guy the same bottle so many times I lost count. He spent $5000 that night on half a dozen girls, finally, at 3:45am, he went upstairs with me and a girl who looked just like me–we played off the sister angle. Five minutes into that bottle it was last call and they hustled everyone out. I left that night, 1983ish, with $1000 in commissions & tips.

RA: Damn, I wish I could go back in time and work in the 80s!

LS: On top of house fees, tipping the DJ was mandatory. And more than minimum, or he’d cut your throat next time. Cashiers tried stealing. They’d run someone’s card, then swear to your face you’d never been in the VIP room with him. They say they made “mistakes” while cashing you out. I always stood my ground and got my money, but it was not a pleasant working environment.

JshD: Dancers and barmaids got commission on drinks, bottles, shift pay and tips. All the clubs had multiple girls on stage–the DJs just tried to keep things moving. Places like the Mardi Gras, the largest topless bar at the time, there were half a dozen girls on stage at the same time, but if you could get someone to buy you a drink, you could come down.

LS: You faced social consequences if you didn’t tip everyone. The bouncers wanted a cut. The champagne hostess expected one. Bartenders, waitresses… even the janitor had his hand out, refused to do his job unless the girls tipped him. Every night, cabbies waited outside — they expected you to double the meter. Costume ladies sat in the dressing room like vultures. Absolutely everyone got a piece of us.

RA: That stuff still goes on. At my club, the tip out is low and I don’t get hustled to tip out managers or anyone because I’ve been there a long time, but I know other girls do, especially if they’re new or the manager doesn’t like them.

LS: We made our money asking men for large tips — up front — on everything. A $20 dance was really $40. If you got your tips, you could do very well. But on a slow night, you took whatever you could get. The house made more than you did, which was the best case scenario. Worst case, you went home broke and owed money.

JshD: I was an awful hustler, just awful, and even so, I was making rent any night I worked. We paid for our costumes and you did your best to get a tip for the barmaid or the waitress, but that’s it.

RA: The stigma around dancing really fuels the clubs’ ability to charge house fees. Dancers exaggerate how much money they make, because we have to justify doing a job that most people think is degrading. It’s more difficult to justify stripping for the amount of money you could make bartending or working an office job, so we play up the good nights and play down the bad ones. When everyone thinks we’re making hundreds of dollars every night, nobody really believes it’s a big deal for us to tip out $100 or so for the privilege of making that money. It takes a lot of courage to say “I paid $100 of my own money to spend eight hours grinding against strange men and had to go to the ATM to take out money to get home.”

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