strip club Archives - Page 3 of 5 - HeartBrokenStilettos

Greetings from Belgium!

Although the whole trip didn’t start in a smooth way (just as none of them lately) now I find everything fine here. I’ve worked in Belgium before, both Antwerp and Brussels so I’m a bit familiar with the country, I don’t feel a total stranger here.

Why did I say it was not a smooth start then? I work the first time with this agency. He’s Hungarian. I don’t like to work with Hungarians as they seem to overcomplicate everything. This one drove me crazy asking my Hungarian tax number and he just stuck to his point, he didn’t want to understand I have no longer tax number or official address in Hungary. But finally, after a short battle, he accepted my English tax number pff…! But it was not all. One day before my flight I still didn’t know where I’m going. He didn’t send me the address. I like to organise everything before the trip, so these last-minute actions really can make me insecure. I almost had to beg him to give me the address just to know where to go from the airport. He’s not an easy peasy case. In his last message, he wrote to me to call him when I’ve arrived at the address. Phone number or something??! Nopp. I asked him to send me his number in a text message (he knows my number) because I’m not sure if I have access to the Internet. You’re right, he sent it to me on Facebook and of course, as I told him, I didn’t have Internet. I was sitting outside a pub, I didn’t know his phone number, not a number of any girls in the apartment to call “Please open the door for me!” I didn’t know the correct address (there are a few apartments under the same address) not even what’s on the doorbell. I can not ask any women on the street that “Don’t you dance in the City Club by any chance?” They would be easily offended. Some agency just really don’t deserve the money they got after the girls because they don’t care. More than 2 hours waiting outside (at least it was not raining and Belgium has good beers) he called one of the girls to check if I’m there and let me in. Seriously??

The apartment is OK, not the cleanest but it’s quite new, and the other girls are nice. And it’s only 4 of us in the apartment. That’s heaven on earth after the experience in Oslo!

The club is also good. Although on my second night there were only 5 customers (and 2 of them were women) and the friend of the DJ and we had to dance all night from 11 pm to 6 am. Don’t ask me what for when nobody paid anything, not even attention to us. After that night I didn’t feel my legs, I had pain everywhere in my body. Please don’t ask me if I go to the gym.. that was enough training for one day! But the system is fair. I have €35 fix salary per day, but every night the club offers €70 guarantee if I make less. It means I have the minimum the €70 per day. But in a week it happened only once (luckily) I always make more than that. I get €8 from a glass of champagne, €44 from a bottle and €25 from a private dance. (I really don’t like to talk about how much I made the previous night and I especially hate it when other dancers asking me. It’s only my business. Here I just want to let you know to have some idea.) Oh and about the tips: how nice, the agency said it’s all for us, at work I find out I only can keep the 60%. Whatever…

The funny thing here that the whole place is a discotheque indeed. Big, empty, dark room with a small stage in the middle. No atmosphere, no decoration, no intimacy – only a few candles around. On the weekend when the discotheque is open, we work on the 2nd floor in the club’s VIP area, which is much nicer. From there you can see all those drunk, hardcore party people on the dancefloor. We look at them, they look at us. It felt we are in some kind of ZOO! But after customers started to come up and we worked all night. Saturday was a perfect night, not much customers, mainly the friends of the boss. We, 5 girls, were sitting at our table and the bottles of champagne are started to arrive at us. That was more of a big party than literally work. We were sitting, chatting, drinking (I mean pouring the champagne back to the ice bucket very eagerly) and laughing all night. That’s really the easy part of my job! No bulls**** from customers, no hard deals, no pushing. Just fun and the money still comes to us. No hangover, no headache next day, Sunday is off. Perfect!

No way, Norway!

As it always happens to me, if I’m desperate to go to a place, it turns out something unpleasant. Same happened here. I was keen on coming here but now I can’t wait for my contract to finish. I heard lots of good things about working in Norway, especially about the clubs in Bergen and Trondheim. But when I sent my application there, the manager replied that he’s very selective with a girls, and that moment he wanted younger and very acrobatic pole dancers because he had enough “older and talker” (actually I like the idea because he makes sure each customer can find the type of girl he likes) But after I found agencies working with clubs in Oslo, and I applied even I heard some bad stories about it. But if you never try, you never know.

Now I know. And I’m pretty sure I won’t come back here. The No way, Norway! an expression I heard from other dancers who worked here previously, now I understand why. I don’t know if it’s just this club, but my customer told me yesterday they passed another club on the same street and he didn’t even want to enter that one because the doormen were too rough looking. Our club is pretty OK though, but for me, it has a strange and arrogant atmosphere that I don’t like. Let’s put it in this way, not the friendliest place I have worked.

I have problems with the apartment. 12 women together in a not so big flat. 12 women for 1 bathroom. It means you have no privacy even on the toilet. 12 women for 1 kitchen. I can not have my coffee there in relax. 12 women and 1 house key. That really sucks. I’m staying in a room with a balcony, and every smoker walks through the room if they need a fag. Almost every time they wake me up, because they try to be as quiet as possible but outside they are talking or listening to their music loudly. I have very disturbed sleeping since I’m here, no wonder why I’m getting more and more irritated at work. And some girls have no respect for others. One girl was on the top of my bed because she needed something from the top of the wardrobe and she was upset when I asked her not to step on my pillow when she’s walking around barefoot in the flat. The other one was searching for something for half an hour in plastic bags while I tried to sleep. Seriously I started to feel I’m the antisocial and deviant here because I don’t talk loudly and I can close the door without making noise.

My only luck is that I’m sharing the room with a very nice Polish girl. Basically, she’s the only person I like here. We haven’t met before but we worked in the same places. I remember on my last day in Macau I popped into my Polish manager and she told me there are 2 girls arrived from Poland and we just figured out she was one of them. I didn’t work that night because I had an early flight the next day and they didn’t work because they just arrived from the airport. Same in Iceland, she just arrived a few days later after I left. And how lucky I am that we met here! I really feel if she’s not with me, I would just give up and go home. Even the club has potentials to make money, my own mental health is worth more and I don’t want to struggle with a place I don’t feel good. I gave a few more days to myself to decide if I leave earlier, but for sure I don’t come back here to work again. No way!

Laura’s research into lapdance experienses 3.

“Do you see your work as a type of acting? (like an actress going onto a stage and performing a certain identity, pretending to be a different person)”

“Why do you chose to use a different name to your actual name? Is your stage name may be part of a different part of your identity that you act?”

Most of the burlesque classes start with the lesson of how to build up your persona. In strip clubs, there is no such a class, but it all starts with choosing your dancer name. I used to work using the short form of my real name, but in non-English speaker countries, it doesn’t sound sexy at all. Girls choose a dancer name to hide their real identity. Before you ask yourself, no, it’s not my real name. And I’m not named after Lindsay Lohan. I’m less trouble than she is. 🙂 But it has been told I look like the Victoria’s Secret model Lindsay Ellingson (I used to be blonde that time) and I’m proud of having that name. When one of my managers told me I will be called Lindsay, I immediately felt confident with this name, and since then I use it everywhere I go. It’s easy because not so common. If I choose a name like Maria, I could be asked in every club to change it because there is a Maria already there. When they make our weekly rota or the payments documents, they use only the dancer name. Can you imagine it if is more than one Lindsay there? Or when the DJ call the next girl to the stage in the mike? They don’t even like when there are lots of similar names like Nelly, Kelly, Sally, Terry for the same reason.

But with Lindsay, I always have lots of fun as no one can write it down properly. When I see a Lizi or Lindi on the rota I smile and I know it’s me. In some countries, I can’t use it. In Japanese, it’s difficult to pronounce as they don’t have the letter “L” and they would call me Rindsay. So Mama-san gave me a name and I was Chanel. Not sure if it was better than Rindsay.

“Hello, I’m Chanel.”

“Hi Chanel, I’m Cartier.” or “Hello, I’m Hugo. Hugo Boss.”

I hated it!

But some girls having fun to change their names in every club. My friend Giselle used maybe 4 or 5 names during our work period together. And then I had to be cautious about which name should I call her in the recent club or front of the recent customer. She didn’t make it easy for me.

Talking about the persona or a different personality when I work, I don’t know. For me, there is not such a big difference. But maybe I’m just too honest and I don’t want to wear a mask at work. For me actually is the opposite. During this job, I learned a lot about myself and I became more ME than to develop a persona and play a role. I feel very lucky that I’m not one of the girls who are able to work only under the influence of drugs or alcohol. That changes the personality a lot. Sometimes I wonder about girls that they so quiet in the apartment and at work, they are totally behaving like superstars. Sometimes I make a joke that maybe I need to take the same drug to feel more confident and be more effective at work. but it’s only a matter of time when the effect is gone – together with their self-confidence.

So for me after several years spent in this business, there is a very thin line between my work personality and my real one. I don’t want to act at work and play a persona which is not me just to make more money and please the customer. (Here I’m not talking about being smiley and bubbly and funny. I can be that naturally without acting. And I also know every customer is different so I need to adopt different behaviour to work with them. I just don’t have a role at work to play.) It works like a filter. If they want a girl with certain behaviour, they don’t choose me and I can happily work with the customer who appreciates my personality without wearing a mask. But at the same time, my work has affected my personality and thanks for all those years of experiences and situations, I became a stronger person in my private life.

Andiamo, prego, tutti frutti, macaroni

After 1 week of working in Pescara, I still haven’t decided if I like it here or not. I’m wondering how other clubs work in Italy because this one has a strange system for me. When I think I’ve seen every type of clubs I always must realise I haven’t and some places still can hold some surprise.

Why Pescara? Simply because one of my agency has contact with the club here and they offered a higher salary if I start between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. That’s why. Some men suggested me to work in Milan as it is a wealthy city, but I don’t know any clubs there or even an agency that works with any clubs there.

Here I have free accommodation in the hotel above the club and €80 daily salary in the holiday season instead of the regular €60. I thought if I do some private dances, I’ll be fine. The first surprise that there is no private dance here. That my agency forgot to tell, they even mentioned the private dances when they sent me the club details. I feel a little bit cheated, so the other 3 dancers from the Chech Republic (they work with the same agency) The dear girl from the agency also forgot to tell us to bring normal cocktail dresses for work as the Russian girls dress up so. She told me to bring long dresses but a long stripper seethrough dress with a high cut on the side and lots of glitters is so different from an elegant pencil dress. The Russians would give me an evil eye if I wear that dress at work! Fortunately I have corsets and a pencil skirt just in case to go out, they perfectly do the job at work, but still, I show much more skin than the other girls. Not to mention that it’s so cold in the club! You think it’s just a big fuss about clothes. But like now I carry lots of unnecessary clothes in my luggage when I have to be careful with the weight limit, it doesn’t help to build up a good relationship with my colleagues when I’m more underdressed than most of them and I have to apologise and find excuses when the boss asks with a not so nice tone in his voice: “Where is your dress?”

The money is also not so good here. The customers pay my time. 20 minutes booking cost €20 for them and I got €3. (Not even the 20% drink commission as in other clubs.) It means I can make €9 per hour if I work 6 hours that 6x€9 plus the average €60 daily salary is €114 per night. But in that case, I work from opening until closing what never happens as I got booked by the customers’ choice. And I have to stay until 4 am, there is no way to leave the club at 3.55 if there is no customer. So maximum €114 a night. Do you still think strippers are super rich???

I still don’t know what is the business here for the Russian girls. They work here years, no dancing, only consummation, and as far as I know they only get the €60 fix salary, no commission. Yeah, the same thing crossed my mind too! I feel we dancers just the decoration, doing 1-2 showtime a night, and bring more customers because there are always new girls in the club as we don’t stay long in one place. Or even what is the business for the club? I just made a quick calculation that if I work all night, they got €60 from my customers in each hour, that’s €360 in 6 hours minus my salary and commission, I make €246 for the club. This is the maximum they can get after me a night. And they work with maximum 8-10 girls. No dances, no entrance fee, no bottles of champagne sold and the drinks for customers can’t be so expensive. This money in the night club business is peanuts. A club has such high expenses like licence, a stock of alcohol, music, staff etc. I wonder how they manage to keep open.

But I stay for 2 weeks only. And the club is very pretty, the staff is friendly and helpful, the accommodation is okay so I won’t complain more. And for sure on the summertime, it’s much better as the beach is only 100 meters from the hotel. Daytime you’re on the beach, at night you have a party, free accommodation and even you don’t make lots of money it can cover your flight tickets and all your expenses here, it could be a nice summer holiday.

Laura’s research into lapdance experienses 1.

I met a girl in Paris who told me she’s studying on university and how she entered the whole glittery pinky stripper world was that she went interviewing a few dancers in a local club to write an essay and she started to like the atmosphere and decided to work in clubs afterwards. See, not every girl’s doing it for money or because they have been forced to do so, but some also realise it’s such a good job to learn about our own sexuality and express ourselves. So after talking to her, I got an email from a lovely girl – let’s call her Laura – who asked my help to write her dissertation. “I am doing research for my dissertation, which is looking into the ways in which lap-dancing is empowering for women, but I also want to learn about the difficult parts of the industry! Basically, I just want to give an honest story. I have never done lap-dancing before so I cannot write from my own experiences, and I came across your blog and it is so interesting! You seem very honest about your work and you seem to have travelled and worked in many countries.” I thought such a brave girl to write about this subject and I’m happy to help if it doesn’t cost money so I said yes to her. And some of her questions are so intelligent and worth to write a whole post as an answer.

“How did you feel when a customer breaks the rules and touches your intimate area when giving them a naked lap dance? “

When I read this question the stories started to come to my mind. But I’m telling you the best one. I was working in Toronto, Canada where the club had a totally unique system. The customers chose the girls from a photo album with the help of the bookers. Those guys were walking around with a huge album in their hands any anybody wanted to have a lap dance, they suggested the girl who suits the best for them. We girls were not allowed to talk to customers, it was a sitting area for us or we could stay in the changing room (even for a quick nap). So because of that, there was no previous agreement on what I do in private and what I don’t. It was a whole forum on an internet site about which girl is a giver in the club and it was so popular amongst the customers. If I find it, I will link it here because it was so funny and entertaining to read. So basically the guy who booked me for dance was never so sure what he can get from me.

Once I got booked by a young guy for 30 mins. He was around 20. We went down to the private area, I seated him and started to dance. Without asking or saying anything, he started to unbutton his jeans. I didn’t say anything but gave him a bad look. He didn’t get the signal – or didn’t want to understand – and his hand slid down inside his trousers. I don’t let the customers jerk themselves during my dance so I told him to stop. He said OK. And then I changed my position, I danced a bit facing the wall and when I turned back his willy was out and it was a huge grin on his face.

“I told you not to do it!” (Jesus, this half an hour dance will be difficult!)

“OK, OK! I apologise.. but a little bit?”

“NO!”

But some really like testing the waters. I thought finally he got the message, I turned again to the wall. I bend over to take my panties off when I saw him between my legs what he’s doing. Of course, his trousers down on his hips and he was jerking. I really hate when I have to repeat myself again and again, and it seems this bloke was deaf or something not to hear what I was trying to say. I found a more effective way. I grabbed his beer from the small table where he put it, suddenly turned back and put it upside down into his trousers. The cold beer poured down on his erection and on his balls.

“Now I hope you understand what I was saying to you!”

He immediately jumped from the sofa and called me on every name you can imagine. I gave him back his dance tokens and left.

Dear man, if the dancer says not to do it, it means NOT TO DO IT! Once I had to listen to 30 mins lecture from my manager because my customer did the same when I danced showing my butt to him. My manager passed the curtains and she saw what’s going on and interrupted the dance. I told her I’m wearing my eyes on the front and I can’t see what he’s doing behind my back but she thought I let him do. Seriously I almost got fired just because the guy was not listening. Same with touching. In some clubs, they are very strict about it and I can get in trouble if they see it on the security cameras. What? If there are security cameras??? Of course, there are! Who would believe that there is no control over what’s going on in the VIP room? The clubs have to protect themselves if anything happens there.

But answering the question, it happened to me that the customer touched me in an inappropriate way – again I was showing my back to him and I did a sexy bend over. He thought it’s funny if he touches me between my legs. As I felt his finger on my private area I turn back and suddenly gave him a huge slap on his face.

“Never do it again!”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Get out!”

“But I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

“Get the fuck out of here!!!”

I was cold as ice and he understood the fun is over and he left. After the security guy came to me asking why I finished the dance sooner. I told him what happened and he just shrugged his shoulder. “Hm, OK.”Of course, it was OK. It was no argument about paying back the dance or anything. Security can help to kick out an angry guy or step between the dancer and customer if it’s necessary. But behind closed doors (or curtains) I’m in control. And I have to make sure that nothing happening there that can harm me. I remember working as a hostess. Once we had a beautiful girl who never worked in this field before. She got chosen by a “good” customer and the guy paid her champagne bottle after bottle. As it was her first night, she easily lost her limits. And the control. After she was crying in the toilette because the guy tried to finger her through her tights and panties and she felt violated. That was her first and last night.

That’s MY body, I make the rules! I understand there are different clubs and in some clubs, you can get more, I also understand that the temptation is big, but if the dancer says NO, it means NO. It’s always better to ask than walking through the whole club with wet pants and it looks you just peed yourself during the private dance.