Tango Uniform

I find myself smack in the middle of that kind of transition right now. I have "some skills" that enable me to get employed at above-entry-level, just on the basis of experience, in a wide-enough range of fields that I can if I wish change cities. And I hate the city I'm in. But I find that I don't have ENOUGH skills and qualifications (at least, not in so far as a resume presents them to a potential employer) to get a job by long-distance without significant connections -- which I ain't got.

So, I have a worst-of-both-worlds conundrum. I will eventually just up an' move, to some city 'er other. I think dancers don't find themselves with the leeway that I have. I think they live much more hand-to-mouth, in that their weekly income will match their weekly expenses; and I think their longer-term planning is poor (or else they wouldn't have "had to" go into stripping in the first place); and I think their network of associates is much less lucrative ("Misty is going to get me a job waitressing at the Calico Patch") both in its reliability ("the Calico Patch is closed for repair for a month") and in its dependability ("Misty moved to Vegas with her boyfriend").

Strippers, I think, move and change cities quite often. I met several girls from Nashville who, when the Nashville ordinances changed, drove all the way to New Orleans just for working weekends, staying in no-tell mo-tells outside of town on the cheap, eating fast-food and so forth. That's roughly a six-hour drive. I know of several dancers who (before Katrina) lived on Mississippi's Gulf Coast but worked in Jackson or points farther north -- at least three hours' drive. I knew of a lot of dancers in Florida who regularly swapped coasts, driving two to four hours, so that they wouldn't be working in their own back yards.

I think part of the appeal of dancing to the younger crowd is that it is NOT a "regular" employment. You go where you want when you want, live fast die young, always on the move, no set hours, nobody to have to call "The Man" and obey slavishly, no need to get all intimidated that you might "lose your job" if you take a month off. I think they like road trips.

One of the best things about hurricane Katrina (and no, I don't say that lightly; New Orleans is my home town, God rest the li'l dawlin') was the number of oddly employed "marginal" people who descended on Jackson MS (where I live now) for an interim stint. Suddenly this poverty-stricken hell-hole had a lot of go-getters, the grocery store clerks who had subsisted on crappy language and bad attitude and negligent behavior were getting slapped around by demanding people who had seen REAL cities and been in REAL grocery stores.

That's why I like strippers. They've "been around." They have REAL LIFE skills, although not in the workplace. But they know how to deal with a flat tire or an abusive boyfriend, unlike all the fugglies at my last workplace who married a bloated fundamentalist Baptist hubbie to take care of all that shit for them. Strippers are independent spirits.

Sure, they change town. Hell, they'll change city, state, and COUNTRY ...

Mick: If a mom & pop convenience store go TU, would register puncher drive/ relocate long distance away for another register punching job @ newly opened Walmart, or just say screw it, and focus efforts at local fast food joints, dept. stores,etc. If local law firm shuttered its doors(or, more likely, started becoming manifestly obvious that things were headed south there), a no-brainer for chitown, or any other lawyer, would be to network with other law firms for similar position.(Or, run for office). But, lets say that local options were dry. I'd be willing to bet VIP session $$$ that "typical lawyer" would be willing to expand search/networking options far beyond local area before they'd consider shifting gears, and trying their hand at being a topflight car salesman, or pizzaria proprietor. I suspect the answer for "typical stripper" lies between these 2 extremes. If gig is good enough, people will persevere through adverse times to keep at gig.

Doug: Pardon me for asking, but you wouldn't happen to be talking about a stripper at a certain Kokomo, IN club you used to rave about in reviews on roughly a weekly basis who coincidentlally also happened to be my fava at the same club, only on more like monthy visits? I'm not sure how intelligent she was, but goddamn, what a fox!

I can tell you this, my ATF never had a problem getting a job in a club. If she didn't like one, she moved to another. She often worked two at a time. Only one she worked at went TU, but that was because the property was sold. She just went to another club and never missed a beat. Of course, in S. Florida, there many to choose from and few were more than an hour drive.

I would have to say that most would just find another club, at least the girls that I know.

As an example, my ATF dancer was fired from my ATF club because of a situation not of her doing. This happened 1.5 years ago. Since then, she's danced at about a dozen clubs, trying to find one where she could make decent money, like the club, get along with mgmt and/or fellow dancers. It's been a tough road, but yet she STILL goes to another club, rather than giving it up.

Why? It's hard to replace the amount that is made for the number of hours worked. (and the flexibility) Also, having danced almost all of her working life, she has no job experience to fall back on, nor does she have a college degree, even though she was near the top of her class in HS, and is VERY intelligent.

Seems that once in dancing, it's like the mob; very tough to change careers.

Not to complicate the issue, but I am guessing it would also depend on her options. Does she have an education, are there reasonably lucrative alernative jobs in the area, are their children at home during the day making certain jobs impractical?

Where I live there has been a dramatic increase in dancers from South America over the last few years. Most have limited English skills so for them, their options are limited and the only real option for reasonably high dough is another club.

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This thread was about a club, not all clubs. Interesting throwback post though.

In the current climate, some of my local clubs are open and some not. Some dancers took regular jobs and stayed in them, others with home clubs still closed are in different clubs waiting for theirs to reopen. DougS said it way back when about comfort level with management and other dancers bring a factor. A few I knew became travel dancers when other towns opened before this one. Some just stayed home if they had someone to take care of them. What the dancers chose to do was all over the map, just liked you'd expect.