The Line-Up

Line ups tell which strippers are drunk they cant stand in line

I also like the line-up. Gives a sense for who's there. I can see who I want to try and stick around for. Or if it's looking bleak I can bail.

I think a line up or roll call should be a requirement

I have heard it referred to as a cattle call. And, yes, I like it too.

My fav part! This is the best time to start jacking off !! Prime time babby!

They should do one every two hours, minimum. Makes for better energy circulation. But they should have to dance around, music video style, if they are up there for linger than a song.

I don't agree. Any time I have seen this, the dancers were obviously uncomfortable with it. It is de-humanizing - like probing the fruit in a bin at the supermarket. Yuck!!

I hate it, and I'd say every dancer I've ever had to do an all-stage with hates it, too.

First of all, if you're at a club where they do it at the beginning, that's one thing, but the clubs that demand all-stages where I've worked do it in the middle of the night. That means the dancers have to abandon their customers, which is annoying, especially if you're in the VIP area. Secondly, yeah, it's dehumanizing and usually the stages are not large enough for multiple dancers, so we're all packed together like [insert analogy here].

Did I mention it was just annoying?

The after line-up part is amusing when they all split and you're bombarded with "do you want a dance" until the right one shows up.

I join in with those that say it lacks class. I don't like when they do it in brothels. I'm not going to pick a dancer on looks alone, it's about 30% natural beauty, 25% stage talent, 30% lap talent, and 15% chemistry and conversation skills.

I'm with farmerart, fd and doc - It's like a cattle call and dehumanizing. I understand its nice to see who is available, but there has to be a better way to do it. I look at some of the dancers faces and its obvious they don't like it.

"It is de-humanizing"

As in introducing the staring line-up for a ball game or a curtain call for all a play's performers de-humnaizing?

Those are team sports. These are individual artists, like a barber or violinist, who compete against each other.

I don't understand how this is dehumanizing, but I know a lot of dancers don't like it for various reasons. As steve says, it's equivalent to introducing the starting lineup for a ball game. DJ introduces the girls and they all stand on the stage (in their bikinis) for a minute or two and customers can initiate contact with the ones they are interested in getting to know. And it really should take place about once every two hours.

I can take it or leave it. I rarely pick one out of the lineup so that does not do it for me. If a girl is tied up with a lucrative PL, she won't leave him for me if I tip her at the lineup anyway. I have had it annoy me when my choice of the night had to leave for the lineup.

Dehumanizing? Maybe instead they could have a tote-board showing who's on shift and who isn't? Whether they are occupied in the VIP or available? Set up a little electronic thingy at your table so you can browse through pictures and order by number? (Hmmm... Maybe this is worse, come to think of it. But they're only strippers. Isn't objectification part of the job description/kind of the point?)

I would like to hear more from the dancers on this, but to me it's similar to situations where people are being sold to the highest bidder. I don't think its similar to a starting lineup in sports or a curtain call because the performers are not being analyzed for use by the consumer. I have gone through both the staring lineup in sports and a curtain call in a play and that is a good feeling, not a dehumanizing experience.

I don't know that I'd go as far as "dehumanizing", but it does seem to be a waste of time. Watching the girls dance and move is going to be more helpful in deciding who I want to spend time with than a line up.

Dougster's toteboard isn't such a bad idea; several of the local clubs have one of those, though it doesn't have pictures. Such a thing is helpful if one is at least passing familiar with the girls, less so if not.

It is good to see the dancers available and for the most part up here in Detroit, the dancers just mill around on the stage, but that's the way many clubs do it.

Well, I think this is a perfect example of how reasonable, intelligent people can have honest differences of opinion on a topic, respectfully presenting cogent arguments for and against, all without the need for any personal attacks or insults (even though famerart is completely wrong).

And even though steve seems to be inspecting something interesting in his rectum I will continue the debate. Dougster is correct in his observation that objectification of the dancers as sex fantasy dolls is what we PLs do in clubs. But, humiliating the dancers plays no part in my fantasies; it even destroys part of the fantasy. My position is unmoved.

At BSC in Phx it appears that most dancers view it as dehumanizing. They are bored and apathetic on stage, appearing to only come out of the dressing room to please management.

It is always the same old song played and as a customer I find it boring.

On the other hand, it is a chance for the girls to market themselves, but most appear too bored, which makes them unappealing. Maybe management needs to change the routine.

The line up is also called a "review". as in "All dancers on stage for the 4 o'clock review!" I don't see it as dehumanizing. It's a chance for the customers to see all the girls who are working that day and for the dancers to display their talent. It's like the beginning of a football game where all the players run out onto the field so the fans can applaud them.

Well I can see how it's dehumanizing if they just stand there on stage for awhile as the customers look them over. It's like showing off the animals at a livestock auction. What I've seen in some clubs is for the dancers to walk across the stage and quickly get off as the dj announces their name. That works all.

Now, if at beging of the shift, say 7 or whenever, they walked out one by one doing a 10 sec dance as the DJ announced their name in true announcer fashion, while playing 2Unlimited's Get Ready For This... 'and from Mexia Texas, CHHHHHHHAAAMMPAGNGE!' then yeah, I'd be down with that.

Re: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCDXtbFnr…

I like that idea, motorhead. All-stages, in my experience, are sets of two songs where we just stand there.

Well, in that case they should play this song. Twice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl2fONPgI…

livestock? I think livestock, on average, tends to be more intelligent than most strippers are, and they certainly have better ethics. I mean are cows dedicated to lying and running scams to try and make money? Most strippers should consider it fortunate they are treated so well.

How about this? The ones who prove they are human by the way they conduct business get to bypass the cattle cow, the rest get treated like they deserve.

Don't try to understand 'em, Doug. Just rope, throw and grab 'em!

Yee-haw!

I can appreciate and occasion presentation of the inventory but the girls all hate it. Don't know if they think of it as de-humanizing, Art, but they report that they can make little or no money during that song. Accordingly, I think a reasonable compromise would be to limit these line-ups (what Bogart's calls "finale") to no more than once an hour.

I try not to work in clubs that do lineups. If I do work in one, I make sure to drag my ass to the stage and I'm the last one up there. After we're released, if I don't have a VIP to run back to, I sit down and refuse to participate in the specials that are offered right after them. I have never participated in a special and will not. There are 30 to 150 other dancers that can do them. They won't miss me.

Occasionally a manager will get mad at me for being uncooperative. I don't care. If they don't like it, they can fire me. There are, depending the state, ten to a hundred other clubs I can travel to. None of the other girls Ive ever worked with enjoy lineups. It helps the club, though, so some require them.

My favorite club Christie's cabaret in tempe. They have something similar to it but they call it stripper extravaganza. Where they have some type of specail like buy two dances and get a free drink/ tshirt/ visor cap or a free admision pass. They call of the dancer one by one and hand them the gifts. As far from what I heard and seen its pain for a couple of reason. The dancers don't want to do it because if they can't get LD they need to pay the house back except for drink special. For customers its a total waste cuz the two dances are 1min 30 seconds long. rh48hr timed it once. The only time ill get it is when they give out the free admission pass. For the most part I usually talk to staff for some info on new girls

I forgot to add that usually do this Every hour by the hour from 8 pm to 12 am on Friday and Saturday. Mindy threw Thursday is Every other hour and on Sunday only at the beginning at the start of third shift. To me it get annoying. If I was a dancer I'm site ill get annoyed at it.

This is another way to see who is available--open your eyes, turn your neck back and forth, and you will see who is available. They'll be at the bar, they'll be walking around, they'll be doing their stage set, they even may come up and say hello to you if you're lucky. You don't need a flippin' line up.

brewerfan: do you have x-ray vision? can you see into the dressing room? the VIP rooms?

First of all the notion of a 'shift' at a strip club is bad management. First of all it makes for an interruption in supply. Once I came into the DV COI and there were tons of girls but nobody offering any dances. They were all just waiting for the 'shift change' so they could all make the required appearance on stage. Then things returned to normal.

Second, the club's need for dancers is kind of a bell curve. So open with just three or four dancers, then an hour later add a couple more and an hour later a couple more and so forth. This makes the dressing room less packed and there is regularly 'somebody new'

So instead of a start of the shift lineup you fairly regularly, possiblly top and bottom of the hour, have a song that is a slow parade around the whole club, often with the announcement of a special. But only those dancers that are not already in a private dance are expected to participate.

I like the line-up if done what I consider properly. No milling around. Just walk out to or up on the stage, turn an then circulate on the floor. When my ATF used to do it at this one club, she would get stopped by others, but always came right back to me.

fd,

If you don't like them, follow 25's lead. After all, you are in the club to make money, I would assume. If that is part of your job, do it! If you don't like it, go somewhere else. This is still mostly a free country. Also, part of your work in a club or any business is to please the customers.

I'm not sure how I'm seeing the responses I'm seeing here. Most seem to LIKE the line-up/showtime/review or any other hokey name the club calls these things.

Yet, literally, every time in every club I've seen this done, a quarter to half the guys get up and bolt for the door ASAP when these things start. Since every one, except one club twenty years ago, also couples this with a round of "dollar dances" (the single most annoying strip club concept EVER), two-fer/three-fer specials and/or dance special with some club memorabilia thrown in... It just seems that it breaks the mood for some of these guys to be reminded that it's all about the money because they RUN for those doors.

mike,

Never, in my 40+ years of visiting clubs have I ever seen "a quarter to half the guys get up and bolt for the door" for ANY reason.

I have likes and dislikes on the lineup.
PLUS: A good way to see the entire dancer lineup, and gauge who you might like to spend more time with. Particularly so if they do a quick parade, and the DJ announces each dancers name as she walks up on stage. I don't like lineup in conjunction with a silly t-shirt, etc. promo. (regular 2fers OK).

MINUS: Mandatory all dancer parade sucks if it happens in the middle of your dances. Some clubs exempt dancers from parade if she's already getting VIP.

A brief parade is different than making us stay up there for two whole songs. I could dig an all-stage (well, maybe not dig it, but like it better) where each dancer just walks across the stage, poses for a sec, and then gets down rather than an all-stage where we just...stand there for a ridiculous amount of time.

Clubber, I do all-stages. I just hate them.

As a customer, I would also hate you being gone from my side for two songs FD. You wouldn't be making money and I wouldn't be having fun.

awww, how sweet! :D

fd,

I didn't intend to imply you didn't, but rather you always have a choice. That said, I prefer what I experienced in Austin, TX, the $1 dances. Also, the dancer that gave me the $1 dance made another $100. Had she not done the $1 dance, I know she would not have got that $100 from me!

I don't care one way or the other but it does serve one good purpose. I can count the number of dancers for my review.

I like when they do this too. At the club that I go to the most, they almost always do this on the night shift. And they usually do it a few times throughout the night. All the girls get up on stage and they just kind of stand there for about 5 minutes while the music is playing. Then, right as they are getting off stage, that's when they'll call out a 2-for 1 special.