"Why not?"

'I'm still recovering from my last dance right now' and give a little chuckle. The giggle and walk away. Works everytime.

HERE ARE A FEW WHY NOT's FOR THE EXCUSE CHALLENGED:

"My cock got shot off in Iraq."

"I was seriously injured in a freak zipper accident last week and don't want to pop open my scabs by getting a boner."

"I don't wear my Depends to the club because it interferes with the feeling. But I'm afraid if I get jostled around I'll become violently incontinent."

"RL stole my last five dollars."

"Because your breath smells like onions and poop."

"I'm waiting for that other dancer, She said that she would pack my fudge with a strap-on."

"I heard you were a pre-op."

Sorry, it is against my professional principles to argue for free, and I don't think any dancers are interested in paying my usual hourly rate. I just say, "I'm waiting for someone (deleting the end of the sentence: "...that I like/that I find attractive/that isn't a bitch"), and that has always been enough to get the dancer to move on.

"It might be fun to classify these openings and give them quaint names like they do in chess books, heh."

Indeed. I think gambits, as in chess, would be a big part of opening theory: risking losing the stripper or customer in order to build more attraction.

Anyone done any formal work on this yet?

AN: The "why nots" are also rarely heard at some high hustle clubs. At Mitchell Brothers, for example, you'll get an endless string of "wanna dance" offers, but "yes" or "no" is all they listen for. You'd get no further than, "Maybe later, I'm..." and she'd have moved on already.

I must go to lower-key clubs. Not only have I rarely heard the "wanna dance?" pitch, I have NEVER had the "Why not?" follow up. When answering the "Wanna dance?" I often included a pretense, such as maybe later I'm getting settled, or I'm waiting for someone, so I probably prempted some of them.

"I'm waiting for someone (else)," leaving out the else. That's the truth, more or less; I'm not interested in getting dances from her.

The dancer-customer opening and response is like openings in chess; there are a bunch of standard inquiry-response pairs at the beginning which can lead, as shadowcat alluded, to more interesting conversations. It might be fun to classify these openings and give them quaint names like they do in chess books, heh.

Say you're just in the club to visit some of your friends.