Battle of wills – sorta

Some dancers won't take anything off in VIP until you promise a tip.

I have experienced this, but not too often; so I think it has more to do with customers not tipping. Usually when I see this happen, its when the club has a low volume of customers and the majority of them aren't tipping. Thus you have girls going on stage and receiving little to no money.

I will say this though; I have been to clubs where people are tipping and SOME (not all) of the girls don't take their tops off. They just take their bottoms off and that's it

In this battle, the dancers who strip for tips, instead of expecting tips to strip, almost always get more tip money in the end. But stage dances shouldn't be mainly about tips. They are an audition for lap dances which bring far more $. Thus, every girl should strip regardless of the tip, because that's the best way to market yourself for dances. Focusing on stage tips is shortsighted and ineffective marketing.

^ good point JS – in my PL mind when I see a dancer half-assing it on stage; I kinda black-ball her w.r.t future prospective LDs (unless she is too fine then I kinda cut her some slack :))

Stage performance is a huge audition for me on whether or not that dancer will get my lap dance dollars. Bad attitude on stage for a few dollars does not bode well for a better attitude on the couch.

Like GoVikings, yeah, I've seen a dancer keep her top on if there's people in the place but no one at the stage.

Honestly, it's rare that a girl's top being on or off influences whether I go up to tip. You can tell whether or not she's worth tipping with her top on, so it's not like she's gaining or losing anything by keeping the top on, at least in my world.

or McDonalds clerks who wont serve fries

I work in a topless bar, and we have to take our tops off within 30 seconds of first song, regardless of who is tipping or not tipping. Management is very strict about this.

Why go to a strip club if the girls don't take off their tops?

I've seen it a couple of times, too. I don't know if it's just an entitled attitude some dancers cop (the sight of my boobs is worth x number of dollars, so no money, no boobs), but part of it could just be the energy in the place, too. Few customers and no energy and enthusiasm from them = a lack of energy and enthusiasm from the dancers. A lack of energy and enthusiasm from the dancers = a lack of energy and enthusiasm from the customers. But someone has to break the cycle, and considering the dancers are supposed to be the professionals there, IMO, it should be them.

It was a quiet night at one club in Indy. The dancer took the stage, lethargically walked around the pole a couple of times, then just sat down. Didn't do anything. The DJ yanked her (had her sent home, too, if I remember right). Course then the dancer he called up to the stage had to be the one sitting with me.

At another club in Indy, on another quiet night, I went back into the VIP with one dancer. When she took her top off, she told me I was the first guy to see her boobs that night -- and this was around midnight.

Course, in Fargo, I've also seen guys start to line up to tip one 50-year-old dancer I know before she's even started to take her clothes off. While she's pretty much just a strutter on stage, she still manages to own it and project a smoldering intensity and energy. She tends to get far more stage-side tips than a lot of the younger dancers who seem to think all they have to do is take off their tops and walk around.

'Round here, there's one place with three places for dancers to dance: "Up top," which is the center stage where dancers start, "Side 1," which is their second destination, and "Side 2," in front of the DJ booth where they do their last song.

Rule is, Up Top, you've gotta have a top on unless you're getting a tip, then you can lift it for the tip. Side 1, you've gotta show something -- maybe it's take the top off, or if you've got a shirt, you have to open it. Then Side 2, you've gotta show something more. Maybe it's take the shirt off, or maybe you take off a pair of panties to reveal a G-string, or whatever.

Just the policy of that club, I guess.

I usually tip 2-5 greenbacks on Pervert Row, depending on the gal on stage. Hey, even ugly strippers got bills to pay.

I see that fairly frequently at some clubs, particularly Spearmint Rhino and Scores. I don't often go to the black clubs, but it almost seems to be the norm in those. I also see a lot of girls only taking off part of their outfit unless tipped "enough." It annoys the shit out of me.

Unless the girl is much hotter than the other dancers at that club, and is the only one there who is that hot, I'm more stubborn than them. I won't tip girls who meander around stage with their clothes on. I've sat stage side for 4/5 girls in a row and not tipped a cent because I didn't see a single nipple.

For the most part, if its more than one girl in a row with that attitude, I leave. It won't keep me from going back ever, but its something I'll consider next time I'm out. Sometimes I'll go out of my way to make it known that I'm willing to tip to see if I can get them to break, but the success rate is fairly low. On occasion sitting at the stage and tipping the waitress a couple extra bucks for shaking her ass at me or popping a boob out has been enough to turn the tide. Sometimes tipping the first girl who takes her clothes off works too.

As far as what the girls are thinking, I have no clue. I don't talk to those girls. I often wonder what management is thinking though. I know I can't be the only one who leaves a club much quicker when the girls on stage have clothes on. They can't make any money off me when I leave. That's one of the advantages Cheetah has over other local clubs, they enforce a topless on the 2nd song and nude on the 3rd song rule. If a girl still has her top on in the 2nd song the DJ starts announcing 2nd song 'dancer name' and either she takes it off or I've seen a bouncer come pull her off stage and escort her to the back. I've actually tipped the DJ for being on top of that shit. Tootsies must have a similar rule, cause I've never seen a bitch pull that shit there. In both cases, I've gone to those clubs over nearby choices for that reason.

grand posted: "Bad attitude on stage for a few dollars does not bode well for a better attitude on the couch."

Agreed, and girls with this classic 'I won't take anything off if they don't tip me first" attitude are shooting themselves in the foot. In every club where I've seen this happen, more guys tip the girls who take more off, all else being equal. And those same girls end up in the back far more often.

There is one nude club in CT where the girls are notorious for doing this. Many of them won't even go topless unless a guy approaches with cash in hand. No skin off my teeth. They have already told me everything I need to know about their personalities, so I just keep my money in my pocket. If an attractive, fun one gets up on the stage, I become motivated to get off my ass and spend some cash, but on some nights the entire crew is doing this stuff.

No "battle of wills" needed really. If you want to hasten the departure of the uptight ones from the business, just don't reward bad behavior. I don't. It's a strip club, not a peep show. If a girl doesn't want to do her proper set, then she is dead to me. If an entire crew is acting like that, then they are all dead to me. End of story. There is always tomorrow at another club. :)

To the best of my knowledge; most clubs have rules w.r.t. dancers having to take off their outfits at some point on stage – if the stage set is a multi-song set; then often times by the 2nd song at the most the dancer has to be at least topless – but this is usually in the more upscale and/or well-managed clubs – in the dives often times the dancers have very little rules and often do w/e they want which is often the case in black clubs for example – in black clubs you can get anything from butt naked to “I have no clue what customer service is so I just do whatever” – plus often times it appears to me black custies in black dives don’t give a shit as long as the dancer shakes her ass.

To me stage dancing is simply the way for dancers to advertises their wares. The big money being in lap dances or in the back room. Their are some dancers that rarely if ever appear on stage because they don't need to advertise. The customers especially their regulars already know what to expect off stage. These girls generally have to pay a higher tip out but they are making enough that they don't mind.

For this reason at my favorite club I rarely tip on stage. The girls know what the score is and they take it all of regardless of the amount of tips. They are lucky if a 3 song set will get them $10 but they realize the importance of advertising.

At other clubs I too have seen the ones that don't take anything off and I have noted that they are not getting any tips and not getting many dances when they get off stage. They are the first to complain about how bad business is. Their loss not mine.

They are not selling their personalities, they are selling gawking rights.

It is my custom to try to tip every dancer on stage $2 or more. (I sometimes get "distracted" by a girl sitting with me) .However, I NEVER tip until the girl is topless. "No tit, no tip!"

This is one issue I have with my favorite club. Not with every dancer, of course, but there are some who refuse to show anything without a tip. This may be a sign of ineffective management, though, because when the owner is there, they do strip all the way, but when one of his assistants is in charge, that's when they act up. Then again, maybe they all worked at the Out House in Lawrence, KS once. That's one place I know for sure where they have a "No tip, no strip" rule.