Panhandled In The Strip Club
sinclair
Strip Club Nation
I was in an ESL strip club, standing and watching the stage from the balcony. A black guy walks up to me and starts chatting small talk. He is dressed a buttoned shirt and vest, groomed.
After about a minute or two of talking, he cuts to the chase, "It is my birthday and I'm trying to have a good time tonight. I need two more dollars to get another beer. Can you help a brother out on his birthday?"
This took me by surprise. In all of my years of clubbing, I have never had a patron come up to me and beg for money. I think he might have been a broke guy that got in with one of the free entry cards that were being handed out at the Mardi Gras parade earlier that day. I did not observe him tipping any ladies or buying any private dances, so maybe he only had enough money for one $7 beer and not enough for a second bottle.
Have any of you ever encountered panhandling patrons at a strip club?
After about a minute or two of talking, he cuts to the chase, "It is my birthday and I'm trying to have a good time tonight. I need two more dollars to get another beer. Can you help a brother out on his birthday?"
This took me by surprise. In all of my years of clubbing, I have never had a patron come up to me and beg for money. I think he might have been a broke guy that got in with one of the free entry cards that were being handed out at the Mardi Gras parade earlier that day. I did not observe him tipping any ladies or buying any private dances, so maybe he only had enough money for one $7 beer and not enough for a second bottle.
Have any of you ever encountered panhandling patrons at a strip club?
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16 comments
clubs that charge a few cover charge during the day to keep out those who don't even have a few dollars to spend.
But one time I had 50 Euros in my wallet and I was short of US Cash. I asked the barmaid if she'd take it; it was worth about $67. She said no, but the guy next to me gave me $50 US for it so that worked out!
Once I was at a club when there was an obnoxious homeless guy who kept trying to talk to everyone. Rather than panhandle, he offered me the rest of his drink he said he didn't like. Otherwise, it has been the other way around, with people offering to give me stuff. E.g., at a BYOB nude club, someone gave me a free bottle of beer, once a guy offered me some $ to tip the dancer that I guess he wanted to tip and I wasn't interested in. I encouraged him to tip her, and finally he did. Probably part of it was that he wanted to have a buddy in the club rather than being on his own.
In general, I would take an unopened beer as a friendly gesture, but refuse any $ offers like buying me a dance. I once accepted that, and the dancer was a ROB and said that since he gave her the money directly instead of me, that was it just a tip to her and I owed her the full price of the two dances we did.
In fact, it's reported in studies that women are far more sympathetic to panhandlers than men. Could you imagine a stripper "wanna dancing" a PL, only to have him launch into a spiel about how it's his birthday and he just got out of the hospital and he only needs 5 more dollars for a bus ticket?
I had that problem with too many Euros and low USDs, in Europe. The country I was in had a beef with the Euro and a lot of places wouldn't accept the currency. I ended up doing a cash exchange at a strip club and had to take whatever the bartender's rate was.
These days I am seeing more panhandlers in rural communities where 10 years ago you didn't see them.