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A ways back a friend of mine got along well with the strippers at a club in Greenville, SC. I went with him a few times, but my means were not enough to visit regularly (not that I didn't want to!) This is what he learned and shared with me:

Strippers pay the house for the privilege of stripping, and have to tip the "house mom" and DJ as well. By the time they hit the stage, they are $50 - $100 down. No insurance, either.

In order to make this up they have to hustle a bit. The dollar tips they get on stage are pretty trivial compared to what they can make doing lap dances and visiting the "VIP" room. When I went with him, lap dance were $10, and the lounge was $25. Haven't been in years so I don't know what is now.

The best of them had "regulars" they took care over. The smart ones hustled and looked for dances; the not-so-smart ones sat around and let guys buy them drinks. Guess which ones can make a $1000?

It is all cash, so don't look for them to pay much in the way of taxes on it. On the other hand, the walk to parking log can be pretty worrisome.

The waitresses didn't sell you drinks. They bought them from the bar and sold them to you. If you stiffed them, the club didn't lose money, the waitress did.

Many strippers do have self destructive lifestyles. During one visit, a drunk dance fell off the stage... The rest were various melodramatic stories told to my friend. You can decide how guess was true and how much was a pitch for sympathy. Basically they included the usual: shiftless or abusive boyfriends, etc.

The highest aspiration I saw among them was to become a massage therapist. I used to think this was pretty low, until I got a professional massage (and had to pay for it...). One exception was stripper named Sugar, who my friend liked. She was older (in her 40's believe or not!) had danced in Vegas shows, and had a BA. She became assistant manager and later manager of the club, mostly 'cause she wasn't a slimebag like the previous manager. She was a hustler and made the profession pay.

Despite the multiple colleges in Greenville, neither of us ever met a student working her way through college as stripper. Then again, Bob Jones would not have approved. Dunno about Furman or Greenville Tech...

Prostitution didn't seem to be an issue. The cops lean pretty heavily on the strip clubs. In one case they dropped off a bunch of buttons for the strippers to sell - if I'm not mistake, they took payment from the club up front, and the club forced 'em on th girls, over and above their usual fee... amusin' eh?

Didn't hear about any of them being murdered. Didn't here about drugs, either.

Stripping isn't exactly the straight and narrow path, but if you are low skill, have a nice body, and modicum of intelligence it isn't a bad way to make some money. And there are lonely geeks and nerds (like me) and businessmen on expense accounts out there who need something to entertain them.

This all from one club (there was biker club on the other side of the highway, but we avoided it...) so I don't know how much applies to other clubs.

Personally, I think it has the potential for a pretty good sitcom...