So the INTEROP convention is this week though you would have never known it. Once NAB (National Association of Broadcasters.. the largest Vegas convention still, I believe) is over with it means the end of convention season is winding down. Darnit! Next come the summer time travelers and the families. Quite a few bachelor parties remain but I worry gas prices might hinder the traffic coming in from California this summer. Southern California drivers flood the I-15 on Friday afternoons trying to escape Los Angeles or San Deigo… they tend to do the last minute traveling plan and get one room for 5 guys but sometimes it works out.. keeps the money flowing into the town for sure.

Now for some random questions I get asked repeatedly to continue on with this series

Lots of customers ask me how I got to Las Vegas… which I usually respond with a quirky, “I drove here”, to get a chuckle out of them. Really I first started coming here during the summer months to escape the slow season in the topless clubs that I worked in back home. It worked out well and I would make way more money than I would have before. I sometimes would pay off only my tip-out at the clubs back home due to the number of men staying at home with their kids while they were off from school or would be out on vacations. Why not work where they went FOR vacation? Was a good plan for sure.

Then their next question is: “How did you start doing this?” The answer is a slightly complex one that I’d rather not go into, but basically when I was working in the clubs in my home state I was already dealing with levels of prostitution but in denial about it. Complete denial. After getting fed up with dealing with working in Las Vegas strip clubs where it is hustle or die with no regulars, I decided to give an agency a shot. I was sick and tired of the men hassling me and begging me to solicit then only give me 20 bucks for a pathetic dance. Things in Vegas were changing at the times in the strip clubs: massive clubs were being built, Cheetahs/Jaguar’s owner was under federal indictment, and I had been about 10-15 lbs overweight and that never helps when you want to get the good shift at the Spearmint Rhino from a manager named John who is notorious for being highly selective. I lied to the first agency I went to and said I had worked for an agency before but not in Las Vegas. Looking back I acted like a complete imbecile when dealing with them, but I learned a lot. I also came to learn that I worked for the toughest agency in town (and still is to this day) so at least I started out with the worst which means it can only get better! I got a different, less tough agency to work for soon after then (which is now owned by some one else who recently just lost their *mind*), and met a girl who referred me to a service that I still work for today. That’s my little story of how I began… it’s been almost 5 years since I started working out here, and it’s still completely unpredictable.

Apparently some lawyer from Arizona thinks he has reason to fight a long fight in Nevada and sue the topless clubs to allow strippers to receive wages from the clubs so that they would be employees instead of independent contractors. While I agree with this, perhaps, if I still lived in my former home state where I was a dancer for a number of years then I would be totally for this and think that his firm has a chance. In fact after reading the article in the Review Journal I found out that they have fought it in court to allow such a thing in my home state.

The main reason why I am so, “yea good luck there, buddy” to this lawyer is because Las Vegas just doesn’t fall into the same guides like other states do. Girls come to Las Vegas often for one weekend to make a grip of cash and then leave to go back home. They never will return again. In fact it was reported that there are 10,000 adult entertainers who are registered in the county. That is insane to have to keep up with that amount of paper work. It is not that common to find a stripper at the same club over a long period of time. As many times as I have been to the Rhino over the past five years I know of 2 girls who have been there for more than a couple of years. Go to the same club I worked at before back home? I will still know about 5-10 girls and I haven’t worked there in several years.

I am all about fair and just treatment for girls working in the clubs but Las Vegas is an anomaly of it’s own. The club that is mentioned in the article is also a more seedy not so busy club downtown, the Glitter Gultch. If I worked there I would probably want hourly wages, too! Heh. Another downside girls see is that their tips will be reported and can’t get away with flubbing on their taxes so much. All in all? I say take the battle to other states or fight for the prostitutes out in the brothels who want benefits and don’t mind paying for it. That would be a campaign for a more just cause. Read more in the Review-Journal over here

Sorry the posts have been slim lately. I am out of town right now and brought this newspaper article with me as I left town. Definitely worth a talk…