A private party dancer/agency owner comes clean
No this is not going to be about me having sex at parties. Sorry to disappoint but that never happened. However, I'll relate a few things I experienced while dancing and owning an agency.
1)Yes I did turn down customers. I wanted a certain clientele (mostly professionals). Who was undesirable? The main ones were people from the ghetto. As you are aware Chicago has a lot of housing projects and certainly did back in the 90's. When I would get a call from Cabrini Green or Robert Taylor Homes I would often say I had no dancers. First though I would ask the dancer if they were willing to go then I sent them, but most of my dancers (of all races)didn't want to go. Yes this is wrong, but it comes down to safety. I myself personally turned down jobs in known bad areas. I should mention that I did do dances in legendary safe black areas and did turn down areas that were known white problem areas, so no it was never about race. Many of my regulars were professional black men and they were without a doubt probably the best customers I could have because they NEVER asked for anything dirty.
2)By that same token there were certain professions I was not too keen to do parties for. The biggest one? Cops. I had nothing but problems with cops so I stopped booking them unless a dancer was willing to do them. The reason they were trouble? for one, they were the worst when it came to asking for extras. I know, sounds funny but very true. I often wondered if in fact they were set up to ask and try to arrest a dancer. I had heard a story of a dancer (not someone employed by me)who got arrested at a bachelor party full of cops. That aside they were just jerks and would be nasty for no reason. Out of all the parties I did the worst were for cops.
3)If I did a party for cheapskates I left early and big spenders I stayed longer. Many of the biggest cheapskates I danced for were college boys. They generally weren't a problem with being handsy but were cheap. Frat boys however, could be problems, especially if it was a frat party. Also, race wise the cheapest I dealt with were Indians or Mexicans. I don't know why, but I suspect this has to do with most of the ones I dealt with were recent immigrants and from cultures were dancers are generally whores. Just a guess. I didn't have this problem with Indians or Mexicans who were not recent immigrants.
4)I am going to reveal the dirtiest secret and that is sometimes I booked a dancer unseen for a party. The reason being that I needed a dancer and someone I knew recommended someone. This happened a few times and most of the dancers were not ones who stayed with me. In fact most of them weren't very good and had I not needed someone ASAP I never would have hired them.
I'll some more in a later post if there's interest.
Re: A private party dancer/agency owner comes clean
Kelly, I have no doubt at all the you could write a book--in fact, I'm sure that your autobiography would be a fascinating read!
You're a very articulate person, and, most important, you always have something to say that is very much worth reading.
I'm sure that I'm only one among many others who would greatly enjoy (and learn from!) reading about your experiences.
Re: A private party dancer/agency owner comes clean
Thanks Grac. One day I will publish a book about my experiences because some are so hard to believe. Probably the funniest ones are the people who thought they could name their price (this is before the internet was dominant).