Re: hiring...but no room?!?!
Which city are you in? Was it a topless or nude club? The part of the country you're in can make a big difference. Some clubs have gone really downhill while others are doing fine.
Re: hiring...but no room?!?!
I'm in NY state, about 40 minutes from NYC. It's a nude club.
Re: hiring...but no room?!?!
As a black entertainer I have experienced that line often. The scheduling manager most likely isn't interested in you.
Go back and talk to the guy who supposedly hired you and be firm but articulate with him about gtting the run around. Do it IN PERSON.
You will never be called in to work. There re WAAAYto many dancers in all major cities now compared to the business. Some clubs will hire most everyone who walks in the door if they don't work on schedules like Texas, or Arizona for example, and other managers are told to only hire who you would fuck.
If arguing the matter doesn't work,get hired somewhere else and keep hounding them every week until you get in.
The titty bar business is slower EVERYWHERE and NO CLUB NEEDS girls. The ones that hire just want new faces to keep the guys coming in.
Re: hiring...but no room?!?!
Tina-
The guy who hired me was the manager. The scheduling guy never saw me. I hate this bullshit. I wish people would just be forthright with me. How long should I wait before going in to talk to the manager who hired me. Should I even bother? The only thing is is that this club is right by me. All the others would be about a 40 minute commute. I have a full-time job that I have to commute an hour for (one way) five times a week. Hell if I'm going to do it for a stripclub.
Re: hiring...but no room?!?!
I wentthrough this same thing at the Wild Goose club in LA over the summer. I auditioned on Thursday was told I as hired and to call so an so on Saturday and when i called my name was not on the schedule and then I was told to call Sunday and talk to the owner. He then told be business was down and he didn't need any more girls.
I would go back in about a week and take it from there. I know lots of girls myself included who had to go back to a club 4-5 times or more just to get a foot in the door.
Maybe you could offer your services on a night or 2 from Sunday- Wednesday and see if you could get in that way.
Re: hiring...but no room?!?!
Sounds like you got hired indeed, but are sitting on a 'waiting' list'. That is rare. Too many girls in the club working the night you showed up. I would go back before opening, and talk with whom ever it was that hired you, let them know you are a mover and a shaker and would be a great asset to the club. Period. You want in..now to work that evening. Give me a chance, let me do the job i was hired for. And if up front and bold does not work (not bitchy of course) walk away! They don't deserve your services. I know you say it's closer. No need to get off on bad footing with them. Get in prove it....or leave them behind, they are not worth it. Pamela
Re: hiring...but no room?!?!
Hi Athena,
I have worked at 2 clubs in my dance career that do schedules far in advance. I don't know what state you work but every place is different. The first club that I am speaking of is in Danbury Conn., a topless gentlemens club that does bookings/ schedules 1 month in advance. So if you did an audition say on a Tuesday, the first Tuesday of the month and expected to work that week the schedule may already be full. Another club in Bridgeport Conn. topless also does schedules 1 month in advance. I did an audition got hire and the manager said she would call me back for my schedule. Well days went by and no call. I finally called and she said she was busy call back. After 2 times of her telling me to call back I never did. To make a long story short I went back to this club within the next couple of months went through the whole audition got hire again and while filling out the application the manager remembers me and asked didn't you work here before. I told her the whole story and she went on to say when I did my audition there were so many girls that they probably took care of their house girls(regular dancers) first and then there was probably no room on the schedule but I should have kept calling back. Mind you I did my audition on Tues. Feb. 13 and didn't get my first booking until Tues. Feb. 27 two weeks later. I guess you should find out when the schedules are done and make it a point tocall the club that specific day.
Good Luck,
Tori
Re: hiring...but no room?!?!
Actually, the majority of the clubs in the NYC/NJ/CT area with decent earnings potential do operate on the principle of "bookings" rather than the more conventional one club house dancer. It's not at all unusual to audition and be "approved" for future bookings, but then having to wait 2 or 4 or even 6 weeks to book time in the club's schedule. The clubs do this deliberately to #1 provide a supply of "fresh meat" for customers rather than the same group of girls night after night and week after week, #2 to easily get rid of girls who do not earn well for the club or who "cause problems" once they actually start dancing, and #3 to quickly make room for new girls of "outstanding potential" to take the place of girls with mere "potential" without all the hassle of firing them. Club/dancer competition in the NYC/NJ/CT area is absolutely fierce, and there are many more dancers with "potential" seeking work than there are available openings in clubs with good earning potential, hence the "bookings" system. With so many girls waiting to book future nights, the club doesn't need to make any kind of effort to remember a particular dancer, or to encourage her to book time in the club's schedule. If you call on the day the next week's schedule (or next month's schedule or whatever lead time the club schedules) you've got a chance to book yourself in. But it's up to YOU to find out when this occurs and it's up to YOU to call the club at the appropriate time. If you don't there are dozens of other girls who will, and they'll wind up with the booking instead of you.
Not to be critical, but I have had years of experience with clubs in this area. Your request to only book a friday or saturday night without being willing to work weeknights when the club is more in need of girls with "outstanding potential" because weeknight earnings are lower, frankly, made you come across to club management as a prima donna. If you had "outstanding potential" and were travelling in from hundreds of miles away to stay for the weekend as many girls do, the club may have tolerated your wanting to book a thursday, friday and saturday and not other weeknights. However, if you are driving in from less than an hour away, club management would undoubtedly expect you to be a bit more accomodating in regard to weeknights. This would be particularly true if your "potential" is less than outstanding, as there are undoubtedly other dancers of similar potential waiting to book any nights of the week the club is willing to let them schedule.
Again, I'm not trying to be critical in any way, it's just a fact that under current business conditions that clubs with decent earning potential have SO many girls waiting to book future weeknights or entire weeks that the club owners do not need to make special accomodations for any girl even if she is a "perfect 10". This is particularly true because there are probably many other dancers working at the club who have already tried to only book the high earnings potential weekends and have been told that if they want to work a weekend night they also need to work a weekday night. If the club allowed you to do this, it might very well piss off a large number of other dancers once they find out, and no smart clubowner is going to let that situation develop.
You can indeed take the attitude of "leave them behind, they're not worth it". However, as you probably already know since you live in the area, every club with decent earning potential will basically operate on the same system. Every club with decent earning potential has plenty of girls with "potential" and a few with "outstanding potential" on their waiting list who are ready and eager to work under these conditions. In fact, because many clubs in the NYC/NJ/CT area are managed by the same owners, besides working weekdays along with weekends there is now starting to be an expectation by club management that girls must work at other clubs in the "chain" with lower earning potential in order to be given preferential bookings in the other clubs in the "chain" with high earning potential. Therefore, NO club with decent earning potential is going to go out of their way to allow you to "cherry-pick" weekend customers but not help out on weeknights, and "chain" clubs may not allow you to book your favorite club exclusively without helping out at lesser clubs owned by the same "chain". In the NorthEast it's now pretty typical for dancers to book time in a rotation of different clubs owned by the same "chain", managing their schedule 4 to 6 weeks ahead.
A word of warning though - there is beginning to be a very high level of competition BETWEEN CLUB CHAINS in the NYC/NJ/CT area. As a result, girls who book time with one chain may very well NOT be allowed to also book time in clubs operated by a competing chain. It's getting to the point where the chain clubs actually send "spies" into competing clubs to see which girls are dancing where! Again, because the club owners have SO many willing dancers to choose from, they can afford to "disqualify" any dancer they choose for any reason even if she is a "perfect 10". Welcome to "Exotic Dancing 2003"!
There ARE other clubs in the area which I am sure would be glad to have you for only one weekend night, however as you probably also know the earnings potential in these sort of clubs will be lower and/or the "mileage requirement" is likely to be much higher. It may not be this way in other areas of the country (YET!), but in the NorthEast there's no getting around it.
Re: hiring...but no room?!?!
Went through something similar at the Kat. Had to stay pretty much "on call" for a few months, and as girls quit or were fired, I got more and more scheduled days.
McCain