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Thread: Contemplating getting back in game.

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    Veteran Member Alia_of_the_Knife's Avatar
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    Default Contemplating getting back in game.

    I live in North Eastern Ohio and havn't danced for a year... but now I am thinking of going back. Currently, 0I work as a math tutor (the pay isn't a lot but it's better than minimum wage.) I also go to school. I am not in complete financial dire straights but I really do miss what a dancer income can provide.

    I quit because
    1.) I was worried that the hours would affect me going to school.
    2.) I would drink too much.
    3.) Where I was dancing there were always undercover cops who were willing to bust you for not having all the pasty on your nipple. It made me paranoid to think of something like that on my record. I also was paranoid of the club being raided. (I'm sure that all the Northeast Ohio strippers know exactly on what street and what neighbor I danced in by this comment.)
    4.) All the crazy stresses that come with being a stripper.
    5.) My libido was going into oblivion. It still hasn't fully recovered.
    6.) It just seemed that there were less and less spending customers in every day. The few customers that we did get made the strip club look like chuckie cheese. It was hard to make money off of kids who still lived with their suburban parents but wanted to pretend that they were in some sick rap video/house party combo.

    But despite all that I really did love dancing. I loved the money and the hours. I was a very good earner, and the vast majority of the time I was a top earner. I left in February of 07 when people in Ohio were paranoid about the stripping ban and economy was going from crap to shit. I was mostly just getting paranoid and discouraged. Everyday just felt more like pulling teeth just to get a lap dance. When I started, it seemed that I spent more time dancing. Money seemed so easy to make and there were more paying customers. (The older strippers will probably laugh at this paragraph since I only worked for a few years but they know how things were in the 90s.)

    I feel that after taking a year off I am older and wiser about stripping (yeah, I know I am still a snot nosed, 22 year old kid.) I have read stripperweb off and on this entire time. I have busted out my old dusty copies of the dancer wealth home study course and superflirt. I feel like I am in better shape now than I was a year ago.

    So... for all the strippers who took an extended time off and got back into it... what made you come back and most importantly how did you do it? I feel better that I have experience but I am afraid that I may have "lost something" over the year. But I do have dreams. I have dreams of paying off all my debts and even having some type of nest egg for myself. I also had fun as a stripper.

    Sorry for the long post... I hope I don't sound like I have a split personality talking about how much I loved my job and then talking about things that I hated about it. I also hope it's legible considering how I have had no sleep and am writing this. Also if any strippers from N.E. Ohio could give me advice on clubs that are still alive, that would be appreciated.

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    Veteran Member Nina77's Avatar
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    Default Re: Contemplating getting back in game.

    I've gone back and forth over the last 4 years (mostly though my time off was cause I was pregnant lol)... but we have a lot in common. About 4 months ago I decided I was done for awhile- too many vice (I'm going to school to be a teacher and can't have a ticket on my record), schedule affecting my daily life, customers getting cheaper and cheaper.
    I have decided to go back.. I did my first shift back this past Wednesday.. it was nerve wracking, but once my shift was done I felt good. I didn't make a whole lot- it was a dayshift.. I'll be doing my first night shift next week.
    The best way to get back into it- is to just do it! Pack your bag, get all dolled up, and just go in.
    Good luck!

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    Featured Member thechaosfairy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Contemplating getting back in game.

    It sounds like your situation is very similar to mine, minus the attempt at gender transition and the fleeing to work in a foreign country. (Also as a teacher.) I quit in December '06. There's a post on Coming Out about what I've been doing in the meantime. I have a very weird life. I'm still overseas and I'm on the board again for some support as I prepare for my return in June.

    Things sucked for me a lot when I left the biz, and I, also, worry they'll suck when I get back.

    But I'm also remembering that it varies by week and by season, and more, that the clubs I worked in were definitely not the best ones in town, and *that* was because I was feeling too stressed to go and try to get into something better. And the stress showed at work, too, and nobody wants to buy three minutes of stressed dancing.

    For the last three or four months of dancing, I'm pretty sure I was clinically depressed. I'm finally sorting out my mental situation this year and I feel like my future is a lot brighter regardless of what option I take next.

    So, in amongst all of that, well -- it almost feels like what I have to offer is entirely different from what it was the last time I set foot in the dressing room of a strip club. Same body, new attitude, more wisdom -- a year away gives you distance, and it's easier to remember what you liked and what you didn't, what you did right and what you did wrong. And then you can commit to a different plan because you're not currently practicing old habits...
    Last edited by thechaosfairy; 02-29-2008 at 11:40 PM. Reason: rambling

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    Banned i.breathe.in's Avatar
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    Default Re: Contemplating getting back in game.

    NE ohio is shitty but getting a tad better with the end of the jan feb slump. if your a top earner then youll fair ok, but i wouldnt expect the same money as we made before i havent been seeing it on a regular basis and im a top earner myself. hopefully the primaries will go to the dems and people will get hopeful and start spending again.

    pasties law isnt bad, you just have to wear them after 12 am and wear them with booty shorts. the guys are pretty used to it now.

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    Veteran Member Alia_of_the_Knife's Avatar
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    Default Re: Contemplating getting back in game.

    Quote Originally Posted by thechaosfairy View Post
    a year away gives you distance, and it's easier to remember what you liked and what you didn't, what you did right and what you did wrong. And then you can commit to a different plan because you're not currently practicing old habits...
    I definatly want to keep that in mind!

    Thanks everyone! I have talked to a few people heard that the new law isn't screwing things up too bad and it is that slow time of year. I think I might start again as early as this weekend, definatly by the end of next week.

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    Default Re: Contemplating getting back in game.

    Taking time off is the best way to see stripping for what it is and for what it can offer you. When you're in it, it's easy to get lost in the fog and fall off track. I've left and returned to dancing several times. As long as you're hot you can move in and out of it as much as it suits you. For it to be worth it you must have a plan. Each time I returned I refined what I wanted from it and my ability to get it. And each time I returned stripping upped its ante (more contact, higher house fees).

    Here are some suggestions:

    * Sit down and write out exactly what you want from stripping. From what you mentioned this is what I'd do: 1. Save $1000 2. Pay off debt 3. Save 6 months emergency savings. After those necessities you can start to follow your dreams.

    * Give yourself a six month time limit. That's a short enough time to really focus your energy and wring stripping dry in your favor. When month #6 comes reassess, are you on target? Is it still working for you? If so do another 6 month plan, if not plan your escape. I say this because many dancers take time off, feel that they learned from it, but simply return to dancing. Without a plan and focus it's easy to find yourself adrift again.

    * Have a plan but also know there will be bad nights, slow nights, burnout etc. Don't make yourself crazy from it. Accept that it's a part of the big picture. Give yourself the time you need to take care of it then pick yourself up and get back to the plan.

    * You have to be your own advocate. Plan according to what will realistically work for you. If 6 nights of stripping would be impossible for you don't keep trying and failing, try 3 really strong committed shifts. When I returned I decided i wouldn't work past 9 or two nights in a row and it's worked very well for me. Figure out what will help you to stay positive and see potential where other dancers see broke-asses. You have to learn to surf your own wave in the sea of sharks.

    In terms of returning, just do it. Practice walking in the heels, grab an outfit, go to the club. You might be out of practice but you haven't lost anything.

    As for your love/hate feelings, I'm unapologetically bipolar about about stripping. It's been the source of my greatest freedom and also my ball and chain. So be it.

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    Default Re: Contemplating getting back in game.

    Quote Originally Posted by thechaosfairy View Post
    fleeing to work in a foreign country. (Also as a teacher.)
    That's exactly what I did the first time I quit! I remember shadow dancing against the shoji screens and strutting around on the tatami mats to see if I still "had it" as a stripper when I was teaching English in Japan.

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    Featured Member thechaosfairy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Contemplating getting back in game.

    Oh, shakti. You are so awesome. Both for your advice and for your similarity of experience. :-)

    I guess I can reveal where I am... it's certainly a big enough damn country. I'm just paranoid that someone will google details of my life and come up here. I'm in China. In the 'burbs in China, which is daunting. At the same time, though, it's really rewarding, because I have an obsession with seeing "how the other half lives" in every way possible... and China really is the other half of the world; so many people live here, and so differently, and yet it's not a third world country any longer, and...

    ...ah, I could go on, but I'd be rambling. :-)

    I'm currently trying to get some things sorted out, such as (a) how can I manage a non-fattening diet (I'm a vegetarian, and the local food usually leaves me craving ice cream) (b) how can I get a gym to attend reliably and (c) how the bloody heck can I get women's shoes in size US 9? 'Cause I just know I'll wobble if I come back to heels very suddenly. But mostly I'm afraid of not being able to lose the fat, because it's hard for me to find food here that isn't based on empty carbs...

    Anyway, again, those are awesome suggestions and they're going to be useful to me as well.

    Oh, and I just put up another thread about similarities between dancing and teaching.
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    Default Re: Contemplating getting back in game.

    Quote Originally Posted by i.breathe.in View Post
    pasties law isnt bad, you just have to wear them after 12 am and wear them with booty shorts. the guys are pretty used to it now.
    At my club we have to wear tiny circular clear band-aids over our nipple only. At all times. I didnt' mind it, and customers didnt' either. IMO that's better than ugly pasties.

    Good luck Alia, and tell me how it goes.







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