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Unread Posted: 01-29-2009, 05:28 PM   #1
Irelynx
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Joined: May 2006
Location: NC
Age: 38
Posts: 10
Reviews: 4
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Post RE: Copperheads Strip Club Review Review
Review
Date at Club: 01/01/2009 Customers per Dancer: 2 Management: Great
Overall Rating: Rated: 8 stars by Irelynx Mileage Expected: Air Dances Booking Delay: A Day or Two
Dancer Quality: 9-10 Customers: Travelers
Fees: Non-Existent Dances per Customer: 2-3 Selling dances: Average
Hiring Tips: Audition sober, do yourself up for the first meeting
Additional Information
I want to start off by saying that I've worked here since June of 2007.

Back in the summer of 2008 the club changed their hours to run from 8pm-3am. It was intended to be temporary/summer, but ended up being permenant. So customers can come in at 8pm, but dancers don't need to be on the floor until 9pm. Business is typically slow enough on Thursdays that the doors close early, but that's usually the favorite day for big spenders who don't like crowds. It is, however, usually the last bar in town to close. Alot of the time people don't start coming in until 10pm, and there's not usually a steady flow until 12am; partially a result of other bars closing early, and partially due to most customers being night owls. We always say that if things don't pick up around midnight, then they're probably not going to at all that night. Sometimes the club is packed, sometimes it's a comfortable ratio, and other times it's really slow. Lately it hasn't been leaning toward any one in particular. If it's dead one weekend, the next usually makes up for it. If it's slow one day, it's usually busy or decent one of the other days that week.

The club used to hire anything that walked in the door. Then there was a manager change, so the worst dancers (looks and attitude/drama) were weeded out. Then because of a dancer shortage, standards in the looks department were lowered somewhat. However, now that there has been a good flow of new dancers, only the top ones have been hired. The lighting covers stretch marks really well, cellulite acceptably, and other minor blemishes. The manager looks for a nice body; doesn't have to be slim, just has to be attractive, and there have been curvy girls who were tight/toned and just wore outfits that worked with their body. She also looks for a pretty face. But her biggest pet peeve is teeth. If a girl doesn't have reasonably nice teeth, or they're noticably yellow/unclean, she pretty much says no right off the bat.

Most of the people that come in tend to be travelers or people from Albany. We've had people from other countries here on business, people on vacation from other states, lots of people from NYC on a regular basis, the (mostly) younger crowd from Albany, and a wide range of locals. Locals are anywhere from blue-collar to business owners, and spending is never predictable with them. Some business owners rarely spend a dime, some blue-collars spend most of their hard earned money; and vice versa. There's always new people stopping in, whether local or not, and there's a good base of club regulars (who spend on several/every girl). The vast majority of the customers have said they come there specifically due to not feeling hustled, so they can relax & spend their money without feeling like someone is forcing them to spend. Anytime a dancer bugs about dances, customers start complaining; and these are customers who are regulars & always spend well on several dancers (and drinks) without being hassled.

With the economy lately, the money isn't predictable. There are nights where girls walk out with $300-500, even $700, no problem. But there are also nights where we all struggle to walk with $100-200 (sometimes it's a struggle to do over $50). There aren't any girls that always make top dollar. Some nights one girl might do really well, and other nights a different girl may be the crowd favorite.

The club is strictly no contact, which is my biggest reason for only working there. The bouncer & manager (and DJ, who always sees the cameras in VIP) are always on the ball. Girls who give or allow contact get warned, and eventually fired if it continues. You can touch a guy's chest with your hands, but any sexualized touching is prohibited (such as grinding on them, or them touching you, or kissing/licking, etc.). I know some girls hate no contact clubs, but I actually like it. It puts everyone on a level playing field, pretty much eliminates the guys who expect touching, and puts less stress on everyone.

You're only topless on stage, and only when you're 6ft from a customer. Any closer & you have to cover your nipples. It can get annoying when customers bug you about it, but it does keep them from being tempted to grab them or something when they go to stage tip (out of sight, out of mind...off limits).

As for the dances in general, there are several types. You're not allowed to charge less than minimum (who would want to), and you're not allowed to charge over it either; you can ask for a tip on top of the minimum, but a customer can't be kicked out if they don't give you extra. It's a minimum $5 for a lapdance, which takes place at a barstool or chair. It's a minimum $10 for a couch dance. My favorite are the table dances. There are rings above the tables you can hold on to, but what you do is get on top of the table & dance. Those are $5 for every person sitting at the table during the dance; so 4ppl at the table while you dance for one song on top of the table, $20 for you. The only downside is that you can't do a table dance when a girl is on stage, which is understandable if there are only a handful of customers (so all eyes would be on you instead of the girl on stage), but it can get kind of annoying when the club is busy. At that point stage rotation is going a little faster, so it's hard to squeeze in the table dance whn no one is on stage. Though you can tend to get away with doing one while a girl is on stage if the club is busy enough.

The VIP here isn't what it is at most other clubs. It's not a pay by the (insert time here) room. It's done per song. So the person pays the bartender for the VIP(s), you do the dance, and you get your cut of the money at the end of the night. It's $25 for one song; you get $13 of that. After 11pm it's $40 for 2 songs (you get $20), or $60 for 3 (you get $30). I've also seen girls sell 4 songs at $80. All of those prices are only if the customer buys X VIP's up front. If they buy one, then go back and buy another one it's $25 each. The club also does 2 girls for one song at a rate of $40, but each girl only gets $10 if I remember correctly. I haven't done one in a while since it's not something most of us try to sell.

There are a lot of rules, but they're posted in the dressing room for the forgetful, and they're easy to remember once you've worked a few weekends. It's all things like... money garter required, topless only on stage, 6" during lapdances, no straddling, no grinding, no cellphones on the floor, no contact, no underselling, no giving/recieving #'s (allowed only through bartender), etc.

You're not supposed to kiss another dancer, whether it's a peck on the lips or full on making out. You're also not supposed to recieve a stage tip from another dancer without covering your nipples (even if you're 6ft from customers), but this one sometimes gets overlooked.

The club sells snacks, there's a kitchen in the first floor bar, and we've also got take-out menus. We can eat while we're working, but if customers are there or come in during, we have to go eat in the back. But there can't be any more than 2 girls in there at any time, and customers tend to come in the minute food arrives, so it's better to just eat at home and just snack here & there at work.

There is no fee to work at the club. There's no mandatory tipout, unless you have a good night, in which case it's a nice gesture. You aren't required to sell drinks or anything like that. However, if you do drink, being a sloppy drunk is risking getting you fired if you're new. On that same note, doing drugs at work almost always results in getting sent home immediately, and in a lot of cases girls have been fired on the spot (if they were new) or after a repeat offense (if they weren't new). Girls are fine if they want to do something before/after work when they're not on the property, but if it affects their work then they're likely to get sent home.

The cops stop in often because there are so many bars in that vicinity. They usually just stand in the doorway & ask the bouncer if there have been any problem customers, and they'll usually say what the crowd is like elsewhere (if everywhere is dead, or 1-2 bars have all the people, or that we're actually the busiest, etc). If the bouncer isn't at the door they'll usually step in & look around & just wait for him to come back...which is nice because if he had to grab liquor from another floor & a customer gets out of hand while he's gone, that means the cops are like a backup bouncer at that point.

The manager is also the bartender, and she has worked there since they opened in August '05. She usually does her job well. Sometimes she contradicts herself, where she'll say one thing, forget, and then tell you that you should be doing something else. Or she won't see that you've talked to the crowd & she'll tell you to go talk to someone you already did. But in general she's good at her job. She'll point out customers with good money. She'll boot customers who get out of line. She usually takes a dancer's word over a customer's unless she saw it happen or has reason not to trust either party. She's in charge of hiring/firing and hates drama just as much as us dancers. There have been girls who caused enough drama that she fired them.

The girls usually keep to their own. We all seem to be on the same line of thought that you're not going to like everyone all of the time, but that doesn't give you any reason to start drama at work, whether with customers or fellow dancers. We all keep it on friendly terms, but very few are actually friends. We're usually respectful to each other, and we'll help each other when it comes to advice on looks or pole/floor work, but we usually sell alone. I used to pair up with other dancers I got along with really well, but once they left I didn't have anyone else I worked that well with. Even so, most of us still try to get a customer to stage tip another girl if we like that girl. Same goes if there's very few customers but we know our customer has money to spend, we'll usually try to get them to stage tip, or ask for a buck or two to go up & tip the girl ourselves. Anything to get the customers involved & interested in spending. When it comes to customers, it used to be that everyone would share & allow the customer to spend on the girls they wanted to spend on. But lately it seems like some girls have been coming in who don't like when a customer wants to spend on both them & another girl, so they'll drain them asap (resulting in them leaving sooner) or they'll prevent them from looking at other girls.

For the most part it's a nice place to work. It's kept clean. Most of the clientele is decent. The girls try to avoid creating drama, and the ones who got out of hand ended up fired. There are no drugs allowed at work. The exception, of course, is alcohol from the bar, but even then if drinking affects your work you'll either get sent home or cut off. You get to pick your own music. We all goof off and have fun when the club is dead.
 
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