- Some guy asked to sniff my butt.
(group laughing)
I mean, he tipped me for it.
♪ Okay all right ♪
- I'm Rara.
My dancer name was Dylan.
I haven't danced in like two years
but I was a stripper in Vegas.
I was a dancer for like a year and a half.
- I'm Mariah.
I have been dancing professionally
probably the past few years only.
I don't dance as much in clubs
as much as I do like private events.
- I'm Ashley. My stage name is Claire.
I have been dancing since I was 19, so like seven years
but I took like a three year break.
- I'm Hurricane, I'm 23. I'm a Pisces.
I've been stripping for a year and two months.
I started last year in May.
- Hey guys, I'm Ty.
My dancer name is Halo.
I've been kind of in the scene for almost a year,
actually in May.
- I'm Selena.
I have been dancing since 2016.
I took a couple years off.
I'm the president of Strippers United
which is an organization that advocates
for labor rights in the workplace for strippers.
- I follow you guys.
- Oh, cool.
- I get your emails.
- Oh hey, awesome!
- I did an event recently
with the Stripper Strike Noho group.
- Oh, awesome. - Yeah.
- The club Star Garden is striking.
They wanted like a healthier environment.
They were not paying the hourly wage that is mandated
in the state of California.
I think strippers also there's
like the kind of glamor of it.
Like, you know, somebody who's like hot
and covered in like dollar bills.
The glamorization glosses over like
the bigger workplace abuses and situational things
like the discrimination.
- I feel like I need to switch with her
'cause she's only danced in Vegas
and I know there's money in Vegas.
- Yeah.
- Okay. We can switch.
- Okay. Yeah, I could see that.
- What are your guys like prices for dances?
Private rooms, all that.
- Oh yeah.
- Our hours in Vegas were a thousand for an hour.
- Do you get to keep the whole thousand or?
- Yeah, so in Vegas you're self-employed
so you only pay the night fee to work
and then we don't have to do any tip outs
or anything because it was such a big effing club.
- Can you explain what a tip out is?
- Like tipping out like the DJ,
the security guards, the house mom.
- Floaters, bouncers.
- Yeah.
- We help them make money and they help
by protecting us or like putting us on stage,
so that's like our gratitude for them.
- But kind of, 'cause also like they're getting wages
and it's also like- - They are
- They also can like hassle you and intimidate you
or threaten your job if you don't.
- That's true. - Yeah.
- I mean, I got a call in the middle of the evening
from the manager who like threatened to take away my job
if I didn't tip out enough.
- So I understand it's like different,
but I had like a great experience in Vegas where it's like
everyone was there, like to protect the dancers.
We never got like a finger laid on us.
To do private dances, every single booth had a camera.
And like they're watching.
- That was also my experience in Vegas.
I felt so safe. - I felt so safe.
- And like cared for.
- Yeah.
- Vegas here I come.
(group laughing)
Yeah, I do freelancing.
But as far as my prices, I would say
about at least like 400.
- 400? Yeah. - About 400.
- So the most expensive one at my club is 720
or so for an hour.
- The most expensive one at my club
is 900 for half an hour.
- As a trans woman,
I haven't had like a situation
where I've done private rooms.
A lot of us don't get permanent gigs like that with clubs.
- Yeah.
- Like a lot of the clubs are like trans night,
three times a month or something.
- Yeah.
- Which is like bizarre to me that we're in 2022,
in Los Angeles.
For me, it would be an hourly thing.
- Yeah. - So I try to do like
a hundred an hour.
- One of the clubs that I've danced
at the most expensive dance was $800 for an hour.
- How much did you get to keep of that?
- 60/40.
- And then how much did you get to keep of yours?
- Oh, like 50/50
- I'm gonna say, I feel like I should be
a little bit closer that way.
- I should be the middle 'cause mine is 400.
- 'Cause it's 1800 an hour for mine.
- What's like the weirdest request?
- Oh.
- 'Cause that kind of entails how much money you make.
Some guy ask to sniff my butt.
(everyone laughs)
In the private dance room.
- That's actually not weird.
- It's not.
- And like, it was like through like my outfit and stuff,
but he just like, "Oh, like I have a kink.
Like I like to sniff butts."
I mean he tipped me for it.
Okay. Go ahead, baby.
- Yeah.
- Mine's similar to that. - Really?
- 'Cause I had a guy, he wanted me to fart on him.
(group laughs)
Which like sure he was paying well, tipping nice.
- Yeah, yeah.
- I literally just had to sit over him
for three hours and like fart on his face.
- One guy wanted me to like humiliate him
and like talk about his baby (beep) and twist his nipples
and talk about like how his nipples were
like pathetic and like feminine.
- Oh people are into that (beep).
To be honest,
I don't think I've gotten any weird request that are..
I think it was more of like a fetish thing.
So I actually go on the end.
- I get a lot of couples.
- Well, I feel like maybe you would be
on the end of that end.
Like the price point of your hours at your club
were higher than the Vegas price point.
- I only get to keep 50% of mine.
- Oh, true.
- So it's 1800 you keep 900?
- Yeah.
- Okay then I keep a thousand. So it's like the same.
- We get a lot of people
from like around Beverly Hills.
So automatically people with a little bit more money.
There's a lot of like real estate people.
We get some like bigger groups that usually just
tip really well, like on stage and stuff.
- Doctors, athletes,
'cause there's a lot of games that happen.
- Okay, girl.
- My whole clientele is sis men, like sis hetero men.
- [Woman] Sis hetero men.
- And my demographic, construction workers.
They love me.
- The craziest like most expensive gift you've gotten.
- Ooh! These shoes, they were from freaking Versace.
- Okay. Then maybe we need to switch.
'Cause my most expensive gift were these beads
and they were fake.
(group laughs)
I was like "Girl why is there Chinese writing on the back?"
- That's rude.
For me, it's been jewelry, earrings.
And I've gotten some nice like little tennis bracelets.
- My most expensive gift has been a semester of tuition.
- [Group] Oh.
- That's a good one.
- I think y'all might have to switch.
- I never got any. Regulars were not a thing in Vegas.
- Yeah. - Because everyone
is traveling into Vegas.
- Yeah. It's like transient.
- Yeah.
- Which is kind of, it could be good
'cause it's like people wanna like spend in that moment.
- Yeah. - And go all out.
- Well, I was gonna say my most expensive gift
is my Cartier bracelet.
But after you said your tuition, I had two years
of my tuition for my Masters in Studies of Law paid.
- Oh yes.
- That's dope.
- It's a lot of emotional labor.
They'll literally come in and be like
"Oh like my mom just died."
It's nice to like be there for them.
And it helps create that personal intimate relationship.
But it is pretty exhausting to hear like 10 stories
like that a night.
- [Woman] Do you guys think that aesthetic plays into it?
Like ethnicity, body type?
- Oh for sure. - Definitely.
- Yeah.
- It's divided like every other bit of society is.
Like whiteness is you know like top tier,
body size is definitely like heavily valued.
- I've always get told, like I'm more exotic looking.
I mean, I am mixed but like you don't look too black
and I'm just like, what?
- What is exotic?
- What are you talking about?
- Black is exotic.
- Like what do you mean?
- Trans women who are passing
that are dancing in these spaces,
that's like a risk for them.
- It is.
- Because if anyone finds out and they didn't know
and they're not comfortable, like these men-
- They get violent, they get really violent.
- They will murder you sometimes.
- Exactly. Yeah.
- And the club, what is unfortunate is that
the management thinks that they can pick
what girls are attractive.
When in reality customers are the one giving the money.
- Yeah.
- There's a high possibility I'm gonna be told
I can't even work there.
- Definitely have a voice to stand up for yourself,
because people do try to (bleep) with you in the club
and you just have to be like a strong person.
I think we could switch.
- Okay.
- She said she got her tuition paid.
- I think me and you should switch only
because you worked like less hours maybe?
- Girl, you get your coin, come on.
- [Woman] How does the actual like dancing ability
come into play?
Do you think that that sort of plays into how much?
- No. No.
- It really doesn't.
I wouldn't say I'm a trained dancer.
I'm very just like seductive.
It's not like I'm busting a move or something.
Like I'm not Janet out here.
- People just want (bleep) in their face.
- They want like an intimate dance instead
of like look at all these tricks I can do.
They want to be like, "Oh yeah she's dancing for me."
- Yeah. They want like the eye contact.
They want like you to smile at them
and like make them feel special.
And then they want like tits in their face.
- Not a lot of people can do this.
- [Woman] Okay.
(dramatic music)
- So are we locked in? Is that what's happening?
- I think we're locked in.
- Yeah. We're locked in.
- I think so.
- [Woman] So in the sixth spot we have Mariah at 600,
your biggest take home in one night.
Fifth spot, we have Halo at 800 in one night.
Fourth spot, we have Hurricane at 840 in one night.
Third spot, we have Ashley at 3,300 in one night.
- Okay, girl. - Damn girl.
- Make them pockets hurt.
(bleep)
- [Woman] In our second spot we have Rochelle,
at 4,000 in one night.
And in our first spot we have Selena at 5,000.
(group clapping) - Yes!
- That's goals right there. That's goals.
- I just met a nice corporate litigator.
And he just fell in love.
- Mine was off of a spinal cord surgeon.
- Oh hell yeah.
- Who was like in his 70s,
just doing (bleep) off my (bleep) the whole night.
- Should have made him put you on the will that night.
"Are you sure you gonna wake up tomorrow, sir?"
I don't know if I expected this or not.
You guys are a little bit different.
You guys aren't necessarily in the club a lot or like-
- At all.
- Yes, 'cause I'm sure you guys have had really good nights
but outside of the club.
I know you make money.
- I'm happy with it.
Doesn't change how I feel about stuff anyway,
'cause you know I know I'm beautiful
and I know that this is only gonna be a stepping stone
to get where I really wanna go.
- And you're a king, my darling.
- Yes. King queen all that, yes.
- I mean I've been in this industry for a little while.
So it's like, I think the longer you're in it,
the more opportunities you have.
- I do this job because I respect myself,
because I respect my time, because I enjoy it.
And it's a lot of fun.
- If you wanna donate to the cause
'cause it's really important to support strippers
in the fight for labor rights,
you can follow on Instagram at Stripper Strike Noho
or you could go to strippersunited.org and donate there.