This was me as "Zoe" the exotic dancer in 1997 at the Adult Entertainment Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. I was a dancer not only in Las Vegas but in Alaska as well. One might think that it was glamorous and perhaps a bit exciting but I am here to set ya straight! Don't get me wrong though the money was damn good and all the things that I got to buy and all the places that I got to travel to were spectacular!!!! But I hated my job! I did it for 6 looooong years and was married the whole time. He didn't mind me doing it because he was Greek and he loved the money, was never jealous or suspicious...thank goodness!
Having to dance on the stage naked was not the problem, I could have done that til the cows come home but having to talk to men and lie to them and make up stories all the time....because the personal life that they wanted to know about was NONE of their damn business...sucked! So, I had to use psychology on them and the mental stress and sometimes the verbal abuse that was present was just too much to take most nights.
I worked from open 4:00 p.m. to close 2:00 a.m. and then I worked as an aesthetician at an Aveda Day Spa during the day and guess what...that didn't last long! I had to give up my day job, as they say, because the stripping simply paid about 100 times more! My average in the beginning was low at only about $250-$350 a night. And I soon figured out that it was because I had short red hair. I know for sure because the men would tell me that they were intimidated by me because of it.
So I got wise. I went out and bought a long blonde wig, some new costumes that looked like what Barbie would wear, and some spray-on tan. And viola! A new girl altogether who nobody recognized, not even the people I worked for. I changed my stage name from "Mystique" to "Allison" because one of the girls said that I looked like "Alice in" Wonderland. I kid you not...I made 3 times the amount of money that I had been making OVERNIGHT!!!!!!
To be continued.....
