by Taylor Cole
Take It Off!
The Naked Truth About Male Strippers
Taylor Cole & Justin Whitfield
Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes in a male strip club? Are those guys gay? How do they stay so ripped? Do they stuff their trunks? How did they get into such a business? How much money do they make? Do they have wild sex every night?
This book takes you backstage and into the lives of two successful male strippers over a span of twenty years in the business. From their rookie days to their wild sexcapades and practical jokes, Take It Off! is a laugh-filled, action-packed joyride.
Justin Whitfield and Taylor Cole are the stage names of male exotic dancers who have performed for women in Europe, the Caribbean, South America and Canada, as well as at various casinos, on cruise ships and in hundreds of clubs across the United States. Both have been featured on television and radio, as well as in newspapers, calendars and magazines. Both are also official Ellora’s Caveman cover models and appear on our erotic romance covers and at our conventions and tradeshows.
Taylor Cole & Justin Whitfield
TAKE IT OFF!
THE NAKED TRUTH ABOUT MALE STRIPPERS
Taylor Cole & Justin Whitfield
Contents
Introduction: Stripper 011.................................................................................................... 9
Chapter One: From Shy Guy to Hot Stud........................................................................ 11
Chapter Two: Life Cycle of a Male Stripper................................................................... 16
Chapter Three: Backstage with the Guys........................................................................ 21
Chapter Four: Earning a Living........................................................................................ 27
Chapter Five: Tricks and Tools of the Trade.................................................................. 35
Chapter Six: Sexcapades..................................................................................................... 39
Chapter Seven: Life in the Fast Lane................................................................................ 58
Chapter Eight: Stripper Legends and Tall Tales............................................................ 61
Chapter Nine: Working Out—The Secrets...................................................................... 76
Chapter Ten: Moving On................................................................................................... 79
Justin Whitfield & Taylor Cole
Editor’s Note
Justin Whitfield and Taylor Cole are the stage names of the authors of this book. As Ellora’s Caveman cover models, both have appeared on EC book covers and have entertained our fans at conventions and tradeshows. Over a span of twenty years, they have worked as male exotic dancers, making most of their money doing striptease dances for tips from women at a nightclub in Houston, Texas, augmented by roadshows, strip-o-grams and modeling jobs. They have danced in Europe, the Caribbean, South America and Canada, as well as at casinos, on cruise ships and in hundreds of clubs across the United States. Both have been featured on television and radio, as well as in newspapers, calendars and magazines.
Taylor has appeared on Texas Women, a reality show on CMT. Justin has won numerous strip contests and bodybuilding titles. He holds a degree in economics and is the owner of The End Zone sports bar and grill in Houston, Texas.
They work hard to stay in shape, and even though they have the bodies of Greek gods, they’re nice, surprisingly down-to-earth guys who love women and know how to show them a good time.
Much of the book is from the perspective of both authors. However, some stories, such as those in the Sexcapades chapter, are necessarily from a single point of view. The authors have chosen not to identify which of them wrote certain stories, though the reader might be able to guess.
Susan F. Edwards
Taylor Cole
Justin Whitfield
Introduction: Stripper 101
Let’s get something straight right up front: Pretty much every guy in the world would love being in front of five hundred screaming women chanting, “Take it off! Take it off!” Every man wants that feeling of being an alpha male, and every man wants to have women lust after his body. Call it a side effect of testosterone. Men all think alike. With the wrong head first. We can’t help it. It’s how we’re made.
We’ve never seen Jersey Shore, but we’ve heard it’s about a bunch of guys who like to work out, tan, do laundry, fight and fuck. We were doing that way before these guys ever had a hair on their nut sac! We were the original GTL (gym, tan, laundry) guys, except we weren’t concerned about laundry. For us, it was more like GTP (gym, tan, PARTY)! We lived in the moment and it was the most fun part of our lives, hands down! We were able to experience a taste of fame without ever being famous beyond our own little world—a nightclub where we entertained women. We had a taste of the rock star lifestyle without ever being rock stars. Our days were relaxing, working out, sleeping in and partying.
Of course, not every day was a party. We had to recover.
How does a guy fall into this type of business? Everyone has his own path—but ultimately it’s about the women and the lifestyle. This book has true stories from more than thirty-five years of combined experience between us. We will take you inside a world that is as crazy as Alice’s Wonderland. A world where women are the aggressors in the battle of the sexes, and men are the objects.
Ever wonder how a guy becomes a male exotic dancer? What kind of guy would do that for a living? Do strippers get all the chicks? Are they gay? We have worked with hundreds of other male exotic dancers, and these are the truths behind the scenes of what really goes on in their lives. This book also contains some of the funny stories we have witnessed or heard straight from the source. Think you know what goes on backstage? You might be surprised.
Until the seventies, strippers were almost all women performing for a male audience. Since then, places where male strippers perform for a female audience became mainstream. Women come in big groups for bachelorette or birthday parties. Unlike the men’s clubs, which are usually quiet, dark and private, these ladies’ clubs are normally very loud, rowdy and aggressive. It’s common for women to get onstage and become part of the show. They are testing the boundaries of what they can do.
The boom for male stripping was in the late seventies and early eighties, when Chippendales were making a name for the biz. In Houston, the oil boom made a lot of wives rich but lonely. A friend once told us about when he started stripping in Houston. His first impression was seeing a dancer pull up to the club in a Ferrari, wearing a full-length mink coat.
It’s not quite that lucrative anymore, but it’s a great way to earn a living for a while for a man who loves women as much as we do.
There are basically two kinds of male strippers—the Las Vegas-style male revue show, such as Chippendales and Thunder From Down Under, and the strip club dancers. The show dancers get paid by the week and all make roughly the same amount. They follow a choreographed routine and usually have uniform costumes and a similar look and build.
Club dancers bring more individuality to their performances than show dancers do. Each guy molds his own unique stage character, complete with costumes, dance moves, music and personality. Each club dancer has to hold the attention of an audience of hundreds by himself, while the show dancers perform in troupe. Club dancers also interact with the audience a lot more than show dancers. We make our money from tips we receive performing onstage and doing lap dances. Because we rely on tips, there is a huge earning range for club dancers, where
as the show dancers all make about the same. Also, money in the club is seasonal. Spring and summer are the rich seasons because that’s when weddings bring in the largest number of bachelorette parties.
There are also different types of clubs and different levels of club dancers. There are totally nude, gay and straight clubs. The straight clubs without totally nude dancers usually have the best talent. The dancers at these clubs usually have three to five different acts, ranging from solo acts to acts with five or more dancers in them. The movie Magic Mike is based on this type of club, and it is the same type of club we danced in for most of our careers. It blew our minds when we saw that movie because it felt like watching our own lives unfold on the screen. We had already started writing this book long before we knew about the movie, but the movie did encourage us to finish the book and tell you about all the wild things that a two-hour movie cannot show.
We hope you enjoy reading about our experiences as much as we enjoyed reliving them for this book. The stories are true. The names have been changed (or in some cases left out) to protect the guilty.
Justin and Taylor
Chapter One: From Shy Guy to Hot Stud
You might be surprised to hear that a lot of strippers start out as nice, quiet guys who are too shy and too lacking in confidence to approach women. That was pretty much the case for both of us.
Justin: Boys Just Wanna Have Sex
I traveled the world with my family twice over by the time I was twelve. Born in Vietnam, I lived in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Vietnam. I knew at an early age that traveling was a must in my career as well as my life. I wanted to experience all the different cultures. At twelve, I moved to Milton, Florida, a small town in the Bible Belt, and all I wanted to do was break up the monotony of everyday life. It was there that I made a pact with myself. I would not choose the beaten path of life. I would choose fun, love and great memories. I watched life wear my father down and thought if that would be my fate for choosing a normal life, then why not have a blast before then?
When I was twelve or thirteen, a group of my friends and I sat around a campfire in an open field one night. Like any other bunch of prepubescent boys, we asked the question, “If you could be anything in the world, what would you be?” As if it were yesterday, I remember saying, “A male stripper!”
At that age, all I thought about was girls and how I wanted to have sex with them, even though I had no clue what to do if I had that opportunity. I figured a male stripper had direct and easy access to girls. Why I didn’t want to be a rock star, movie star or professional athlete is beyond me. Those were the simple answers to getting girls. I guess I was not simple. Looking back now, I’m so very glad of that fact.
I hit the gym full speed as soon as I got in college. I never looked back. During the first years, as my body became more muscular, all I wanted to do was compete in natural powerlifting meets and natural bodybuilding shows. (Natural powerlifting and bodybuilding events are those in which participants do not use performance-enhancing drugs.) I started to set bench press records for the state and win overall in my bodybuilding shows.
But I still wanted to be a dancer, so at nineteen I gave it a shot. I was as green as you could get and I didn’t have any connections. I was just a small-town boy who wanted to make it in the big city.
Amateur night is where anyone who wants to be hired as a club dancer must win the contest. Club owners tell all the contestants this, but in reality, only guys off the street who have never danced have to go through this hiring process. Veterans move freely from club to club via connections through clubs or other dancers they worked with.
My first competition was one I will never forget! I packed my dance bag with my Rico Suave wannabe outfit and drove two hours from my college campus to compete in an amateur night. I chose the name Mr. Suave. Rico was already a current dancer’s name, so I had to have some link, I thought, to the famous Gerardo. Why I didn’t choose Gerardo, once again, is beyond me.
I arrived at the club around 9 p.m. The contest began around eleven or twelve. I watched the entertainers and thought, “What am I doing here?” Then I saw the list of competitors, and I thought I could at least get second place. There were about ten of us, and my goal was just to get hired! We drew lots, and I was fourth up. My nerves were about to get the best of me. My only competition, so I felt, was a guy who looked as if he was a seasoned veteran. One guy walked with a severe limp and was about fifty, and another looked like Vanilla Ice’s younger brother. Most of them were average-looking dudes with big goals.
Each guy got one song to showcase his skills. Although mine were very limited, I had false confidence I could do well.
At the end of the contest, they called each of us up to get applause. My pride was wounded because the guy with no legs beat me! Yes, no legs! I thought the old dude with the limp went to take off his pants, and instead, took off both his legs! Seriously, the guy was walking around on nubs just below the knee caps.
I took third place, but I got hired, so I felt as if I won. I came back to the club the next week to start working and made a grand total of negative five bucks! I had to tip out the stage coordinator and DJ. Thus I spent more than I made. This convinced me to go back to the college dorm and rethink my plan of becoming a male stripper. I wouldn’t finally break through and make dancing a career until six years later—two years after I graduated from college.
At twenty-four, I was ready. By that time I had the confidence that I could do it, so I quit my bartending gig (where I was making a grand a week) and jumped in full time.
The early months were all about being broke, working out, eating right, chasing girls and trying to feel like I belonged onstage. The parties and antics really started when I befriended a nineteen-year-old guy from the gym. This guy, Taylor Cole, became my wingman, and a lifelong friendship began. Together we got into more antics and had more fun than we ever imagined possible. Our lives would never be the same. They say you make your best friends in high school or college. Well, we made our strongest friendships and bonds in dancing. These guys were some of the most colorful characters I will ever meet!
I found early success on the main stage. My dance ability was limited on freestyle, but I found I could easily learn an eight-count. All dance acts are choreographed with eight counts. Not until Taylor and I changed to another club after six or eight months at the first club did we step up our game. At this point, I had appeared in a few magazines and the owner of this other club was really trying to get me to switch. I almost backed out that day we were to start at the new club, but Taylor wouldn’t let me. Through life, we have always helped each other make the right decisions, and this was one of them! He said, “Let’s go! It’s the better club and it has way more women!”
Immediately, I was put up during prime time. I was still a rookie and the show was very, very strong, which forced me to really step it up. My sets were consistently full, and I made most of my money on my stages. The owner liked the fact that I was on the cover of Playgirl and carried myself like I treated the job professionally.
Out of twenty to twenty-five guys, I was the only one with Sundays off. I had told the club owner my terms up front before taking the job: If he wanted me to come over to his club, I needed Sundays off to spend with my girl. He agreed. The guys never gave me grief about it either. They wished they could have Sundays off too, but they figured good for me.
For the first four or five years, I was still doing bodybuilding shows too, so I would work for five to six months and then take off two to three to get ready for bodybuilding shows.
At twenty-eight, I decided to try the Houston LaBare, so I packed my stuff, moved and started the prime of my career. The Houston list was the best lineup I ever had the privilege to work with. The parties, the women, the traveling, the lifestyle!
Justin
Taylor: The Thrill of a Lifetime
One day, as a kid, I was dancing around to music, and my mom said, “You look like you’re going to
be a LaBare dancer.” At the time, I didn’t understand LaBare was a famous male strip club in Houston. I pictured a team mascot in a bear costume, jumping around on a football field.
The next time I heard about LaBare was in high school. I lived in a small Texas town and started working out to try to impress girls. Like any teenager, that’s all I cared about. A guy who was graduating got a job in the big city at a club called LaBare. All the girls swooned over him when he cruised through town at 3 a.m. in his sports car with a fat wad of cash he just made.
Then it hit me…LaBare. That’s what my mom was talking about! I knew I wanted to go there, but more important, I knew I wanted to drive a fast car and attract attention from girls and have a lot of cash. When I turned sixteen and got a license, I went straight to LaBare. It was amateur night, and I thought I was ready. I signed up and won that night—but not because I was good. The homeless guys in the neighborhood saw the cash prize sign and were my competition. As the only guy who wasn’t a bum, I won first place!
I went to the manager and asked for a job. He looked at me and said, “Kid, you’re too young to be in here. Come back when you’re legal.”
After that, I blew off the idea of working as a dancer. Truthfully, I didn’t think I could ever compete with the guys I saw working that night. Two years and several dead-end construction jobs later, I met a guy at the gym who became like a brother to me. He said I should try getting a job where he worked, at a male dance club. He said he could get me on, and the next day, I started the most exciting rollercoaster ride of my life. I’m still on it, and I still love the thrill of it all.