Being Amber Rhea

Last night, a group of PoleLaTeaz students (and a few instructors) went to Mardi Gras, a strip club in Marietta. There were women who had been to only one PoleLaTeaz workshop all the way to women (like me) who are in the Level 5/6 pole class, and everything in between. There were women who had never been to a strip club before and women who were old hands at it, and everything in between. There were about 50 of us total. Management seemed perturbed at first. Heh.

I carpooled up there with three other women, none of whom had ever been to a strip club. They were nervous and spent most of the car ride asking about things like how tipping works and if it’s impolite to stare while someone else is getting a lap dance. I answered all their questions and told them that honestly, the most important thing is to tip well, because when the dancers at the club see a group of 50 women coming in, a lot of them are going to be thinking, “Ah, shit, now we’re not going to make any money tonight.”

I’ll admit that when we first got there I was a little worried about whether people would be tipping enough. But as it turned out, our group ended up tipping more than the male customers for a lot of the night, and at one point the DJ chided all the guys in the club and told them to step it up because the women were tipping way more than them.

We saw a lot of amazing pole work, and naturally, the dancers who did impressive stuff on the pole got the most tips from our group. We also cheered and clapped and hollered a lot, which the male customers hardly ever did. One dancer came over after her stage set and said it was a really good atmosphere with us cheering so much. I handed out a few fliers for the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers event, but stopped because I didn’t want to come off like some religious proselytizer handing out invitations to a hip Wednesday night church service.

Several of the women in our group who had never been to a strip club before remarked that they were surprised that so many of the dancers had small boobs and/or looked “normal.” That made me chuckle a bit. Another stereotype dissolved.

There were a few downsides to the night. First of all, we found out Mardi Gras no longer has amateur night. That sucks, because Liz, Lisa, and I were all revved up to do amateur night there (even though the pole on the stage they did it on last time is right up on the edge; but we figured we could make it work). Now, instead of amateur night, they have “costume night” where the strippers dress up as naughty nurses, naughty teachers, or naughty any other profession other than stripper. Boo to that. So that leaves us with only two clubs (that we know of) that have amateur night! (Lisa has been making a spreadsheet.)

Later we heard an announcement that two new dancers were auditioning on the side stage, so we decided maybe we should just come and audition. We wouldn’t get all the prize money, but it would be fun; and we could still take a road trip to another city to do amateur night. So when/if we do it, I will let a select few local pals know.

Also, Liz and Lisa had brought a friend with them (who had never been to a strip club before), and when the four of us were walking back to the table from the restroom, some guy slapped their friend’s ass. So Lisa punched him. The ass-slap sucked, but damn, the punch was awesome.

All in all it was a really fun night. We saw a lot of awesome dancing and pole work, talked to a lot of really nice dancers, and just generally had a good time. Also I admit I found it really hot watching some of the dancers give lap dances. And we became even more convinced that we could totally clean up at amateur night, if only we could find a good place that does it.