Strippers vs “bottle girls”: Strip Club Trends
Strippers in New York are going on strike. It is the first of it’s kind and it has shocked the stripping industry. Most mainstream clubs are experiencing this silent, albeit highly controversial strike. It is not that strippers are holding banners and screaming “strippers united will never be defeated”. They are just switching from the strip clubs to private dancing agencies. Slowly but surely, well known performers are leaving the clubs and taking their poles and shows to private venues. And there is a valid reason behind that.
The strange world of the NYC strip clubs
In the age of social media, strippers are not enough. Indeed the time where an erotic dancer hit the stage gathered her tips and everybody was happy belongs to the nineties. Whatever happened to the proud stripper dominating the club? Well, money talks.
The “bottle girls” were an irrelevant addition to the strip clubs. As the strip clubs were full of beauties, they needed to also hire appealing waitresses and bar women. The cash flow came in because of the strippers. They brought in the crowds and the crowds went wild. Then Instagram happened. Social media celebrities posed in skimpy clothing. Males hit the heart button over and over again. So, how do we monetise this?
The question that every entrepreneur has at the tip of their tongue. In the case of the booty queens from Instagram, the answer was easy. They went to a strip club, got behind the bar and started shaking their booty live. There was a little problem though. There were already girls there that not only were shaking their booty but also could go up and down the pole, perform acrobatics and excite the crowds. But that didn’t really matter. The ladies with the 10K + followers were bringing in the crowds. The promoters decided to give them part of the stage. And with that part of the loot. The clubs started filling up with bars that looked like stages.
Strippers are performers
In order to become a professional stripper one needs to train. And train hard they do. Pole dancing is an established Olympic sport, and as such it has a whole industry behind it. Pole dancing studios and trainers, clothing lines specific for the industry. The “bottle girls from Instagram” phenomenon are skipping that queue. While it makes sense business wise, such shift in the setup will cause the industry to open the flood gates. What is next. Bikini girls in TGI Fridays? But wait a second…. This has been done before.
Coyote Ugly is actually really good looking … but they don’t do stripograms
The Coyotes Ugly Brand has 21 bars all over the world. And it does exactly that. Good looking women dance on the bar and serve alcohol. And it works. So the strip clubs that are allowing the “bottle girls” to take over, are thinking exactly the same. But the Coyote Ugly experiment worked mainly because the performance improved. Thus the Coyote Ugly was not a strip club that turned into a bikini dancing club. It was and still is a soft version of a strip club. Actually, it didn’t downgrade its performances in order to please the crowds. It created a new concept which it was groundbreaking for its time.
But the reality of the strip clubs today is a bit different. They are trying to copy the Coyote Ugly concept and downgrade the performance into something that is neither striptease nor Coyote Ugly. Since the inception of the strip club, strippers will remain the key attraction because of the dancing part rather than the booty unwrapped part. By offering the services of Instagram Celebrities, the clubs and the promoters are looking at short term gains. What will happen is that clubs that were built around standard performances will have to adapt to ever changing Instagram trends. And the loyal clientele will probably end up changing at the same rate. Will we end up having strip clubs where there are no real strippers?
What about Strippers in Ireland
On this side of the Atlantic, things remain traditional. For the moment. Strippers in clubs remain the main attraction. Having said that, the stripper agencies already make up a great proportion of the striping industry in Ireland. If you have a stag party or birthday party in Ireland you will probably be looking at hiring a stripper to come to the venue of your choosing. That is mainly due to Irish strip clubs having stricter doors than the US ones. Also price is a factor. The stripogram delivery service is much more competitive if you add to the usual 4 min strip club performances the overpriced beer and grumpy bouncers. And most of all the Irish like to create their own atmosphere. So the idea of a stripper coming in as a surprise for the stag is much more appealing than the queue outside the strip clubs.
The Strippers in Ireland are in a better negotiating position than their American colleagues. There is still some stigma attached to the profession, and as a result the entry into the profession is at a lower rate of numbers entering the profession. And as a result only the pros remain in the game. At the same time, the profession of promoters in the striptease scene in Ireland is almost non-existent. Having no promoters to set trends, both clubs and stripper agents are quite conservative when it comes to introducing new things on the market.
Strippers or multi purpose entertainers one thing is for sure. The world of striptease will continue to bring smiles and controversy. And keep the neon lights lit and the night time electricians in business.
