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www.tbo.com
> I replied under the name "Neesa".U can find it
> all the way on bottom.Here's why I am going to b in a
> financial rut soon.WHat I do really is a luxury to men.
> _
> Adult Entertainment Industry Feels Pinch Of Tough Economy
> ADVERTISEMENT
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>
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> By NICOLA M. WHITE | The Tampa Tribune
> Published: July 8, 2008
>
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> TAMPA - Jessica Mann and Rebecca Massicotte swiveled around
> a pole in high-heeled platforms and bikini tops.
> Two men in velvet chairs looked on.
> The women are used to sparse crowds on weekday afternoons
> at the Deja Vu strip club on Adamo Drive. But not like
> this.
> As the economy slumps and gas prices rise, Americans are
> tightening belts. That means even here in Tampa, the
> self-professed "Lap Dance Capital of the World,"
> the area's adult entertainment venues are taking a hit.
> Profits are down 25 percent to 30 percent this year, said
> Deja Vu general manager Eric Terrell, who goes by the name
> Ice.
> Guys in suits out to entertain their clients no longer have
> such plush expense accounts. The customers who once thought
> nothing of plunking down a few hundred bucks - even a grand
> or two - on credit cards for private dances in the champagne
> room now balk at their monthly statements.
> Mostly, the clients just don't walk through the door.
> "What we are seeing is there's a trickle-down
> effect because of the subprime mortgage crisis," said
> Angelina Spencer, national executive director of the
> Association of Club Executives, a group that represents
> adult entertainment clubs. "This is resulting in less
> people going to all sorts of entertainment venues, not just
> adult entertainment venues."
> Spencer, who used to run a club in Cleveland and now lives
> in Naples, fields calls every day from strip club owners
> feeling the pinch of a bad economy.
> "Entertainment is one of those luxury items; it's
> one of the first things people give up," she said.
> While an ailing economy may bring fewer customers to local
> strip clubs, it often, however, will bring out more women
> willing to give pole dancing a try.
> "If it's hard to find even a regular job out
> there, I'll get more dancers," said Joe Redner,
> owner of Tampa's iconic Mons Venus club on Dale Mabry
> Highway.
> His club's business is down 25 percent in this
> struggling economy, he said.
> Most adult entertainers work as independent contractors,
> meaning they pay club owners a fee to perform and then
> pocket the money they earn from tips and private dances.
> Because it doesn't cost club owners extra cash to take
> on new dancers, club managers lose nothing by adding more
> women to their dance roster. This, of course, means more
> competition for tips and private dances among the women.
> "They're having to work longer hours and actually
> work a little harder," Redner said.
> Mann, 28, worked at Deja Vu 10 years ago, bringing in big
> cash for the then-18-year-old dancer.
> "It was wonderful back then," she said.
> She made $400-500 most nights. But she didn't want to
> dance forever so she left the business to go to school and
> become a certified nurse's assistant and medical
> technician.
> The problem: She earned $9.75 per hour and found herself
> living paycheck to paycheck. Three months ago, she came
> back to Déjà vu and started dancing again.
> Massicotte, 24, who started dancing at 18, earned $2,200 a
> week during the good years.
> Those payouts are over.
> "The regulars we used to have three to four times a
> week, we don't have that anymore. They're looking
> for dance specials," she said.
> Neither woman, however, wants to leave the business any
> time soon. Although some nights they don't come home
> with much money, in what is perhaps a bigger indictment of
> the local economy, dancing pays more than a traditional
> gig.
> "It's still more than a 40-hour-a-week job,"
> Mann said.
> There might be a bright spot on the horizon, though:
> football. Particularly that one big game in February.
> "We're all holding our breath for the Super
> Bowl," said Monica Fox, a manager and consultant at
> Deja Vu
bviously Mr. Dumbfuck. is a freeones fan,due to his knowledge on my preferences. Here's his posting..
