[Interview with a Male Stripper 1]

Footage of a male stripper dancing, followed by an interview with the dancer.

00:18Copy video clip URL Award-winning dancer Rick Bowlds performs on stage. Low light, occasionally difficult to see. 

04:35Copy video clip URL Bowlds completes his routine to applause from the crowd. He begins another dance. 

10:47Copy video clip URL End of dancing footage. 

10:52Copy video clip URL Bowlds sits on a couch for an interview. He begins with an audio test for the microphone. 

11:36Copy video clip URL More camera set-up. Bowlds lights a cigarette. 

11:53Copy video clip URL Bowlds discusses getting started as a dancer. It was his “old lady” Fran who got him started, he says. The first club he ever danced at was Cat’s Meow in Ft. Wayne. 

13:30Copy video clip URL His first costumes, made by Fran and a friend. 

15:27Copy video clip URL Being in a relationship while working as a stripper. Communications developed between him and Fran, who was also a dancer, to indicate when they could approach each other at the club. 

16:44Copy video clip URL Being propositioned by customers. Making money as a dancer. Why women would be interested in male strippers or male sex workers. “If they want to get taken care of they just want to do the same as men do. Go ahead and pay for it and they don’t have to worry about it afterward…. A lot of married women are that way, you know, like career women, women that have a job or some kind of career, you know, and don’t want to get tied down to anything. And when they want to get themself taken care of they just go ahead and pay for it and that’s it. They don’t have to worry about it afterward.”

19:12Copy video clip URL Differences between dancers in Colorado and “back East,” where the dancers have “more class” and more “showmanship.” Women seeming bolder back East. Differences in private parties, which vary from party to party regardless of location.

21:02Copy video clip URL Private parties. Performing at a singles party where everyone was nearly naked. Bachelorette parties, women-only office parties, other occasions for private performances. 

22:43Copy video clip URL Initial worries that people might assume he was gay when he started dancing. Rare incidents of homophobia at the clubs. Mixed but mostly positive reactions from other straight men to learning about his work. Being treated “like a movie star” by women in the clubs back East. 

25:38Copy video clip URL The “benefits” that come from performing: “Honestly speaking, I could have three different women every night if I wanted to. That’s no exaggeration.” 

26:07Copy video clip URL Male and female dancers relating to each other. His easy rapport with women dancers. 

27:05Copy video clip URL The differences between male and female strippers. Women not needing to know how to dance “if she’s got a nice build”: “She could just walk back and forth and the men will go crazy.” The women want to be entertained, however, and need men to be good dancers and to deliver a real performance. 

28:30Copy video clip URL Women come to strip clubs for a completely different experience than men do. “They come to be entertained.” The club as someplace they can go “and really let it hang out.”

30:05  Rules against full nudity. A performance where a rowdy woman ripped his g-string off. Story of a woman in Terre Haute who jumped onstage with him. Women trying to get into his dressing room. Trying not to let the attention get to his head. 

32:22Copy video clip URL The downsides of living on the road, needing to travel to make money.