Although, they also work in the adult entrainment industry, Strip Dancers are emotional teasers who fulfil the sexual fantasies of pleasure seekers, unlike their hooker or porn star counterparts who engage in actual physical intimacy.
It is very unlikely that the stripper giving a lap dance at a strip club would go all the way to offer additional services. In this interview with Seunmanuel Faleye, Crystal Adeoye, a stripper who also runs a strip team reveals to eelive.ng how she navigates the murky terrain of her unlikely profession. The graduate of Zoology also discusses her plans for the nearest future.
How would you describe yourself?
I’ll describe myself as a coordinated person. Sometimes I can come off as a little bit harsh or impatient, because I love things to be order. If I’m organizing an event, I want everything to be perfect. If I’m doing anything I always request for perfection, even while I’m there to guide the person. I realise not a lot of people understand coordination. That’s how I’ll describe myself.
What wrong perception do you think people have about you?
Seeing me from afar, a lot of people think I am arrogant, proud, rude and hurty. Maybe it’s because of the job that I do, I don’t know. You know I can’t correct everyone’s impression, I just do what I can do and leave the rest. Some people have said it to my face that they thought I was rude before they met me.
If you could change three parts of your body, which would it be?
If I could change three parts of my body, I’ll first of all change my hair to a bright shade of gold and I’ll choose fuller and longer hair. My legs as well, I’d love to be taller than I am. And my of course, my tummy, I’d have wanted a flatter stomach. If given the chance to do that, those are the parts of my body that I’ll love to work on.
Which part of your body do you consider your greatest asset?
I’d say my greatest asset are my lips because they’re full.
Who are your role models?
My role models are Mary J blige and Whoppi Goldberg. Those two women have stories that have resonated with me from time. Their struggles and success are ones that I can relate to.
Let’s talk about your career choice…
My career is a very unconventional one. It is not generally accepted in Africa. I am a Strip Dancer, and I have a strip team. Majorly, stripping is just seductive dancing. It requires a lot of body movements, it requires a lot of strength and skill. It is a job that requires a lot of courage especially in a country like Nigeria where you’re perceived in some type of way if you introduce yourself as a stripper. It’s a job that has not been fully embraced yet.
I know a lot of people that are not bold enough to come out and own up to being strip dancers. Any girl that comes out to say they strip gets looked at in some type of way. It is my career, I make good money from it, so I can’t be shy about a job that pays my bills. I’ll really say that I’m proud of it. What I do is dancing seductively and getting naked at some point. That’s what makes it different from the regular dancing.
How long have you been doing this?
About a year now. It’s 11 months precisely, by the end of January 2021, I’d have spent a year in the business.
How profitable is this business, like how much do you make from this?
To be honest, I’ll say the money is very profitable. The money we make is on a daily basis. Some days are better than the other. On the very good days, we make up to one million naira, sometimes 800k, 700k, 600k and on extremely bad days, we make between 200k and 100k. When we make like one million, four girls share that, and days when we make like 100k two girls share that. And like I said, our job is on a daily basis. We work mostly from Wednesdays to Sundays. I’ll say it’s very profitable.
You have a team of girls that work for you, how do you protect them from the job hazzard?
That’s the most important thing for me to do regardless of who the client is. Presently, I have 12 girls that are my steady workers, they are tested and trusted. Before I send any of my girls out for private shows, clubs jobs, house parties, beach parties or anywhere, I find out everything I’m supposed to find out about the client and the location. I always make sure that my girls are treated with respect because, they are dancers, they are professionals carrying out a jobs. So I always go out with them when we have jobs, and when I won’t be available because of other engagements my PA goes with them. I always ensure to look out for any form of disrespect and stop it before it escalates.
Before stripping, what were you doing? Did lack of means of livelihood make you choose to be a stripper?
Before I started to strip, I was a professional make up artist. I used to work on movie sets, I did that for a while after I graduated from school. Unprofessionally, I was a music artiste while in school. Music wasn’t showing much promise, so I had to try my hands on other means of livelihood.
What are the challenges that comes with being a stripper?
This job is made up of 70% challenges. If you’re not strong you can’t get past it. First and foremost, most men in Nigeria believe that once you’re a stripper, you’re prostituting or doing some funny stuff with your body. It is very hard to manage a relationship with this kind of job. Still on perception, if you walk up to a person, or you enter a meeting room, dressed impeccably, and everyone starts to talk about their careers, when you introduce yourself as a stripper, even the ladies in the room will go like ‘Oh really, she strips?’ There’s this stigmatization that comes with my type of job. However, I’m used to it, and I have built a tough skin, to not care about people’s perception of me. If I go broke those people won’t pay my bills.
Can you narrate an experience of one of your worse days on this job?
Well, as we’ve had better days, we’ve had worse days too. I particularly remember one, when my girls went for a job at a beach house, I can’t remember which of the beach houses now. I was supposed to go meet them but they got to the jetty point without me, so I wasn’t able to control what happened to them at the event. The calls from my girls were too much so I had to get a boat to take me to the beach house. While I was in the middle of the water our boat stopped. We couldn’t go forward or backward. We were literally stock in the middle of the water. This was like past eight in the night. But my girls were done working, and because I wasn’t there, nor my PA, they were taken advantage of.
I was supposed to collect their payment and the sprayed money, but because I wasn’t there, my girls were robbed. All the money they made were taken from them. And then, they kept calling me, and I couldn’t even do anything because I was stock in the middle of water. It was a very terrible day, because in the end, I had to pay them from my pocket. That’s as far as I can remember of my worst experience on the job.
If you had made it to the beach house on time, what would you have done differently to protect them from being robbed?
They wouldn’t have been there at that point, I would have arranged transportation out of there, way before the time they got stranded and robbed.
How about your best day?
One of my best days was the first time we made N1.2M at a job with just three girls. I wasn’t even expecting we would make that much that night. As a matter of fact, that was the first time I’d see that much money .
You said it’s hard to maintain a relationship with your job, it appears some Nigerian men are becoming cosmopolitan to be able to deal with ladies in your kind of profession.
You will be very surprised. I can tell you most men are not as liberal and cosmopolitan as they appear. It will get to a point where they’ll tell you to choose between them or your job. And I am not the type you can place on conditions. I can’t leave a job that feeds and clothes me for a relationship. Well, I’d say I’ve not met a man that is worth it.
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Are your girls permitted to take other jobs that do come from you?
Sure, they can take other jobs that do not come from me. However, I have to be informed, so I don’t schedule them for a job when they’re out working. And even after they inform me, I do my findings about the job and I can tell them not to take the job because I don’t think it’s safe, they don’t disobey me. My words always count. The reason I permit them to take other jobs is basically because it helps us expand our contact base and ring. There was a certain time some of my girls took an outside job, they exchanged numbers with some clients and that in turn gave us a job for two weeks. It helps us widen our connect. Although, 95% of the time, the girls are working for me. It’s seldom that they do other jobs.
If stripping is seductive dancing, how about cases where clients want to go all the way?
I always make sure to tell every client that comes my way that my girls are dancers and strippers. That’s what you’re paying me for. If they want sex, they know where to get it from. It is not compulsory that it’s a stripper that must give them sex. There are other girls that do that as jobs, their job is to exchange sex for money. If a client asks if they could go all the way with my girls, I let them know that I can contact someone who can arrange that for them and not my girls.
Do you house and feed these girls? What are your responsibilities for them really?
I don’t house them. The only thing I do is to get jobs for them, take them out for jobs and pay them. They have their houses.
What qualities does a girl need to become a stripper?
Basic qualities would be a good body, and you have to be a good dancer. Stripping is seductive dancing, you’re dancing while getting naked. So if you’re going to go naked, you must have a good body. You must understand how to move your body to seduce too. And of course, you must have a pretty face.
What’s your academic qualification?
I graduated from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, FUNAB and I studied Biological Science and majored in Zoology. I graduated two years ago, and I did my NYSC in Abeokuta.
What do you think about rape and how men see it?
Rape is a very touchy subject for me. I have had rape experiences when I was much younger. So I frown at everything that has to do with it. Rape is a very despicable act. It is wrong on so many levels, no matter the excuse the rapist is using, consexual sex is much better, both of you enjoy what you’re doing. Why would anyone think it’s okay to exploit a woman’s body without their permission? Rape is animalistic.
Have you experienced rape in your line of work?
In this line of work, molestation is bound to come up, if you’re not very disciplined. However, I try to be on the lookout and I protect my girls and myself from possible molestation.
What are your dreams?
This stripping gig would not be a forever thing. I am also hoping to create a franchise for everything women, clothes, shoes, hair, make-up, everything you can think of. Work is in progress in that regard, I’m planning that for 2022.
Are your family aware of what you currently do?
My family is not fully aware. My dad and mom are not aware that I strip. They only know I dance. It’s just my siblings and some of my cousins that know I’m a stripper. My prayer is that my parent don’t find out till I move into another business.
And you think none of them have had to mention it to your parents?
Of course, I’m sure one or two of them must have told them. But my mum being the positive person, will not believe. I just don’t want to think about all that, when I get to that bridge I’ll cross it. I know my mother is very easy to talk to, and I can convince her. My father is the stricter one, he is a pastor actually, and I know it would be hard to convince him to see stripping the way I want him to see it.
What is your position in the family?
I am the first of three siblings. I am from a family of five including my parents.
Do you have a boyfriend?
Officially no. Although, I have someone I really like, however, he’s not in the country. So we only see off and on when he’s in the country. So there are no labours to what we share.
If you’re not dating, and you don’t get sex on the job, are you saying sex is never on your mind?
Well, I have friends who I talk to if I need someone to speak to, or have sex with. Because, I’m not dating doesn’t mean I don’t have the liberty to have sex when I need to. I have casual sex. Like the regular woman, I like sex, however, I am not sad without it. I can live without it and most times, I’m usually very tired because of work, so I go off on sex for a long time, and take my mind off it, until it becomes very necessary.
On days when you’re not working, how do you spend your time?
When I’m not working, I take myself out. I treat myself, I do a lot of relaxing. Sometimes, I go to a resort with my friends, we just hangout, catch up and just have fun. Other times, I go shopping rather than just stay home.