“It’s not as glamorous as it looks.”

“As the work carries a lot of stigma, a lot of woman outside the business considered the work degrading, embarrassing, immoral, and even illegal. Many of the performers I knew well suffered from social insecurities. Also because of the disrespect and bad treatment that these girls where constantly subject to many of them they were prone to developing hard shells as a defense mechanism towards staff and customers. I can say that the stigma over the years has been dropping as more and more women have evolved their morals to a more liberal view versus a Victorian chaste morality.”

Pros

• Great hours
• Great money
• Great people
• Fun environment
• Get to meet a lot of very beautiful woman who get naked in front of you
• Access and control to a lot of good music
• Great place to socialize
• Most of the places the job doesn’t come with too much constant stress

Cons

• Late nights
• Meet some weird people
• Clubs are closing, jobs are scarce
• There are a lot of men trying to get into the work to get easy access to the dancers
• The job usually is very low paying so many people apply for the positions
• Many places a good DJ is under appreciated despite a lot of evidence that suggests a good DJ does a lot to make the place better to visit therefore more profitable
• Many times you’re more of a sounding board to the girls then a DJ. You hear a lot of there problems
• You deal with a lot of guys both customers and staff who are wasting a lot of a DJ’s time trying to get access to the dancers to try to pick them up
• The environment can be very political filled with many petty people with petty problems
• There are times when too much alcohol and other drugs are being used

Job Duties

• Program dancers’ CDs and play music between sets.
• Announce the performers.
• Build up the crowd and be on the mic during your whole shift.
• Get the dancers on and off stage on time and ensure that everyone in the line-up is doing their shows.
• Deal with show changes, trades, and screw-ups.
• Issue fines for late shows, and keep the running of the stage out of the manager’s hands.
• Fire dancers and contact agency to find replacements.
• Many DJ’s act as sounding boards for dancers to debrief with or seek support from. Be aware that sex industry work can be very isolating and sometimes you may be the only person the worker feels he or she can talk to.

Income Potential

You are paid an hourly wage plus tips from the dancers. One respondent said the wage has been about $10/hour for the past 17 years.

Training

A DJ is trained on lighting and equipment operation.

Conflict Management

“Mostly I wasn’t in a position to need to get into conflict resolution. There was usually a doorman who was responsible to maintain order. Biggest issue was always trying to figure out how the problem had started. Customers who started problems almost always lied about what had happened.”

“When I was a DJ I saw a lot of personal conflict with management and owners towards staff. Very few of them consider workers as an asset.”

DJ’s often have conflicts with dancers over music, schedules, and other work-related issues. They also sometimes have to kick out customers for contact and / or verbal harassment towards the dancers.

Advice

• Don’t look to this as a long-term career. Its very doubtful you’ll find a place that will pay a good salary. It’s even more doubtful that there will be many opportunities looking forward into the future. It doesn’t pay well no matter how good you are at your job. With the collapse of the strip bars there are a lot more out of work DJ’s then there are bars.
• The fantasy many new comers to the industry have gets shattered pretty quick when you get a glimpse behind the scenes.
• If you have a drinking problem or drug problem that your trying to cure. Stay out of bars. The opportunities to indulge are way too frequent.
• Violence is always something that can happen at a bar. Be aware of it and avoid people that are a risk.
• Be thankful they don’t allow smoking in bars anymore.