The Las Vegas Courtesan

The first rule to having a happy and successful bachelor party is knowing your attendees. This makes a huge difference in how you should plan accordingly because every party is different and a lot of parties end up in disaster due to lack of communication, among other things. Which brings me to the tweet I made that some people wanted me to elaborate (plus I have received a lot of emails lately wanting party advice):

“I really have a hard time dealing with the stress of bachelor parties these days. I’m so good at predicting outcomes it makes me nervous.”

I have been to so many parties over the years, I’m sure the number is way up there. The success rate of bachelor parties (or really any group of guys over 4), is much lower than the success rate of a call that has one guy or two. We typically look forward to the individual guys calling and somewhat groan when we hear it’s a party. Why? Here’s a little top three list of reasons:

1) Too many cooks in the kitchen:

There are 2+ girls, and a bunch of guys. Typically one guy has called or a couple of guys had some lightbulb moment and decided to plan the party. We try to talk to those people alone and away from the other guys. The reason is so that there is less confusion explaining things to a room full of drunk, rowdy men and to save our voices because usually instructions would be yelled. This also saves my patience and any other girls when we have to repeat ourselves 400 times to each guy, who mostly aren’t listening anyway. Even though we take these precautions, every guy ends up wanting to be the boss and dictating how things are going to go. So far all of this explaining has eaten up 30 minutes of our time to make sure there is no confusion. See my post on how agencies really work  to understand why we don’t want there to be any misunderstandings after a fee is collected.

2) We want the fee back!:

Once an agency fee is collected and called in, it is non-refundable. This is the part that stresses me out the very most. If we “check in” to a call and then the money is handed back, then we are therefore responsible for the money out of our own pocket. Yes, that sucks immensely. Some companies understand more and don’t make girls pay it back, but some are very strict about this policy. Really, I hate a conflict or disagreement, so that’s why I try to explain everything fully to clients and only work for agencies that I know explain things correctly on the phone. Clients only listen to half or none of what the girl says on the phone, so I try to repeat everything fully to make sure. People demanding back the fee is a rare occurrence for me now, but that thought and stress is still there in the back of my mind.

3) Problems, problems, problems:

Bachelor parties are the number one type of call where problems happen, and guys turn into some sort of irate animals. This is somewhere between what psychologists call “groupthink” and animal pack behavior. Most guys are having a good time, then a couple are just unsatisfied with whatever is going on usually alcohol induced (also, usually the person who spent the least amount of money or none at all), and their dissatisfaction spreads throughout the group until it’s a full-on mutiny. The emotions spread and turns into a mob against the girls. I’ve been around so many situations I can usually tell almost immediately if the party will be a problem or not. This intuition is great to have, but makes me nervous when I see how things might become a problem.

So, how do you make sure your bachelor party won’t turn into a disaster? Here are some good pointers:

1) Know your attendees:

Like I said before this makes all of the difference. If you have a larger group of guys and a couple of them can spend decent money, but the rest are complaining about $7 beers, then you might want to consider a strip club. The club can pick your party up for free, they have a two drink minimum, and each guy can pitch in what they want (if they want). Large groups of guys sometimes split up into smaller groups during these trips, so sometimes it’s better to group up the guys who are willing to pitch in for the bachelor and not be party duds. This way you have a group of guys that really want a good show and won’t complain about spending more than $40

2) Don’t try to invite every friend since kindergarten:

The larger the bachelor party, the more hectic and chaotic it gets. The most fun parties I have been to were between 4-7 guys. Everyone gets more time with each girl for dances, everyone isn’t squished like sardines in a room, and we don’t have to yell over every drunk in the room to explain anything. Things go more smoothly and overall people have a better time as a group. We get to know guys and interact with each one on a more personal basis as well. The money is a little more per person, but in the end the money goes further.

3) Way more interactive:

The in-room experience is definitely way more interactive with touching, games, and embarrassing the bachelor (clubs just don’t do the embarrassing stage shows in town anymore), but it is never cheaper than a club. This is a HUGE misconception with guys. They think the strip club girls are expensive and we work for singles. That logic makes no sense! Agency fees are in the hundreds alone, and strippers in the clubs already make on average 2-3 dances for $100, $400 for half an hour and $800+ for an hour. There is no way we’d be doing so much more for ones and fives. The difference is we can play more games and be more personable than clubs.

4) Be organized!:

Have the agency fee ready, have a decent amount of money per guy collected on top of the fee, and don’t go exchange all of your cash for ones! Keep some small bills for playing games with the bachelor, but please please pretty please don’t go exchange everything out in ones. The casino cashiers usually won’t take them back, and we get the biggest “Okay, stripper” eye roll.

Hopefully these tips helped everyone just in time for those people planning trips before the spring wedding rush. Las Vegas is definitely a bachelor party Mecca, so plan accordingly to your group to make it the best trip. There’s a party for everyone here I think.
Here’s also to a good 2012 and my first post of the new year.

Oh where do I begin with this nauseating program? First of all, I want to put it out there that I have no issue with religious people so long as their “word” is not forced or imposed on others in a brainwashing manner. I have no issue with people and their belief systems, no matter what they are, so long as they do not harm or make a person’s life more miserable than they were in the first place. I have mentioned Annie Lobert before — a couple of years ago — when she first made news in the Las Vegas Review-Journal about her ministry. In retrospect, I think I spoke a little too highly of her mission having now watched the show.

This show is new on the Investigation Discovery Channel — Hookers: Saved on the Strip. It follows Annie Lobert and her ministry of Hookers for Jesus, with Destiny House, and the The Church at South Las Vegas, in a reality show format. Since only one episode has aired so far, it has mostly focused on the story of “Regina” and her process of attempting to get out of the industry through Annie’s ministry. This is where things start getting under my skin. Regina obviously has a head on her shoulders and could get out of the industry on her own. She could easily be educated or trained to be in a good job.  From the start, though, she is frustrated because of being told by HELP of Southern Nevada (a non-profit community program) that she is pretty much only good for a minimum wage job at best in retail or the restaurant service industry. This degrading awakening that Annie seems to support, of course, only further frustrates Regina because she could not even cover her car note and insurance with that level of income. Her job search goes on for over a month before Annie ever gets the clue that maybe Regina should see a lawyer to seal her records to help with job placement. This should have been step ONE. Why disappoint someone and drag them through more emotional strain when they are already dealing with the inner turmoil of completely changing their life around and THEN realize “oh yea if we had done this one step first you might have saved yourself some heartache, embarrassment, and time?” Later on in the show, Regina says she has been in their “program” for seven months now (?!?!?!) and things were coming to a boil and she wants out, of course… still with no job. Tempers start to flare and Annie brings up the love of Jesus and somehow this is going to make it all better. Seriously??

Annie continues to further degrade Regina by taking her to some of the most ghetto apartments that I can only imagine being on Twain between Paradise and Maryland Parkway (if you know Las Vegas you know what a crap area that is) as if to show her THIS is what you are worth now, Regina. This rundown complex, living by yourself, with your minimum wage job (that you still haven’t found) and living paycheck to paycheck with no real training or education. But don’t worry you have the love of God, still! What a real swift kick in the emotional pants.

Here are some steps that could have been taken to avoid more suffering for these poor girls trying to change their lives:
1) Get the girls away from their pimps (this seems to be one step they are doing correctly)
2) Take the girl to a lawyer who can help with their police records. If they really want to change their lives and move on, I don’t think a judge would refuse the sealing of their records since they are usually a string of misdemeanors, anyway.
3) Help the girl find something profitable they are interested in and educate them in that area. Regina doesn’t have any real interests, she says on the show, so help her find something that would be of interest to her.  No one wants to be stuck doing something they hate in the first place and failure would just be reinforced in their minds.
4) Help the girl find a real well-paying job. Not a $9 an hour, not even full time job. Don’t make her feel like a cheap whore that got thrown out on the street because that’s all you feel like she is worth. No one wants that and these girls probably already felt that way when they were with their pimp.  Make them feel good about their prospects and their future if you really want your program to succeed.

Of course none of these steps are really easy but they seem like some simple and practical guidelines. When you throw religion and the “will of God” into the mix of someone already trying to make major changes in their life, things become more confusing and frustrating, and drastically raise the guilt and shame levels, which is completely unnecessary. Why would this God want them to suffer by living in a ghetto apartment, barely scraping by, or not even getting a job? That would only make someone wonder “if this God and his love is so great then why do I feel like I’m suffering?”  Or is that actually the point? I smell tired old misogyny (yes, I realize Annie is a woman, but these are very old, man-inspired attitudes towards women and control of their choices) and hatred of sex workers — even legal stripping — it’s all sin, isn’t it, Annie?  Eyerolls…

One thing that Regina pointed out that Annie completely disagreed with was her idea of returning to stripping in the mean time. Annie thinks stripping is to prostitution like weed allegedly is to drugs: a “gateway” from one to the other (her words on the show.) Though this is somewhat true in my own case it isn’t for the vast majority of the strippers out there. I think that if Regina really wants to change her ways from the sex industry then she would keep strictly to stripping and would be okay with the money she was making. This could definitely provide the income she needed while going back to school and getting a real education in something she could make a career of, instead of working a degrading, dead end retail job until the end of time. At the very end of the show, though, they finally have Regina talk to an agent that might be able to help her get a job in leasing sales — apparently seven months after she entered the “program,” if they edited the show in a truthful fashion.

When I was watching the show, Annie’s actions and ministry brought me back to a philosophy class I took in college. In the readings on his Groundwork of the Metaphysic(s) of Morals by Immanuel Kant, and his cases of duty that he explains in the book, people are only inclined to donate their time or money to others because it is pleasurable in some way to them and makes them feel good. In the class it made me realize in some ways that people do charity work only to make them feel better about themselves. And how sometimes this type of behavior is selfish. I get this feeling from Annie. Call me harsh or cynical, but in the end, I get the sense that her main focus is only getting the girls out of the business to earn herself extra Jesus points, and she’s not really seeing the huge picture of what these girls REALLY need to change their lives — pragmatic professional help. Preaching the word of God and blaming it all on the devil on a stripper pole is not a way to solve the real problems of their lives and start over.

In the end, I want to see Regina succeed and I know Annie wants to see that as well, but what would really help is bringing more professionals into the program and less of leaving it up to God to fix. Adding the aid of attorneys, psychologists, professional career counselors, professional recruiters, and above all professional education and training would be the ideal situation and program to have. If going to church to have others support you and your journey to recovery is what you need then by all means include that too but it shouldn’t be the primary focus forced on these women to succeed. It’s a far, far, larger task to accomplish than simply leaving it up to God.

Really? Does the county really have that much time and spare tax dollars to deal with cracking down on this?

This has been going on for a while now in the news first with an article back in April and now with another man who has been denied a license to operate – literally next to the the Green Door – is suing the county for damages of $75,000. He states the county rejected his license over the 45 day approval period and that they are enforcing their codes with discrimination since there are obviously other businesses in the same complex operating with similar licenses.

With the first story I was glad that the manager of the Power Exchange is trying to fight the legislation that says that these clubs are a public nuisance. The man involved in the second story unfortunately I think has quite a fight against the county. First of all,  he could have waited to start his improvements to the aging building  until after his license was approved, but also at the same time there shouldn’t have been an issue since this unit originally housed the Green Door and was using the same licenses as other clubs in the area. Secondly, I think there is discrimination all the time with the county and how they enforce their codes and giving one business favor against another and then claiming the reason why the Green Door is still in business is because they haven’t caught them “in the act”. Really? Either way I don’t think that these clubs should be harassed so much, and see no issue with the businesses being in operation since they generally promote safe sex practices and provide a safe way for people to explore their sexuality (each room usually had a monitor of some sort to make sure no one is being forced or uninvited into a sexual act.)

In the end what makes me really mad is the statement of the law saying that sex clubs are a “public nuisance.”  I could think of a lot more things in this city that are a public nuisance than these clubs. If you go to the East Sahara Commercial Center that is mentioned, and where a lot of the clubs are located, you will never see people outside causing a problem nor will you hear loud music or noise coming from the clubs. People aren’t running around outside wearing leather and chains, screaming, and having sex either (though that sounds kind of fun!)  So really what defines these places as being so bothersome?? I have also never seen the cops called out to these places or acts of vandalism occurring outside, but where I have seen a lot of these problems are at the “spa clubs” and parlors that I talked about in this entry I wrote. I know of a a few agencies not too far from these clubs and the cops are called out several times a night due to clients being angry and violent, pulling out guns, or these places being robbed. I have also witnessed damage to the building/windows of these places due to drive-by brick or stone throwing most likely caused by clients or other rival clubs. These places definitely ARE a public nuisance and only make my job as a sex worker in Las Vegas more difficult. I constantly have to prove myself to the men who are ripped off by these joints that I am different and will provide a service, not a hand and ear massage.

Like a reader said in one of the comments on the Las Vegas Sun, Sin City is turning into the place where tourists come to get ripped off and giving our town a bad name. The county commission is once again trying to make Las Vegas into a kind of Disneyland, just like Vegas tried in the early 90’s – an attempt that failed miserably. I think the commission should do their job and find the real public nuisances of our town – the places that are ripping tourists off – not crack down on the sex clubs which are clearly not ripping anyone off or forcing anyone to do something against their own will. Those patrons are all 100% consenting adults exploring the sexuality, which, like it or not Clark County Commission, is one huge reason people come to Las Vegas. Give Las Vegas the sin it deserves and is known for or there is no reason for the tourists to keep coming back. It definitely makes my job a lot harder if no one comes here.

I ran across this story about how the question of legalizing prostitution in Clark County has come up again since the economy and casino profits have fell. A few years ago Mayor Oscar Goodman was criticized for even half mentioning changing the laws to allow this, but now State Senator Bob Coffin has suggested the change (I’m sure he isn’t getting as much grief as the poor mayor did). They also want to tax the bordellos, strip clubs and escort/entertainment services to help fund our ailing education in the state and so why not add bordellos to Las Vegas?

My opinion? Not a big fan of this proposition. It seems to me that the only people that truly get rich in the bordello industry out in Pahrump and in Northern Nevada are the owners of the houses. After watching documentaries and listening to girls experiences of working the brothels, it has made me change my mind somewhat of moving legalized prostitution here in Las Vegas. If they had it legalized so I could still go to hotel rooms and not be in fear to present some sort of menu? That would be nice, but it would never happen. They would keep the workers in a house and in a certain area of town to make everyone happy. It would make prices go down for the workers and more would be taken from their earnings so we wouldn’t make nearly as much money. Of course I would like for there to be a standardized way of making sure the current girls are all healthy and certified but I don’t know how that would work in a new legalized system without there being too much control over the industry as a whole.

I do agree the states education system is in desperate need of help and our Governor seems to keep screwing things up by cutting funding in all of the wrong places though during his campaign he claimed he would never touch education. Of course he lied and now they are cutting 30% of education when the system already can’t keep up with itself. I happened to drive by the rally they had at UNLV the other night and was shocked at the thousands of people rallying. Maybe taxing the current sexually oriented businesses would be a good idea but it shouldn’t just be limited to them. I think such entertainment companies like Pure Management and Light Group (the people who run the large nightclubs in town) who charge $400 bottles of Skyy vodka should be taxed too. After all they’ve been hiding the thousands of dollars that gets passed to their door guys unreported.. how about they fund education too? It’s all really screwed up though and there’s no easy answer