Although, they also work in the Adult Entertainment Industry, Strip Dancers (strippers) 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 run a strip team, reveals to Apples Bite International Magazine 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 always want everything to be perfect. If I’m doing anything I always request for perfection. Even though I’ll be there to guide the person, I realized 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’d be arrogant, proud, rude and hurty. Maybe because of the job 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 had to say it to my face that they thought I was rude before they met me.
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If you could change three parts of your body, what would they be?
If I am given a chance to change three parts of my body, I’ll first change my hair. I’ll want a bright shade of gold and I’ll choose fuller and longer hair. My legs, I’ll have 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, those are the parts of my body I’ll love to work on.
Which part of your body do you consider your greatest asset?
I’ll say my greatest asset are my lips. I said so 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 resonate with me from time. Their struggles, success are ones 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 as such. 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 not fully embraced yet. I know a lot of people that are not bold enough to come out and own up to be strip dancers. Any girl that comes out to say they strip gets looked at 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 I’m proud of it. What I do is dancing seductively and get naked at some point. That’s what makes it different from the regular dancing.
How long have you been doing this?
I’ll say about a year now. It’s 11 months precisely, by the end of January 2021, I’ll be 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 type of money we make is on a day to day basis. Some days are better than the other. 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 day to day 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 hazards?
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, tested, and trusted. Before I send any of my girls out for private shows, clubs jobs, house parties, or beach parties before I send them anywhere, I always make sure to find out everything I’m supposed to find out about the client and location.
I always make sure that my girls should be treated with respect, they are dancers. They are professionals carrying out a job. I always go out with them when there are jobs, and when I’m not chanced because of other engagements, my PA will. 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 nollywood 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 hands-on other means of livelihood.
What are the challenges that come 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, they believe 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 generally, if you walk up to a person, or you enter a meeting room, dressed impeccably, and everyone starts to talk about their career, and you introduce yourself as a stripper, even the ladies in the room will go like ‘Oh really, she strips?’ There’s this stigmatisation that comes with my type of job. However, I’m used to it, and I have built a tough skin not to care about people’s perception of me. If I go broke those people won’t pay my bills.
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Can you narrate the experience of one of your worst days on this job?
Well, as we’ve had better days, we’ve had worse days too. One I particularly remember was when my girls went for a job at a beach house, I can’t remember which of the beach houses now. And I was supposed to go meet them. I got to the jetty point without me, so I wasn’t able to control what was happening to them at the event, the calls were too much from my girls, so I had to get a boat to take me to the beach house.
While I was on the water, our boat stopped. We couldn’t go forward or backwards. We were literally stuck in the middle of the water. This was like past eight in the night. Then, my girls were done working, and because I wasn’t there and my PA wasn’t there too, they were taken advantage of.
I was supposed to collect their payment and spray 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 with 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 fond days was the first time we made N1.2M at a job. Just three girls. I wasn’t even expecting we would make that much that night. As a matter of fact, that was the first day I’d seen that amount of money with my eyes.
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 really out to either 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. Or let me just say I’ve not met a man that’s worth it.
Are your girls permitted to take other jobs that didn’t come from you?
Sure, they can take other jobs that don’t come from me. However, I have to be informed, so I don’t schedule them for a job that period when they’re working out. Even after they informed me, and I do my findings about the job and I tell them not to take the job because I don’t think it’s safe, they didn’t disobey me. My words always count. The reason permit them to take outside jobs is basically because it helps us expand our contact base and ring. At a certain time some of my girls took an outside job, they exchanged numbers with some clients who in turn gave us a two-week stretch job. It just generally helps us widen our connect. Although, 95% of the time, the girls are working for me. It’s just 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. My girls are dancers, they are strippers. That’s what they’re paying me for. If they want sex, they know where to get it from. It is not a given that it’s a stripper that should give them sex. There are other girls that do that as jobs, exchanging sex for money. If a client ask if they could go all the way with my girls I let them know I can contact someone who can arrange that for them, not my girls.
Do you house and feed these girls? What are your responsibilities on them really?
I don’t house them. The only thing is I just get jobs for them, take them for jobs and pay them. They have their houses.
What qualities does a girl need to be able 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 always understand how to move your body to seduce too. And of course, you must have a pretty face too.
What’s your academic qualification?
I graduated from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, FUNAB. I studied Biological Science, majored in Zoology. I graduated two years ago, and I completed my NYSC in the city of 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 more 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 whoever the rapist is using. Concensual 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, molestations are bound to come up, and if you’re not very disciplined. However, I try to be on the lookout and I protect my girls and I from possible molestation.
What are your dreams?
This stripping gig would not be a forever thing. I am 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 are not fully aware. My dad and mom are not all that 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 until I move into another business.
And you think none of them have had to mention it to parent?
Of course, I’m sure one or two of them must have told them. But my mum being the positive person that she is 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 as.
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 labors 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 majorly, I’m usually very tired often because of work, so I go off on sex for a long time, and take my mind off it, until it becomes very necessary.
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 generally. Other times, I go shopping when I’m not working or I’m just home and very bored, because I’m used to being outdoor. I enjoy activities.
Seunmanuel Faleye is a brand and communications strategist. He is a covert writer and an overt creative head. He publishes Apple’s Bite International Magazine.
