How Much Do Male Strippers Actually Make?

Read Nadia's first

Before anything else, go read Nadia Cole's piece on what dancers make on the women's side. She wrote it better than I would have, and most of what she says about the money holds up over here too. I'm following her lead instead of pretending I came up with all of it myself. Where the men's side works differently, and it does in a few ways that matter, I'll say so.

The honest range

The money swings a lot. On a dead ladies' night you might clear a hundred bucks, and after the house takes its piece it can be less than that. I've had nights where I spent more getting ready, between the gym and the tan and the gas, than I brought home. Then you get a good bachelorette party, or a busy night on a revue, and you leave with two or three grand in your pocket. There's no salary underneath any of it. You get paid off what happens in the room, and some rooms are empty.

Where the money actually comes from

Compared to the women's side, more of it comes from the booking than the stage:

• Ladies' nights and club shows. Stage tips, the dollar bills in the waistband, plus whatever you sell in lap dances. It's streaky.
• Revue shows. A touring or residency show pays you a cut of the door, or a flat rate plus tips. It's steadier, but you're splitting with the production.
• Private bookings. Bachelorette parties and private events are where the money is, and they're yours to build. The guys who get ahead usually got ahead here.
• The cut. An agency or club takes their piece, and your body, your wardrobe, your travel, and your grooming all come out of what's left.

The body is most of it

Nadia makes the point that on the women's side you don't have to be the best-looking woman in the room. That's a lot less true for us. How you look does most of the work, which means the gym is basically part of the job, and so is the diet. I'll also tell you something the recruiting pitch leaves out: plenty of guys are on steroids, testosterone, or HGH. It's common enough that in most locker rooms nobody bothers pretending otherwise. It costs money now and it can cost you your health later. I'm not telling you to do it, and I'm not telling you not to. I'm telling you it's there so it doesn't catch you off guard.

What you make depends on what you'll do

I'm not going to talk around this part. A lot of the biggest earners are the guys willing to go further than the next guy, and depending on the club, "further" is a lot further than dancing. At some places, coming off stage means sexual contact with customers. Oral sex is part of the night at certain clubs, and not with just one woman — a guy who's willing can end up with several after his set. The guys who build that reputation get requested and get paid for it, and since part of the reputation is physical, a lot of them rely on Viagra to keep up. So what you make and where you draw your line end up tied together. The important thing is that the line is yours. You set it, nobody else does. I spell all of this out honestly in the how-to-start guide, because it's really a safety-and-consent conversation and not a money one. But you should hear it here too, because people will quietly tell you your paycheck depends on moving it.

Four guys, same show

The Shy Guy

Nadia's first type is the beautiful woman coasting on attitude. Ours is close to the opposite, and it catches people off guard. The guy who does really well is often the quiet one. A little reserved, maybe a little in his own head, but warm once he's actually in front of somebody. Women respond to that. When the rest of the room is flexing and talking themselves up, the guy who seems a bit shy and pays real attention to the bride-to-be is the one she remembers. He wasn't the loudest man there. He just came across like a real person for a few minutes, and that tends to earn more than confidence does.

The Party Guy

He works hard, makes real money, and holds onto none of it. It goes to bottles, after-parties, whatever's around, looking the part. He's broke again by Monday most weeks. Ten years of this and a lot of cash has moved through his hands with nothing to show for it but stories. It's probably the most common way it goes for guys, because on our side the partying isn't off to the side somewhere. It's the whole scene.

The Professional

Good-looking, smart, using the job to pay for something else. He's in nursing school, or working toward med school, and dancing two or three nights a week so he doesn't come out the other side buried in loans. Nobody in his program has any idea, which is how he wants it. The money is tuition and a degree with no debt on it, and he's got a date in mind for when he's done. Then he stops, and a few years later he's the doctor seeing your kid. More guys have paid their way through school like this than anyone would guess.

The Entrepreneur

He runs it like a business, because it is one. He builds up private bookings and repeat clients, the woman who books him for every bachelorette in her group, so a slow Tuesday at the club doesn't get to decide his month. And he keeps what he earns. He saves it, buys a small place and rents out part of it, puts money into something that brings in more money, and keeps going. For him the dancing was the money he used to start, not the thing itself.

Something else about this world

One thing worth being upfront about, because it's part of the room you'd be walking into: a lot of the guys are gay, and a fair number more are quietly bi and keep it to themselves. The crowd is almost all women, so on stage none of it matters, it's a performance either way. And backstage nobody's paying much attention to who you are on your own time. I bring it up because if you show up picturing a locker room full of straight guys, that's not the job. The men who are settled in their own skin, whoever they are, come across better under the lights.

Regulars beat a big night

Nadia tells the women the same thing, and it holds for us. You can squeeze a drunk bachelorette for one big payday and never see her again. Or you can be the guy her whole group books for every party over the next few years. The repeat booking is worth more than the one big night, because it keeps coming back. Guys who only think about tonight lose out to the ones thinking about next year.

So how much do male strippers make?

Somewhere between a hundred bucks and a few grand a night, swinging harder than it does for the women. But the dollar figure was never the whole story. What matters more is which of those four guys you turn into, and how clear you are on what you will and won't do, which is a heavier question on our side than most people let on before you start.

Before you take a booking

A lot of this comes down to where you work and who you sign with: the pay, and whether the place actually backs you up when you hold a line. Before you commit to a club or an agency, hear about it from guys who've worked there, not from whoever's trying to book you. Make a free performer account, set up a profile, and you can read what other performers say about the clubs and agencies you're weighing: what they pay, what they take, how they treat you. Then you leave your own notes so the next guy isn't going in blind. There's a gear side to it too, the stuff that keeps you in shape and camera-ready, and you can see what other performers actually use over in the marketplace. All of it only exists because guys share it. Get the real story before you sign anything.