The New Year Is Almost Here

C'mon 2008, hurry up and get here! It's just gotta be better than 2007. We're in the Home Stretch now and for that I am thankful.

What happens in The Strip Club on New Year's Eve, you ask? Absolutely nothing. We are closed only two days of the year, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. In years past, we have found that no one really goes to a strip club for New Year's Eve, in fact the last year we were open on that night, we closed just after midnight because the club was empty. Yay for me that it falls on Monday this year, as Monday nights are my shift.

New Year's Day, however, is another story. It is one of the busiest nights of the season for us. Two years ago, on New Year's Day, we had our asses handed to us because we were terribly shorthanded and the club was standing room only.

It fell on a Sunday that year and Sunday is my double-shift day. I arrive at the club at 1:00 pm and don't get out until after 3:00 am the next morning. My bartender that day was Keri*, my favorite. Keri wasn't feeling well and got progressively worse as the day rolled on. We found out later that it was food poisoning from some wings her boyfriend had packed in her lunch for the day. By 8:00 pm, Keri was down for the count. She had thrown up so many times that she could barely stand up, let alone tend bar on a busy shift. I sent her home and as it was already into the evening, I couldn't get a hold of anyone else to come in to cover the remainder of her shift, so I had to do it.

I am a speed bartender with over 20 years experience, trained in a high volume night club, so I knew the shift would be a walk in the park. The other problem I had was two of my servers were no call, no show. It was just going to be Nina* and I working it all. Nina was an excellent server, so I had no doubt she could run the floor on her own. We were a good team that night, getting the drinks out at record speed. Not only was I slinging drinks, I was calling drink specials, dealing with Entertainers, cutting off drunks and all around running the club from behind my busy bar. It was awesome.

We had a couple of managers from another strip club in town come in and they totally made my night. As in most clubs, no matter where you are, we offer "Club Courtesy" to staff members of rival clubs. This includes free cover and usually a comped round of drinks. The two guys that came in that night were there to spend money and that they did. They spent so much money, that at one point I had to leave the bar and refill my empty ATM machine. They weren't buying dances, just buying bricks ($100) of 1's from me and throwing them all over the Entertainers on stage. "Making it rain" is the strip club term for this type of behavior. The girls were making so much money on their stages that the bouncers had to scoop up all the cash after each set and stuff it in champagne buckets.

They were "throwing" money at me too. Every time they came to the bar to buy a few more bricks of 1's, they would peel off about $25-$40 and give it to me. It seemed as if everyone there that night was in the spending mood. Nina and I were getting tipped an average of $5-$10 per round, from almost everyone.

My Bouncers that night were at the top of their game. Every time I needed something, from fresh bottles of liquor to a new keg, they were always right there. The bouncers work for tips just like everyone else in the club and they were making cash hand over fist, as well. We were all working our asses off, non-stop.

By the time we closed and collectively counted our tips, the exhaustion of the night disappeared. We had all banked. In the six hours that I was behind the bar, I made almost $1000. I tipped out my Bouncers over $200 for all of their hard work, they didn't want to take that much but I insisted. Rule #1 in working at a Strip Club; never turn down a tip.

I miss those days when my body allowed me to do whatever I wanted and work as hard as I wished. Keri is my bartender again this New Year's Day and I sure hope she doesn't get sick again or I'll be screwed.