Career Day

CAREER

: STRIPPER

AUTHOR

: MISTRESS ZUHARA

Do Asian strippers make more or less tips than white or black girls?

It’s how good you are that makes you tips. Sometimes we get extra interest from Vietnam vets, though; mostly the ones that have lost their minds from the drugs there. When I was at Baby Doll here in New York there was a Vietnam vet named John. John often screamed out loud about how he massacred and raped in Vietnam. He was supposedly rich, a Wall Streeter, but he never, ever tipped even one dancer.

But you’re Japanese.

He didn’t care. He used to get drunk and say crazy stuff to me like, "Me so horny! Me love you long time!" So I would throw cigarettes at him, lit ones, and one time it hit his forehead real good and he shrieked. Since then he stopped doing the Vietnamese whore joke around me.

What’s their deal? Was it because Vietnam is where they went crazy?

Yeah, or maybe they lost their virginity to Vietnamese girls. John was a nasty version, but there was nice guys, like Will, who came by every two or three weeks. He was very sweet. He was a nurse, soft spoken.

He was married to a Thai woman and had kids. He would just sit there at the bar and he would always give me a twenty. Sometimes twice. He loved slits on skirts. He said he gets horny just walking around the city, looking at all the women, thinking they are all naked underneath the clothes.

One night, after knowing him for over a year like that, I noticed that he had his dick out at the bar. He told me he’s always had it out.

Do they expect things to be like they are in Vietnam?

Yes. I don’t know why. I never even met a Vietnamese stripper. There was this obnoxious jerk called Ed. He was nice at first, but after he realized I wasn’t going anywhere with him – not to the private massage gig he offered or even for a coffee around the corner – then he was nasty. He wanted to make me feel bad, by telling me how I put on so much weight or by coming towards the stage many times to tip only the other girl, totally ignoring me. One time he said, "You have such a big head. You think you are so good or something. You know, when I go to Hanoi I can buy thirteen year-old virgins, three of them for 100 dollars!"

He had a red face, big silver-framed glasses, a receding hairline and a little ponytail on the back. He had a Vietnamese wife whom he had some kids with, and a Vietnamese girlfriend who lived in Hanoi that he took care of. He was continuously complaining about this girlfriend, how expensive it is to take care of one’s life. He said she asked for too much.

So he’s been going back to Vietnam regularly since the war?

He was going to Hanoi every six months or so.

The only time I felt that he wasn’t just an evil guy who takes advantage of Asian girls was when I was looking at a take-out menu for a Vietnamese restaurant nearby, thinking I wanna try something else than squid curry and rice. He wanted to give me all kinds of advice since he knew so much about it, and he seemed so happy to know about it. That made him look more human.