Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

diary of a las vegas dancer:

Stripper: Just give cowboys a chance; they’re really very nice

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Justice

More from Justice

Justice is an occasional blogger for the Las Vegas Weekly — a sister publication of the Las Vegas Sun.

To read more of her posts, visit the Weekly’s website at lasvegasweekly.com.

My stripper friend is visiting from out of town to work with me. I warned her it’s going to be insane because the rodeo is in town.

I’m genuinely excited about it this year, which is a lot different from the past. In previous years, I was annoyed by everything about the cowboy invasion. I avoided work for the entire duration of the rodeo last year.

I didn’t like country music. I didn’t like the crowds of cowboys and I didn’t like their attitudes. Admittedly I never gave them a chance. I think I assumed, without any investigation, that they were crazy, right-wing, misogynistic hillbillies. I’ve had a few individual encounters with cowboys at work that broke this stereotype for me. Sort of. I mean, I’ve never met a non-Republican cowboy but that’s OK, I suppose.

I used to have a regular strip club customer who was a cowboy. Let’s call him Dan. Dan would always wear his camel-colored felt cowboy hat, a button-up shirt and a suede vest. He was conspicuously tall and thin, like a dead tree, and had a thick wheat-colored mustache that he styled perfectly with the ends curled up nice and stiff. Dan could be spotted from anywhere in the small club because of his height and unusual sense of style. He was like a cowboy caricature but was baffled as to why he was so easily remembered by everyone at the club.

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Justice

“Well you have a very distinctive look,” I told him over the loud music. “What? I stink?” he responded. “She just told me I stink” he told the bartender. I tried to clarify but I don’t think I succeeded. He forgave me anyway. He’s sweet like that. Cowboy Dan never bought himself lap dances but was very generous with his money. He tipped very well and bought lots of tequila. It was a delight to spend a shift at work with him.

Another cowboy who I adored was also gentlemanly and totally hot. He was a tall young Texan. He wore a black cowboy hat and most of my memory about him makes me blush. I think I liked the jeans. I tried on his cowboy hat and I learned that there is a custom that if you try on the hat, you have to try on the cowboy.

Both he and Cowboy Dan were very generous, friendly and respectful. They were perfect customers. Both were examples of how wrong I was about cowboys. I’m looking forward to meeting many more of them during the rodeo.

And I’ve come around on country music and am actually looking forward to hearing it at work. It’s my favorite kind of music these days. It’s bizarre to hear country at a strip club, where classic rock and R&B are the norm.

I’ve heard several strippers explosively express their frustration with country music during the rodeo. I’m going to just have to try not to sing along.

I’ve successfully talked my visiting stripper into sneaking out of work early to hit the cowboy parties. This is going to be fun.

Justice, whose identity we are protecting, earned a bachelor’s degree from UNLV in 2008.

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