Male Strippers Share "Naked Truth" of Dancing For

4/10/13
Male Strippers Share "Naked Truth" of Dancing For Dollars (sNSFW) - Houston - Arts - Art Attack - Print Version
Male Strippers Share "Naked Truth" of
Dancing For Dollars (sNSFW)
By Brittanie Shey
Published Mon., Apr. 8 2013 at 7:00 AM
Photos courtesy Ellora's Cave Publishing
Hello ladies. Justin Whitfield wants to do the crossword with you.
If you loved the movie Magic Mike (and I know a lot of people who did), you might be
wondering how much of it was factually accurate. Two Houston­based male strippers have
teamed up to write a book about the Playgirl lifestyle, called Take It Off! The Naked Truth
About Male Strippers, and recently talked to Art Attack about the stereotypes, their craziest
stories and the, ahem, hardest parts of being a male exotic dancer.
The book, which was released last year, is the brainchild of Taylor Cole and Justin Whitfield,
both in their 30s.
"We'd been talking about this for years," Whitfield said. "Then this movie comes out, it makes
us look really cool, so we decided to get to work on the book."
"When we'd go on tour, we'd both tell stories about the job," Cole said. Many of those stories
have ended up in the book. The men said the book is part autobiographical and part
instructional. It also covers a lot of the questions most commonly asked of male strippers.
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Male Strippers Share "Naked Truth" of Dancing For Dollars (sNSFW) - Houston - Arts - Art Attack - Print Version
Whitfield said the movie Magic Mike is a pretty
accurate depiction of what the lifestyle is like. For
example, most male strippers are introduced to the
job by someone in the industry. It was Whitfield who
got Cole into dancing. They met at the gym, started
chatting and the subject of Whitfield's job eventually
came up. Cole, who is 34, had danced at an amateur
night before, and Whitfield thought he'd make a good
professional dancer.
"It was something that I'd always wanted to do," Cole
said. He's now been dancing for ten years, and
currently works at La Bare. Whitfield, who is 39,
retired from dancing about eight years ago to open his
own bar, the Endzone, in West Houston. Three of his
employees are also former dancers.
In addition to working clubs, lots of male dancers also
do tours, trade shows and modeling gigs. Cole had
started modeling for romance novel covers on the
side, and that's how he ended up getting hooked up
with the publisher of Take It Off, an imprint of erotic
romance novels called Ellora's Cave. The publisher's
cover models are known as "Cave Men" and travel to romance fiction trade shows to model and
meet fans.
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Male Strippers Share "Naked Truth" of Dancing For Dollars (sNSFW) - Houston - Arts - Art Attack - Print Version
Taylor Cole has nothing to hide.
"They're really fun to do," Cole said.
Whitfield said the book has surprised a lot of people. One of the things it addresses is the
common stereotypes people have about his profession. Both men said Magic Mike helped to
address a lot of those stereotypes and was pretty accurate, except for one thing.
"Except for the drugs. It's not like that at all. Maybe it was ten years ago." Cole said.
"The first club we worked for was probably the worst," Whitfield added. "It's no longer open."
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Male Strippers Share "Naked Truth" of Dancing For Dollars (sNSFW) - Houston - Arts - Art Attack - Print Version
Cave Men: Whitfield and Cole.
Other stereotypes?
"The two most asked questions are, they assume we're all gay, and do we stuff our bottoms,"
Cole said.
No and no to both. And Whitfield has a good explanation for the first one.
"If you were gay and you were turned on by men, who have more expendable income, why
would you dance for women?"
And no, male strippers don't all have crazy sex all the time, either.
"It doesn't matter what a guy does for a living," Whitfield said. "If he's gonna be a whore dog,
he will. It goes from one side of the spectrum to the other."
As for one of their craziest stories from the club? Once a woman sitting by the stage had a
seizure due to the bright, flashing lights. Her friends called 911 and paramedics came while the
show was still going on. You know the stereotype that women love a man in uniform? Well, the
other patrons of the club descended on the paramedic and tried to rip his clothes off.
"The audience thought he was part of the show," Whitfield said.
Take It Off! The Naked Truth About Male Strippers is available from Ellora's Cave in both
paperback and ebook format.
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