Hot Guys with Hot Moves

By Steph Moore

Sometimes I really love my job. Take this assignment, for example. I got to sit down and talk with Brett, the director of Men in Motion, when they once again packed the ladies in at the Eighties Lounge here in Worcester …What’s Men in Motion, you ask? Well, this is where it gets good ~ MIM is a group of about 25 hot…ON FIRE hot…male dancers (don’t you just hate me now???) whose performance attire can easily fit in the palm of your hand (now stop that…I mean that they perform scantily clad!). Do I have your attention now? I thought so. Now read on to hear what Brett shared with Pulse about the business, the clients, the stereotypes, and more.

OK, first of all, is that the right word, “dancers?” Or do you prefer “strippers” or “adult entertainers?” Yes, “male dancer” is preferable. If someone calls me a male stripper it’s OK, I’ve gotten used to it ~ I don’t like it, but it’s a very cliché and common term and the general public doesn’t know the difference, so I don’t think they mean any harm.

Let’s give everyone a visual ~ how stripped do you get? We dance down to a thong.

Is this line of work like what we see in the movies, ladies screaming and pulling at you, putting singles…there? Yup.

There’s obviously a lot more to this gig than just taking your clothes off ~ you’ve got to have moves, style…so where do those moves and choreography come from? Actually there really is a difference between dancing and stripping. Stripping requires a lot of stage presence. You have to look confident and smooth when you’re taking off your clothes ~ when you have a commanding presence, that’s what’s going to draw people into your performance and keep them watching. I learned a lot from watching other dancers all over the country, including Chippendales in New York, but I think I’m also lucky to have a natural talent for the job. Now I train the other MIM dancers myself, too, and hope that I do a good job at inspiring them and passing along what I know.

Who comes up with the costume/character ideas and music for each routine? We brainstorm and put them together ourselves. Then we see were it goes!

For those of you who have significant others ~ is there every any jealousy about what you do for work? My girl doesn’t subscribe to the mainstream way of thinking and has no problem with it at all. Some of the dancers, though, do have girlfriends who want them to leave, but that’s for every couple to decide for themselves. And for some people this profession is just a phase. For young dancers in their 20s, sure, who wouldn’t want all this female attention? But as time passes, many dancers realize this is just a job like anything else. If you worked in a candy shop, the sweets wouldn’t be so exciting after a few years, know what I mean?

So a lot of your business comes from bachelorette parties, right? Have you ever been hired for a gig and shown up to find just ONE woman waiting for you and hoping for a private show? Yes, most shows are built around bachelorette parties and private and club events ~ this kind of entertainment is a big part of our culture now. There were a couple of times when I went to a house and there was just one girl there. Once it was a surprise to the girl…and the other time it was a surprise to me!

Have any of your clients ever crossed the line in terms of appropriate behavior? At some shows some women drink too much and get caught up in what’s going on. They have bitten, scratched, spanked us and stolen things from us. I even catch what I call the re-tippers. That’s when they tip you, then try to take the dollar back out of your thong when you’re focusing on another girl so they can tip you again. Crazy, huh?

What do you think is the biggest misconception about men in your profession? There’s a real stigma attached to what we do. I think it’s worse now then it used to be. Years ago people were intrigued with male dancers. It was new back then. I can’t tell you how many times I did a birthday party at someone’s house and had the crowd come up to me afterwards and compliment me on my performance, saying that it was fun and not the “nasty thing” they’d thought it would be. Now some people are turned off by it or think of it as degrading. Our sexuality is called into question sometimes too. People think that we can’t be straight if we can so easily take our clothes off in front of strange women, but that’s just not true. I think the boyfriends of the women in our audience just like to tell themselves that!

You do a lot of solo gigs, but do MIM ever work as a team on a single event? Yes, we do male revues in nightclubs. We also do benefits.

Any funny stories that you can let us in on? One time I went into a restaurant and started to do my show. Problem was, the lady who booked me hadn’t asked, or even alerted, the management! The manager stopped my show right in the middle ~ he was furious, I was mortified, and it was just incredibly awkward. Major miscalculation! I did another party for a girl who was a world class snowboarder. I started and she ran for the door and I never saw her again. At a different gig I had some girls put their phone numbers in permanent magic marker on my backside. It didn’t come off for a week and it ruined the next night’s show.

Do you hold auditions for new members from time to time? If so, what do you look for in a potential Man in Motion? I really don’t have auditions per se, but I’ll have someone new come down to show and show me his abs, face, and how he interacts with the women in the room.

Your industry has a pretty strong presence in the US. Are there conventions? Any sort of union like there is for other types of performers? No, but I wish there were. We all know of each other and where we all dance. There’s a lot of both competition and camaraderie out there and it would be nice to have some sort of official connection amongst us all.

Brett ~ anything else you’d like people to know about MIM? We are just a bunch of normal guys. We just put time into looking good and we enjoy what we do!

For an updated schedule of MIM shows, photos and bios of the MIM dancers, or to book them for a party, head to www.meninmotiondancers.com.