Monday, April 19, 2010

Peter's Spotlight Entertainer: Shelby (Hurricane Betty’s)

Readers/lovers of Peter Tips,

It is with great excitement that I unveil the newest treat from your favorite blog: Peter’s Spotlight Entertainer, where I will interview New England’s finest entertainers and post those interviews for your reading pleasure. I believe in showcasing not only the physical beauty of my muses, but also their emotional and intellectual depth, and I'm confident that these women will impress as much with their prose as they do on the pole.

The first installment highlights Shelby, a snarky spitfire from Worcester’s Hurricane Betty’s with a foul mouth, sharp wit and killer body. Join me for my sit-down with this North Shore native as she hates on Nickelback, confesses her love for late-night sci-fi and reveals what not to say during a three-way lap dance.

[Note to all dancers: my calendar is filling up quickly, so if you’d like to be considered as a spotlight entertainer, please e-mail me ASAP at stripperpoll@gmail.com]

PETER: First things first, tell us about your history as a dancer: where you’ve worked and for how long.

SHELBY: [Editor’s note: due to an equipment malfunction, this answer has been paraphrased]. I’ve been dancing since 2005. I started at Centerfold’s 2000 in Worcester, spent about a year there, then danced a little bit in LA, moved back East and spent some time at Mario’s and Cabaret. I really bounced around a lot until I came to Hurricane Betty’s a few years ago and I’ve been here ever since.

PETER: When you’re working, do you have a favorite type of music to dance to, like R&B, hip-hop, rock?

SHELBY: I try really hard to mix up my choice of music and not dance to any particular genre. My musical choices are really eclectic. You know what it is? I like to dance to shit that no one has heard at a strip club, and I hear it all the time, like “Oh, are you dancing to the Darkness?” People get psyched, people get jazzed, because they never hear that. Or [read more...]

PETER: Do you have any sort of signature dance move when you’re on stage? Something that’s unique to you?

SHELBY: I guess the only thing that I exclusively do is usually…actually, every night except for tonight, I always wear a studded belt, you probably remember this, and I keep it on when I get nude, so it’s just me and the belt and the shoes. And what I do is I put my hands in the belt behind me in sort of a, you know, bondage… [read more...]

PETER: Okay, here’s the question that the readers really want answered. What makes for a great customer?

SHELBY: Some of my favorite regulars – I can only say what I like about a regular – because I have a lot of regulars, but there are ones that I really remember, I look forward to them coming in…when they come in, my eyes light up. Just as people, I really like to dance for them, and that’s if like, they sit down, and you can tell that they enjoy it, but they don’t try to touch. Maybe after three or four [read more...]

PETER: Equally important, what makes for a terrible customer?

SHELBY: Well, I think the most terrible thing a customer can do is insult you. Like picking something about you and criticizing it, especially if they got a dance from you. They get a dance and you say: Oh, how was it? “Well, it was okay, but…” and then they have some, like you’ve asked them for a thumbs-up or something, they have some point to critique you on.

PETER: How often does that happen?

SHELBY: It happens a lot, but I’ve been dancing for five years. So, thank you, it was nice doing business with you and perhaps, maybe you’ll enjoy a dance later in the evening. I’m 29, I’m not gonna [read more...]

PETER: How often do you get hit on at work?

SHELBY: How often do guys want to make me their girlfriend? All the time, for real, and it’s not arrogant, because I’m a really modest and humble person, even like, over the top, too much. And I will say, all the time, every night, and it happens to everyone, that’s the thing. It’s not unusual. I don’t know why, I don’t know why they do that.

PETER: Is it shocking in some situations who’s doing it? Or is it, like, a young 19 or 20 year old guy who’s like “Yeah, I’m gonna go home with a dancer.”

SHELBY: No. That’s the funny thing. It’s not exclusive to any age group or ethnicity. I mean, it’s more strong in say, like the Brazilian community, because I guess like down in Brazil, that’s copacetic. So you get it a lot from them, but you can get it from a nice sweet little 18-year old that is just genuinely wanting to hang out with you. Or, you know, you get it from guys who are 50 or 60 years old, but I guess cast your nets, do your thing. Who knows what you’ll pull back, right?

PETER: What’s the worst pickup line you’ve heard from a customer? And what’s the best?

SHELBY: The worst? I ask a guy if he wants a private dance and he says: “No, I don’t. I wanna take you home and introduce you to my mother. I wanna bring you out to a nice dinner. Why would I spend money on a dance when I can buy you a lobstah dinner?” I’m not making this up, as though I can deposit a lobstah dinner into the bank and pay my electric bill with it. [read more...]

PETER: Okay, what’s the best way for a customer to not rudely say no to a dance?

SHELBY: Well, they should decide why they’re saying no. Some good excuses would be – well, not excuses – some realities: I’m married, I told my wife I wouldn’t get any dances, you’re beautiful. That’s a good one. I love, this is my favorite: “I really don’t have any money. I’ve been here for a couple of hours, I’m gonna get going, I [read more...]

PETER: Windpants in clubs: the ultimate in comfort for him and her, or just plain creepy?

SHELBY: So, there is something to be said for wearing a normal pair of pants in that you’re gonna get a normal dance. If you wear shorts, with your business potentially peeking out of it, I’m not gonna touch you at all, I’m gonna hover. [read more...]

PETER: What’s the weirdest/creepiest thing a guy has said to you in a club?

SHELBY: There are times in a club when guys say something that, you can’t…you have to be careful what you say, especially when you say something shady. So I’ve heard guys say stuff about kids before…children. And you hear it through the grapevine and you’re always like [grossed out sound]. My best friend that I’ve been friends with for 20 years –I worked with her up until recently – and we were here, and we always [read more...]

PETER: What’s your favorite strip club story, besides the one you just told.

SHELBY: All time from a strip club? It’s already on YouTube. A girl who works here recorded it; you can look it up, it’s me. So I won’t tell you that, ‘cause it’s like, redundant. Favorite story? I don’t know; can I come back to it? [Shelby didn’t come back to this question; Peter will update the interview next time he sees her.]

PETER: Have you ever gotten a much larger tip than you expected?

SHELBY: Well, it’s all tips, so it’s hard to say that I’ve ever gotten…there’s making more than you expected. Like when you take a guy in the champagne room and you just kill it. You don’t even mean to, but it just snowballed into like [Peter edited out this number, but suffice it to say that it was a big score, in four digits], that’s [read more...]

PETER: Alright, let’s talk about Shelby now. How do you unwind after work?

SHELBY: Every night when I get home, I get home about 3:30 in the morning ‘cause I live 70 miles away. So I get home at 3:30 in the morning and it’s pretty much, I’m a very habitual person, I eat a bowl of ice cream, Brigham’s ice cream, and I watch sci-fi, every night after work.

PETER: Like the Sci-Fi channel?

SHELBY: Yeah, like Iguanadon fights Tyrannosaur. I love it. So that’s how I unwind; I like watching really over-the-top, lame sci-fi movies after work. And then I just go to bed, ‘cause I’m exhausted. Just day-to-day, I’m really boring. I really lead two lives, you know what I mean. I live on the ocean, so I go to the beach every day, I play with my kid, I play Scrabble, I read, I have pets, so I take care of them. That’s it…really nerdy stuff.

PETER: What’s your favorite book?

SHELBY: Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. [Peter tried to launch into an intellectual discussion here, but despite being an educated man, he couldn’t keep up with Shelby, so he cut that section of the interview.]

PETER: Favorite drink?

SHELBY: My favorite cocktail is probably an espresso martini, made with real espresso. There’s only a few places that really make them well and this place isn’t one of them; they don’t have an espresso machine. But I don’t really drink here. If I drink here, I’ll have like a shot of Sambuca or a glass of Bailey’s on ice. Just like, if I drink, it’s cause I’m bored and I’m sitting with a gentlemen that I enjoy his company and I have time to kill.

PETER: How often does that happen, you enjoying people’s company in here?

SHELBY: All the time. You see the worst in people, but as much as you see the worst, you definitely see the best, and I love talking to people; that’s why I’m still in this business.

PETER: How do you, and other dancers, keep yourselves in such great shape?

SHELBY: Take a look around at any strip club, and especially Hurricane Betty’s. The variation and the selection of body types at this place and at a lot of places, you have every girl, there are girls that are super skinny, girls that are real heavy, girls that are super athletic, girls that are just naturally slim. I, personally, stay really [read more...]

PETER: What’s the one day of the year you don’t want to work?

SHELBY: I guess the day that I don’t really…okay, say I was supposed to work on my kid’s birthday, clearly that would be a dealbreaker; I would not work on my kid’s birthday. After last year, I don’t think I’ll work a St. Patrick’s Day again. St. Patrick’s Day was a shitshow in this place. Plus, I have fun on St. Patty’s Day, ‘cause I never go out and I rarely drink, so it’s fun for me to do that, like that one day a year.

PETER: When you do go out, what types of things do you like to do?

SHELBY: I’ll go out when, like, the Sox are playing. I’ll go see games at a local bar. So mostly I’ll go see sports or, you know, I go out on holidays, but I don’t really go to nightclubs. I mean, I’ve worked in the service industry, in nightclubs and strip clubs, for 11 years now. I get paid to dance and unfortunately, when I’m not getting paid, there’s so many other things that I want to do, you know what I [read more...]

PETER: Okay, last question before we let you go. What’s the best thing about Hurricane Betty’s, besides you?

SHELBY: This is kind of like a Miss America question. Miss Naked America. I genuinely do like Hurricane Betty’s, so I’m a good person to answer that. The best thing about working here for me, and what makes me come back even when you just have shit months, okay, is that there is a real camaraderie among the girls. There’s a lot of [read more...]

PETER: I lied, I’ve got one more. Who’s your favorite Boston athlete?

SHELBY: Mike Lowell, the silver fox, obviously.

PETER: Thanks so much, Shelby. And congratulations on being Peter’s first featured dancer.